I just posted a tweet storm from this week's 215th AAS Conference.  The specific session was a workshop on "Astronomy Employment: Past and Future".  The panelists were Beryl Benderly (Science Careers journalist), Rachel Ivie (AIP), Jim Ulvestad (NRAO), and Steve Beckwith (Univ. of CA), and their opinions were both frank and highly welcome at dispelling illusions about the ivory tower of academia.

This is the cold, hard reality of professional astronomy, presented from the inside.  Here are the quotes and tweets from the workshop.

"More people are beign qualified as scientists than can be employed" (B. Benderly) #aas215

Defrosting The Freezer

There are many ways to defrost a freezer.  You can just switch off the power and wait for room temperature to permeate the ice.  You can use a heat source such as a hair-dryer or hot air gun.  Or you could chip away the ice and dump it where it will melt naturally due to local atmospheric temperature.

As I write this, Britain is shivering in its worst winter for 30 years.  A temperature has been measured in Scotland insignificantly different from the current temperature at the South Pole. Supplies of grit, salt and gas are being rationed.

A large number of comments have been posted on newspaper websites claiming that our current U.K. weather disproves the theory of global warming.