Eye

The Renewable Illusion: Why Fossil Fuels Keep Winning Global renewables hit records in 2024, but fossil fuel use still rises. Here’s why solar’s surge isn’t enough—and what the latest energy data really shows.

1. This is something I've been saying for 25 years, but it's hard to get many people to listen. What counts is not the new energy sources you add, but the old ones you retire. Unfortunately it's politically easier to build renewables than to shutter fossil fuels.🧵
www.forbes.com/sites/rrapie...

A nebula. The top-left is dense with layers of fluffy pink and greenish clouds. Long strands of green clouds stretch out from here; a faint layer of translucent blue dust combines with them to create a three-dimensional scene. A sparse network of dark dust clouds in the foreground adds reddish-black patches atop the nebula. Blue-white and orange stars, from our galaxy and beyond, are spread amongst the clouds.

🕷️A dramatic scene from the Tarantula Nebula shines in the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image

Did you know that this nebula is home to the most massive stars known, some of which are roughly 200 times as massive as our Sun?

Read more 👉 esahubble.org/images/potw2...

🔭

Hahahah oh nooo just remembered a big important presentation about satellite pollution I'm supposed to give tomorrow that I haven't actually put together yet. (And it's a holiday in Canada tomorrow. That's what I get for volunteering for an American Astronomical Society committee. Hmph.)

Bask away. It is thoroughly deserved :)

I just realized that I am on 5 published peer-reviewed papers so far this year (one first author), with 2 more nearly ready to submit and I need a moment to bask in that after not publishing much for a few years. (Does this matter? No, not really. But has all my academic training led to paper […]

A top-down view of spiral galaxy NGC 1309, showing its brightly shining centre, its broad spiral arms and the faint halo around its disc, as well as distant galaxies and stars on a dark background. Large blue clouds of gas speckled with small stars and strands of dark dust swirl around the galaxy’s disc. A couple of the background galaxies are large enough that their own swirling spiral arms can be seen.

NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope view of planetary nebula NGC 6072 in the near-infrared shows a complex scene of multiple outflows expanding out at different angles from a dying star at the centre of the scene. Red areas represent cool molecular gas, for example, molecular hydrogen.

Mid-infrared view of planetary nebula NGC 6072 from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows expanding circular shells around the outflows from the dying central star, which astronomers suspect is that pinkish white dot at the centre of the image. Blue represents cool molecular gas seen in red in the image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) due to colour mapping.

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope revisits one of the most iconic regions of the sky, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. It shows an area of deep space with thousands of galaxies in various shapes and sizes on a black background. Most are circles or ovals, with a few spirals. More distant galaxies are smaller, down to being mere dots, while closer galaxies are larger and some appear to be glowing. Red and orange galaxies contain more dust or more stellar activity.

📷 Our #WeekInImages for 28 July - 1 August 2025 👇
www.esa.int/About_Us/Wee... 🧪🔭

Help, Bluesky! I want to capture Aristotle's concept of species in a sentence or two, or a shortish but good quote. Is such a thing even possible? #PhilosophySky

A black cat lay on a patterned carpet in a bookshop

We're not saying a cat and a second-hand bookshop are going to fix all your problems.
But we're also not NOT saying that...

Photo: Mr. Toast at Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire by Molly Hammatt

Well said!

... and none of the focus is on the fact that we in the UK are all descended from migrants.

Tony Blair thinktank worked with project developing ‘Trump Riviera’ Gaza plan Staff at former UK PM’s institute took part in calls as proposal led by US consulting firm and Israeli business people evolved

Yes, that’s the same Tony Blair Institute who’s been working with Trump on the Gaza Riviera.

It is incomprehensible that anything this organisation is doing gets a free pass in the UK press let alone front page treatment

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The Telegraph was more balanced?!

This is a billionaire-funded Tony Blair lobbying project being funnelled unchallenged onto the front page of a national newspaper.
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Painting of a close-up of a red poppy with black center

Georgia O'Keeffe,
Red Poppy, 1927

#UnlockingWomensArt

Two wooden whisks, each with a central handle and multiple short, evenly spaced prongs radiating outward from one end. The prongs appear to be natural offshoots of the wood.

There are so many amazing finds from prehistoric pile dwellings settlements: 3,500-year-old wooden whisks found in settlements at the Lake Carera/Italy.
By rotating the shaft, it’s possible to whip cream until it turns into butter. Larger whisks were presumably used for.... 🧵 1/2

#archaeology 🏺

Love this!

Textile artist featuring three small black and white birds with long forked tails in flight, flying right against a swirling blue green sky

'A swoop of swallows' by UK textile artist Rachel Wright, machine embroidered on calico with various fabrics #UnravellingWomensArt

Since wolves’ return, Yellowstone’s aspens are recovering, study finds The researchers found a 152-fold increase in sapling and young-tree density.

Aspen trees are growing taller in Yellowstone thanks to wolves that prey on elk, which graze on trees.

A timelapse of the Milky Way last night - centered on the constellation of Scutum. I was out spotting early Perseid meteors. I saw a few visually but didn't catch any on camera - all the flashes in the video are satellites! #Astronomy #Astrophotography #Space #Perseids

Good.

I'm glad this part has been quoted. The entire piece is definitely worth reading but, for me, this quote is the most apt.

FINALLY made a huge batch of raspberry jelly!

I’m visiting a potential home for a foster cat today (home inspection for the Japan Cat Network). I requested a fairly early morning visit, with the idea it would be cooler for travel.

My friends, that idea was false 😆 It is slightly cooler, but 80% humidity which still melts me into a puddle.

This!

From the CWS Archive. 8th August 2024.

I love this cup so much!

Painting with significant symbols, including circular motifs and lines in multicolours

Collaborative artwork, 2019 by the senior Indigenous women artists of Amata in the APY Lands of Australia, who founded a women's art centre #WomensArt

Artist Svetlana Petrova, who decided to add her big ginger cat to some iconic paintings to create some fun artworks #WomensArt

Canadians have massively stopped buying American products (produce!) and travel to the US is down 35%

Same in Denmark. The don't buy American campaign might be working?.