Notices by AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)

In 2020, the great Tom Lehrer transferred the music and lyrics for his songs into the public domain, making all music and lyrics composed by him free for anyone to use.

Lyrics and songs can be download from the website below.

The disclaimer ends with -
"In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs.
So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money."
🙏
https://tomlehrersongs.com/
7/n

The famous "The Elements" song by Tom Lehrer - from a live performance in Copenhagen in Sept. 1967.

Set to the tune of the "Major-General's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3NOQnsQM
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Tom Lehrer (April 9, 1928 – July 26, 2025) — much admired mathematician, musician, singer, songwriter and satirist — died today at his home in Cambridge, MA.

Lehrer is best known for the pithy, humorous songs that he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s, mixing science, humor and political satire with mathematical precision.

Tom never finished his Ph.D. at Harvard, but spent ~30 years teaching math and musical theater at MIT, Harvard, Wellesley and UC Santa Cruz.

RIP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lehrer
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Tom Lehrer's satire on race, inequality and religious divisions in "National Brotherhood Week."

"Oh, the white folks hate the black folks
And the black folks hate the white folks
To hate all but the right folks
Is an old established rule.

But during National Brotherhood Week
National Brotherhood Week
Lena Horne and Sheriff Clark
Are dancing cheek to cheek
It's fun to eulogize
The people you despise
As long as you don't let 'em in your school
..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUwbZ9AlSPI
5/n

Tom Lehrer is known to have co-authored 2 papers -

1. T. Austin; R. Fagen; T. Lehrer; W. Penney (1957). "The distribution of the number of locally maximal elements in a random sample". Annals of Mathematical Statistics. https://projecteuclid.org/journals/annals-of-mathematical-statistics/volume-28/issue-3/The-Distribution-of-the-Number-of-Locally-Maximal-Elements-in/10.1214/aoms/1177706893.full

2. R. E. Fagen; T. A. Lehrer (March 1958). "Random walks with restraining barrier as applied to the biased binary counter". Journal of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. https://epubs.siam.org/doi/10.1137/0106001.

#TomLehrer
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Who’s Next? by Tom Lehrer.
On the dangers of nuclear proliferation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLON3ddZIw

"First we got the bomb and that was good,
'Cause we love peace and motherhood.
Then Russia got the bomb, but that's O.K.,
'Cause the balance of power's maintained that way!
Who's next?
...
"The Lord's our shepherd, " says the psalm,
But just in case, we better get a bomb!
Luxembourg is next to go
And, who knows, maybe Monaco.
We'll try to stay serene and calm
When Alabama gets the bomb!
Who's next?"

3/n

Tom Lehrer’s songs and words ring true as much today as they did more than 50 years ago, more so in this era of anti-Democracy forces. He had the courage and the skill to take on the destructive forces of his time, using satire and humor. He inspired many in our generation, and much work lies ahead in our struggle to correct all that is wrong with America today and to create a better and more just future.

What are your memories of Tom Lehrer? What are your favorites songs?

#TomLehrer
6/n

A large survey from Australia shows significant low frequency emissions from Starlink satellites that interfere with radio astronomy.

∼30% of all acquired images contained Starlink emissions.

These emissions between 73 and 235 MHz are not from the freq. bands used for comms (Ku-band 12-18 GHz and Ka-band 27-40 GHz). They likely originate from the onboard electronics. Some reflected signals from terrestrial FM radio were also detected.

https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/interference-to-astronomy-the-unintended-consequence-of-faster-internet
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/07/aa54787-25/aa54787-25.html
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Lin-Manuel Miranda and Weird Al Yankovic sang a rendition of Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" to cheer up Stephen Colbert's audience.

During the song, the camera was directed to get shots of cuddling couples in the audience (you know why).

Among the “couples” - Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers of NBC; CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Bravo’s Andy Cohen; Adam Sandler and Christopher McDonald; and John Oliver and Jon Stewart.
🤣 👬 🤣
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv6SNu0aavU
#Politics #Culture #Comedy #Colbert
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Stephen Colbert, on Monday's Late Show -

"Folks, I’m gonna go ahead and say it: Cancel culture has gone too far. Over the weekend, it sunk in that they’re killing off our show. But they made one mistake: They left me alive. And now, for the next 10 months, the gloves are off. I can finally speak unvarnished truth to power and say what I really think about Donald Trump, starting right now.”
😎
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIZegLAvK8o
#Politics #Culture #Comedy #Colbert
1/n

We have written frequently about the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile.

Check out these threads to learn about the telescope or search for Vera Rubin -
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/114150212488659053
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/114731082323927544

Here is a video tribute to Vera C. Rubin from the observatory itself, highlighting her discoveries, her advocacy for women in science and her mentoring of aspiring female astronomers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd2hL3yI_-E
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Happy Birthday to Vera Rubin (July 23, 1928 – Dec 25, 2016), whose work revolutionized our understanding of the universe by confirming the existence of dark matter.

"In a spiral galaxy, the ratio of dark-to-light matter is about a factor of ten. That's probably a good number for the ratio of our ignorance-to-knowledge. We're out of kindergarten, but only in about third grade."

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is named in her honor.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1701066114
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Rubin
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This is similar to the gaslighting trump was doing in April when he claimed that egg prices had come down by 94% since he occupied the White House.

He is counting on his supporters feeling impressed while remaining oblivious to the fact that they are being fooled, again and again.

#Politics
2/n

Math for MAGA Dummies.

"We will have reduced drugs prices by a 1000%, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 700, 600 … not 30 or 40 or 50%."

https://bsky.app/profile/acyn.bsky.social/post/3luluh3b3xg2g
#Politics
1/n

The trump regime's latest FDA schemes are not about healthy eating or healthy living. It's all about spreading disinformation and marketing junk food as less junky.

Jake Scott - "It’s performative, hollow, and entirely industry-serving. Meanwhile, actual public health crises - obesity, diabetes, food insecurity - go unaddressed."

#Politics #Health
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NY Times raises the ante -

"In the swirl of money and sun-tanned women that was their Palm Beach-and-Manhattan set, Trump and Epstein spent nearly 15 years mingling side-by-side as public friends.

There were lavish dinners at Epstein’s mansion on the Upper East Side and raucous parties with cheerleaders and models at Trump’s private club at Mar-a-Lago. In between, there were trips back and forth from FL to NY on one of Epstein’s private jets."
😲
Lot more at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/19/us/politics/inside-trump-epstein-friendship.html
#Politics

Happy Birthday to Sir Brian May, born 19 July 1947, musician extraordinaire and astrophysicist 😎.

May graduated from Imperial College London with a BSc degree in math and physics. He worked on his PhD in astrophysics from 1970 to 1974, until his musical career took off. He finished it in 2006-2007!

Lately, May has collaborated with NASA on the New Horizons, OSIRIS-REx and DART missions, with JAXA on Hayabusa2 and with ESA on the Hera mission.

🎸🪐 🔭

https://brianmay.com/
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Here are a few pics of the historic Mercury-Atlas 6 mission in 1962, when John Glenn became the 3rd American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it 3 times.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/albums/72157635068326615/with/9351747522
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Happy Birthday to John Glenn (July 18, 1921 – Dec 8, 2016) - American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, and 4-term U.S. Senator (D-OH, 1974-1998).

On Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth during the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, aboard the spacecraft he named Friendship 7. He was the 3rd American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it 3 times.

https://www.nasa.gov/people/john-glenn/
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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor did not mince her words when she castigated her conservative colleagues for their decision overruling a lower court and giving the Trump administration the go-ahead to significantly slash the workforce of the Department of Education, all without a "single word of explanation."

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25997474-24a1203-order/
#Politics
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