The forgotten bright star - Theta Eridani as a millenary stellar transient observed by Hipparchus, Ptolemy and al-Sufi: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.30748 -> To Ancient Astronomers, #ThetaEridani Was Brighter For A Thousand Years - Now We Know Why: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/to-ancient-astronomers-theta-eridani-was-brighter-for-a-thousand-years-now-we-know-why
Amazon utilities - I’m not a huge fan of buying at Amazon these days, but right now the Prime Day sale is on in Australia and there are some bargains to be had if you need specific things. I recently found a couple utilities that are very helpful when shopping there:
- Knockoff (https://knockoff.shopping) – a browser extension that filters out all the fake brands. Can also hide Sponsored listings and flag or filter specific brands you nominate.
- camelcamelcamel (https://au.camelcamelcamel.com) – a website (and browser extension (https://au.camelcamelcamel.com/camelizer)) that gives you a price history for an Amazon item, so you can see if it’s a genuine discount or if they puffed up the price beforehand
Meta has launched a new AI image generator that allows anyone to create AI images with your Instagram photos. And if you have a public Instagram account, Meta automatically opted you in.
Here’s how to opt out: https://wapo.st/4ymzOnN
So, the FCC approved the deployment of one Reflect Orbital (RO) satellite, which will provide sunlight-on-demand to customers.
The dismissive way the FCC rejected over 1,600 public comments reads like typical rulings from MAGA judges.
Here are some highlights -
1. Ironically, the FCC finds the project to be in the public interest – based on inputs from RO but not the 1,600 comments from the public.
It’s only bragging wishcasting if it comes from Santa Clara Valley—otherwise, it’s just sparkling lies. Matt Scherer joined me and @alex to discuss the AI bubble and how we can avoid bailing out billionaires.
The NASA New Horizons team announced yesterday that the spacecraft safely woke up on June 23 from a 321‑day hibernation period that started on Aug 7, 2025.
During hibernation, the spacecraft continued collecting data from its instruments and sending a weekly beacon signal to Earth.
The spacecraft is now 9.58 billion km (8.87 light hours) from Earth , having traveled 390 million km since Aug 7 at an average speed of ~49,000 km/h.
https://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20260707
1/n
A once-in-a-lifetime shot — the moon perfectly framed by a rainbow.
[📸 Mark Ham / frugalbastard]
Absolutely infuriating that my hip pain went away the week after i restarted my daily five minutes of yoga. Truly life is a cascade of horrors
🎉A new foundation for TUXEDO OS: Switching to Debian🎉
Today, we can finally explain why Ubuntu will no longer serve as the foundation of TUXEDO OS in the future.
Further information:
https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/A-new-foundation-for-TUXEDO-OS-Switching-to-Debian.tuxedo
just noticed "how integers and floats work" came out 3 years ago today
originally this this was a zine about "how computers represent data in binary" (what's little endian? big endian? what's struct alignment? why do 32 bit integers cause so many problems? how do we represent strings?) but we ended up running out of space after we explained integers and floats so never got to struct alignment and null-terminated strings :)
get it here: https://wizardzines.com/zines/integers-floats/
Colouring for #science! Our booklet is out for the observatory, support telescopes and even get it delivered *(location depending on what our bookstore supports). To buy online, the direct link is: https://campus.bookstore.yorku.ca/gifts_lifestyle/carswell_observatory?page=1
for more about the observatory:
https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/
#art #astronomy #observatory #yorkuniversity #coloring #education #telescope #Astrodon #academia #academicchatter #YorkUObservatory @AllanICarswellObservatory @yorkuniversity
As an astrophotography newbie I have to give the Siril astronomical image processing software an enormous amount of credit. Not only as a great example of free open source software that offers a genuine alternative to expensive commercial apps, but also for the quality of its documentation.
There's no "just ask questions on our Discord server instead" here! There is comprehensive written documentation online and it goes well beyond listing each function, it goes into detail of when and why to use them, how they work, and how to get the best results. And, if that's still not enough, you can buy the book! The lead developer has produced a 200 page A4 lavishly illustrated glossy guide book.
My copy arrived today, and I plan to pass the time waiting for clear skies by reading it.
#Onthisday in 1852, in the Corinthian Hall of Rochester, NY, Frederick Douglass gave his famous speech now known as "What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?". The fact that it was given on the fifth and not the fourth was significant: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/frederick-douglass-fourth-july-speech #otd
@AstroHyde it's all over meow
🎧📜 The Internet Archive is home to millions of free audiobooks and audio recordings, including this LibriVox reading of the Declaration of Independence, bringing one of America's founding documents to life.
We're highlighting documents, recordings, and artifacts that tell the story of America's founding and the anniversaries that followed.
Learn more 👇
https://blog.archive.org/2026/06/29/the-declaration-of-independence-america-at-250-and-past-centennials/
cat nose for #Caturday she's coming in for hugs and knuffels and doesn't take prisoners! The last thing you'll see before you're pinned down...
Google loses its appeal and will now have to pay the record breaking fine of €4.125.000.000 for abusing its Android dominance to force Google search onto phones.
I love the EU! 🇪🇺♥️ 🇪🇺