BC LIFE
Saved by @Mollyycolllinss

One of my favourite parts of AAS meetings is attending plenaries way out of my subfield. Pleased to be able to still do that virtually #AAS237 -in "Comets, Unseen Planets, and the Outer Fringes of the Solar System", by Scott Tremaine.

 I never thought about how comet brightness depends on distance^4 - 2 powers from the Sun to the comet, and 2 powers back to us on Earth.
Short period comets (P<20 yrs) are mostly found in/near the plane of the Solar system, while long period comets come from a roughly spherical blob around the Sun. Cool.
I enjoyed the G=M=1 explanation of Orbital Energy = 1 for the Earth (in theorist units!).
Cool - Tremaine explaining that the existence of the Oort cloud (as a set of comets bound to the Sun by gravity) rules out some alternative models of gravity! I love things like that.
Models suggest about an Earth mass of comets in the Oort cloud. That's a nice neat number.
Tremaine: the comets in the Oort cloud likely started in the disc of the solar system as left over material, and random walked out from kicks caused by interactions with planets (and eventually passing stars!).
Tremaine now talking about the discovery of Sedna in 2003 and how its existence suggests there must have been large planetary sized objects in the early Solar System, which no longer exist.
There should have been many Mars mass bodies, several Earth mass, and even some in the mass gap between Earth and the gas giants! Cool.
These objects may have gradually moved outwards rather than being completely removed from the Solar system. Tremaine now discussing what impact dark Earth mass planets in the outer Solar system would have.
Tremaine comparing this model to observations of the Oort cloud. Suggests it is likely (but not definite) there is a sub-Earth mass object in the outer Solar System. A possible "Planet X"
So we now get a history of suggestions of "Planet X's" and how they are currently scoring against the evidence.
IR surveys have ruled out planets of Jupiter or Saturn mass within 80,000 or 30,000 AU respectively.....
However Earth mass sized planets are harder to detect.... the @VRubinObs will be awesome - but not all sky. Some CMB experiments can provide constraints.
Even pulsar timing can provide constraints on Earth mass planets in the outer solar system. A nice side project for @NANOGrav :)
Tremaine concludes that these methods might detect a possible "Planet X" but could not rule out an Earth mass object in the Oort cloud completely.
Tremaine ending with the @xkcdComic summary of "Planet X" constraints.
Just to reflect that it's kind of awesome that there could still be undiscovered planets in our own Solar System... really bringing home to me how much more there is to learn and do in astronomy.

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Quinn Cummings
Quinn Cummings
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Gather round, Gentle Readers. It is time I tell the story of the worst decision I ever made in an office. Some of you have heard this. Some have not. Whatever you do in your office today, this week, the rest of this year, you can console yourself by recalling this tale.

A long time ago, I was a talent agent. I worked for a woman named Susan Smith, who had her own small boutique agency. She was known for three things:

1. She had fantastic taste in clients. If there is someone you admire, odds are good that at some point, she was their agent,

2. She could negotiate a deal like few who have ever trod the earth. Casting would give her all the money they had budgeted for that part, plus a little more, plus promising to get her dog Barnaby groomed. She was magnificent to watch.

3. She was insane.

I'm sure you're thinking, "Quinn, it's the entertainment industry, they are all insane." Yes, many are. So consider this; if you told someone you worked for Susan, people who worked for insane people would look and you and whisper, "I hear she's insane."
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Mark Roberts
Mark Roberts
@mr_englishteach
Ok, as promised, here's a thread of my top 15 non-verbal gestures for effective behaviour management:

1. A much neglected oldie, best used when only one or two pupils are still talking:


2. Wiggle that earlobe when you see a rogue off-tasker:


3. A gentle side to side headshake, which says "don't even think about doing what you're thinking of doing":


4. This is more forceful and vigorous than no. 3. It says immediately desist:
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Erik Torenberg
Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg
1/“What would need to be true for you to….X”

Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?

A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:


2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to

- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal

3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:

Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.

Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.

4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?

To get clarity.

You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.

It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.

5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”

Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.
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AutisticPB #KindnessMatters \U0001f499
AutisticPB #KindnessMa...
@AutisticPb
I'm going to write a thread on the way #autistic people perceive pain. Something that I haven't talked about much before. #autism /1

For some #autistic people, what neurotypicals might interpret as mild pain actually feels like sensory hell. Some autistic people are really sensitive to pain. #autism /2

It's important that medical professionals understand this. Even if they think that it's mild pain, it's actual sensory hell for the #autistic person.#autism /3

Medical professionals shouldn't accuse #autistic people of being "silly" or being "extra" if they are sensitive to pain. This has happened to me before. Medical professionals shouldn't invalidate the way autistic people perceive pain. #autism /4

Some medical professionals just don't have enough understanding of the way #autistic people perceive pain. I hope this thread will help them understand better. #autism /5
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The Millennial Money Woman \U0001f4b5
The Millennial Money W...
@The_MMW
How to Build Wealth

10-Step Formula to Riches

// Thread //

1. Live like an Undercover Millionaire

Income ≠ Wealth

How to live like an undercover millionaire:

- Spend less than you earn
- Avoid buying fancy clothes
- Avoid buying new & fancy cars

To feel rich, count the things in your life that money can't buy.

2. Always Look Ahead

To build a strong financial future, break down your goals into 3 categories:

- Short term goals (1 to 5 years)
- Mid term goals (5 to 10 years)
- Long term goals (10+ years)

Understand your goals and build a plan of action.

Make your goals a reality.

3. Become the Household CFO

Assign a purpose to every dollar.

How the wealthy budget:

- 529 plans
- Business accounts
- Retirement accounts
- Emergency savings fund
- Joint / Individual accounts

Want to budget stress free?

Automate the process.

4. Pay Yourself First

You might catch the famous Warren Buffet mentioning this phrase during his investment talks.

This means:

- You save/invest
- You pay your bills
- You spend the money that’s leftover

Save and invest first, before you spend money.

It's that easy.
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Vibhu Vashisth
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Did you know?

When Saudi Arabia's King visited India in 1955, PM Nehru ordered all the Hindu Temples and Idols of Hindu Deities that came in Saudi King's way to be covered up.
Our temples are the architectural marvels in their own league.


Each of our temples tells the story of our rich history and cultural heritage. Was Nehru that ashamed of his own nation's heritage that he had to cover them up or there was some other reason? The answer would be best known to him only.

PM Nehru invited the then Saudi King Saud bin Abdul Aziz to India who accepted the invitation and planned a 17 day long official visit to India in 1955. Saudi King had brought a large delegation with him and he had to visit various Indian cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Agra,


Aligarh, Shimla, Mysore and Varanasi. However, when Saudi King reached Varanasi, Nehru ordered to cover all the temples and Idols with curtains that came in the way of the Royal Convoy. During his stay in Varanasi, Govt buildings were painted with the words "Kalma Tayyiba".


'Kalma Tayyiba' means 'There is not God but only Allah and Mohammed is his messenger'. In addition to it, Pooja and Aartis were also stopped at temples. I can call it the appeasement politics of the highest order and Nehru was indeed the greatest appeaser of all times.
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Greg Olear
Greg Olear
@gregolear
Strange things are afoot at the Circle K. Let’s sort it out.

[THREAD]


1/ Two nights ago, Rupert Murdoch called on Mitch McConnell, after hours. Since then, two Fox News-related Twitter accounts have not tweeted.

2/ Trump fired Sessions on Wednesday, replacing him with human dildo/Putin collaborator Matt Whitaker. Sessions had asked to stay until Friday and was told to leave immediately. So there was clearly some urgency to install the dildo...er, puppet.

3/ The Democrats won the SHIT out of the Midterms. Come January, the House check on Trump will leave him so hobbled, he’ll be like the dude from Misery.

4/ Trump went to Paris, ostensibly for an Armistice Day centennial event. He skipped the event, and much of the dinner tonight, because of “weather,” which everyone seems to agree is a bullshit excuse.
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Zach Weinersmith
Zach Weinersmith
@ZachWeiner
Hey, for people interested in this stuff, here's a thread about a change we made to running our facebook account:

So, about 5 years ago, we got on facebook. Why? Well, facebook has a big audience and they like to consume on facebook. So, we started posting comics there, even though we got paid nothing and facebook made money off the free content.

Why? Because back then, once in a while, you would say "also hey, I sell books" or "hey, I'm going to be signing at this event" and your facebook followers would actually see it.

Effectively, the implicit old arrangement was "facebook lets me reach readers efficiently, and I supply facebook with free content they run ads on."

Over time, like a bad business partner, facebook basically made it impossible to reach your audience without *paying them*. Thus, you supply them free content on which they run ads, and you get nothing in exchange.
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Noah Smith
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1/People I know on the Right tend to be obsessed with the idea of "crimethink", taboos, and the (supposedly) oppressive, omnipresent enforcement of liberal cultural norms.

Why?

My new theory: A lot of it is guilt.

2/It's true that in some circles - the media, universities, many big corporations - liberal norms *are* enforced to some degree, and the enforcement has probably gotten stronger in recent years.

But I don't think this explains all of the Right's obsession.

3/The stereotype is that people on the Right tend to be more threat-sensitive. That would help explain the perception that liberal norm-enforcers are lurking everywhere, ready to pounce and anathematize anyone who makes a misstep.

But I don't think that's all of it either.

4/And of course, it's always fun - whether you're on the Right or the Left, or playing a video game, or whatever - to style yourself as the brave iconoclastic rebel fighting against the oppressive forces of blah blah blah.

But I don't think this is all of it, either.

5/The reason I think it's more than these things is that even *in private*, people on the Right express their "crimethink" ideas very gingerly and hesitantly.

I get the sense that they're not just afraid of external censure, but have also internalized liberal norms.
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