Katie Mack

Bree (half of Kit Rocha) @mostlybree.kitrocha.com [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 18:23 UTC

YES PLZ GIVE ME ALL THE COSMOLOGY 101 THANK YOU!

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 10:32 UTC

I think about a dozen people have already posted that Herbert quote here and I still don’t agree with it!

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 20:51 UTC

Thank you for your service 🫡

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 20:31 UTC

Glad to hear it!

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 20:31 UTC

👀

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 15:05 UTC

Yeah, in principle, though there are only a few things we can see that happening with. Supernova definitely look slowed down though. bsky.app/profile/astr...

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 01:09 UTC

Counterpoint to what?

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 22:35 UTC

Lots of people have commented that and I continue to disagree!

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 19:53 UTC

(based partly on the research I've read and partly on observation) I think there are a lot of cases in which people gain power/influence BECAUSE they have a lot of empathy (this often includes local politicians and organizers, sometimes artists, etc) and then are just not prepared for the effects

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 19:41 UTC

I think it becomes almost impossible to maintain perspective and a useful level of empathy when you have a great deal of power/influence over others

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 19:03 UTC

Part of why I don't like it is that it sort of presupposes that people are either good or evil inherently. I think a lot of what people end up doing in the world is more circumstantial than that

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 19:02 UTC

Yeah a lot of people have pointed that out (citing Herbert and Tolkein) but I don't take that view

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 18:42 UTC

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUPPIES!!! 🥳

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 18:30 UTC

I think he was wrong about the confederacy but right about power corrupting (as very likely happened to him!)

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 18:12 UTC

Does it address cosmology or is it just another rehashing of galaxy rotation curves? If the latter, I don’t see it being likely to be of relevance to LCDM

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 18:02 UTC

I don't think that's always the case (that power comes just from wealth and wealth just comes from taking advantage)

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:49 UTC

I think most are, or at least try to be

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:42 UTC

Many people think that! See the several other comments on the thread (and my disagreement to them)

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:38 UTC

Yeah, which is part of why (even knowing the intent in the writing) I tend to just leave the gendered connotation alone. I also kinda doubt Acton had any women in mind when he made the statement, though.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:32 UTC

Beautiful shot

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:28 UTC

Yeah that's my take on it too

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:27 UTC

I'm not; I'm judging him (harshly) by his own criteria

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:26 UTC

I take it more as the opposite -- as a warning to be careful about the power / influence that I myself wield

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:25 UTC

I'll take his own advice in this bit then bsky.app/profile/astr...

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:24 UTC

From what I've read (psychology studies etc) and observed it takes a lot of effort and support to not be corrupted when power is acquired. Pretty sure anyone can be susceptible, and with enough power, it's completely impossible to maintain perspective.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:22 UTC

I (and Lord Acton) disagree!

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:17 UTC

I think it's both! I think often corrupt people seek power but also having power messes with people's heads.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:15 UTC

I've heard that. I've also heard a lot about his support of other female scientists and about his strong political activism. Multitudes, etc.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:13 UTC

So there have been other ideas proposed, such as the disproven "tired light" hypothesis (which you can look up) but the fact that we also see cosmological time dilation -- distant supernovae seem to explode more slowly, e.g. -- very much supports the expansion idea

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:12 UTC

"Great men are almost always bad men" is a phrase that goes through my head a LOT (along with an appropriately gender-neutral-ized version when applicable)

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:06 UTC

The whole letter is worth a read. On judging historical figures: “The chronological plea [that they lived a long time ago] may have some little value ... It does not allow of our saying that such a man did not know right from wrong”
history.hanover.edu/courses/exce...

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 17:05 UTC

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.” -Lord Acton, 1887

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 16:35 UTC

Yeah, I mean, it all kinda hinges on what “distance” you mean. It’s not well defined because space is expanding in complicated ways the whole time

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 16:21 UTC

So I’m pretty careful when talking about the most distant galaxies not to ever claim that something whose light reached us from 13 billion years ago is 13 billion light years away, because it isn’t. For 1 billion light years or less it’s close to correspondence but not for the really distant stuff

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 16:19 UTC

So a galaxy we see 13 billion years in the past is actually much farther away than 13 billion light years now. Something like 40-something billion light years, perhaps

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 16:18 UTC

Well the space in between has been expanding in the meantime so we do see light that was emitted 13G years ago but the thing that emitted the light is MUCH farther away now than it “looks” in the image we see

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 15:18 UTC

Sure, though I can’t guarantee I can answer!

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:24 UTC

*see, not seem

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:21 UTC

👍

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:20 UTC

Yes! And when things are moving away from us with expansion (redshifted) we see them in slow-motion! When we watch really distant supernovae we seem them actually take longer! 🤯

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:11 UTC

I guess I didn’t get deep into that but the gist is the processes must have been unfamiliar ones — some that would have occurred for stars with a different chemical makeup than modern stars

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:01 UTC

Best not to leave the promotion up then yeah?

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:54 UTC

It’s more the light travel time delay thing but yeah

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:53 UTC

Mars is cold and awesome but I wouldn’t promote that fake, AI-generated image (or the content theft account posting it) to illustrate the point

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:49 UTC

This might help! bsky.app/profile/astr...

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:49 UTC

I’m so glad!

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:48 UTC

I wonder that too! If any very low-mass, long-lived stars formed in the first generation, there could be stars shining today that are currently around 13.6 billion years old. But it’s possible (likely?) low-mass stars only formed in the second (or later) generation

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