Hello... This is interesting. Esp the bit where the guy was jailed for wire fraud in the USA 8yrs ago in his early 20s. Tax authorities examine finances of key Nigel Farage ally | Business | The Guardian […]

THAT'S NO MOON THAT'S A SP- Wait. Hang on. Ok yes, yes aaah ok Alright folks nothing to see here turns out it IS a moon. All good, we aren't about to be zapped by a technogical monstrosity. The #HarvestMoon rises out of the clouds in the skies above […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

The politics of drawing a moral line: When we need to call out racism for what it is open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

What do distant observers see when they look at Earth? If a distant observer takes a look back at Earth, what would they see? They'd see a more primitive version of our planet, of course, and beyond a certain distance, no Earth at all. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #Earth

Spending the afternoon at the #iet - delighted to see this! Read more about her at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/07/book-review-problems-have-no-sex-caroline-haslett-1949/

Well. Aren't those 'comedians' doing a gig in Saudi Arabia a lovely bunch of people eh. Erudite. Thoughtful. Holding a mirror up to our souls via the medium of insightful humour. /s

#ukpolitics (alert I guess) Supporting racist policies DOES make you a racist. Speaking as a white bloke, we white folks really don't like to tell other white folks that they've gone and done a racist. This, sadly extends to triangulating politicians such as our Chancellor. &, just to say it […]

Eemnesserweg #silentsunday #gooi #photography

'Rather than addressing the fundamental problems with existing verification systems, the Britcard threatens to digitise and amplify the very hostile environment policies that created these problems in the first place' blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

Free software people I am begging you to stop naming your software

It's a glorious Saturday night in the mountains of southern New Mexico. The Milky Way stretches from horizon to horizon. Cygnus the swan is at the zenith. (North is left) First photo is a circular fisheye. It's field of view is greater than 180 degrees […] [Original post on universeodon.com]

The #Apple #liquidglass camera app is SO terrible! Utter usability failure. All that R&D on sensors & software & it's not practically useable to do anything other than point & click. The user journeys are awful. Cinematic mode - HDres 30fps cant be changed - just blocks the view There's a […]

OMG!!! iOS26 is TERRIBLE! I've had to change my background, and turn on a bunch of accesibility features - all cos I like dark mode. Soent 5 mins making the TIME on the home/lock screen vaguely usable And the pin lock is broken in dark mode - black numerals on a dark grey circular background […]

You remember the iconic picture of a black hole from the @ehtelescope? Now there are three - a mini-movie so to speak. The structure of magnetic fields changes, the brightness wobbles, but the ring remains rock solid. That seals the case for it being a black […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

It’s not a lawsuit. It’s a threat and an attack on the systems that enable any sort of democracy to function, however imperfectly. It’s also a test.

Were Saint George to come to England he would be refused. He was born in Turkey, his mother came from Palestine and his father was of Syrian origin. His flag has nevertheless been appropriated by the English hooligan fraternity.

When you interview a #warCriminal, this is how you introduce him. Congrats to Chatham House Director Bronwen Maddox for not whitewashing Isaac #Herzog, the President of #Israel. Herzog is a prominent advocate of #genocide in #Gaza. Video from […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]

As face eating Leopards being shocked storys go, this one is a real doozy. He's shocked! Shocked!!! to discover the truth about the guy he kept in power. https://universeodon.com/@georgetakei/115153110473727744

Russia didn't accidently enter Polish airspace with drones. They PEN tested it. 20 drones 4 shot down Draw your own conclusions about what that means.

Nick Clegg former leader of the UK Liberal Democrats; former UK deputy PM and highly paid communications shill for Facebook/Meta has written a book about fixing the Internet. You have been warned. Given that apparently it repeats Meta talking points, you might reasonably wonder whether he's […]

This is such positive, powerful, direct communication. The fact that this seems so remarkable and so rare speaks volumes about our failure to stand up to the fossil fuel lobby.

So help me, I laughed #shitpost #meme #distractedboyfriend

I think I'm getting a very faint diffuse purole glow of #aurora on the northern horizon here in north oxfordshire. Photographically only. No visual.

Currently a rather decent geomagnetic storm going above tbe UK. Of course it is cloudy and raining where I am. Hopefully the space storm keeps on going, whilst the earth conditions improve a bunch!

Terrible picture, but there's a purple patch just out of the light pollution. A hint of ray structure. Straight off the Samsung s23 ultra. It's real, because it's coming and going as I take pictures. Autumn #aurora season has begun! Also 51 degs north people...

Ok UK people I can see #aurora on my ohone camera NOW (22.32 BST) from north Oxfordshire. Purple against the sky glow, a bit of diffuse structure.

Right then the results of last nights #astrophotography efforts, pulling galactic core Messier objects out of the light pollution and general low altitude murk here in the UK. 1/n

This is the setup. See the 'V' between tbe tree and roof of the garage? The lagoon ads trifid nebula are there, hiding in the light pollution. By comparison, the swan nebula and a saggitarius starcloud sgould be a doddle! 10 degrees further up in the sky. #Astronomy #astrophotography #seestars50

Wish me luck. I'm going for the Lagoon / Swan & Triffid Nebula tonight. I've got clear skies, rain has taken out the dust & haze & i reckon I've got a 20ish degree gap in the trees where I might bag them. But they are low in the sky here & dropping all the time, so its goint to be tricky. I've […]

Compelling summary of the reality and consequences of America's slow-motion (but accelerating) social and economic self-destruction: https://sjgenco.medium.com/riding-the-trump-train-to-the-end-of-the-american-line-74a4ff0173e8 It will take generations to repair the damage even if the will is […]

Well great. #COVID Again. 3rd time. And I'm awake and miserable at 4AM.

"Are asylum seekers the biggest political issue in Britain?" Asks radio 4. "We interview man who is determined to make it the biggest issue in Britain. And make it a headline every morning until it definitely is"

The Dumbell Nebula M27 under some pretty poor viewing conditions ( nasty annoying hazy cloud layers that came and went) via the #seestars50 #astrophotography

#climatediary time on this UK bankholiday Monday where once again the temperature here in rural North Oxfordshire has just ticked past 30 deg C Year to date we've had 18 days where it's been 30 degrees or above. 57 days where it has been 25 degrees or above (YTD, may add a couple to this this […]

morning read

I see N*ck Cl*gg is attempting to rehabilitate his ruined image in The Guardian this morning. Nobody should fall for any of that nonsense.

Yeah… I got a bit emotional watching this emerge on screen as my #SeestarS50 began to capture photons. I’ve seen the star cluster in M16, and once a few years back on an exceptional summers night of seeing, I got a hint of nebulosity. But this was always THAT […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Got 60 mins of imaging of The Western Veil Nebula last night. #SeestarS50 in EQ mode ( really very impressive!) nothing fancy in the processing, just a bit of tweaking using the Seestar app. This was done in mosaic mode to expand the field of view […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Status: Observing for the 1st time in ages! Going after the western Veil Nebula, which I've only seen once through a scope. For some reason just camt pull it out with the OIII filter I have. #seestaes50 doing a grand job. In EQ mode for 1st time as well. #astrophotography

The fig harvest at our place is really getting going. We've been pulling ripe figs off the tree for over two weeks now. Why is that unusual? Because this fig tree lives in the UK. Oxfordshire. Usually one might get lucky and get a few figs ripe enough by late […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Right then #alienearth ... Very very VERY good indeed. Westworld Season 1 good so far. I was not expecting it to be anything like as good as the 1st 2 episodes. And for us Brits of a certain age... It's got Vyvyan from The Young Ones in it.

If you can't spot a pretext when it's telling you that emails need to be deleted to (checks notes... save water?! WTF?! SERIOUSLY?!), then you really are in a very very bad place indeed. And 'you' is the 4th estate* and related 'thought leaders' here. *Around the world

Terrible conditions here in Oxfordshire for trying to spot any #Persieds It's very very hazy indeed. I think it might be smoke from the Canada wildfires. That plus the full moon and there's not much dark sky at all alas. Hope others have better luck.

If you can't spot a pretext when it's sending in the National Guard and taking control of the police, then you really are in a very very bad place indeed. And 'you' is the 4th estate* and related 'thought leaders' here. *Around the world

Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning. Godspeed Jim Lovell. RIP Astronaut Jim Lovell, who led Apollo 13 moon mission, dies age 97 | ITV News https://www.itv.com/news/2025-08-08/astronaut-jim-lovell-who-led-apollo-13-moon-mission-dies-age-97

I read it as Lemmy was going to host JD Vance here in the UK... I mean I know he's dead an all, but still it would be a brilliant image right? Nope. It's Lammy who is going to host the US VP.

This is a really fascinating paper on a systematic search for #dysonspheres using the large galaxy survey data thats available. The results are very interesting indeed. #Astronomy No it's not proof of advanced Alien civilisations. But it looks like a neat bit of survey work at least to these […]

*Half-a-dozen Dyson Spheres just kinda wandering around out there https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/531/1/695/7665761