a king of shreds and patches

Once again.

A large, snaking coronal hole is facing Earth. Fast solar wind from its western edge is currently affecting us now with solar wind speeds > 600 km/s. These conditions may spark active high-latitude aurora with bursts of activity reaching upper-mid latitudes at times. #heliophysics

good morning, my friends.

I saw this in a meditative vein, not a controversial one, but apparently not--within a couple of hours, a sharp little plunge in subscribers. (It's free. & in that place because I'm bad at tech & efforts to leave failed.) What did I say? Probably what I didn't say--this isn't a news funnel piece.

Good morning, my friends.

I love the book too much to see the movie.

Roz Chast in the New Yorker.

good morning, my friends.

I love the book too much to see the movie.

Roz Chast in the New Yorker.

good morning, my friends.

mood (from my most recent poem)

A lot of truth to be found in John Gardner’s “On Becoming A Novelist”

Here's a movie from Dec 9 0-2 UT showing two eruptive flares - an M2.0 from AR 4299 and an M1.2 from AR 4294. Unsure whether we will see much of these in coronagraph imagery. The M2.0 CME may have a slight Earth-directed component.

John Noble Wilford, science writing legend, dies at 92. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/s...

Good morning, my friends.

Good morning, my friends.

It's spelled 'whoa'. It's spelled 'oops'. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

There are FOUR CMEs that could impact Earth in the next few days! M1.1 from AR 4299: 2025-12-10 8 UT (grazing impact) M8.1 from AR 4299: 2025-12-09 5 UT (direct hit) M2.4 from AR 4299: 2025-12-10 13 UT (direct hit) X1.1 from AR 4298: Dec 11 at 10 UT (grazing impact)

It's spelled 'whoa'. It's spelled 'oops'. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

A favorite page. www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/...

Good morning, my friends.

M2.4 solar flare in combination with a small but very dense erupting filament associated with sunspot group 4299 near the central meridian. Coronal mass ejection likely (even though a lot of material was reabsorbed).

Our current issue is terrific. www.smithsonianmag.com/issue/smiths...

Absolutely buzzing over this new video of a rarely seen giant squid

Our current issue is terrific. www.smithsonianmag.com/issue/smiths...

Direct hit! Here is a preliminary WSA ENLIL+Cone model of the M8.1 CME from NASA M2M. Earth shock arrival time is calculated to be Dec 9, 4 UT +/- 7 hr (Monday night). G2-G3 conditions may be possible, but we'll see what the official forecast from NOAA SWPC is. Stay tuned...

The spectacular fireworks of two eruptive M-class flares from AR 4299 today. First, an M1.1 around 1921 UT followed by an M8.1 around 2039 UT. Both flares were near the center of the Earth-facing disk and eruptive. The M8.1 CME looks the most Earth-directed.

EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR FLARE AND CME: Both NOAA and SOHO coronagraphs have detected a full halo storm cloud heading directly for Earth. NASA simulations of the CME suggest an arrival on Dec. 9th. Earth is the yellow dot in this forecast model spaceweather.com/images2025/0...

good morning

Jonathan Lethem has given a self-portrait he painted in 1978, when he was fourteen, to a friend who is selling it (with Jonathan’s blessing) to pay for medical expenses.

Breaking News: Frank Gehry, a titan of architecture, has died at 96. He designed some of the world’s most recognizable buildings — many widely regarded as masterpieces. nyti.ms/4rGCYiE

We've been writing about this man for fifty years. You cannot be surprised by any of this. Can not.

To wrap up our week of mulling The Year of Rory, I wrote about the joys of being wrong about an athlete, for @friedegggolf.bsky.social www.thefriedegg.com/articles/ror...

Margaret Hamilton, software engineer of the Apollo program, posing next to the pile of code that she wrote by hand and which made it possible for man to step on the moon, in 1969.

Good morning!

We are hiring an assistant professor in cognitive neural systems in the department of psychology at the university of arizona. please use this link to check out the requirements and apply! arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Very psyched to talk with @officialold97s.bsky.social frontman (and friend) @rhettmiller.bsky.social. I've got a new book, he's got a new album, let's go.

Check out this beautiful C3.8 flare and filament CME from AR 4288 earlier today. The figure-8 shape is really beautiful. I added an Earth for scale so you can see how large these eruptions truly are. The Sun is beautiful.

#Russia: @rferl.org.web.brid.gy journalist Nika Novak is on hunger strike to protest against her placement in solitary confinement. She had refused to film a staged video of repentance, denying her comments about prison conditions. RSF condemns this cruel new ‘punishment’ and calls for her release.

CPJ is calling on Russian authorities to immediately disclose the whereabouts of @rferl.org.web.brid.gy journalist Nika Novak, who has gone missing from a prison in Bozoy, in the Siberian region of Irkutsk. cpj.org/2025/12/russ... #WhereIsNika

Next stop: Bozeman. After last week’s historic comeback against Youngstown State, the Bulldogs are heading to Montana for their first-ever football matchup with No. 2–seeded Montana State. The stakes are high with a trip to the FCS Quarterfinals on the line. Kickoff is Saturday at 2 p.m. EST. #Yale

best job in the world

This happens when magnetic field lines of opposite polarity touch: reconnection, sudden release of energy, solar flare, plasma eruption We see a strong M6.0 flare from small region 4300 in the eastern part of the sun. The coronal mass ejection will likely miss earth.

I'd've assigned the book review to Dwight, and the magazine feature to Taffy.

go do this.

a student asked what Wallace Stevens meant by “The gold tree is blue” & the first example I thought of was the dress

Comet 2025 R2 (SWAN) tracked by NASA's PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission science.nasa.gov/blogs/punch/... Credit: NASA/Southwest Research Institute 🧪🔭

How class segregation at sports stadiums has destroyed the classic fan experience. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...