Some #astronomy - a weird discovery, even.☺️

🚀 Een Europees team van astronomen – waaronder onderzoekers van @kapteynastro.bsky.social – heeft met WEAVE iets onverwachts ontdekt in de Ringnevel: een smalle ‘balk’ van sterk geïoniseerd ijzer. Lees meer: www.astronomie.nl/nieuws/ontde...

Ontdekking van een ijzeren ‘balk’ in de Ringnevel (Onderzoek van onder anderen @sctrager.bsky.social met #weave) www.astronomie.nl/nieuws/ontde...

Published in #MNRAS: "WEAVE imaging spectroscopy of NGC 6720: an iron bar in the Ring", Wesson et al. This is Fig. 3: please visit academic.oup.com/mnras/articl... to read the paper. @royalastrosoc.bsky.social @academic.oup.com

Our discovery of a Mars-mass bar of highly-ionized iron with WEAVE is now out in the wild! ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

Father Ted is about to get into some wacky hijinx

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

Ding Dong, the Cheney is Dead.

😱

“In an anonymous survey of (UK Physics) department heads by the Institute of Physics (IoP), 26% said they faced potential closure of their department within the next two years, while 60% said they expected courses to be reduced.” www.theguardian.com/education/20...

"Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels. These results raise concerns about the long-term educational implications of LLM reliance and underscore the need for deeper inquiry into AI's role in learning." arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

I can save you the effort. Clippy Plagiarism Thirstwater does not suffer. To suffer, you have to be alive, and it's not fucking alive, you daft motherfuckers. If you're so concerned about the suffering of sentients, there's plenty of that going around that you can pour billions into alleviating.

This is the best product listing copy I’ve ever read

Brent Hinds, former guitarist and co-founder of Mastodon, has died thequietus.com/news/brent-h...

Oh geez. Much too young. Leviathan and Blood Mountain are all-timers. RIP.

this is literally Lex Luthor shit

Apropos of several recent logo reveals. H/t @kmci.bsky.social

The Arsenal rescuing England

Ozzy going out after raising $190 million for sick kids and a Parkinson’s cure is metal AF.

Ozzy Osbourne visited my magic shop. He said he'd like to buy some stink bombs. How many? All of them. I had to go through drawers finding every last one. He bought 900 of them. To sign the credit card slip I handed him a shock pen, which he thought was hilarious and bought that too. RIP

The voice of my entire lifetime, or at least since I was 13. RIP Ozzy. You deserve it. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

In memoriam Jaap Vreeling (1956-2025) 🔭 Dutch: www.astronomie.nl/nieuws/in-me... English: www.astronomie.nl/nieuws/en/in...

Fucking THANK YOU. Like, for real, I need a lot of you to dispense with the fantasies of objective, impartial tech. You are watching the intended purpose of this shit on display as we speak as Grok is hammered into compliance behind the scenes.

I appear to have reached that “certain age” where I’m looking for telephoto lenses for my DSLR camera for birdwatching. How did it come to this?

The Wirecutter “recommending the Amazon Fresh Classic Potato Chips as the best plain potato chip fundamentally misunderstands the spiritual and practical place of the potato chip.” The Wirecutter Is Wrong About The Best Plain Potato Chip - aftermath.site/the-best-pla...

Applications are open for our visiting grad student program (pre-doc program) at the CCA @flatironinstitute.org! Reach out if you're a student interested in: - Preparing for Gaia DR4 - Stellar streams - Data-driven methods for spectroscopy (and want to apply!) docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... 🔭

trillion dollar industry that will revolutionize everything

i’m in a fancy hotel in DC with no power or hot water and i gotta say, feels like a heavy handed metaphor

Happy Bon Scott (death) day, everyone! Enjoy one of the greatest rock songs of all time: youtu.be/ErXbMB9R5-0?...

ATTENTION BAJORAN WORKERS #STARTREK #SISKO197

I have been so excited since I found out this would be announced today! RIP any ability for me to concentrate: www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2...

as tears go by 💙peace to Marianne Faithfull

Unrelated to this specific story exactly but - CAN WE CALL IT A NAZI SALUTE BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT IT IS. I've seen this "Elon Musk Salute" repeatedly and - No. Absolutely not. Nazis. Fascists. Racists. Hatemongers. We have words. We need to use them.

RIP, oh you of magnificent voice and talent. www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

😮 About time. youtu.be/oGN3R49-CAE?...

Yep. It’s been a hard 24 hours of news from friends, acquaintances and former colleagues.

How can we unravel the evolution of stars in the Milky Way, and of galaxies far away? 🌌 Astronomer Scott Trager (@sctrager.bsky.social, FSE) is developing new methods: 'There is a sense of wonder in looking out at the universe: how did this come to be?' 👇 www.rug.nl/about-ug/lat...

Everye humanityes academic sholde stoppe research and publicacioun as usual and addresse the cuttes to programs and declynes yn enrollmente. Facultye at secure, prestigious, or well funded schooles sholde helpe facultye yn at-risk departmentes and programs. Act now or there ys no fielde lefte.

Happy New Year / Gelukkig nieuw jaar from Groningen!

Proposed new rule: Anyone who questions the role of civil and human rights in the Democratic platform can get punted into the fucking sun

Happy (almost) New Years! With thanks to @grumpykelson.bsky.social and @rachelpowers.bsky.social , who bought us this bowl many, many years ago!

This is a paid fellowship to draw mushrooms in upstate New York this summer. Seems relevant to some of y’all’s interests. 🍄

Roses are redde Noble are the manatees Yf we wante a bettir future Teach artes & humanityes

USPS is offering free COVID tests again! It’s yucky season. Have a few kits on hand so you know what flavor of yuck you have, and help prevent being yucky to other people. 🤧 🫁👌 special.usps.com/testkits

Wu-Tang in the front, Chanukah party in the back! Didn't meet a new dog while I was out today. Instead, I offer this *extremely* Brooklyn yard in tribute.

This woman knows what she's talking about, get her elected.

"Sorry, we can't make this technology that sucks and nobody wants and that uses enough power to blow up the moon unless we *also* steal people's shit to throw into our content woodchipper in order to produce mediocre digital particleboard out of the cumulative artbarf." futurism.com/the-byte/ope...

Hear hear… well, no, I don’t, but a great article by @lukeplunkett.com about a great show nonetheless!

@xoxogossipgita.bsky.social made me cry this morning. The World Needs Superman - aftermath.site/superman-mov...