Panicked looking for a last-minute gift under 50 bucks? Do I have a discounted subscription to an astronomy newsletter for you! badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/holiday-sa...

I have just now learned that the German version of Jingle Bells is called Schlittenfahrt and the holidays are henceforth forever changed

My wife makes this tastebud-destroying cranberry orange loaf/cake whenever the berries are in season. It's my very favorite non-chocolate dessert.

I have difficulty wrapping my head around the fact that there are Jewish Nazis, but here we are.

Wondering how I did it? I boiled water and added two tablespoons of vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice. I soaked it for 20 minutes, and after that, it looked the same, so I bought a brand new one.

Oh wow. I actually wrote this short story. badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/ban-220-de...

We're trying to to find a Christmas movie to watch and I realized there is a dearth of scifi ones. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians doesn't count. Seems like ripe territory for a clever writer.

Gorgeous crescent Moon tonight. You can see it through the trees of the forest in my back yard, amidst the stars of Capricornus. Sunight reflected off Earth (called Earthshine) illuminates the dark part, too.

Treebeard went through a Freddie Mercury phase.

[tick tick tick] BTW, time's running out to get 20% off the subscription price for the premium level of my newsletter, which gets you three issues per week and being able to comment and ask questions about the articles! More info here: badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/holiday-sa...

Yesterday I promised a longer explanation of what "day" means, and I try to be a man of my word. And that word is "sidereal". Or "synodic". [Bonus astronomy: old stars eat their planets!] badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/today-s-th... 🔭 🧪

Running a bit late on solstice cheers, but this #Hubble image alone is pure gold: breathtaking face-on view of spiral galaxy NGC 1309. 🔭 Bonus — it has helped us nail down the cosmic distance ladder using Cepheids and Type Ia supernovae. Definitely worth your time — go read the article! 🧪📖

This is delightful and also, of course, fuck Bari Weiss for being the transparent tool of a corrupt and criminal administration

A great serial and an even better movie. One of my all-time favorites.

Oh dang that's a cool shot. Tethys is one of several Saturn moons with a whopping huge crater. If whatever hit it had been much bigger or faster the moon would've been blown apart. That's why you don't usually see bigger craters (with respect the moon diameter) on these objects.

Hard to express how much I love this. Twitter is the Nazi site for Nazis. Delete it, ESPECIALLY if you're a famous person or political leader. Abughazaleh does a great job explaining that it's also TRASH and doesn't even let you reach your audience. Get the hell off.

In which Phil Plait teaches me the word "Nychthemeron" which I endeavor to use with abandon from this nychthemeron forward.

This image is truly stunning. I highly recommend clicking on the "embiggen" link provided.

🤔 DID YOU KNOW? The Stand Up for Science Foundation is now registered on Fidelity Charitable! This means you can make tax-deductible donations (even anon!) to SUFS...it's quick, easy, and secure. Cap off your year end giving by supporting the fight for science! @standupforscience.bsky.social

I gripe a little bit about the ambiguity of the word "day" — astronomically speaking, of course — and also present you with a *gorgeous* Hubble shot of a face-spiral galaxy that turns out to be part of the puzzle that tells us how the universe expands. badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/happy-sols... 🔭 🧪

Astro PhD applications for Edinburgh are open! Deadlines are: * 24 Nov: Career Development Scholarship (for students of Black heritage) * 5 Dec: Bell Burnell Scholarship (for all URM students) * 5 Jan: all applications Come to beautiful Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Applying is free! 🔭🧪 ifa.roe.ac.uk/phds-jobs-fe...

merry christmjlmxh.,//ml

tonight the government killed a story on cbs about the slave labor camp in a foreign country theyre illegally sending people to

support independent media. idk what else to say right now.

Funny, after hearing this I really feel like I do

the vice president is a klansman

This is fantastic news, a triumph of medicine! And the overall cervical cancer rate in Oz is dropping, too, almost certainly due to HPV vaccinations. And exactly the sort of progress RFK Jr. is trying to kill. Along with killing our citizens.

D'oh! I'm 20 minutes late to wish you a happy solstice! At 10:03 Eastern US time the Sun reached its most southern point on the sky, and will slowly begin to crawl farther north every day. This means today has the least amount of daytime of the year, and nights get shorter from here on out!

🔭🧪

This is really more than I need to know about my party cup

Heliotroping

As always, the alt text is the best.

Hope has never shone so brightly as in the face of a dog at your feet hoping you'll spill something as you pour food into a container.

This is what RFK Jr. is making happen. And I wrote about this in 2009, after a baby in Australia died of pertussis; I wrote about her many times and eventually met her parents when I visited Oz. It was heartbreaking, but I was proud they became strong vaccine advocates. slate.com/technology/2...

Oh right, *this* guy, an actual doctor, and the deciding vote to confirm RFK Jr.

I cannot state any more baldly or clearly than I already have about what an immense menace RFK Jr. is. The number of preventable illnesses and deaths - of *babies* - will be horrific. This anti-vax crap is grotesque anti-science, and always has been.

If it wasn't apparent before, the extent to which the Epstein file release has been redacted by Trump's lackeys makes very clear that the convicted felon and adjudicated rapist does, indeed have a whole lot to hide.

For the record, the law states that "No record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary." www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...

This article in the QP below doesn't mention the time RFK Jr.'s actions led to dozens of children in Samoa dying of a preventable illness, but I'll point you to it. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Honestly, I'd be OK with a prison wing named after him

Terrifying headline if you don’t realize they are sports teams.

The Brown/MIT shooter killed people with his gun, not his visa www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/u...

Moving forward, using all my breath Debunking pop songs, science always second best www.scientificamerican.com/article/if-i... 🧪 🔭

This is a great article by my pal and former American Meteorological Society president Marshall Shepherd. I was not aware of some of these, and shows just how this current regime is destroying the things that really do make our country great.

Hey #exoplaneteers - we are hiring a new software developer on the NASA Exoplanet Archive and ExoFOP, to backfill someone who left this year. We've had good success hiring exoplanet folks with strong software skillsets into these positions! phf.tbe.taleo.net/phf03/ats/ca...

This is precisely how fascism works, by grabbing at and taking away a little more freedom whenever events lend themselves to it. Bit by bit you lose your rights, until you turn around and realize the road you're on has been long, and democracy is well behind you over the horizon.

Yes, exactly. Well stated.

The filename is a big clue as to what this list is, though it's still a little disturbing. Wigless?