Awesome photo!

Venus isn’t just our nearest planetary neighbor. It’s one of the best tests we have for how rocky worlds diverge. If we want to understand habitability, climate evolution, and Earth-size exoplanets, we need the full Venus story.

💔😰

Not really, as zoom doesn't have asynchronous chat features for building discussion during the week outside the talks. Just having the talk online and on-site with some Q&A is quite easy, but we'd like opportunities to chat during the week.

Favourite conference platform for hybrid meetings? 🔭

I really want the talks streamed into the platform, rather than a separate Zoom, to keep everyone together for discussion.

Budget is uncertain, so we considered "Discord", but the new age verification (needed for "stage") could be a barrier.

Oh that’s great!

A pair of slip-on light trainers with a pattern of brightly coloured cartoon drawn cats on a white background.

I have found THE MOST amazing shoes 🐈 🐈‍⬛.

(They’re slip-on sketchers—good for Japan where you are always taking your shoes off—and legit comfortable.)

It looked more legit than the scam conference sites I also get sent. And the person (when challenged) apologised and said that yes, this was a paid publicity opportunity. So… maybe legit and just badly introduced? But there also seemed no opportunity to check they’d do their job so…

Received an email inviting me to submit a “virtual feature” for a writers’ convention.

After MANY messages, I realised that I’d be paying to be the content which seems… bold… and opposite to most events.

I guess this is a paid advert but DUDE! Next time lead with “surprise, you’re the sponsor.”

Screenshot Lucavi @lucavi_ftw good news everyone SPACE com Potatoes are better than human blood for making space concrete bricks, scientists say.

Were

Were those the only two options

There’s a lot of people at the medical clinic this morning and they all seem to know each other 🧐

Was there a giant party last week in which everyone got Covid?

… might stand outside 😅

A black and white cat is lying over the threshold to a room, with his front paws inside the room while the back paws are outside.

#CasperCat has two paws in the same room as me. YOU DID MISS ME! 😹

A photograph showing a calico cat sitting across my shoulder (just visible in the photo) and a black and white cat watching with less enthusiasm from the kitchen.

The enthusiasm to my return is not… evenly… distributed 😹 #NorahNeko #CasperCat

Hence "default" in fact...

I had a DEXA scan today that cost the princely sum of 450 yen. The CD of the bone density data cost 2200 yen 🧐

Total sum is obviously small, but amusing that the high-tech scan is charged at far less than the early 2000s-era merch 😂

The image of the photograph taken by SORA-Q of the SLIM lunar lander. The lander has nose dived into the Moon!

SORA-Q travelled to the Moon with the JAXA SLIM mission, which successfully demonstrated pin-point precision landing. However, due to the failure of one of the main engines, the spacecraft turned to land (quite gently) on its nose. We’re 100% sure of this, because SORA-Q took this photo!

A display of a small cyclindeicsl robotic rover mounted on a thin stand. There’s a information board at its base showing the photograph the rover took of the SLIM spacecraft when it landed.

The asteroid Ryugu grain isn’t the only space artifact from Japan on display at the UK Science Museum. This is a prototype of the SORA-Q lunar rover that was developed by JAXA in collaboration with the transformer toy company, Takura Tomy! I have a toy one in my office but it’s just so damn cute 😍

A pigeon sits on a concrete wall beside the river Thames, looking at the boat traffic.

It’s judging time for this London pigeon.

That is a very cute holder.

Thursday. We're on final approach to Friday, then the weekend has landed.

I never dare take those for fear it’ll make be question my job ability 😂

The display stand at the London Science Museum. Two information boards describe the importance of asteroid samples and highlight the work of Professor Sara Russell, who is a British researcher studying the Ryugu samples.

A close up of the display. The asteroid grain is sealed in a resin disc and a sliding magnifying glass can be used to take a closer look.

The same scene but with the magnfiying glass slid up over the resin disc containing the grain.

The new display of a grain from asteroid Ryugu, returned by the JAXA Hayabusa2 mission 🛰️, has opened at the London Science Museum! 🧪 The display has a sliding magnifying glass to easily zoom up on the grain 🔭. I felt it works better than with the grain permenantly under a magnifying camera or lens.

Overheard in London:

Kid: we’ve already been on… one… train!

Mother: Yes, and now we’re getting on another.

Friends, this kid’s mind has been utterly blown.

Me: You should trust the professional (human) care services and go on holiday!

Mum: You have professional care for your cats and still set up four cameras, check them constantly, and panic if a food bowl looks 2% empty.

Me (mumbling): …but I did go on holiday… 😒

Yes!! You can get baked Japanese sweet potatoes in Japan, but not regular potatoes big enough to bake.

A screenshot taken in the virtual reality game, Walkabout Mini Golf by Mighty Coconut. It’s a theme park with a fairytale theme that has been long abandoned and is very creepy.

This is the “forgotten fairyland” VR @walkaboutminigolf.bsky.social course. The wind is howling, the rides are broken, stalls are overturned, and the coconut stall is called “dump a humpty”. Finding this fairyland was a terrible mistake. We naturally played minigolf.

A packet of fourbacked potatoes from Sainsbury’s.

The resultant baked potato, covered in baked beans and cheese.

Is it absolutely ridiculous to buy frozen baked potatoes?

Yes.

Are they delicious and perfectly cooked after five minutes in the microwave?

Also yes.

Received a package via Evri with the requisite email showing a photo of the parcel at delivery.

…that photo showed the parcel in the delivery person’s car chilling next to their kid like it was on a day out.

And I gained a new appreciation for people who follow orders without ever asking… why.

Adorable prisoners.

A duck with its head underwater and tail feathers pointing upwards searches for a snack in a river.

Bottoms up! 🦆