Cynthia Froning

Astronomer and instrument builder for telescopes, avid reader, happy to be gardening, cooking, or mountain-biking.

[Avery Tomasco @averytomascowx]

We did it. Highest count of the season. May God have mercy on you all #atxwx #txwx

[Avery Tomasco @averytomascowx]

That was, uh... Perfect? Yeah, perfect.

11/10 halftime show. That scratched an itch I didn't know I had.

[Senator Mark Kelly @SenMarkKelly]

Over twenty-five years in the U.S. Navy, thirty-nine combat missions, and four missions to space, I risked my life for this country and to defend our Constitution – including the First Amendment rights of every American to speak out. I never expected that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense would attack me for doing exactly that.

My rank and retirement are things that I earned through my service and sacrifice for this country. I got shot at. I missed holidays and birthdays. I commanded a space shuttle mission while my wife Gabby recovered from a gunshot wound to the head– all while proudly wearing the American flag on my shoulder. Generations of servicemembers have made these same patriotic sacrifices for this country, earning the respect, appreciation, and rank they deserve.

Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn’t like, they will come after them the same way. It’s outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that.

If Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country’s history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote me or prosecute me, he still doesn’t get it. I will fight this with everything I’ve got — not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don’t get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government.

[Cynthia Froning @cfroning]

@rcmiller1976 @averytomascowx You went outside? Bold.

[COMPROMISED ACCOUNT do not trust @ragandboneshop0]

jane austen is so load-bearing that it is probably impossible to imagine the subsequent history of the novel without her; she is (with flaubert, maybe) *the* hinge between the loose-jointed, episodic novel and its later controlled narratological form!

[kate wehwalt @mcmansionhell]

tfw you know nothing about the history of the novel

[Mother Jones @MotherJones]

When @dfriedman33 discovered a Goodreads page tied to the email of a top Pentagon official featuring books on “Asian wife sharing," he did what any reporter would do: ask the Pentagon questions.

The next day, a threatening email from Jack Posobiec arrived. https://t.co/5deXtQZBpB

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

“I've been reading Pride & Prejudice on and off all my life and it doesn't wear out a bit. Her books have only two faults and both are damnable: they are too few and too short.” - C. S. Lewis, 06 September 1949

[Dissproportionately @dissproportion]

I get the temptation to chalk Jane Austen up as some kind of affirmative action author, but that just simply is not true. She is beloved by readers and writers alike. She invented and perfected fiction techniques that we take for granted today. Nabokov taught an entire course on Jane Austen iirc. He initially didn’t like her and then became obsessed and called people who didn’t appreciate her “bad readers”. Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem honoring her writing. Sir Walter Scott described her writing of ordinary characters as the most wonderful he ever saw. Some other writers didn’t like her, but her influence is undeniable.

[Mike Baker @ByMikeBaker]

it's cool to see that this game's starting pitcher is still hanging in there

[Cynthia Froning @cfroning]

@PlanetaryGao Never. It is one of my pet peeves (even if I understand why).

[Thayne Currie @AstroThayne]

https://t.co/vJybmxO5s8

Steve Desch calls Avi Loeb out for phoning it in with his crazy ideas: we all know he can do better.

[Cynthia Froning @cfroning]

@JungleBall_2 It's almost like people build reservoirs where they can collect the most water...

[Cynthia Froning @cfroning]

@AstroMikeMerri This is UV erasure, Michael! :)

[Cynthia Froning @cfroning]

@AstroThayne My husband had to evacuate from the IRTF b/c the jet stream dipped below the summit during one observing run.

[James Spann @spann]

TEXAS FLOOD: There are many questions about the tragic flash flood on the Guadalupe River late Thursday night and early Friday morning. The death toll is now over 50, including some children who were at Camp Mystic.

Here are some key points about the warning process...

*A flash flood watch was issued for Kerr County at 12:41a CT (just after midnight Thursday night). The watch mentioned isolated rain amounts of 10 inches, and stated "Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations. Creeks and streams may rise out of their banks." This followed a flash flood watch that was issued Thursday afternoon.

*A flash flood warning was issued at 1:14a CT For Kerr County, which mentioned "life threatening flash flooding of creeks, streams, and rivers".

*A flash flood "emergency" was issued at 5:34a CT for Kerr County and the Guadalupe River.

*NWS Austin/San Antonio had five on staff during the event; normally two would be on duty. Extra staffing was planned before the event started.

*This type of flash flooding on the Guadalupe River is nothing new. Similar events happened in 1998, 1978, 1935, and 1921. This year's event was related to deep moisture from a tropical system (Barry) that originated in the East Pacific and made landfall near Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico, on June 29.

Social scientists will do much research on this in coming months and years. In my opinion one of the primary problems is the high number of false alarms; flash flood warnings that are issued with only minor flooding involved. This is also a problem with tornadoes in many parts of the country. I am very thankful locally NWS Birmingham leads the nation in lowering the false alarm ratio.

One takeaway is the importance of having a NOAA Weather Radio at every home, business, and any place where there are large number of people gathered (like a camp on a river). I would imagine cell service is very spotty along the Guadalupe where the camps were located. NWR does not use cell service and will wake you up. The alert is very loud, and can't be missed.

Again, I ask that you keep political rhetoric off the comment section here; left wing and right wing extremists are pushing false information and narratives are not close to the truth. Now is simply the time to support families that are suffering after the tragedy.

We will have a long discussion on this event with the WeatherBrains crew tomorrow night. In addition to the audio podcast you can watch it live as well on the WB YouTube Channel: https://t.co/pEMFNVP8hl

[Andrew Fleischman @ASFleischman]

Public defender arrested for bringing in "THC soaked papers" after K-9 dog alerts at Rikers. Jail guard union announces huge victory.

Total bullshit, not an ounce of THC on the papers.

Not the first time I've seen a jail falsely accuse a PD or investigator.

[Avery Tomasco @averytomascowx]

📢Your generic weather apps are usually wrong, especially in tricky forecasts like we are living through currently

This has been a PSA

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

In the past 24 hours, Trump’s threatened Elon Musk, Thomas Massie, Japan, a judge in Israel, the CEO of AT&T, Jerome Powell, Canada, Thom Tillis, a Forbes reporter, Harvard, & migrants with being eaten by Burmese pythons in the Everglades, while releasing a new line of colognes.