AKA Richard Drumm The Astronomy Bum, Editor of Astronomy Cast & The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast, outreach astronomer in the Shenandoah National Park.
Charlottesville, Virginia
Joined March 2008
- Tweets10.6K
- Following519
- Followers1.4K
- Likes18.7K
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
The word of the day today is parallax! Specifically stellar parallax. So what’s parallax & what does it mean to astronomers? As it happens, @RichardDrumm was part of the UVA Parallax team in the early 1980s. And he will tell the story at #365DaysOfAstro cosmoquest.org/x/365daysofas…
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
Yes, there will be a lineup of planets in the sky this month but they're not actually "aligned" in their orbits...they just happen to be on the same side of the Sun right now to all be visible from Earth between dusk and dawn.
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
Holy shit! Bruce Springsteen, with one of the most eloquent endorsements for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz you'll hear. The Boss also delivered one of the strongest repudiations of the loathsome piece of shit I've heard from anyone. Let's fucking go‼️🙌🌊🇺🇸
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
I first saw this in the last election, but it's just as relevant now.
youtube.com/watch?v=fHjbDSOm…
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
Trump Indictments:
I had ChatGPT Quickly state all the charges against Trump as fast as it could.
Please share with voters who are on the fence:
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
Holy Smokes, the Marsh Family has put out this parody song about J.D. Vance and not only is it catchy but it hits the nail on the head…
“Anti Trump a few years ago,
Called him out as a ‘Hitler’ show.
Now you’re playing his sidekick,
Kissing Donald’s ring”
I watched it 70 times.
@MarshSongs
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
I'll probably lose 10,000 followers for this post, but so be it. People need to wake up to reality, and this time it's the Democrats who need a reality check.
I made this below post a year and a half ago, repeatedly emphasizing that Joe Biden's campaign mishandled their approach to Elon Musk. Are his campaign advisers really so oblivious that they missed the obvious signs?
Why couldn't Biden acknowledge Elon Musk and Tesla? Why didn't he invite Musk to the White House to honor his contributions with SpaceX, Tesla, and Starlink?
Instead, the Biden administration chose to praise unionized electric car manufacturers over Tesla. It's undeniable that Tesla has done exponentially more for the electric car industry than any other company.
I predicted this outcome numerous times. I warned it would backfire, and it did. Biden's consistent snubs led to Musk, who has criticized Trump in the past, choosing to support Trump financially and publicly endorse him.
Biden and his campaign are solely to blame for this situation.
Before you criticize me, understand that while I think Elon has some bad takes, he's also the most brilliant mind in tech over the past decade. He's advanced many liberal ideologies through his technological innovations. He's significantly contributed to making our roads greener and safer. He's been instrumental in providing internet access to underprivileged areas more effectively than many governments. He's on the verge of making human exploration of Mars a reality and has made NASA's missions more cost-effective and efficient.
Yes, his views on race, DEI, and hate speech are controversial to some and absolutely wrong to others. I understand that, but shouldn't we consider the bigger picture?
This was Biden's biggest missed opportunity, and I repeatedly warned his team about it over the past 1-2 years.
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
Hey @elonmusk I think you need to try and top this somehow…
Mark Zuckerberg:
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
Far far away, in the constellation Monoceros an unusual star known as HD 45166 preparing to become the most magnetic powerhouse known to exist in the Universe. A Magnetar! More at #365DaysOfAstro @unawe #spacescoop with @RichardDrumm cosmoquest.org/x/365daysofas…
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
Dropped my jaw at this section
A small announcement: my next book, Everything is Predictable, about how Bayes' theorem is the most important little equation in the world, is out in April and will look like this! If you'd like to pre-order, you can do so here geni.us/EIPBook and I will be very grateful
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
In 2018, Tesla $TSLA was worth just under $60 billion. They signed a 10-year CEO extension & compensation deal with @elonmusk , which offered him *zero base compensation*, but up to $55 billion in compensation if, and only if, he could more than *10x the company's value* to $650 billion, a feat no CEO has ever accomplished.
By 2020, less than 3 years later, Tesla did indeed hit a $650 billion market cap, despite the skeptics who literally called it "laughably impossible" when the plan was publicized.
Now, the Delaware courts are shooting down that compensation package, citing that the Board of Directors were not truly independent and that shareholders weren't aware of the Board's relationship with Musk.
This is a joke, an insult to basic capitalist principles, and a mockery of the work that Elon put in to grow Tesla to this point.
Below is a clip from 2018 highlighting how wildly ambitious these milestones were considered by the media at that time:
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
The parabolic rise in image quality of the planets from amateurs. 1998 vs 2023. Having experienced this entire journey first hand the past ~25yrs have seen remarkable advances in resolution and the ease with which such images are achieved!
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
Last night, Trump reposted a meme with a fake quote by his former Wharton professor calling Trump "the smartest student I ever had."
Here’s what Professor Kelly actually said about Trump: “‘Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had!’”
Kelly also said that Trump came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything, that he was arrogant and he wasn’t there to learn.
The Astronomy Bum retweeted
Starting to plan @CosmoQuestx's October fundraiser in May LIKE A BOSS. Don't forget you can donate year 'round at cosmoquest.org/x/donate/
