The original readers of this essay would have known that Lee had won a Pulitzer just before this was published. Her unnamed benefactor was Michael Brown, who wrote "The John Birch Society" - a mocking-song that has proved to be a warning to history from the 60's @washingtonpost.com wapo.st/3MjnLnG

Al Bacio, Andrea! (“a chef’s kiss”). I missed this release at the time. Thank you!

Found this archive by accident today, and I have to admit I was quite emotional. Hours later, we saw Miranda and I was standing beside Gene Shoemaker as the images came in. He was estatic: the crowning evidence for his theories of destruction and reaccretion. www.rte.ie/archives/col...

Posted from a bar in the Cape Canaveral area, strictly without comment.

Per @nasawatch.bsky.social in the other place, this was dumped in a corridor at GSFC with the sort of note you see on a used car! There's even a phone number. It is a full scale model of Relay-1 , an early US telecom satellite that broadcast news of the Kennedy assassination into Europe!

President Trump just posted on Truth Social that he is nominating Jared Isaacman to be NASA Administrator (again).

A Republican commentator weighs in on the NY mayor election @bbclivenews24.bsky.social ......... from DINGLE! That's the Other Voices logo behind her. (Nov 28-30. Ticket details in ALT)

This remarkable image from Athy, Ireland, shows the Falcon 9 upper stage itself as it vents fuel. These ventings are common, but seeing the rocket stage isn't. Pic by award-winning snapper @niallcarsonpa.bsky.social (not attributed @news.rte.ie 😠) tinyurl.com/RTEspaceX @planet4589.bsky.social

Is breá liom an leagan digiteach gan smál de "The Last Waltz" anocht. Is beagnach ealaíontóirí Ceanadacha iad na chéad 45 nóiméad 😉 Absolutely loving the flawless digital version of "The Last Waltz" on @tg4.bsky.social tonight. The first 45 mins is almost totally Canadian artists 😉

This remarkable spy satellite image of Dublin was taken a week before Ireland began to change (very, very slowly) forever. The "Bishop and the Nightie" controversy in February 1966 was a landmark moment. @spacefromspace.com spacefromspace.com/declassified... www.rte.ie/archives/exh...

I don't post on politics. But I do post on beer. 😜

The German Broadcasting Association reacts with dismay and sadness to the attack on a media production company in the Gaza Strip, which works on behalf of ZDF, among others. Chairman Mika Beuster: "Why the attack despite the ceasefire? And why were journalists targeted?" @nujofficial.bsky.social

What an absolute buzz today to hear speakers at a big Mars Climate conference here in Paris cite important recent work by an USGS scientist who THREE WEEKS AGO was selected by NASA to join the 2025 astronaut candidate class. Gene Shoemaker would be very, very pleased.

🌙 Get ready for Samhain agus Science 2025 — Halloween fun with a scientific spark! 🔬 Join us for a spellbinding series of talks and events where myth meets methodology 👻🌌 🎟️ Tickets available now here: www.eventbrite.com/cc/samhain-a...! #DIAS85 #DIASDiscovers

Should every presidential candidate over 65 be required to do a physical? (This candidate is 68)

Oooh the Nobel Prize is out today, so it's time for my yearly round of ignoring that news and reading about many of the women who were snubbed of the prize in the past and who the Nobel Prize committee refuses to apologise for. 🧪🔭

First images of comet #3I/ATLAS from Europe's Mars orbiters 😍 Observing the comet from 30 million km away, #ExoMars reveals the halo of gas and dust surrounding the comet's nucleus. Read more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭🧪

It is on days like this that one thinks of the greatest inequality of them all: the early death of Belfast physicist John Bell, the Irishman assuredly robbed by fate of a Nobel Prize. @dias.ie www.penguin.co.uk/books/457519...

A very happy Ivy Day to all those Joyce scholars out there (artwork credit in ALT)

Absolutely surreal to watch the US Sec Def leaving the Quantico stage to the theme tune music for Monty Python. Was somebody taking the piss?

🚨🚨🚨 There is a significant generational shift in Irish science policy, happening now. Emer McLysaght - Ireland's newly appointed Government Science Advisor -spoke tonight @tlrhub.bsky.social about global links and a new focus on all-of-government science advice. APPLY NOW! gov.ie/en/departmen...

Cod's speed, #Nordspace ! www.nordspace.com/info

👀 What was Perseverance observing at 3 in the morning? Frames are captured ~30 sec apart. #Mars Sep. 24, 2025 - Sol 1634 Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU 🧪🔭

Not duelling 🪕, duelling remote sensing satellites! 1st. Maxar Intelligence issued jawdropping images of Shijian-26 two months ago (details in Alt).......................

😱

With #EPSC #DPS #EPSCDPS #EPSC2025 now just a fading memory, next up at Finlandia? Anyone for Heavy Metal? @missiontopsyche.bsky.social science.nasa.gov/mission/psyc....

"Debate forces us into rigid positions". Discuss. (From @drg.bsky.social in the other place)

The sun was just 10 degrees above the horizon when NASA's Perseverance rover captured this morning view of Nili Planum yesterday. The rim of Jezero crater is casting a long shadow over the rover and foreground landscape. 🔭 Full res: flic.kr/p/2rt54pJ Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Simeon Schmauß

To European ears this is deeply depressing: Manifest Destiny? And the only inspirational figure from history mentioned was Curtis E LeMay (aka Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper 😉)

Several prominent Irish researchers are caught up in this 😞

@segeryu.bsky.social has just posted in the other place these jaw-dropping snapshots of LEO constellation spacecraft at one instant in time on 6 Sept 2025. Watch and weep! @mayodarkskies.bsky.social @astro4edu.bsky.social @darkskyintl.bsky.social

You could equally say that some historians faulted him for Ireland's economic travails in the 1930s AND lauded him for keeping the country out of the second world war.

📣Discovery Programme is delighted to announce the CHERISH Project Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) data is now archived securely in the @dri.ie & available for anyone to use! doi.org/10.7486/DRI.... @heritagecouncil.ie @aberuni.bsky.social @rcahmwales.bsky.social @interregeurope.bsky.social

I am shocked - as in geologically shocked- to discover that I am not the first person to visit the beautiful town of Nördlingen *inside* Germany's Reis Crater. This motley crew (actually 2 crews) stayed at the excellent Altreuter Hotel, where the pics are displayed.

The references to Sir John Maffey are pregnant with meaning. His title sparked a diplomatic crisis: the UK wouldn't call him minister because it implied Ireland was foreign! The compromise was "UK Representative to Éire". John Betjeman was his press attaché and he was friendly with Paddy Kavanagh

I love Naples. If I was writing a kitch advertising slogan it would be: Naples, a real European city with real people. 

I really like Jackson Tyler's hard-core (i.e. long) Homemade Documentaries. In his latest he wonders why NASA would claim that the Venus atmosphere was discovered in 1776, whe we all know is was the Russian Lomonosov in 1761 (@ 55 mins). Political manipulation of data? 😱 youtu.be/Qjx3u9_FZHo?...

Just two weeks left! armaghobservatoryplanetarium.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...

Download here: www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/2094097/news...

Squeaky-bum-in-space-time tonight for Europe AND America. Two rockets, desperate to prove themselves. Exactly as @arianespace.bsky.social ended its first boost burn, @ulalaunch.bsky.social launched its Vulcan-Centaur rocket. I was at the Cape for the previous ULA launch - a real heart-stopper!

Truly shocking news out of Gaza tonight: Anas Al-Sharif - the most prominent journalist in Gaza - has been assassinated. The UN warned of exactly this 2 weeks ago (link in ALT) . @aljazeera.com reports that a tent was targeted known to be used by journos to swap notes and support each other.

Wow! NASA and SpaceX can't tell the difference between the drogue chutes and the Dragon capsule???? Followed the drogues forever without realising it WAS NOT the capsule!

A discussion today on future Mars missions included a passing reference to Viking-3. The rover version. Very little digging produced *five* postage stamps featuring Viking-3. You know what they say when they postmark a stamp: it's been cancelled. Exactly what happened to poor Viking-3.

Impressive that Chang'e-3 lander is still transmitting <11 years after landing at the Guang Han Gong site in Mare Imbrium. The Apollo 12 ALSEP station was last heard from (no science data) ~ 7 years after landing. Last known Chang'e operating instrument was the Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope

The full list of all 18,500 children killed in Gaza, in video form. www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

F9/Crew 11: SpaceX aborted a Falcon 9 1st stage engine test firing today at KSC pad 39A less than a minute before the 3:09pm EDT (1909 UTC) target time; no details yet on what might have triggered the abort or what impact, if any, it might have on NASA's plans to launch the mission Thursday

RIP Tom Lehrer. it was five decades before US historians began taking his *1952* assessment seriously 😉 (Written by: Kobi Luria, Thomas A Lehrer Album: Selling Out Released: 1952) www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDE...

Since the AFP was founded in August 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had wounded and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us has the memory of having seen a colleague die of hunger. (full machine translation in ALT) @en.afp.com @news.rte.ie