Bill Minarik

Empty water reservoir with archs

Empty water reservoir with archs

Empty water reservoir with archs

Empty water reservoir with archs

every 3-4 years when they are cleaning it the authorities allow visitors into the #Lodz waterworks.
They are pretty fussy about security (I guess rightly so) but they do allow pictures.

#pictures #water

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW).

The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

It's a cool, overcast day. We're standing on lawn outside and to the right of high, slightly sloping, stone walls of an old fortress. Towards the end of the grassy area some tall and wide, leafy trees grow and cast the ground in shade, and there's another wall with more trees beyond that, some poking over the top of the fortress stonework on our left. Immediately in front of us there is a simple sculpture in brown, rusted metal. A solid rectangular base supports two chairs with legs, armrests, and backs, but no seat on which someone could sit. The two chairs are side-by-side and facing past us to the right, looking outwards. In the distance on the lawn there are four more chairs: two together near the large trees, and two individual ones spaced apart on the grass. All the chairs face the same way. It's a quiet, slightly haunting scene that suggests something missing.

#FotoVorschlag - Das Unsichtbare sichtbar machen

Photo theme: making the invisible visible

A tricky theme to find something that fits literally but here's Sir Antony Gormley's Vacant Chairs sculptures in Oslo, a memorial to the absent Jews deported from Norway […]

[Original post on mstdn.social]

A US startup plans to deliver ‘sunlight on demand’ after dark. Can it work – and would we want it to? Satellites beaming sunlight down to Earth sound like science fiction – and they have astronomers very worried.

This article by two astronomers details many of the points I just talked about and more, and just came out in The Conversation Australia, perfect timing: https://theconversation.com/a-us-startup-plans-to-deliver-sunlight-on-demand-after-dark-can-it-work-and-would-we-want-it-to-264323

Creatures buried in soil for over a century burst back to life in Toronto waterfront A project to restore coastal wetland leads to astonishing discoveries of a host of life: seeds and plant scraps, as well as water fleas, worms, larvae and plankton

Creatures buried in soil for over a century burst back to life in #Toronto waterfront

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/09/toronto-waterfront-soil-plants-worms

Thin Section Thursday:
The matrix of devitrified glass and microlites has flowed around this large composite feldspar grain. In XP, the central grain is black because it has been rotated to extinction. In other orientations it is gray to white. Contributed by Matt Kohn. #thinsectionthursday

Hmm, my trunk is now full of milspec resistors and transistors originally destined for the Lockheed L-1011. (also electrolytic capacitors, but those are all going straight to e-waste... no way those things are still good). Now, to redistribute 25,000 resistors to folks who would like some […]

Cute little mushrooms poke out of a bed of moss

A large mushroom with white gills and a long stem. It has a skirt around the stem which isn't attached and can be moved

Whitish pink Coral-like fungi on a mossy log

An inkcap mushroom doing its thing. It has a black cap which is oozing slime as it slowly disintegrates

The MPIC Sustainability group organised a pilzenwandern in the Ober-Olm Wald yesterday afternoon with a mycologist! It was all auf Deutsch (good practice for me), so my understanding was a little rubbery, but highlights include "this is Germany's most […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]

Microsoft pulls plug on plans for 244-acre data center in Caledonia after community pushback Microsoft has decided not to move forward with its proposed site for a data center in the Village of Caledonia after facing significant community pushback from residents.

Saying "no" works.

https://www.tmj4.com/news/racine-county/microsoft-pulls-plug-on-plans-for-244-acre-data-center-in-caledonia-after-community-pushback

A post office table with two round black discs where the pens used to be.

A post office table with brand new pens.

I can't fix the big things, but I can do something about the small ones.

A few days ago I went to the post office to ship something. I put it in one of the flat rate boxes and went to address it. Of the 6 pen-on-chain doodads they had, only one was left, and […]

[Original post on sfba.social]

A golden-crowned sparrow on a cedar branch. Its feathers are puffed into a sphere.

Golden-crowned sparrow #borb
#birds #Saanich

October is Black History Month in the UK 🤎 🖤

Black history is woven into the identity of the UK. The theme this year is 'Standing Firm in Power and Pride', focusing on the power of individuals in history who exercised courage, vision, and agency.

You can […]

[Original post on newsmast.social]

Expressionist depiction of a scene of brutal confrontation with an unsettling, dystopian quality. ​The foreground is dominated by a group of figures in military-style uniforms and bulky gas masks, their faces completely obscured. Three of them are actively firing handguns up toward the windows of a dark, industrial-looking building. Blue-tinged smoke or gas billows from the muzzles of their weapons and the broken windows. ​Through the shattered windowpanes, distressed figures—possibly factory workers or civilians—are visible. A single sign, crudely painted, hangs on the exterior and appears to read "DON'T SCAB" (or similar), suggesting the scene is a depiction of a labor dispute, riot, or political repression. ​The overall mood is dark and violent, emphasizing themes of dehumanization, conflict, and the brutal suppression of dissent.

Strike Breakers (Company Violence). 1937. Morris Topchevsky

Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

20/20

#blueskyartchallenge #fediartchallenge #art #paintings

Black volcanic rock formation of recently cooled lava, shiny but uneven, with multiple cracks.

I just learned that #TextureTuesday is a thing.
#Hawaii

Thirty Bob Ross paintings will be auctioned over the next few months, with proceeds going to small and rural public stations across the United States that have had their funding cut off. Congress has eliminated $1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting, leading to many stations making […]

I love it that everyone loves a #supermoon. Tonight is the night so #DoLookUp!

Fine print: this astronomical event comes with a expectation-management disclaimer:
*The Supermoon is only 15% brighter than a normal full moon and I personally can not tell the difference 🤔
*Every moon is SUPER🔭🥳

Screenshot of figures from the paper: Above a graph showing wiggly lines depicting the cumulative mass budget of Antarctica: a dark line swoops and wiggles downwards before stabilising at the end, colourful dashed lines (depicting snow fall) wiggle along constantly before sloping upwards at the same tme stabilisation occurs. Below 6 maps of Antarctica in blues and red depicting the mass change in different basins.

🚨 New preprint out🚨 now, why has Antarctica stopped (net) losing mass?
We explore how declining sea ice but mostly increasingly heavy and frequent atmospheric rivers have actually led to a small increase in the mass of #Antarctica, in spite of increased […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]

A kingfisher is perched on a dead, forked branch, holding a small fish in its beak, against a dull background. The bird displays vivid turquoise and orange colours, and has white patches on its chin and shoulders.

Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis, 🇩🇪 Eisvogel, 🇵🇱 zimorodek).

#birds #birdphotography #birdsofmastodon #birdwatching #nature #naturephotography #vogelflausch #ptaki

Understanding six “key truths” about climate change predicts policy support, discussion, and political advocacy Social norms and collective efficacy are strong predictors

Yale researchers didn't stop there. They also identified what people most need to know to catalyze action and support climate policy; and it's not about global temps, ice sheets, or ocean currents.

What people most need to know about climate change is that (1) others care, and (2) there is hope.

The photo shows a male bearded tit in a close-up view from the front, with its legs stretched forward as it prepares to land on two parallel reed stalks. The bird is surrounded by reeds.

This photo shows a close-up view of a male bearded tit perched between two parallel reed stalks, surrounded by reeds.

Landing gear out. Touchdown! Bearded tit ♂️ (Panurus biarmicus, 🇩🇪 Bartmeise, 🇵🇱 wąsatka).

#birds #birdphotography #birdsofmastodon #birdwatching #nature #naturephotography #vogelflausch #ptaki

A dog on a rock.

A waterfall among the trees

Waterfall and pond below. Rocks and trees.

McCloud Falls hike today. It’s a three fall #hike, but you can get an extra #fall if you’re clumsy enough. #dogsofmastodon #hikingwithdogs #NorCal

How Icelanders are grieving the loss of 'dead' and melting glaciers Iceland’s glaciers are disappearing. For locals, it’s a profoundly sad loss.

Iceland is becoming no-ice land.

a landscape photo from a vantage point - the red, white, brown, beige layers of the earth are revealed in a cliffside that rises high above a water filled gorge, under a sky full of variegated grey clouds. the view stretches for many miles into a hazy blue distance

Flaming Gorge National Monument, USA 2025

#USA #travel #photography #nature

AnnualMeeting – MSA

Announcement: the Keynote Speakers for the MSA Inaugural Annual Meeting on February 16-18, 2026 in Tucson, Arizona, USA are: Peter Megaw, Jolyon Ralph, Pupa Gilbert, Nancy Ross, & Elizabeth Rampe.
Abstract submissions due October 31, 2025,
More information: msaweb.org/annualmeeting/.

Cartoon showing two hills. First scene: "hey Frank" (hill 1 to hill 2, while hill 2 has a castle on top of it) Second scene: "what?" (hill 2 to hill 1, while hill 2 has a full-blown modern city on top of it). Third scene: "nevermind, you had something on your head, but it's gone now" (hill 1 to hill 2, while hill 2 only has a bunch of rubble on top of it).

Geological timescales FTW

Warming Stripes painted in the harbour area of La Rochelle, France

Well done to the Warming Stripes La Rochelle team!

Starting climate conversations in France! 👏

New paper out today in @nature Geosciences:
The Greenlandification of Antarctica - it's a comment piece showing hpw Antarctica's ice is increasingly similar to Greenland's - drawing on a mass of work from various @esaclimate climate projects and with substantial @OceanIceEU implications […]

The image shows a window on a red wooden wall. The window has a white frame and is divided into three panes: one smaller pane at the top and two larger panes below. Inside, there are completely closed light blue curtains with vertical white stripes. On the windowsill behind the panes, there is a sawn out small wooden black cat figure sitting and looking out, with a white patches on its tail, paws, ears and face. The wall has a textured wooden surface with visible grain and knots, and there are red rectangular support beams under the roof edge above the window.

#FensterFreitag #WindowFriday

#PletzfeldMomentsInTime #photography #darktable #mywork #myphoto

American Mineralogist:
Enrichment mechanism of heavy rare earth elements in magmatic-hydrothermal titanite: Insights from SXAS/XPS experiments and first-principles calculations and implications for regolith-hosted HREE deposits
Yuzhou Feng, et al.
doi.org/10.2138/am-2...

A stone building, ruined at the top. On this side is a narrow rectangular window. Through to the other side of the empty tower are two arched windows. Through the bottom of these is a chimney stack. Sky is blue with white clouds and there's a bonus bird in flight on the left.

Empty engine house at Wheal Coates in #Cornwall for #FensterFreitag