Ace

I did not have "the opening theme song from the Muppet Show makes me cry" on my bingo card for today but here we are.

Top down view of a spinning wheel flyer and bobbin. The bobbin is partially full of a gradient of orange and pink yarn.

The new spinning wheel and I are slowly getting to know each other better. I'm starting to get more consistent but there's still a lot of room for learning. This is so much fun!

AggroChat #555 - MMOs and PSOLikes - Tales of the Aggronaut The Death of Anthem, the impending Death of New World, Shape of Dreams, Legacy of Phrecia, POE2 Endgame, and GW2 Fashion Plates.

Hey Folks! This week we discussed:

-- Death of Anthem
-- Impending Death of New World
-- What makes an MMORPG
-- PSOlikes
-- Shape of Dreams
-- Path of Exile Phrecia 2.0
-- Path of Exile 2 Endgame
-- GW2 Fashion Plates

aggronaut.com/2026/02/01/a...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCEk...

I am glad the e-spinner lets you keep spinning. It has been a shock to me how different the feel of the e-spinner is from this wheel.

It's already finished so I am going to wait a bit and think about it, but I might paint it eventually. Currently I'm figuring out the tension. It's way trickier than my e-spinner to find something between "won't take up" and "rips the fiber out of my hands" 😂 Learning!

A birch wood spinning wheel with a bit of yellow-orange fluffy wool

This thing arrived yesterday and now I have to completely re-learn how to spin. I am so very bad at it and I could not be happier. Going to love being bad at it and learning new things for a while!

I finished the thing. I need more neon rainbow goodness in my life right now.

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

I want to try designing some more interesting ones now that I know they work!

A white plastic bobbin full of neon green, orange, yellow, and pink yarn on a wood background

I challenged myself and managed to spin this in a single day. It's going to end up chain plied so I don't lose the gradient.

Not yet, but it's so lovely and soft it will probably become a cowl

Nothing wrong with having a supply of the things you like! This was from a local-to-me farm, and the prep was so open and airy it was a dream to spin.

A skein of slightly fuzzy red and gray handspun yarn on a wood background

Finished spinning this alpaca yarn today. Making things from scratch helps me feel like I'm getting a small temporary escape from our capitalist hellscape

I picked a hell of a time to crawl out from under my social media rock, but I want to reconnect with people and share beautiful things, even in the face of everything.

Former NOAA employee Tom DiLiberto is calling on YOU to help #SaveNOAA. Here’s what he had to share with Axios about the impacts of mass layoffs at the nation’s oceanic and atmospheric agency: www.axios.com/2025/02/28/n...

#ScienceMatters #FederalLayoffs #NOAA @axios.com