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Notes by f403350e | export

 “The threat is here; the time Orwell warned about is now.”

It never ceases to amaze & terrify me that in under 80 years, less than a human lifetime, we have allowed the putrid, lethal stench of fascism to return.

In the countries that destroyed it, in those that were destroyed by it, & in many others seemingly inspired by it.

And the populists will exploit the looming disaster of climate change to stoke hatred for their own narrow, short-term power & profit.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/07/orwellian-nightmares-george-orwell-rage-culture-rewriting-1984 
 As promised, some more #JWST loveliness today. 

Our paper on the HH211 protostellar outflow, with Tom Ray of Dublin as first author, is in this week’s print edition of Nature 👍

And … we have the front cover, the first time a JWST science image has featured there, we think 🎉🙇‍♂️
 
I made this new version of the image in my Reykjavík hotel room last week & while travelling home 😬

Quite proud of it – enjoy 🖖🙂🤘

#Astrodon #SpaceScience #SpaceRocks

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06551-1

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/182/030/542/288/274/original/5b7ed510a36bb650.jpeg 
 From this morning’s inbox & this afternoon’s spam folder 🙄

Why is it that some people feel the necessity to foist their beliefs & ideologies on others like this, whether religious, political, colonial, or whatever?

I mean, that’s a rhetorical question – it pretty much leads to every piece of human ugliness on this planet.

#JWST #JuMBOs #Science #Astrodon

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/170/737/527/650/492/original/9c15d8f1eaecba74.jpeg 
 Some nice additional pictures & words from Jonathan Amos at the BBC 🙇‍♂️

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66974738

#JWST #PiecesOfOrion #OrionNebula 
 And we are live 🙀

It has only taken 25 years to get to this point, but here we are.

I'll post much more soon, but first I think need a moment.

#JWST #PiecesOfOrion #Astrodon

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_s_wide-angle_view_of_the_Orion_Nebula_is_released_in_ESASky 
 Heads up ☝️

In just over 13 hours time, at 12:00CEST, 11:00BST, & 06:00EDT, we'll be releasing the images & early science results from our #JWST survey of the inner Orion Nebula & Trapezium Cluster ✨

It has been a crazy amount of work over the past few months, but we think the pictures are spectacular (& huge!), & some of the science results very cool 😱

This is one tiny crop: view & download the full images tomorrow & post your favourite #PiecesOfOrion here 🙂👍

#Astrodon  
#IAmExhausted

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/161/740/362/547/797/original/cb9c886b1b1d317c.png 
 “I'm tired of Earth. These people. I'm tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives.” 😾

#Tigger
#Watchmen
#Photography
#DrMancattan
#CatsOfMastodon

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/142/216/802/014/245/original/51646e388da60d8a.jpeg 
 I have a sense that JMW Turner might have approved of this evening’s sunset over the coastal dunes of Zuid-Holland 🙂

#Netherlands 🇳🇱
#Photography 📷
#ESTECsunsets 🛰️

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/132/720/094/864/504/original/501d5ac0de992a80.jpeg 
 Pretty much symbolising how I feel at the moment, this small copper butterfly (Lycaena phlaeas) has reached the end of summer in a pretty bashed-up state 😳

But at least there is warm sunshine to bask in towards the end of things …

#Butterflies 🦋
#Netherlands 🇳🇱
#Photography 📷
#BackGardenEntomology

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/130/781/884/184/699/original/755addc794933b25.jpeg 
 If you're reading this close to the day I posted it, 13 September 2023, then you were born on this planet & are overwhelmingly likely to die on it.

The only questions are when & how.

And whether you care at all about the future of those who will survive you & those yet to come.

#NoPlanetB 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/13/earth-well-outside-safe-operating-space-for-humanity-scientists-find 
 Ah ha, one of my favourite garden friends paid a visit today: a hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) doing its best to illustrate the principles of convergent evolution 🙂

This is a 240fps slow-motion video: in real-time, it was flitting around like crazy, very briefly supping from each flower with its long probocis. Am happy the phone stayed in focus most of the time.

#Insects 
#Wassenaar
#SlowMotion 
#Netherlands
#Photography 
#BackGardenEntomology

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/028/880/120/153/454/original/bb7ae0008b019ee1.mp4 
 A most peculiar sight last night while cycling home, a route I must’ve done more than a thousand times in the dark, & yet I’ve never seen this before.

A row of trees was illuminated with a ghostly glow and even though there was a building behind me with a fluorescent strip lighting its front door, I couldn’t figure out the geometry at all.

So I took a pretty picture & rode on 🤷‍♂️

#CyclingLife 🚴‍♂️
#Netherlands 🇳🇱
#Photography 📷

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/023/205/773/451/489/original/4fc74d695c872042.jpeg