Happy 40 Years of Chernobyl, everyone… My old colleague @adamhigginbotham.bsky.social fills me in on the untold side of the world’s worst-ever accident. ☢️

Screenshot of a Twitter exchange in which user @kimerrikin notes that the city of Lynchburg VA declared April 7 2008 to be Leland Melvin Day, and Leland Melvin (@Astro_Flow) thanking them for reminding him.

Happy Leland Melvin day to all who celebrate. 💚

Lunar Flyby - NASA

Oh this is great: there’s now an #Artemis II Lunar Flyby Gallery on the NASA images site: www.nasa.gov/gallery/luna... (thx @dpmanchee.bsky.social for pointing it out)

Thank-you!

You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch

This quote from Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell has been in my head the last few days

When the spaceship is performing even better than planned 💅🏼

Garrett had me from the 1st sentence:

“I didn’t begin this week thinking I would be writing about the Iran War, Chuck Norris, and Kid Rock, but one of the “joys” of living through the Trump era is that every week seems like the worst game of Mad Libs you’ve ever played.”

View from Artemis II today. Crescent Earth. A view humans haven't captured since 1972.

I don't need a summary of what's available online, in biographies, or even in my own notes. I need to comb through and find the great details, decide what interests ME. No, it's not efficient. It's slow and painstaking. But I don't believe in efficiency as an ultimate good, especially in writing. /

Headline writers crossing all their fingers that whatever Scott Mills did it was dark and satanic

Glen Baxter obituary: absurdist illustrator Yorkshire-born artist and writer known for his quirky and original cartoons of cowboys, gangsters, schoolchildren and explorers dies aged 82

This is such sad news. I only met Glen Baxter once, at a literary festival in Montpellier. (He was hugely popular in France.) I can only say he was one of the funniest, warmest, most charming geniuses I've ever met.

I have physics-related questions.

Len Deighton, writer, 1929-2026 He reframed the spy novel genre with gritty cold-war thrillers but possessed an extraordinary range of talents, from graphic designer to historian

‘Le Carré, driven by personal demons kept writing into his late 80s; Frederick Forsyth maintained his lucrative franchise. Deighton simply walked away into hobbies: fountain pen engineering, unpublished histories of aero engines, flying planes & cooking and living well.’ ❤️
www.ft.com/content/32e4...

RIP Len Deighton:

“When I started writing I had rules. One was that violence must not solve the problem, and I cannot have the hero overcome violence with a counterweight of violence.”

He also worked as an illustrator for six years, including a Penguin Iris Murdoch & a Deutsch Jack Kerouac

“But, as you see, it's a beautiful day, the Strait of Hormuz is open and people are having a wonderful time.”

SHOULD THE U.S BLOT OUT THE SUN AND USHER IN AN AGE OF ETERNAL DARKNESS? - Gallup 2/20/26-3/5/26

NO - 41%
YES - 38%
UNSURE - 21%

C’mon, people. Look at your Kremlin style guide. The phrase is “special military operation.” Not all of you are getting this right.

Another year, another plea for help from someone whose work is the basis for a $200m blockbuster movie.

Thanks, Chris! As for the sax—I really don’t know, although the problem was clearly with taking it into orbit (the weight and space restrictions were extraordinarily tight) rather than playing it

medical miracle: this 75 year old man was born yesterday

Exclusive: White House uses USAID funds for budget director Vought's security, documents show The White House budget office is using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought, President Donald Trump's budget chief and an archit...

This man is a thief, coward and hypocrite. He argues the U.S. can't afford to protect workers from scammy corporations through the CFPB, but it CAN afford to pay millions and millions robbed from three different agencies to pay for his imperial guard. #stopvought

www.reuters.com/world/us/whi...

Jen Stout · Short Cuts: Winter in Kyiv The 9 January attack, which left six thousand Kyiv housing blocks without heating, was far from the first Russian...

‘The destruction of thermal power plants, as well as substations and the distribution network, which has taken place throughout this winter has now coincided with the coldest weather Ukraine has had in years, with temperatures dropping below -20ºC.’

Jen Stout in Kyiv.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick

Was driving my kids to school and the first thing on the radio was reporting about Trump's video depicting the Obamas as apes and I think many people still don't fully appreciate what it means to have to raise Black children in a country where the president is so brazenly and consistently racist

Is this what the advice"dress for the job you want" gets you when the job you want is paramilitary death squad? 😬

The nominal subject of this painting by Albrecht Altdorfer is the tiny St George and the Dragon in the foreground, but the real hero is the dense, restless forest where every leaf seems charged with energy (1510, Pinakothek, Munich)

X is hiring a creative writing specialist at $40 an hour to make Grok better at writing and a true LOL at the qualifications

The arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are a test for every MSM member with a platform. If you are not voicing your outrage at this blatant violation of the First Amendment, you are utterly discredited as a journalist.