Notices by AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org), page 2

Jacquelyn Gill, Climate, extinction, and biodiversity scientist at UMaine:
"Making genetically modified animals that are cosplaying as extinct species is not de-extinction."

Riley Black, award-winning author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, When the Earth Was Green, and Tyrant Lizard Queen:
"What Colossal has done is make something new and slapped a dire wolf sticker on it, as if an organism equals a hypothetical genome."

Thread at https://bsky.app/profile/jacquelyngill.bsky.social/post/3lmacbiyd5s27
https://bsky.app/profile/restingdinoface.bsky.social/post/3lma7shkdm225
3/n

Comet SWAN25F was discovered by the Solar Wind ANisotropies (SWAN) instrument (developed by LATMOS, France and the Finnish Meterological Institute) aboard the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).

The astronomy community was alerted by Maik Meyer, assistant editor of the International Comet Quarterly (ICQ) and founder of the Comets Mailing List.

Meyer later posted that SWAN25F will probably be named C/2025 F2.

https://bsky.app/profile/comethunter.de/post/3llxi5izmbc2z
http://swan.projet.latmos.ipsl.fr/
2/n

Here is an outstanding image of the newly discovered comet SWAN25F and its tail, taken by comet hunter maestros Michael Jäger and Gerald Rhemann.

Time: 2025-04-06 UT 2.50
Equipment: LRGB 16/5/5/5 min 11"/2.2 RASA QHY600

The comet does not have an official designation yet.
Perihelion: around May 1.
Brightness: expected to peak around Mag 5.
Will very likely continue to require a telescope for good viewing.

http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/SWAN25F/SWAN25F.html
Credit: Michael Jäger, Gerald Rhemann
1/n

Here is the orbital diagram of comet SWAN25F from http://orbitsimulator.com/gravitySimulatorCloud/yr/gsim2023.html?sv,1,SWAN25F,2460771.50,52181355646.962044,-31030366343.153160,94717333271.035934,-40408.556882,23575.237544,-13058.291586,0,0,00FF00,90,65,,16000,0,12,1,0,11.077183,0.150000

It seems to have a steep inclination wrt the ecliptic.
Perihelion is expected on May 1.

Details at
https://www.projectpluto.com/neocp2/mpecs/SWAN25F.htm#stations
https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/scout/#/object/SWAN25F
https://neofixer.arizona.edu/site/500/SWAN25F
3/n

U.S trade deficit in 2024 was $918.4b. So, the trump regime hopes to raise half of that, i.e., $459b, in one year. They have been touting a $600b number, probably because the trade deficit is expected to be even higher in 2025.

Who will pay this amount? Importers in the U.S., who will pass on the costs to consumers.

Who will benefit from $600b worth of extra taxes on U.S. consumers? Why of course the billionaire class, who need their tax cuts increased and extended. And the grift class.

11/n

Note that the reciprocal tariff regime essentially means that foreign countries should pay the U.S. half of our trade deficit.

E.g., if they export $10b to us and we only export $2b to them, they (our importers really) should pay us half the difference =$4b. It's not half their profits or half their tariffs, it simply half of their export minus import revenues.

Mind-boggling and infantile.

Markets this morning are on track to wipe out nearly $2T from US stocks.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-tariffs-set-wipe-nearly-120038363.html
10/n

The Gaslighter-in-Chief today:
"In 1913, for reasons unknown to mankind, they established the income tax so that citizens rather than foreign countries would start paying the money necessary to run our government. Then, in 1929, it all came to a very abrupt end with the Great Depression, and it would have never happened if they had stayed with the tariff policy. They tried to bring back tariffs to save our country. it was too late."

https://www.rawstory.com/reciprocal-tariffs-trump/
4/n

The trump regime announced the much expected tariff structure today.

10% blanket tariff across the board. Much higher "reciprocal" tariffs against many countries.

The reciprocal values are based on inflated numbers on tariffs charged by these countries for U.S goods.

The gaslighting is in full force on how this will raise treasury revenues, so that they can justify the extension of the upper-class tax cuts in the upcoming budget.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/02/trump-tariffs-live-updates.html
2/n

Paul Krugman: Stop Looking for Methods in the Madness. There’s no plan, secret or otherwise, behind Trump’s tariffs.

"There can’t be any secret agenda behind the Trump tariffs, because there’s nobody around Trump with the knowledge or independence to devise such an agenda. This is all about Trump’s gut feelings.

Trump wants each country to grovel and want to cut a deal.
Since most of our trading partners aren’t in a groveling mood, trade war seems inevitable."

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/stop-looking-for-methods-in-the-madness
1/n

Analysts at JPMorgan Chase warn that trump’s tariffs amount to the largest tax increase since 1968 and could take the economy “perilously close to slipping into recession” in the 2nd or 3rd quarter this year.
Grrr ... 😠

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-tariffs-2671665391/
#Politics
7/n

Stock market futures are declining sharply in after hours trading. This after having fallen steadily since the beginning of the year. Gold is rising to new highs.

Our institutions are systematically getting destroyed.

How much more destruction will this regime inflict before people wake up and stop buying trump's snake-oil?

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/commodities/
#Politics
6/n

The Senate voted today to undo trump's 25% tariffs on Canadian goods — a bipartisan but largely symbolic rebuke, with 4 Republicans (Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul) joining all Senate Democrats.

Sen. Tim Kaine, the lead sponsor of the resolution: "Tariffs are a tax. Tariffs will hurt our families. Canada is not an enemy. Let's act together to fight fentanyl. We can do that."

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/02/politics/senate-vote-tariffs-republicans-trump/index.html
5/n

The "geniuses" at the White House are trying to put a lipstick on this pig by posting this equation for the tariff supposedly charged by other countries, with impressive-looking Greek symbols.

As many have pointed out, the ϵ * φ factor is 1, since they chose ε = 4 and φ = 0.25; hence, the formula reduces to simply the trade deficit divided by imports, which has no relationship with the actual tariff rates charged by the country on U.S. goods.

https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/reciprocal-tariff-calculations
9/n

The formula used to calculate the "reciprocal" traffic rate for various countries is incredibly stupid, devious and damaging.

Apparently, it is simply half the trade deficit divided by the total imports from the country, rounded up, with a minimum of 10%. It has no relationship with the actual tariff rates charged by the country on U.S. goods.

E.g., Vietnam: $123.5b trade surplus, $136.6b imports by U.S., 123.5 / 136.6 / 2 = 46% reciprocal tariff.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/03/how-did-the-us-arrive-at-its-tariff-figures-.html
8/n

Wisconsinites - let's get it done tonight.
Please stay in line, even if they run out of ballots.
#Politics
1/n

Cautious celebration in Wisconsin!
#Politics
2/n

Interestingly, the NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft is downloading data to Earth at the same 160 bps rate over X-band as the Parker Solar Probe, but using the larger 70m dish at DSN Madrid and a larger 3.7m antenna on the spacecraft.

However Voyager 1 is 24.9 billion km from Madrid, 157 times farther then the Parker Solar Probe.

Receive power = 10^-22 kW for both spacecraft.

9/n

The NASA Parker Solar Probe, 6 days after its 23rd close approach of the Sun, is now transmitting detailed spacecraft status to Earth via the 34 meter antenna of station 35 at the DSN site in Canberra.

Transmit/Receive band: X (~8 GHz)
Downlink data rate: 160.2 bps

Science data will be downloaded in a few days over the higher rate Ka-band link using the probe's 0.6-meter High Gain Antenna (HGA) dish, at data rates of 167 kbps and higher.

https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/dsn-now/dsn.html
#Parker #ParkerSolarProbe
8/n

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) still holds the record for the fastest spacecraft ever; its nearest rival, the Helios-2 Solar Probe, is not even close.

For comparison, the table below shows speeds for various spacecraft, planets and satellites. Speeds are Sun-centric unless otherwise noted.

#Parker #ParkerSolarProbe
7/n

The NASA Parker Solar Probe, 9 days after its 23rd close approach of the Sun, is now transmitting detailed spacecraft status and science data to Earth via the 34 meter antenna of station 35 at the DSN site in Canberra.

Transmit/Receive band: Ka
Downlink data rate: 312.5 kbps
📡 🛰️
https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/dsn-now/dsn.html
10/n