One of the sources for my new article on the orphan tsunami of 1700 reprinted this image from a public safety booklet, complete with startled kitty: #earthquake #tsunami #cats #thisisprobablyyourfaulthuman

In 2009-10 I wrote a book on odd historical events named Passing Strangeness. I sneaked up on it by writing it 1500 words at a time on a blog of the same name. Apart from three posts added in 2015 it hasn't seen any activity in 15 years. Until now! The last year or so I've caught myself […]

I've reached a milestone: There are now 300 translations of German folk tales on my wiki. 471 further tales to go. Of course, by the time I have added _those_ I will probably have finished a few dozens of further translations... #folklore #wiki #translation […]

When an interstellar object passes close by, all eyes are on it! #ESA is making its solar system mission look at the #comet 3I/ATLAS: first #ExoMars TGO and #MarsExpress when the comet passes close to Mars and then the #Juice, currently on its way to […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

*If you need an interstellar warp-drive, you don't wanna mess around with those clunky, old-fashioned warp-drives that lack the modern features https://medium.com/@timventura/beyond-alcubierre-a-tour-of-modern-warp-drive-physics-74661939fe45

Now reading: #books #fiction

It's been about two months since I started creating my wiki for the German folk tales I have translated. Since then, I have put about a fifth of all my translations on it. At my current speed, it will take me until late May to add them all - although by that date I will probably have a hundred […]

This could be great news for Carbon Dioxide Removal. Similar to Calvin cycle but capable of outputting a two-carbon molecule without re-emitting the carbon dioxide molecule that had just been captured. What they came up with is the malyl-­CoA-­glycerate cycle […]

1/ I do not have any further #map -themed folk tales to share for this #mythologymonday , but I do want to share the interactive map for German folk tales I am working on at the moment. It can be found on my new #mediawiki installation, and uses the combined power of #semanticmediawiki […]

Artist: Ellis Rosen https://www.gocomics.com/junk-drawer

My new book of cartoons is out soon. I am bringing it to SPX/BETHESDA TORONTO, NEW YORK, CHICAGO, MONTREAL and QUEBEC CITY in the next two weeks. Visit www.tomgauld.com for more details and preorder links!

My city has history. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/forgotten-toronto-inside-the-great-clown-riots-of-1855-and-the-coverup-that-changed-the/article_7a58b68a-7fc4-42d6-9c48-0123701e2ddd.html

So here's the thing: if you commit to setting stories in a pre-existing universe and then you have six of the first nine of them invalidate one of its established premises because it will stop the plot cold, I'M GONNA NOTICE. *Especially* if it's the same premise. *Double especially* if you […]

It's the long weekend and I have the afternoon off too. Armed with a days-long free trial subscription and 28 episodes of ST:SNW, hold all my calls....

Michael Surbrook's H.G. Wells sourcebook for the Hero System, "The Shape of Things to Come," is out now in PDF: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/534645/the-shape-of-things-to-come-hero-6e #rpg #games #herosystem #hgwells #scientificromance

How, in this far future year of 2025, can an application not support nested folders for files?

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. It doesn't quite stick the landing, IMHO, but the rest of it astonished me. I still think about it years after I read it.

'So much for heliocentrism.' - Lead sentence in a press release about our work with JWST. https://futurism.com/james-webb-free-floating-planetary-systems

The spelling checker in LibreOffice has some weird gaps: bedmate, divulgence, indigenously, POWs, pseudoscientific, squirrely, subcomponents, unmoving....

Indulging my obsession with all things atomic-powered from the early nuclear age, here's the Saunders-Roe Princess, a turboprop flying boat that was to recreate the aerial sea routes used by BOAC before WWII once the war was over. Delays made it obsolete by the […] [Original post on spacey.space]

TIL there's a concept in partlcle physics called "Electromagnetic Penguin". On an unrelated note, I have my new character for the funny animal superhero TTRPG I'm playing.

An interesting new research paper suggesting that life could be supported by high-energy radiation knocking free electrons loose from ice from planets or moons with any liquid water and ice near the surface (e.g., Mars, Europa, and Enceladus). It's purely theoretical, but opens up unexplored […]

Ollie (Ontario, Canada) says someone broke in and unrolled all the toilet paper but she scared him off so her human just didn't see him. That was very brave of her and she probably deserves treats. #cats #cat #CatNews #Caturday #catsofmastodon#caturday#CatNews#cat#catstps://www.cat-news.news/

Mail call! @exocomics

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com p.s. You can preorder my new book of science cartoons here: www.tomgauld.com

What I see at 5 AM every morning, except it's my cat Ollie.

I see For All Mankind is getting a spinoff, Star City: same alternate history but from the Soviet perspective. The original show never quite clicked with me but this one's presumably darker and more complicated tone plus it poking a stick directly into my "alternate Soviet space hardware" lobe? […]

Pippin (BC, Canada) gets his humans all to himself today! Happy Canada Day, we hope all cats in Canada get some special attention too! #cats #cat #CatNews #CatsOfMastodon #canadaday#catsofmastodon#CatNews#cat#catstps://www.cat-news.news/

Ollie (Ontario, Canada) reports that 2:30 AM is the appropriate time to clean her human's eyebrows. Why else would he be lying down with his eyes closed? #cats #cat #CatNews #CatsOfMastodon #caturday#catsofmastodon#CatNews#cat#catstps://www.cat-news.news/

Become a Patreon supporter of "Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles", and you will get newly translated German folk tales every week! If you subscribe at the "Scholar" level, you will also get PDF and EBUB compilations of all 600+ translations of the folk tales I have translated so far. And if you […]

It me. (Artist: Ellis Rosen, https://www.gocomics.com/junk-drawer)

Rogatons Rediffusions - 29/04/2023 - "Rocher" Source: https://www.bouletcorp.com/rogatons/2023/04/29

@not3ottersinacoat Message received Agent EL. "The eagle has made pancakes". I repeat, "the eagle has made pancakes". Good luck.

I just have this baby and snap off a piece whenever I need it: ⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻

"Get in, loser, we're going frogman submersible canoeing."

An upgraded version of the Columbus Man-Tended Free Flyer, Europe's stab at an independent space station from the late 80s and early 90s. As well as the MTFF, the associated document list several other modules, including a multi-port connector, a cargo ship, and […] [Original post on spacey.space]

Well, probably yes, BUT NOT LIKE THAT.

I love looking at people's website source code, especially when I stumble across cool things like this: view-source:https://www.write-on.org/ #ascii #asciiart #webdev #html #css

So thanks for flagging "pre-populated" as a spelling mistake, unnamed computer program, and suggesting "pee-populated" instead. That is what I, or any rational person, would have actually wanted to write.

Last Saturday I came across this little red dot in a Galaxy Zoo image and marked it as something someone might want to look at since it mystified me. It seems I missed a paper published a year ago announcing a new kind of galaxy discovered with JWST, the (wait […] [Original post on spacey.space]

@[email protected] 😎

Interesting contract from DARPA: "DARPA is interested in exploring the feasibility of “growing” biological structures of unprecedented size in microgravity...(500+ meter length)" https://sam.gov/opp/426e5868fcf74dd4ada3768b00b09234/view

Google really stepping up their campaign to suppress negative reviews.

My cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com books.

Worst. Cryptid. Ever.

(Pinched from a thread at RPGPub.com)

You've read the tales, now get the books! #germany #folktale #folklore #book https://sunkencastles.com/the-books/

Interesting. The left half of the sun was taken back in early July, near aphelion. The right, today at perihelion. A noticeable difference in size (to the telescope, of course). Also, for some reason after the last update, the Seestar records the sun as greenish. 🔭 #Astronomy #Seestar #Sun