Notices by Dr. Eric J. Fielding, PhD (ericfielding@mastodon.social)

@sundogplanets I assume you saw the videos of the fragments burning up. There was one video that caught the explosion that was likely the flight termination system activated. Scott Manley had it in his video.

This happened a few days ago, when I was not paying attention to national news. Jennifer Rubin, a long-time opinion column writer, has resigned from the Washington Post after the Post owner Bezos donated $1 million to the Trump inaugural fund. She talks about it in this podcast on YouTube. #WashingtonPost
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imm_inamylU

@dphiffer I don’t use and never used the other Meta products, but I do use WhatsApp. I don’t plan to delete it because it is essential to stay in contact with family members outside the USA.

@Infoseepage The closest destroyed house was about 400 meters/yards east from the East Gate of JPL, so it was very close with strong winds blowing westward.

Mashable has an article today on the NASA-JPL AVIRIS-3 image of the Eaton Fire extent and how it shows the burned area. The AVIRIS-3 data is available online from the NASA EarthData system #EatonFire #NASA #NASA_JPL
https://mashable.com/article/nasa-shows-los-angeles-eaton-fire-damage

@dangoodin That would be a function of the client you are using.

@arisummerland @PhoenixSerenity What you are saying really hits home to me, Ari. I still go onto Meta products to check in, too--maybe once a month. There will be a time when I delete, but that hasn't come yet. I think if you are not a habitual/addicted user, the interface feels immediately toxic and infiltrated by bots and ads already. The people who have stayed are inured to this.

@AkaSci @TMEubanks @spacegeck The area near the East Gate is the oldest part of JPL and includes Building 11 that was built around 1940, long before there were advanced fire-resistant building designs. I am sure it has been upgraded since it was built but I bet it has a wood frame inside.

@AkaSci @TMEubanks @spacegeck Yes, JPL has been hardened against fire in many ways, but we had previously expected the fire to approach from the north through the mountains. A previous fire, the 2009 Station Fire got within 300 meters of JPL northern edge, but there was no wind that day. The winds last week were unusually strong and damaged several buildings at JPL without the fire reaching the campus.

@TMEubanks @AkaSci @spacegeck Yes, the Arroyo Seco is a good firebreak for slowly moving ground fires, but I am not sure it would have stopped the streams of burning embers that were blowing in the wind, if the fire had reached the last line of houses across from JPL.

@AkaSci @spacegeck Yes, I believe the closest house that was completely destroyed was about 400 meters east of the East Gate of JPL (where the bridge crosses the Arroyo Seco river). The building where I work is another 400 meters further west.

@AkaSci seriously can't get over the resolution of this IR data. you could see if someone's backyard BBQ was going

@AkaSci @spacegeck Thanks for the link to the NOAA viewer, it is much more informative with the streets labeled and other annotation. The Maxar images I saw before were hard to navigate. The data may be the same, but the NOAA viewer is much better.

@AkaSci @spacegeck Yes, I have seen a Maxar very-high-resolution satellite image acquired on Jan. 10 in several viewers.

@kevinrothrock I thought the apocalypse was supposed to have four horsemen.

@mloxton The name will be different.

@alienghic Thanks for doing this comparison! I have been busy with other tasks and didn’t get a chance to look at the LA County maps yet.

@alienghic Thanks for the hint!

@dansup

German media now has the story...

Thanks to @ajsadauskas here is a first example of German media picking up the story of Meta blocking links to Pixelfed:

https://social.heise.de/@heiseonlineenglish/113820189442440223

link to article: https://www.heise.de/en/news/Unprecedented-growth-Facebook-blocks-links-to-Instagram-alternative-Pixelfed-10237928.html

Will update if and when there is any US tech media story, but don't hold you breath.

@sundogplanets They can’t allow those Canadian dollars to cross the border. Thanks for trying though.