Br. Robert Macke SJ

Pitch an unnecessary sequel

Oppenheimest

Pitch an unnecessary sequel

The Princess Divorcee

Kilofollowers

Is it okay if I want invisibility so I can blend into the crowd and nobody asks me for anything? (I kind of have that superpower already)

Probably something about a rental car. 😁

Can somebody please fix Wiley pubs? EVERY SINGLE TIME I am an author or coauthor on a paper, they add "Italy" to my affiliation address. Vatican City-State is not Italy. On the latest paper, the address was correct through the proofs, but they changed the pub version to "Albano Laziale, Italy"

Pikachu I choose you!
On rye
With lettuce and pickles

And it isn't particularly surprising that all of the latest batch are associated with the Vatican Observatory

Yet another update for the graphic. Up to 58 asteroids now. Congrats to recent nominees David Brown SJ, Bayu Risanto SJ. Alois Gatterer SJ, Ernst Salpeter SJ, Daniel O'Connell SJ, Joseph Junkes SJ, and José Funes SJ. (Okay, so 4 of them are deceased.)

Theoretical
Experimental
Observational
Exploratory

I think I am missing some reference here. Why is 1729 not an interesting number?

Me too. Good for economy seats, but it’s not easy to find pants that fit properly especially in Europe

I’m waiting till I hit a great-gross (1728)

I'm not very far away on the map. Big surprise there. :)

Shall we discuss outgassing from Uranus? 😁

Surreal thing of the day: a VERY notable astronomer (like wow level) will be receiving an award in a few months but can’t actually be present for it, and I have been asked to stand in as proxy for her.

I often read “golden age” sf for my own amusement, to see how myopic their vision of the future was. Also, as literature much of it was laughably bad. Standards of modern sff are much higher.

Tell me five classes you took in college:

(Im sticking to undergraduate only. The 3 masters and PhD don’t count)

Writing science fiction (w/ Joe Haldeman)
Intro to music theory
Philosophy of language
General Relativity
Organic chemistry

VOF newsletter - 2026-01-28 - Summer School Payoff

Br, Guy talks about his friend, Dr. Ray Jayawardhana, alumnus of the 1993 Vatican Observatory Summer School, who will become the tenth president of Caltech.

mailchi.mp/vaticanobser...

Image credit: Anna Marlis Burgard

Today included a very nice visit to the analytical laboratories of the Vatican Museums. Quite impressive.

Congrats! (Btw mine is 11266 Macke)

Slightly diminish a band:

They Might Be Of Average Stature

When I was growing up, it was not unheard of to find Easter eggs hidden under the Christmas tree, because we never got around to taking it down. (It was an artificial tree)

Well i guess it could be that. All i know is it was moving across the sky at a steady rate. But this photo was in Tucson. Is that right geographically for a fuel dump?

Not a comet. Just plane lights scattering weirdly under just the right conditions

An axiom I go by is “you gotta be bad before you get good.” Hence start by just diving in, accepting that the first attempts will be far from perfect.

I once attended a private musical performance, sitting literally two rows right behind Pope Benedict.

About two decades ago I was supposed to be interviewed by Morgan Freeman for his show The Story of God, but there was a bad storm that day and he couldn't make it. He interviewed a backup option instead.

When I started making videos for my YouTube channel, I did that all the time. Took a while to learn how to angle the camera and where to position myself. I still don’t do it all right.

To each their own. I sometimes enjoy writing with pen, because it helps me feel more relaxed about what I write. (When I transfer it to text, I need a forensic handwriting analyst to interpret the chicken scratches, but that’s tomorrow’s problem)