Today is perihelion, when the Earth is closest to the sun. It's also full moon, and the moon is closer than usual to the Earth. So enjoy the moonlight!

We made snow gnomes! It was a lot easier than I would have imagined. There is a #Canadian community snow sculptor named Matt Morris who has a website with amazing photos of his sculptures (I particularly like "two feet of snow"), as well as instructions on […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

I saw this in my parents fridge shortly after Christmas dinner 😂

Call for abstracts to the Nighttime Lights Remote Sensing session at EARSeL next year: https://athens2026.earsel.org/?page_id=544 #RemoteSensing #night #earsel2026

#poland Institute of Eastern Studies (OSW) published a very interesting report on national security threats introduced by “smart cars”… from the perspective of #China - the report is now published in Polish, the English version usually follows, so I will just translate short excerpts - it’s just […]

"In Finland, tax records are considered public data, and every November, the tax authorities release a dataset to the media containing the incomes earned and taxes paid by Finland’s richest." "At the top spot this year was Mikko ”Miki” Kuusi, founder of food delivery company Wolt and CEO of […]

My colleagues at RUB are hiring: https://jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/bf037807b6379441c39af8038b8c6b7cf1711fa90 It's mainly a teaching position, and although the ad is in German, German fluency isn't required. #geography #geographyjobs #academicjobs

Polar bear adoption 🥰 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/polar-bear-cub-adopted-churchill-9.7019054

The Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237) is a vast star-forming region about 5,000 light-years away in Monoceros. Glowing hydrogen gas is sculpted by radiation from young stars, while dark dust marks where future stars may still form. Captured where astronomy meets fine art. 🌌 […]

RE: https://fediscience.org/@skyglowberlin/115731173575423854 Berlin, Köln, und Frankfurt bei #nacht von Internationale #Raumstation.

Oh wow! Check out these awesome photos of Cologne, Frankfurt, and Berlin taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station on September 12! Berlin: https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/photo.pl?mission=ISS073&roll=E&frame=659310 Cologne […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

This looks like an interesting new paper: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.72624 It suggests that #Daphnia in urban lakes have evolved in response to #LightPollution. It would be great to see if this effect can be replicated in Europe and North America, and tested along a gradient.

2.8 Days to Disaster - Why We Are Running Out of Time in Low Earth Orbit https://www.universetoday.com/articles/28-days-to-disaster-why-we-are-running-out-of-time-in-low-earth-orbit

Trying to download a satellite image and for some reason I'm only getting dial up speed (~10 kb/s) 🥱

Reasonably sure Mastodon peeps like libraries and might like a peek at this wowzer I stepped into today. #dascdmx

Wooo it's up! New paper alert! I will write a summary thread about this paper tomorrow morning when I'm not quite as mentally exhausted! "An Orbital House of Cards: Frequent Megaconstellation Close Conjunctions" by Thiele, Heiland, Boley, & Lawler https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09643 Not […]

#Orion is a-rising you can see his stars a-blazing in the middle of the clear-eyed Bochum sky Like right now. Look up! (And for all the #Canadians of a certain age out there... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEuOalGvLdg&list=RDKEuOalGvLdg) #lightpollution #Music

Orion is arising you can see his stars ablazing in the middle of the clear-eyed Bochum sky Like right now. Look up! (And for all the Canadians of a certain age out there... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEuOalGvLdg&list=RDKEuOalGvLdg)

Nighttime lights from #Sentinel2 #RemoteSensing #esa

A major #flood event is underway in the Pacific Northwest. A few rivers in Western Washington will break records this week due to the #atmosphericriver with several others in the region to reach moderate to major flood. Even the Yakima River East of the Cascades is forecast to flood. #WaWx #OrWx

One of the fun things about working at a German University is that when someone schedules something at 14:00, no one is sure whether it starts at 14:00 or 14:15. It turns out this one was 14:00, good that I made it on time.

EMAIL WRAPPED 2025 This year, you received too fucking much email! Number of emails that found you well: zero Number of emails that you printed, even though you didn't consider the environment: zero Number of times an "out of office" autoresponder was immediately followed by the person […]

Attention #Curling fans!

I may have gotten a little carried away with this project, but let me tell you, this has been the absolute most delightfully satisfying thing ever to knit while sitting in on awful Zoom meetings! (Pattern here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fuck-dishcloth-2)

Big news: Deutsche Welle has launched DW Access, an Android app that delivers independent news where it's needed most: in regions under information lockdown. Key features: ➡️ No app store needed (share via link, messenger, bluetooth) ➡️ Offline mode ➡️ Built-in VPN protection ➡️ Zero […]

This is blowing up a bit: not trying to scare you all! There is a *gigantic* set of sunspots coming around the limb of the sun, comparable in size to the sunspots sketched by Carrington. They may or may not send some plasma our way. There is also a minor aurora event predicted for 2 days from […]

I played a part in a biology experiment 😃 A student placed European dung beetles in a circular arena in the URANIA-Planetarium in Potsdam, and recorded the paths they walked under four different light conditions (no stars, stars, stars + Milky Way, and the […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

"The Bundeswehr is now investigating, with the help of local police, who could be behind the theft." https://www.dw.com/en/germany-2000-rounds-of-munition-stolen-from-bundeswehr/a-74980088

Sentinel 2 will be taking nighttime acquisitions TONIGHT, and the level 1B data will be available for TWO WEEKS ONLY following the acquisition: https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/-/sentinel-2-nighttime-imaging-campaign #RemoteSensing #nighttimelights #nightlight #lightpollution #Sentinel2

I just got home and my 15 y.o. was in his room with the door closed, so I yelled out "hi". He opened the door and yelled back grumpily "Dad! I'm in a video call!" #catsinthecradle

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Viss/115628707340237803 All work and no play...

My family and I play a lot of games. When I saw this in a store, I was like "whoah, that's a REALLY WEIRD name for that game." And then after a bit, I realized that the store I was in a pharmacy and it wasn't actually a game 😂 But... doesn't it look like a game?

This is such a great way to both cut #lightpollution and save energy. (English in alt text) #sustainability

Big ESA news: ▶️ https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Corporate_news/ESA_Member_States_commit_to_largest_contributions_at_Ministerial #Astrodon #space

One light day seems like not a big deal, but it is! Yay science! #science #space #spacetravel https://scienceclock.com/voyager-1-is-about-to-reach-one-light-day-from-earth/

"One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss" https://grist.org/biking/one-mile-on-a-bike-is-a-42-economic-gain-to-society-one-mile-driving-is-a-20-loss/ When we make it easier and more enjoyable for people to cycle, we support public health and the […]

"By 2025, Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6% to 8%, with the impact accumulating gradually over time. We estimate that investment was reduced by between 12% and 18%, employment by 3% to 4% and productivity by 3% to 4%" Read the Stanford report: siepr.stanford.edu/publications...

Note to all job applicants everywhere: if you get a large language model to write your cover letter for you based on the job offer text, then you will sound almost exactly like all the other applicants who got an LLM to write their cover letter.

This story should be covered waaaaayy more than it is. The US has sanctioned six judges if the international criminal court ICC, because Trump didn’t like them issuing arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant. www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

I had well over 50 applicants for my PhD position, thanks to everyone who shared the ad! Unfortunately, now it is going to be a very tough job to choose just one person! (Also unfortunately, cover letters are now a disaster thanks to Chat GPT and it's ilk. It's amazing how many applicant's […]

[Astronomy Picture of the Day - Dione and Rhea Ring Transit] “ Image Credit & Copyright: Christopher Go The remarkable image was recorded on November 20, when Saturn's rings were nearly edge-on when viewed from planet Earth. In fact, every 13 to 16 years the view […] [Original post on gluck.cc]

Imagine a commodity that you could buy and sell which literally wasn't anything. It's called "SPEC", and its only purpose is for is speculating on whether SPEC will go up or down. Basically bitcoin but without blockchain, and not as easy to use for crime. Twenty years ago I would have said that […]

🏅4383g Schmelzkohlrabi 😋 #solawi

The season might be coming to an end, but our farm share is still going VERY strong. #kohlrabi

I'm very pleased with this observation of the light curve of the asteroid Eros that I took a few nights ago. It rotates with a period of about 5 hours, so it gets (slightly) brighter and darker over time if you observe it long enough. Lots of things about […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Tesla shareholders approved a pay package for ERM that is worth up to 1 TRILLION dollars. A key requirement for him to get this level of compensation is that the profit generated from the workforce of the entire company generates is at least 400 BILLION dollars. Are Tesla shareholders ok? […]

There are now 250 Dark Sky Places around the world certified by DarkSky International (formerly IDA)! https://darksky.org/news/250-international-dark-sky-places-2/ To be certified, a place doesn't only need to have a certain level of sky quality - much more […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

The World Bank’s latest data shows a quiet global triumph: 93% of people aged 15 to 24 can now read and write, up from 87% in 2000. In many regions, including East Asia, Latin America, and Central Europe, youth literacy has reached or neared universal levels, marking one of the most successful […]