@nasawatch.bsky.social's @keithcowing.bsky.social was on the case before anyone else- the demolition of Goddard Space Flight Center began right before the government shutdown, with a memo dated September 22

Goddard spacecraft engineer: "I think it just kind of speaks to the atmosphere of the agency and the nation, where people are like, 'Well, laws don't matter for the people at the top anymore.'"

Also, the incumbent mayor of Overland Park, Kansas (an old-school chamber of commerce former Republican) won reelection on a platform of urban renewal and denser housing, beating a nimbyish former city councilman who was apparently a huge PITA to work with on a personal level. So that’s good, too.

The new guy is called David Benson and I recognized his name on the ballot because he was the district superintendent back when I was a high school newspaper editor covering school board meetings. He was a pretty decent guy then, too.

Good things can happen even in supposedly “red” states.

This 10-year-old piece, which contains the memorable line “he doesn't just have skeletons in his closet, he hangs up his shirts in an ossuary” was crucial for me in articulating why the Corbynist view of foreign policy is so terrible. thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

All credit for this great story on fun new things to do with a BEC to @physicsworld.bsky.social student contributor @lelezeik.bsky.social, by the way! 🧪⚛️

Assuming she actually exists and isn’t a figment of a scammer’s imagination, I feel sorry for Canadian Margaret Harris. But at least she chose the email of Nosy Journalist Margaret Harris rather than Criminal Hacker Margaret Harris when she was setting up her eBay account!

Yes, this seems like the best way forward – with apologies to the 62-year-old Margaret Harris in [street and number redacted] Owen Sound, Ontario, who’s unfortunately going to discover her account doesn’t exist when she tries to check on that blue button-down dress she was hoping to sell.

Anyway, I changed the password on “my” account, cancelled “my” listing, asked eBay to delete “my” account, and informed my IT department…which responded by telling me I shouldn’t be using my work email to sell stuff on eBay. 🤦

If that’s what happened, I don’t think much of eBay’s security, because it implies this person was able to set up an account and list an item without ever verifying that they have access to the email address they registered the account against.

My work email contains my name, and the account was set up in that same name, but with a physical address in Ontario, Canada. Is it possible that a random Canadian who shares my name could have accidentally entered my email address instead of her own when setting up her account?