Meredith Rawls

We can do amazing things After nearly a decade of working on Rubin software, it is a real operating telescope, and I got to tour during the day and stay over last night This thing is a behemoth, and it goes "pssshhhhhhh" every few minutes 24/7 because of huge chillers that keep the camera cool 🔭

Look cars are overrated except for this very specific 1990s minivan I learned to drive on that is still the only vehicle I've ever called my own, ok? Anyway I really need to go to this meetup next year www.theautopian.com/you-meet-the...

New plan, all city departments can give parking tickets now, but whichever one issues the most (legit, validated) citations wins and gets to pick a block to permanently pedestrianize in 2027

"Ask an Astronomer" panel at #GeekGirlCon in Seattle 2016 and 2026 The more things change, the more they stay the same 🔭

You can't remove debris from Earth orbit, either. I often use an analogy of ocean pollution to explain why orbital space isn't an infinite expanse to forever put things in.

We have vaccines for chicken pox, HPV, RSV, and more! We have some really excellent research grade telescopes on Earth and in space! If you want an e-bike to transport yourself, kids, and/or stuff, you have options! Heat pumps and induction stoves!

Seattle isn’t losing kids, but SPS is losing enrollment to private schools. Rather than recruit those families back, SPS is engaging in a secretive closure process that will simply cause more families to flee the district. Closing schools doesn’t save money, of course. I explain here:

Happy Friday everybody! See you in (checks notes) 7 weeks for an evening meeting about totally hypothetically maybe MERGING your kid's school with another one nearby-ish! Definitely not CLOSING anything! Let's build community ;) ;) ;)

I truly don't understand why this driver behavior is accepted as a thing you can do, put your flashers on, just be a minute Bonus points when it's by a school waiting for the kids to let out 😩

FULLY FUNCTIONAL

Finally, a legal place to park an RV Sorry, were you expecting light rail or a bridge that is safe to bike on, or maybe a home you could afford to rent or buy? Best we can do is waterfront luxury car condos

Voters in Washington State said "tax the rich," sir, not "compliment them on their creative plans to export environmental harm to low-Earth orbit" 🔭

Love to see it @uaw4121.bsky.social ✊

Got to see a neat documentary and chat with the filmmaker this evening. It's called Cosmic Coda and it does a wonderful job showing the human realities of being a scientist, both in 1985 and today. Catch MJ as she continues her Amtrak tour down the west coast www.maryjanedoherty.com/cosmic-coda-...

400,000 drivers illegally speeding in just a month on two streets? How can that be true when NextDoor tells me it’s always people walking and biking who break the rules of the road???

Great news fellow Seattleites! Your progressive voting guide is here.

If you're in the PNW and *didn't* get a loud alert about an earthquake drill, now is the perfect time to download the MyShake app Yes this message is a subpost directed at my husband but maybe it also applies to you 🙃

My in-laws speak in Far Side comics, Star Wars, and Monty Python quotes My mom had many of these…"You dropped your Kleenex" for a loud thump. "Man holding purse" for a road construction flagger sign. "One swell foop." My husband and I decided AF meant "As Foretold" to better converse around kids

Scene: Out of ideas to get the preschooler to get ready for bed Me: There are two wolves inside of you 3yo: WHERE?!?

An actual message I sent a colleague "Don't have to send emails today, problems will persist regardless"

OH MY GOSH who at SDOT and/or SPS do we beg and plead to get this at more schools, parks, workplaces, neighborhood curbs, planter strips, everywhere? I don't want EV chargers I want these 🤤

They’re both carrying the same number of people - and probably the same amount of cargo.

A lot to unpack here. www.aip.org/fyi/the-week...

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume? Me: Every time a satellite passes, we have to throw out a portion of the image, and those pixels are lost. The tricky part is actually deciding how wide the gap should be to maximize science and avoid systematic bias. As you can see in Figure 3,

Seems fine, we should definitely launch more 🛰️

Somehow all these models of our future assume that there is some OTHER group of very highly trained, insightful individuals who function as an underclass that will somehow be satisfied with endlessly reviewing the products of the Real Scientists to make all this work out.

I see the folks wanting free labor to validate their vibe coded data visualization also scraped your email address 🔭

My kiddo's school had our annual Pizza on the Playground on Friday, and this year we added a Play Street on the School Street! I am still recovering from a broken heel, but I managed to knee scooter there and back to join the fam for Veraci pizza at the best cafe street seats in the neighborhood 🥰

Ballard Congratulates Golf Course on Its New Light Rail Station: tinyurl.com/yncw9jep

I realized some of you might not be aware it is possible to preorder a plush King County Metro style bus Don't worry I am here to help merch.fixthel8.com/us/all-products/plush-bus

Today my spouse drove me into work and I took the bus home. I would like to offer an insufficient and belated thank you to everyone who has ever pushed for ADA as a minimum standard in (most) public spaces and wonder why the F we don't do a better job with accessibility everywhere. Transit rocks.

This stuff happens daily in my city too and it's a big reason I have a real hard time getting worked up about e-scooter legality and/or helmet use hand-wringing

Today was the third day in a row I came within a yard of a car hitting me while I was walking in a crosswalk, and today was way too close. I realize we have some drivers out there, but I think we need to ban cars until we can figure out what's going on.

It looks like the new cars only have space for 2 bikes that can be parked up on end? Dangit, Amtrak, I want all kinds of bikes on trains

A whole entire ST article about my favorite stopover spot on Vancouver Island and not one word about the world class oceanfront + extremely accessible Adventure World Playground?! www.seattletimes.com/life/travel/...

Informative 🧵 SEATTLE area - Katterman's has all the vaccines for all ages, and they are a wonderful local pharmacy kattermans.com

but what if two teens on a e-scooter are riding on the sidewalk

4yo friend to my 3yo: I'm sorry, but we got you a happy birthday card that's space 🚀, but it's to a boy, so we're gonna cross it out 🤩 The best part is that her birthday is not until November, this kid is clearly planning ahead

What a story ... yikes I'm thankful my work to improve traffic safety near my kid's school about a decade later hasn't been quite as impossible, but man, we have so far to go

When you have optimized your life to bike yourself and your kids everywhere, but you suddenly find yourself with a broken heel, you get to spend an inordinate amount of time asking everyone you have ever met for rides for yourself and family members in their cars AMA