Das moderne Schach hat seinen Ursprung übrigens in Persien.

The roots of modern chess lie in Persia. Not sure why I remembered that today...

Here is a nice plot of solar cycle 24 and 25 (so far): solen.info/solar/images...

The steep drop after 2009 corresponds to solar maximum 24. it is followed by a plateau during the solar minimum and the drop it is Expertengruppe right now is solar maximum 25 - one of the more active ones.

Although looking at the graph maybe it was just part of a particularly steep natural decay at the time...

Well spotted! I just read up on it and indeed it reboosted Hubble by about 20 km. But I still don't quite understand the initial drop.

I mean "nice" purely as in "nice data" – the demise of Hubble is the opposite of nice of course.

Nice! You can see the last orbit raising manoeuvres in the 1990s and clearly make out the solar cycle with the decay more rapid during solar maxima. What happened 2002? Is that a blip in the data?

The Fix Is In: Lutnick Family To Make Killing On Tariff Demise Almost every article on today’s tariff decision includes, somewhere two or three...

CORRUPTION WATCH: The family of Commerce Secy Lutnick now gets pay outs of tens of billions or more in tariff refunds.

The Fix Is In: Lutnick Family To Make Killing On Tariff Demise talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-f...

And their VP comes over to Europe and lectures us about free speech. It's beyond parody.

No lockdowns in 2019 or 2024 which are the two years compared here.

Fantastic to see #Ukraine

Re phone os: my next phone will be a fairphone with e/OS. I've done a lot of reading into it and it seems a really user friendly alternative.

Wow.

From the memorable to the meme-able, here are nine moments to remember from this year's Munich Security Conference 👇

🔗 www.politico.eu/article/muni...

#MSC2026

Which head of state will he abduct in revenge?

Scene is a spoof TV news item. The NEWSREADER is talking to camera from behind the desk. NEWSREADER: Now, here to discuss the smartphone ban in schools… We have with us, YouTube Shorts. [Pull back to show an anthropomorphised version of the YOUTUBE SHORTS screen, sat in the interviewee's chair across from the newsreader] NEWSREADER: Good morning. YOUTUBE SHORTS: Hi NEWSREADER: You Tube Shorts, you work in education... YOUTUBE SHORTS: Yes. I work in schools across the country teaching Epic Dance Fail, Try Not To Cringe Challenge and Al Slop. NEWSREADER: And will the proposed phone ban limit your ability to do your job? YOUTUBE SHORTS: No. I'll still be on all school laptops because YouTube is vaguely educational and Google have made me impossible to turn off. NEWSREADER: So children are being asked to do their homework on... ...the most advanced distraction machine ever created? YOUTUBE SHORTS: Well- I think a more constructive way to frame that question might be: Can IShowSpeed jump over a moving Lamborghini? [The newsreader silently looks at the screen on YOUTUBE SHORTS's front, where a YouTuber jumps over a Lamborghini. This continues for an awkward beat] NEWSREADER: Woah. NEWSREADER [returning to awareness]: What were we talking about? YOUTUBE SHORTS [pointing at the next Short which has appeared on its own front]: Look at this fat dog. [ends]

I like the govt's plan to ban smartphones and social media in schools but nobody's mentioned the glaring hole in it

Trump says Republicans 'should take over the voting' and 'nationalise' US elections American elections are primarily run by state law, and voting is administered by local officials across the country.

Trump says Republicans 'should take over the voting' and 'nationalise' US elections

"I don't do politics" Because the news upsets me. Because I'm trying to "keep things positive!" Because it's bad for my mental health. Because I don't have time. Because I don't have energy. Because I don't want to offend you. Because it doesn't affect me. Because I have enough on my plate. Because I can see them coming, outside my window, I can see them coming, but they're not coming for me. Alex Dawson

♥️

MELANIA is so bad they had to release the Epstein files to distract from the reviews.

Imagine where we could be now if we didn't have to fight fascists every day.

British.

Die #Klimakrise in der öffentlichen Debatte: Wir kennen die Fakten & Lösungen, jetzt braucht es entschlossenes Handeln, so PIK-Forscher @rahmstorf.bsky.social in einem Vortrag. Er spricht über #Extremwetter, die "Hockeyschläger-Kurve", Klimawandelleugner & mehr.👇
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR4n...

I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work.

I don’t let bullies win.

Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong.

I grew up with Alex Pretti The kind-hearted ICU nurse shot by ICE agents was my childhood best friend.

I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com

EXCLUSIVE: Relying on foreign tech "can be weaponized against us," the European Commission's tech czar Henna Virkkunen told us in an interview at our #EUdigitalRace event today.

Read the full story: www.politico.eu/article/henn...

Great news! I want to use the opportunity to plug @proton.me to replace Google services with a great European (Swiss) solution. Proton offers mail, calendar, cloud storage, password safe, authenticator and VPN plus more.

I switched to @proton.me this year for email, calendar, cloud storage, VPN and other services. Highly recommended!

3) We cannot afford not to. The first weeks of this year have shown that we cannot be dependent on the US anymore in any way. The current US administration is not our friends and they will weaponise any dependency.

2) Many European services have much higher standards of ethics, privacy and data protection than the American industry giants.