cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/40177115 ... read full post

This paper paints a pretty grim picture of how fragile our situation in Low Earth Orbit has become, arguing that the whole orbital house of cards is one bad day away from collapsing. The authors introduce a new metric called the CRASH Clock which estimates how long it would take for a major collision to happen if we suddenly stopped doing active avoidance maneuvers. Back in 2018 that clock sat at a comfortable 121 days, meaning we had months of buffer if things went wrong. As of June 2025 that number has plummeted to just 2.8 days. That is a terrifyingly thin margin because it implies that if a massive solar storm knocked out communications or tracking for just a weekend we’d be looking at a 30% chance of a catastrophic collision. ... read full post

East Germany has a lower population than West Germany so this doesn't fully translate to a 50-50 split. I think overall national polls put the AfD at 27%, ahead of the CDU which is at 24%. SPD is now in a distant third place. The trend over the past years has been in favor of the AfD and further growth is to be expected. This growth will come at the expense of the CDU more than any of the other parties, as it is CDU voters and non-voters who are most likely to switch over to the AfD. The CDU will then probably enter into coalition with the AfD when they can no longer form a government otherwise, unless the SPD somehow manages to miraculously recover. It's either that or they ban the AfD. ... read full post

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10025270 ... read full post

... read full post
The decades keep happening, but all my deadlines are this week!

... read full post