Emily Lakdawalla

@elakdawalla.bsky.social

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Planetary scientist, freelance science writer and space artist, queer, ADHD, mom. Turns out it’s hard to be all those things at once. Shop at elakdawalla.Etsy.com

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Emily Lakdawalla

Daniel Craig playing an entire geology department himself:

“It wasn’t strength,” he said. “It was stupidity.” Maybe, or maybe it’s just a lesson about acting instead of overthinking when one encounters something morally indefensible. RIP.

Fitting tribute to a remarkable man.

It’s not terribly important to outsiders, but in addition to the losses described in the article, the extinction of vultures also prevented Indian Zoroastrians from disposing of their dead in the traditional way, one more insult to an ancient tradition that will likely die out in a generation or 2.

"In 1994, farmers began giving a drug called diclofenac to cattle and other livestock... But it was poisonous to the vultures that fed on these animals... In just a decade, Indian vulture populations fell dramatically, from 50 million individuals to just a couple thousand."

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Emily Lakdawalla

love this old lapanese frog

Okay Today I am for real for real going to crush it at writing. I have been noodling around on my opening paragraph all weekend. I'm gonna get a big glass of water and I'm gonna WRITE THIS FEATURE.

Oh hey! This was me when I was a 21-year-old middle school science teacher! I like telling friends that grad school was SO MUCH EASIER than the two previous years I spent teaching, and I don't think most of them believe me, but I'm 100% serious.

TIL about "burn-on": "in the case of burn-on, the lesser-known close cousin of burnout, you accomplish all your tasks well, despite being exhausted. It’s much harder to accept something is wrong; you’ll reply to all emails, attend all events, and stay in office till late."

Burn-on, the ‘masked depression’: How is it different from burn-out?gulfnews.com People who suffer from burn-on carry on working with a smile...

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Emily Lakdawalla

Happy NASA Meatball Day! www.nasa.gov/general/happ...

Happy Birthday, Meatball! NASA’s Iconic Logo Turns 65www.nasa.gov NASA’s “meatball” logo, which was designed at NASA Glenn in Cleveland, is turning 65. A birthday celebration will take place at Great Lakes Science Center.

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Emily Lakdawalla

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Emily Lakdawalla

i love oat

OK. Time to head into the word mines. *cracks knuckles* *cricks neck* *adjusts headlamp* Let's go.

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Emily Lakdawalla

Today I learned that the "wheel with many eyes" of Biblical angels has a unicode point, ꙮ, even though it appears only once in all known historical written records. en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...

Cyrillic O variants - Wikipediaen.m.wikipedia.org

I started doing small-scale contract work for a big-name publishing org a couple years ago and the first contract they sent me was bananas. It said, among other things, that if they got sued they could take my computer. Not a computer they provided to me, my own computer. 1/n

Writers: Challenge the agreement/contract that your publishers present you with. They'll start off saying this is our contract, take it or leave it, but it's negotiable. Every contract is. 'Boilerplate' means this is where you start, not where you finish. And learn what 'subsidiary rights' means.

Similar story for me. I was a very successful student and young adult, but having kids suddenly threw me into a much harder league of multitasking. The coping strategies I’d developed over the first 25 years of my life were not adequate for the next 25, but it took a long time to recognize ADHD

that's literally my story I was managing well enough using my mom's tactics (not great but passable) until I started working as a manager at work after a few months I realized I was struggling hard to keep up with the demands of work so I finally, in my mid-30s, got an ADHD diagnosis

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Emily Lakdawalla

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Jorge Caballero

Project 2025, page 455-456: a national abortion database that includes detailed medical information, including the person's state of residence to assist with criminal prosecution

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Emily Lakdawalla

This meme is relevant again.

does anyone else feel goofy trying to recycle and conserve power after reading about how much energy AI consumes on a daily basis

Oh no. Today at my 3rd physical therapy session my therapist figured out that the exercises she’d been giving me were too easy and boy did she make me work today. I’m Done for the day and it’s only 9:30 am

I have an avulsed lumbar disc waaaaaaah A while ago, I used to be simultaneously horrified and bored by my aunts’ and uncles’ continuous discussions of health issues, theirs and others’. Now I have become them

My kids just scored 4s and 5s on ALL their AP tests heck yeah!! ...they will kill me if they know I posted this, please don't tell them

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Emily Lakdawalla

I see we've reached the "famous artist credibly accused of sexual assault wasn't actually a great artist and you're a chump for liking him" phase. Consider that pretending terrible people can't make great art helps terrible people who make great art whedon their way into vulnerable communities.

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Emily Lakdawalla

How Trump is trying to make us forget history, so that he can commit horrific acts: Gift article wapo.st/3XSmXtq

Perspective | Trump is already numbing us to the horrific images his plans would createwapo.st Outrage never lasts. That’s why Trump wants to show us the worst before he does it.

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Emily Lakdawalla

is a stolen Tesla called an Edison?

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Emily Lakdawalla

"Irish nationalists Sinn Fein became Northern Ireland's largest party in the British parliament for the first time on Friday, capitalising on a poor election for its main unionist rival to cross another milestone in a campaign to end British rule." wild times www.reuters.com/world/uk/sin...

Sinn Fein largest Northern Ireland party in UK parliament for first timewww.reuters.com Irish nationalists Sinn Fein became Northern Ireland's largest party in the British parliament for the first time on Friday, capitalising on a poor election for its main unionist rival to cross another milestone in a campaign to end British rule.

The inside out characters in my head

They Might Be Giants’ cover of ‘Tubthumping’ with a very enthusiastic AV Club ‘Chorus’ youtu.be/yf0Amcgxot8?...

Other than Hurt by Johnny Cash and any version of The Sound of Silence, what are your favorite cover versions of famous songs?

Tubthumping - They Might Be Giants & The AV Club Chorusyoutu.be From They Might Be Giants' new album Album Raises New and Troubling Questions. Get it at Apple Music (http://geni.us/40Gb) or Amazon (http://geni.us/3XQC). A...

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Emily Lakdawalla

learning to recognize what my default reaction is versus how I feel when I examine something, and power always seems to play in in ways that sure help the powerful maintain control

turns out lots of people abuse power and maybe we should look at anyone in a position of it kinda sideways if someone says they were bad with it

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Emily Lakdawalla

first cohort of the American Climate Corps has been sworn in. 9,000 people will be deployed in the coming weeks to restore landscapes, erect solar panels, and work on environmental projects across America. #ShareGoodNewsToo grist.org/solutions/am...

The American Climate Corps officially kicks offgrist.org This month, 9,000 people will be deployed to restore landscapes and erect solar panels, helping guide the country toward a greener future.

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Emily Lakdawalla

I will bring this one back every year

‘What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?’: Descendants Read Frederick Douglass' Speech | NPRyoutu.be In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide protests for racial justice and systemic reforms in the wake of George Floyd’s ...

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Emily Lakdawalla

Yesterday, I shared this same Canada Day thread on Bluesky, Threads, and X. Here's what I found. 🧵

“Canada is such a northern country, don’t we want a little global warming?” I often hear. In a nutshell, NO. We’re warming 2x faster than the rest of the world, driving extreme heat, flood, and sea level rise we are not prepared for. The wildfire season started in Feb this year. Feb! #canadaday

Canada’s Changing Climate Reportchangingclimate.ca

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Emily Lakdawalla

It is Disability Pride Month - the perfect time to learn about ALT text and start using it! www.perkins.org/resource/how...

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"The final components of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO), including its foundation, silver geodesic dome, and on-site buildings, have been removed from a valley atop Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and the land at the site has been restored."

Caltech's Submillimeter Observatory Has Been Removed from Maunakeawww.caltech.edu The final components of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) have been removed from a valley atop Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and the land at the site has been restored.