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Alan Boyle

@b0yle.bsky.social

Science editor / GeekWire / Universe Today / Cosmic Log / Fiction Science podcast / The Case for Pluto

927 Posts2061 Follower618 Folgt
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 11h ago

"Well you can't win them all on astronomy events" Heroic efforts by all the live-streamers on YT! Sad that there was nothing visible to see, but here's hoping @eso.org detected something. We wait with excitement for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images of the moon's new crater! 🔭

A picture of the moon, 7 minutes after impact with no visible plume
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 4d ago

"Will I be able to see the crash?" Probably not, but that doesn't mean friends in the Americas shouldn't try (daylight for those in Europe): look to the eastern limb of the Einstein crater. The @eso.org VLT will observe it & NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is taking before and after images! 🔭🧪🛰️

Just A Tinker 🟥🍁🟥@john-gardi.bsky.social · 21h ago

An Indian flagged ship just sank off Yemen, struck by an sea drone. Projecting a kinder, gentler terrorism, the Houthis then rescued all the ship's crew.🙄 Who needs a-bombs when 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨: ship, refinery, Wildberries warehouse, can be hit from air, land or sea with a drone the cost of a luxury sedan?

Indian vessel sinks after attack in Red Sea, 13 Indian sailors rescued

Thirteen Indian sailors were rescued after their cargo vessel, Faize Noore Oliya, sank following an attack in the Red Sea. Yemeni National Resistance Forces conducted the rescue operation near Hodeida...

ap7am.com

McSweeney's@mcsweeneys.net · yesterday

"He steals from the rich to give to the poor, which sounds generous until you learn what he steals. The people of Sherwood do not need six unmatched salt shakers, twenty-three hotel towels, or a bag of decorative seashells." buff.ly/VA5DpmF

Robin Hood, Prince of Compulsive and Pointless Theft

“He steals from the rich to give to the poor, which sounds generous until you learn what he steals. The people of Sherwood do not need six unmatched salt sha...

mcsweeneys.net

Kate Starbird@katestarbird.bsky.social · 3d ago

If you're curious about how the right is going to try to frame the horrific fires in Spokane Washington, it looks like they plan to blame them on homeless people, local (DEM) city leadership, and state (DEM) mismanagement of forests. So, many of the same frames as the LA fires.

Screenshot of a Facebook post by "Jim Walsh" posted 9 hours ago. The caption reads: "Still more weekend reading. From a woman in eastern WA. The silver lining to these disastrous fires: They may wake some 'I'm not political' people up to the real effects of bad public policy choices." The shared post below claims Spokane is being destroyed by massive fires, that the writer's house and neighborhood are gone, and blames Democrats for cutting firefighting funding and releasing "drug addicts and criminals" who they accuse (w/o evidence) of setting the fires. It ends "I'm now homeless in Spokane. I am numb." A diagonal red "Framing Contests" watermark is overlaid across the screenshot. The post shows 3.5K reactions, 1.2K comments, and 1K shares.
mtsw@mtsw.bsky.social · 3d ago

one of the many things about biden that pissed off our society's elites is that his administration had started - in a pretty small-bore and limited way - prosecuting the people who had defrauded the PPP program and that happens to include a huge % of small business tyrant types

Kirk Rudell@rudell.bsky.social · 3d ago

Shouldn’t be shocked at any lie RFK Jr tells, but he whined to Dana Bash that businesses were shut down during the pandemic “with no just compensation.” There was an almost trillion dollar PPP loan program, and his organization got millions from it, none of it paid back, to make payroll.

WATERKEEPER ALLIANCE .. Why is my loan information here? Loan Amount $521,012 Amount Forgiven $523,907 Includes any accrued interest Where applicants said the money will go Payroll $521,009 Utilities $1 Mortgage Interest $o Health Care $0 Rent $o Refinance EIDL $0 Debt Interest $0 Location New York, NY Urban Industry Environment, Conservation and Wildlife Organizations Date Approved Jan. 22, 2021 (Second Round) Lender HSBC Bank USA, National Association Jobs Reported 28 Business Type Corporation
Don Davis@ddavisspaceart.bsky.social · 2d ago

51 years ago I painted a trio of Viking related works for NASA HQ including the widely reproduced one of the landing on Mars. I have reimagined the Landing portrayal in updated form using digital methods of visualization and painting. I chose the same angle but with reality replacing anticipation.

This oil painting portrays the Viking 1 landing on Mars, which appeared in countless publications. The story of this work is relayed in an earlier post and is shown here for comparison with the new portrayal of this very view, showing the event as it would have appeared. This 1975 anticipatory painting was done with oils on a gesso smoothed 16 X 20 canvas panel, using traditional art methods including a tracing paper guide featured earlier. This work shows in retrospect my ideal of the 'spirit of space art', showing something of a summary of what is known of the subject while conveying what it is about the subject's known or theorized attributes that I find visually compelling. The new digital painting updates that visual impression with one based on our current knowledge. The new digital work was also done at the same size as this one was for possible printing purposes, 16 by 20 inches at 300 DPI. #Sciart In 1976 the pair of Viking spacecraft orbiter/lander combos were sent to Mars. Before Viking, Mars was still largely a place of our imaginations, an unknown that we wrote stories about then studied from Earth and space. The dominance of cratered terrain on the portions of Mars photographed by Mariners 4, 6 and 7 gave an initially Lunar impression of that world, which changed during the development of the Viking lander after Mariner 9 revealed the planet. The first landing was aimed for a flat flood plain, judged as a decent place to search for life. The landing date was July 4, however the intended site appeared too rough for comfort in the high quality orbiter photos, causing the landing to wisely be delayed. A smoother site further 'down stream' was found using photo and radar data. The landing proceeded quite nominally, a magnificent achievement that apparently accounted for what it had to and made it the first time. The first photo from the surface was a look at a footpad to see how solid the 'footing' appeared. Then a moderate resolution panorama of the surroundings was obtained, first showing the rocks, hills, dunes-and bright sky. The latter was my biggest surprise as a space artist. The adjustments to the color balance of the later photos were gradually narrowed down. The ubiquitous dust is planet wide, suspended in the air and coloring the sky a luminous tan ochre. This digital painting shows the view a meter above the surface seeing the lander briefly kicking up dust less than a second before touchdown with the footpads 1.4 meters high. The landing rockets were designed with many nozzles to disturb the surroundings as little as possible. The nearby disturbed dust resembles in color that of the sky. We are 6 meters away from the center of the lander. field of view is 60 degrees, we are looking Northwest with the Sun and Earth off the frame to the left. This is a digital art update of the pre mission oil painting I did for NASA HQ 1n 1975. #Sciart
Ryan J Hollister@phaneritic.bsky.social · 3d ago

Our flight from Seattle to Sacramento was delayed by a few hours last night, but we were rewarded with an epic sunset on Tahoma (Rainier) as it poked through the low stratus layer. The pastel peach backdrop was made possible by the horrific wildfire smoke from all the PNW fires.

Stratovolcanonpops out of clouds and is bathed in sunset warm peach glow.
Ed Zitron@edzitron.com · 4d ago

One of the (many) reasons I think people are so anti-AI is that it’s a gratuitous display of wealth inequality. The average person’s life is difficult, expensive, and getting any kind of loan sucks - unless you’re raising billions of dollars to build an AI data center.

Ed Zitron@edzitron.com · 5d ago

Was awesome to join Bloomberg to talk about the lie of AI - everyone's buying into the mag7 believing CapEx is going towards diverse AI demand, when all it's really doing is supporting the circular cloud revenues of two unprofitable, unsustainable AI labs. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHcZ...

Marc Elias@marcelias.bsky.social · 6d ago

🚨BREAKING: In a decisive win for voters, the Kansas Supreme Court rejected Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s (R) final emergency effort to revive a strict Election Day receipt deadline for mail-in ballots right before the state’s primary. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Kansas Supreme Court deals final blow to GOP bid to throw out late-arriving mail ballots

The ruling is a conclusive defeat for Schwab’s last-minute campaign to enforce a Republican-backed law that attempted to eliminate the grace period and required mail ballots to arrive on Election Day ...

democracydocket.com

Alan Boyle@b0yle.bsky.social · 6d ago

K2 Space is thinking big, with a focus on "mega-class" satellites and an engineering hub in Seattle (a.k.a. Satellite City). A newly announced $500 million funding round will let the California-based startup think even bigger. www.geekwire.com/2026/k2-spac...

K2 Space raises $500M to boost its drive to build big, powerful satellites

California-based satellite startup is working on multiple mega-projects, supported by an engineering hub set up in Seattle area.

geekwire.com

Alan Boyle@b0yle.bsky.social · 6d ago

Thanks to NASA's $30 billion #MoonBase initiative, Interlune and Vermeer are pivoting their partnership to focus on building lunar construction tools as well as mining precious helium-3 on the moon. www.geekwire.com/2026/interlu... H/T @interlune.bsky.social

Interlune builds on partnership with equipment company to lay the groundwork for moon infrastructure

Seattle lunar startup will collaborate with Iowa-based Vermeer to manufacture tools that can help NASA build a lunar outpost.

geekwire.com

Alan Boyle@b0yle.bsky.social · 7d ago

Sophia Space and Caltech have been granted a patent for an approach to orbital data centers that they say will get around one of the biggest technical challenges: how to get rid of the heat generated by thousands of AI data processing chips. www.geekwire.com/2026/sophia-...

AI plus IP: Sophia Space and Caltech secure a patent for orbital data centers that use passive cooling

Sophia Space's co-founder believes his company's modular architecture for data-crunching satellites will become the industry standard.

geekwire.com