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Michael Brown

@mjibrown.bsky.social

900 followers 200 following 1.2K posts

Astronomer, Monash academic, Conversation writer, cycling commuter or mamil. https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/michael-brown

research.monash.edu

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Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 3d

A US tech startup is proposing to use mirrors in space to power solar farms on Earth at night. Is this even feasible? And what are the light pollution dangers?

Myself and @mattkenworthy.bsky.social have crunched the numbers for The Conversation.

theconversation.com/a-us-startup...

A US startup plans to deliver ‘sunlight on demand’ after dark. Can it work – and would we want it to?

Satellites beaming sunlight down to Earth sound like science fiction – and they have astronomers very worried.

theconversation.com

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Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 5h

Given what's happening globally, the government should be pushing for greater transparency, not less.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Sussan Ley praised for ‘standing up for democracy’ as Labor’s freedom of information crackdown looks set to fail

Government’s FoI changes unlikely to pass Senate as Coalition, Greens and key crossbenchers voice outrage

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Michael Brown

The Conversation AUNZ @aunz.theconversation.com · 3d

Satellites beaming sunlight down to Earth sound like science fiction – and they have astronomers very worried. 👉 theconversation.com/a-us-st...

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svart flagg @svartflagg.bsky.social · 13h

Today in Portland, a fed shooting pepper balls from the roof of the ICE facility was so eager to aim for people’s heads, that after shooting one photographer in the head and another in the upper arm, they accidentally shot a DHS agent in the head. This photo shows the moment of impact;

Riot cops standing a street with less-lethal weapons, and one in a gas mask has a cloud of pepper dust around his helmet.

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Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 12h

Not that kind of doctor mate.

Email invite to publish in Journal of Surgery

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Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 14h

The thick red line?

Reposted by Michael Brown

Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 15h

the actual story here, which the media never talks about, is that police in this country have become a discrete right-wing political operation. the story isn't about cops leaving (they're lying about that), it's about the police trying to exert influence over elections.

Mark Misoshnik 🏴 @misoshnik.bsky.social · 1d

Lmao is this supposed to be a bad thing?

A tweet from Bari Weiss that says “"It's shaken me to my core," a lieutenant said of Mamdani's unexpected victory in June. "The absolute dread I feel is palpable.
"
Today in @TheFP our @Olivia_Reingold talks to the cops who say they will walk if Zohran Mamdani is elected in November:”

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Dr. Katherine Haenschen @drkath.bsky.social · 14h

True story: I had a field experiment that was just racking up brutal desk rejects from various political science journals so I used the formatting to make a Word doc look like LaTeX and it got accepted on my next try.

I figure the reviewers assumed a dude wrote it.

John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 18h

This is your periodic reminder that you can add coffee stains to your LaTeX documents.

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Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 1d

<christian charity voiceover voice> By withdrawing just 50c a day you can kill a child.

Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 1d

The bland statements from Salesforce aren’t reassuring. The hackers did get vast amount of data and it was allegedly done via a social engineering hack. Are staff trained (and paid) better now? Will compromised customers get compensated if fraud occurs?

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Hackers leak Qantas data containing 5 million customer records after ransom deadline passes

Hacker collective Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters demanded payment in return for preventing the stolen data of nearly 40 companies from being shared

www.theguardian.com

Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 1d

A bizarre tech project requiring an implausible number (and area) of satellites.

To produce “full noon” light at one site with flat mirrors in space would require satellites with a surface area of over 24 square kilometres at 600km.

theconversation.com/a-us-startup...

Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 1d

Like many in the surrounding community, Dr Wright suspects the contamination is coming from the upstream Mount Piper Ash Repository.

ABC News Bot (unofficial) @abcnewsbot.bsky.social · 1d

Almost 190 years on, in the place where Charles Darwin first spotted a platypus, the egg-laying mammal seems to have disappeared.

Platypus vanish from river where Charles Darwin pondered evolution

Almost 190 years on, in the place where Charles Darwin first spotted a platypus, the egg-laying mammal seems to have disappeared.

www.abc.net.au

Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 1d

That feeling when you meet a student who has been taught not to cite academic papers more than 10 years old.

Molly Knight @mollyknight.bsky.social · 1d

WHAT people.com/diane-keaton...

Diane Keaton, Famed for Roles in 'Father of the Bride,' 'First Wives Club' and More, Dies at 79 (Exclusive)

Diane Keaton has died at age 79, PEOPLE can confirm exclusively. The actress was best known for roles in movies like 'Annie Hall,' 'The First Wives Club,' 'Something's Gotta Give' and 'The Godfather.'

people.com

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Reposted by Michael Brown

Brett Holman @airminded.org · 2d

A good article on the psychological aspects of the current European drone scare, which brings in the (Scandinavian) 1930s ghost planes, 1940s ghost rockets, and 1980s ghost subs (thanks to an interview with Robert Bartholomew, who was an inspiration for my own mystery aircraft research)

‘A collective anxiety attack’: the psychology of unexplained drone sightings across Europe

Incursions have so far caused few physical effects but experts say such incidents can leave people feeling more vulnerable

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Michael Brown

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 2d

This man is being Gorilla Channel'd with a rotating selection of AI slop riot porn by several known white supremacists who are secretly running the government.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Trump: "Portland, I mean -- every time I look at that place it's burning down. There are fires all over the place. When a store -- there are very few of them left -- but when a store owner rebuilds a store they build it out of plywood. They don't put up storefronts anymore. They just put wood up."

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Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 2d

Not commenting on over water matters apparently.

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Theo Priestley @tprstly.bsky.social · 2d

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Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 3d

The attack on @frediotto.bsky.social was seeded years ago by Roger Pielke Jr, who started arguing that this table from a recent @ipcc.bsky.social report proved that climate science cannot attribute extreme weather to climate change.

But Roger is of course lying. And we know this for 2 reasons.

🧵

CLIMATEWIRE
Climate critics try to discredit IPCC author for linking
disasters to global warming
By LESLEY CLARK, SARA SCHONHARDT, CHELSEA HARVEY | 10/09/2025
06:22 AM EDT Roger Pielke Jr. and oil industry supporters are attacking climate scientist Friederike Otto, whose
work has been used in lawsuits against polluters.

Table 12.12 | Emergence of CIDs in different time periods, as assessed in this section. The colour contesponds to the confidence of the region with the highest confidence: white cells indicate where evidence is lacking or the signal is not present, leading to overal bu confidence of an emerging signal.

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Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 2d

WFH presumably?

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Reposted by Michael Brown

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 3d

Do we really want 250,000 mirrored satellites in Low Earth Orbit? Hasn't the Starlink megaconstellation already done enough damage?
🧪 @mjibrown.bsky.social

A US startup plans to deliver ‘sunlight on demand’ after dark. Can it work – and would we want it to?

Satellites beaming sunlight down to Earth sound like science fiction – and they have astronomers very worried.

theconversation.com

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Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 3d

I haven’t seen the economics laid out. And the number of satellites needed per Solar farm was something we calculated as they haven’t provided an estimate (it’s a simple calculation).

Keeping the constellation operational and safe must have significant costs but we haven’t seen their estimates.

Reposted by Michael Brown

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 3d

They're going to put an enormous lawsuit magnet in the sky.
mastodon.social/@sundogplane...

Prof. Sam Lawler (@[email protected])

It's becoming increasingly clear to me that Reflect Orbital's fucking stupid giant mirror satellite, with absolutely NOTHING useful to offer, which will cause countless safety issues, ecological disas...

mastodon.social

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Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 3d

@mattkenworthy.bsky.social and I have a Conversation article on this today.

Light for one Solar farm would require about 3000 mirror satellites. If accidentally viewed with a telescope, the mirrors would be similar in brightness to Sun’s surface (not good).

theconversation.com/a-us-startup...