“Seeking is the nature of wisdom.” (Rick Riordan, The Battle of the Labyrinth)
Rika Smith
@iamrikasmith.bsky.social
BSc STEM Astrophysics #OpenUniversity #OUWales BSc computer science (current) #OU #OUfamily Married to my soul mate, mother. Electric car driver. 95% Irish DNA, from Glasgow living in South Wales
Just had a lovely evening at a @humanists.uk event, where the ace @jimalkhalili.bsky.social was interviewing the excellent @profaliceroberts.bsky.social . Given the frenetic nature of the news & the world at the moment, a dose of reason, science and nuanced debate was very welcome. More of that!
Stop what you’re doing and read this whistleblower report. ICE has been training its agents that they don’t need a judicial warrant to break down your door - a blatant violation of the 4th Amendment. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
DHS ICE memo 1-21-26
documentcloud.org
This video filmed by Ben Luhmann shows the moment a federal agent sprayed chemical irritants directly into a man's face in south Minneapolis. Three agents already had the man pinned to the ground when a fourth agent walked up and sprayed the irritants.
BREAKING: Immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, a memo obtained by AP says.
Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge's warrant, memo says
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press reveals that the agency allows immigration officers to forcibly enter homes to make arrests without a judicial warrant.
bit.ly
Whistleblowers just shared a memo showing DHS instructing ICE to force their way into peoples' houses without a proper warrant. Why is this not on all the networks right now? This is a criminal conspiracy to violate rights under color of law.
TODAY on #MSNOW: 10am-2pm/EST 7am-11am/PST-Jack Smith Finally Testifies to Congress about when our Presidementia incited an insurrection at the Capitol to steal a free & fair election & when he stole Top-Secret Gov't Documents & stored them in his bathroom. Y'know... many, many, MANY crimes ago.
A very exciting new result from @alexji.bsky.social: the discovery of a star with the lowest measured abundance of non-primordial elements anywhere in the Universe, including those JWST is observing in the infant cosmos. It seems to have come from the Large Magellanic Cloud. 🧪
A nearly pristine star from the Large Magellanic Cloud
The first stars formed out of pristine gas, causing them to be so massive that none are expected to have survived until today. If their direct descendants were sufficiently low-mass stars, they could ...
arxiv.org
There have been 6 mass shootings in the USA over the past 24 hours. The casualty count stands at 41. Here’s the President of the United States of America.
#NASAWebb has found the first direct evidence of potential moon formation around a giant exoplanet. The discovery is shedding light on how such systems evolve and why moons could be potentially habitable worlds: https://bit.ly/46xGodN 🔭 🧪
Trump's UK state visit was just announced for 17 September. 💥💥💥 JOIN THE PROTEST! Let's make it absolutely massive. stoptrump.org.uk
Thanks to Lise Meitner, Heisenberg and Oppenheimer, this is where we are.
in late 2026, nearly 50 years after its launch, voyager 1 will be the first manmade object to reach a distance of one light day from the sun
💥 Big News in Human Origins! An #Ancient #Human #Ancestor first found nearly 100 years ago has been re-identified as #Denisovan thanks to DNA! Meet Homo longi—our mysterious cousin! 👉 worldofpaleoanthropology.org/2025/06/19/u... #PaleoAnth #DragonMan #PaleoPost
Unveiling the Dragon Man: A Breakthrough in Understanding Our Denisovan Ancestors
Imagine stumbling upon an ancient skull hidden deep within a well—a secret preserved for nearly a century, now poised to rewrite the entire story of human evolution. This remarkable discovery from …
worldofpaleoanthropology.org
What we learned yesterday. The Times They Are a-Changin'
(🧵) I’ve never—in 30 years in journalism—published a report like this: one that could genuinely bring hope. I spent the last 15 hours curating and labeling photos from hundreds of No Kings Day protests. It’s the largest archive of its kind and it has *lots* of Easter eggs (memes, an essay and more).
Over 250 Photos From Around the Nation and the World From the Historic “No Kings Day” Protests
Almost no one showed up to Donald Trump’s surprisingly timid, depressing, and generally lackluster birthday party in Washington, but protests against him were bursting at the seams across the globe.
sethabramson.substack.com
"This is what you get when you order your 79th birthday celebration from Temu, but didn't pay the tariffs."
Say it tall loud and proud! THERE ARE NO KINGS IN THE UNITED STATES 🇺🇸 OF AMERICA! None! And THERE NEVER WILL BE! #NoKings
Really wonderful to see @andrewcopson.bsky.social honoured with an OBE! Andrew has worked tirelessly with @humanists.uk to help voices of non-religious people (most of us in UK) to be heard - creating tangible impacts in policy, human rights and education. humanists.uk/2025/06/13/a...
Andrew Copson awarded OBE in first-ever UK award for ‘Services to the Non-Religious’
Humanists UK’s Chief Executive Andrew Copson has been awarded an OBE for ‘services to the non-religious’ in the UK national honours announced today. This is the first time an award has been made for s...
humanists.uk