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Today marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of the NASA Terra satellite. The original mission was for (I think) 5 years, but the satellite is still producing. You may not know it, but Terra data has certainly touched your life.

terra.nasa.gov
Next time someone riffs on how the government is incompetent/can't do anything, ask them if they can design, build, launch, and operate a satellite that produces precision measurements of the Earth system for 20 years. If not, they can shut the hell up.
I heard a rumor that NASA really wanted to get the satellite launched before the end of 1999 b/c of the Y2K issue. Sound a bit far-fetched, but then again, this is NASA HQ we're talking about ...
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Andrew Dessler
@AndrewDessler
Reporters: here's an idea for a terrific story: how to climate-proof your retirement.

idea: lots of people own 401K-type investments, but have no idea what their exposure to climate risk is.
your retirement might be invested in oil infrastructure (e.g., production, transport, refinery) or in things that are going to get hammered by climate change (e.g., real estate, agriculture).
the big risk is in "stranded assets": things that lose value suddenly. this was the big problem in the housing crisis 15 years ago. over a period of just a few months, houses that people thought were worth $500K dropped in value to $300K.
Read 5 tweets
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Andrew Dessler
@AndrewDessler
I hesitate to give advice b/c my experience is anecdotal, but I've had a lot so here goes.

THREAD
Read papers of the people you'll meet with. Nothing makes you look smarter than if you can talk about their research. Also, it helps you avoid saying, "I don't think [X] is a very important subject" when the person you're talking to works on [X]. Yes, that's happened.
Ask the search committee what your job talk should be about. There is no single answer for what to talk about in a job talk. Some people talk about their latest research, some give an overview of their publication history, some emphasize what they WILL work on if hired.
Read 7 tweets
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Andrew Dessler
@AndrewDessler
I've come to the conclusion that the biggest problem facing science is that it doesn't scale well. If there are a dozen people working in your field, you can read all of their papers and know what all of them are doing.
If there are 250 people in your field, then you cannot read all of the papers and even know what's being worked on.

This means that a lot of cool results are simply missed by the field, and a lot of work is duplicated, both of which is making science inefficient.
Combine this with the incentive that seems to exist in a lot of institutions to publish as many papers as possible, without regard to their usefulness ➡️ we're drowning in publications.

This is going to get a lot worse as countries like China ramp up their scientific output.
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AFP news agency
@AFP
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the moment the moon pioneer Neil Armstrong took his historic first step on the lunar surface 🚀🌕 u.afp.com/JhAE #Apollo50th
From the Soviet Union's pioneering satellite to the first man on the Moon 50 years ago, here are 10 key dates in space exploration 🚀🌕 u.afp.com/Jn6L
#Apollo50th
The first four days of Apollo 11's journey to the Moon had gone according to plan, but just twenty minutes before landing, the atmosphere grew tense as the crew encountered a series of problems u.afp.com/Jnwr by @ivancouronne
#Apollo50th
Read 24 tweets
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The Atlantic Archives
@TheAtlArchives
Today marks the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman’s birth. Whitman’s relationship with The Atlantic dates back to the magazine’s earliest years, when he was still struggling to launch his career as a poet.
Whitman sent the future Atlantic co-founder Ralph Waldo Emerson one of the first copies of his self-published poetry collection “Leaves of Grass” in 1855. Emerson responded with a laudatory letter, which Whitman printed (without permission) in later editions of the collection.
The Atlantic published its own review of “Leaves of Grass” in 1882. The reviewer praised themes in Whitman’s poetry but criticized his “brutish wallowing in animal matter,” ultimately concluding that “the book cannot attain to any very wide influence”: theatln.tc/lCzq2ON4
Read 10 tweets
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Dan Lamothe
@DanLamothe
Today marks the 11th anniversary of Jordan Haerter and Jonathan Yale staring down a truck as it barreled toward them at a security checkpoint. They could have run. Instead they held their ground, opened fire and stopped the vehicle before it exploded.

latimes.com/archives/la-xp…
For their valor, the two young Marines posthumously received the Navy Cross, the nation's second-highest award for valor in combat. I think of that ceremony sometimes -- it was a significant event at the @MarineMuseum that I covered early in my time at @Marinetimes.
The officer overseeing that event was then-Maj. Gen. Robert Neller, now @CMC_MarineCorps. He was understandably concerned about how I might share the story of these Marines, and reminded me of the families involved. Good advice.
Read 7 tweets
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Historic.ly
@historic_ly
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. With clear eyes, let's look at what led up to it, and whether or not it could have been averted.
Let's go back a few years. After World War I, Rwanda and Urundu( modern-day Burundi) were ceded to Belgium from Germany in the Treaty of Versailles.
Yuhi Musinga was made King of Rwanda (left) and Mwambutsa IV Bangiricenge became king of Burundi (despite being 3 years old).
We all know how brutal the Belgians were in the Congo in the rubber quota. Well, in Rwanda, they were no less brutal. The cash crop was coffee. They called themselves"The White Fathers" and forced unreasonable amount of coffee production upon the Rwandans.
Read 10 tweets
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Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
@OtherSociology
Today marks the 11th anniversary of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Apology to the Stolen Generations. Join the Grandmothers Against Removals NOW, protesting forced adoptions law in NSW. 'The best care for kids is community.' Archibald Fountain Sydney facebook.com/events/2917046…
There are 3 large police vans & 1 police car here already. Observations of police presence at the Invasion Day protest (where the Grandmothers Against Removals also spoke) creates undue community concern.
'Shameful that today we're standing close to halls of power of Government that will steal our children again.' Ann Weldon, member of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council gives the Welcome to Country
Read 19 tweets
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Paul Schmehl
@PaulSchmehl
Today I want to talk about why the recent indictment of 12 GRU members is the purest baloney. In order to do that, I have to explain some things about computer security and forensics, so you’ll understand why what I claim about the indictment makes sense.
Think of all the computers in the world as one interconnected glob. Any computer in the world can talk to any other computer in the world at any time so long as both computers are on and connected to the internet. The only exception to this is computers with private IP addresses.
There are exceptions. For example, if I can can access on ONE computer on your network, then even if ALL the other computers are on private IP addresses, I can still talk to them using the one I hacked as a gateway. I’ll give you an example.
Read 94 tweets

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