Thanks for the encouragement, here's hoping!

I believe the timber is from plantations in the Carpathian Mountains. Lightweight spruce for the front, heavier maple for the back. I did notice the year 1999 was chalked on the spruce, so not ancient, but cut down the year I started uni, which feels like a really long time ago.

I am being wildly optimistic here that it is going to turn out well (but I think it will).

No, I am very bad at playing horizontal instruments! This will go to a family member. I only chose a viola rather than a violin because they all have enough violins already!

Yes, I accidentally discovered there was someone teaching 15 minutes from where I live. I’d like to do a cello as that’s my instrument, but thought I’d better start small & work my way up! I think I got a C for woodwork in school, & yet this has seemed very approachable so far, step by step.

Following Australia’s example of rushing it through and never mind an the evidence

Week 4. The viola ribs are trimmed, & planed down so instrument depth tapers from bottom to top. Linings are cut, bent (rescued by the teacher!) & glued. Next: begin shaping the back & the front of the instrument (I gather this stage takes a while 😅).

Iran blockades the straits in response to the United States blockading the straits in response to Iran blockading the straits. As we are now all in agreement there should be a blockade, I see no reason to why our two nations’ navies cannot cooperate in the blockade until we surrender to ourselves.

🤦‍♀️

Their products seem to be deteriorating before our eyes. Yesterday I tried to do something I have done many times - make a chart with a secondary axis. The outcome refused to match the preview, repeatedly, until I gave up.

Frontiers | New data on the sarcopterygian Koharalepis jarviki (Tetrapodomorpha; Canowindridae) from the Late Devonian of Antarctica, revealed via synchrotron and neutron tomography IntroductionThe ‘osteolepiforms’ are an extinct order of lobe-finned fishes that had a cosmopolitan distribution, which are often considered for their proxim...

Congratulations to Flinders PhD student Corinne @corinnemensforth.bsky.social and team on the latest paper describing new anatomical detail from the enigmatic #Devonian tetrapod-like fish, #Koharalepis from #Antarctica, revealed using #neutrons! Pew pew! www.frontiersin.org/journals/eco...

Roll on the federal challenge 🙏

#Taxonomy friends, I'm searching for generic revisions that include treatments without a nomenclatural act - e.g. a species listed for completeness with only a diagnosis + remarks. Anyone have good examples? #bugsky

Massive fire engulfs one of Australia’s last two oil refineries Multiple explosions were heard at the refinery, which provides 10 per cent of the nation’s fuel.

Call me suspicious but…

7news.com.au/news/massive...

Excellent!

ALP's rigging of Victoria donation laws "unconstitutional": High Court - The Klaxon The ALP’s rigging of Victoria’s political “donations” laws — in favour of the ALP and Coalition — is unconstitutional, finds High Court in unanimous decision.

🚨The ALP's rigging of Victorian "donations" laws – in favour of it and Coalition –– deemed unconstitutional in explosive, unanimous High Court decision.

Federally, the "anti-Independents" duopoly stitch-up is also before the courts. Massive ramifications...
theklaxon.com.au/labor-party-...

[P]

A large black and white dog sitting innocently on a coffee table

Stranger in the dog park: “Wow, your dog is really well trained!”

My dog: 👀

Defund, don’t debate – the playbook for silencing dissent The closure of the Grace Tame Foundation exposes a troubling pattern – dissent isn’t debated, it is defunded through pressure applied behind the scenes.

The closure of the Grace Tame Foundation raises a bigger question – when did disagreement become grounds for shutting someone down?
This isn’t about debate, but a pattern of pressure, defunding and quiet silencing, Sue Barrett writes.
#auspol #GraceTame #FreeSpeech #Accountability #Politics

It’s like Hungarians didn’t even *read* Hillbilly Elegy.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán concedes defeat after 'painful' election result, ending 16 years in power Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conceded defeat on Sunday after what he called a ″painful″ election result, ending 16 years in power.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conceded defeat on Sunday after what he called a ″painful″ election result, ending 16 years in power for a powerful figure in the far-right movement allied with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
https://to.pbs.org/4mq8m2R

Week 3. Starting to look like an actual viola-shaped thing! After an inauspicious start to rib-bending last time, today I smashed it (injury-free), & got the ribs all glued. Next time ready to start shaping the front & back of the instrument. 🎻

I’d never heard of cybernetics. Turns out it is to do with "circular causal and feedback mechanisms“ - so I guess this was just a career feedback loop. You are appointed practice professor with no academic quals, do some work, then they work backwards til you retrospectively merit academic status 🤷🏼‍♀️

😂

As a string instrument player it has always been excruciating watching actors miming playing an instrument. Now we get to cringe on a whole new level, as AI-generated characters embrace a cello several sizes too small, while their hands appear and disappear from existence. Make it stop 🤦‍♀️🎻

New guidance from @rspb.bsky.social, to take down bird feeders for the summer to stop the spread of disease. I stopped using feeders several years ago as I definitely wasn’t cleaning them enough and there are lots of greenfinches in the area www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"Former ANU vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell has been suspended from the university and accused of serious misconduct after allegedly making a close friend a full professor despite him having no university qualifications."

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/educati...

I just spend 5 minutes browsing a survival supplies website, and it felt like I was having someone else's psychosis 😳

Reckon you should get in touch with Twiggy Forrest. I don’t think he ticks the white supremacist box, but he’s half way there with the PowerPoint slides of brown folks fleeing the tropical latitudes under climate change.

“I didn’t punch him, your honour, I merely rapidly withdrew my fist from his face, repeatedly.”

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...