Conference Madness

Many academics read this blog, so let's ask a few rhetorical questions:

Does one day of your conference wrap up with a discussion of advising the government about how to execute a multibillion dollar project? Note that the government is legally obligated to listen to your advice and yet present government officials believe that it is illegal for them to consider the advice as the primary influence on decisionmaking (and keep hinting at that at every conceivable opportunity).

Do presentations involve standing in the hot sun for two and a half hours, wondering why you didn't bring sunscreen or water?

Do you find vocabulary from your ecclesial life appearing occasionally in presentations but meaning completely different things?

Yes, so that's my life at present.

Today, I also made my first operational weather forecast for another planet. On that note.

Collect for Astronomy

O Lord, who is adorned with light and whose glory the heavens declare, prevent us in all our humble inquiries into Thy works. But we especially beseech Thee to favor our probings into the waters of the Deep and to give us a clear vision of thy sublime creature [ target name ]. May the instrument be tuned to its proper settings, the target be tracked precisely, and the computers read, write, and analyze without pause or error. Bless, keep, and prosper the handiwork especially of the operator, for if we be incompetents, Lord, thou and she alone may preserve our observations unto utility. This we ask, Father, through the Word and Wisdom of all the worlds, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.