Mike Sowden

Also reminded me of this undisputed king of super-worst takes on AI in Hollywood just the other day:
bsky.app/profile/laur...

Yes. This seems to be the thing that seems to get ignored by these executives: who the actual fuck among us wants to watch an AI "actor", other than for the initial couple of minutes of us thinking "well, that's very clever but also yikes to THAT bullshit"? Hell of a risk to take.

a space ship with a purple background and a few lights on it Alt: a space ship with a purple background and a few lights on it

Yes, the eternal struggle between realistic and super-fun-to-watch. But I remember how Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan turned space combat into submarine warfare, and how utterly *thrilling* that was to watch, far more than a Hero Fighter Pilot approach in that case. So it *can* be done, I think?

AT LAST, IT MAKES SENSE.

HE PAINTED OVER A HUNDRED OF THESE

okay okay. get it together, Mike.

All credit to Jeff Bezos saving the show after its cancellation, but it was disappointing to see him pull the rug on its sixth season, giving it just 6 episodes to wrap up and nothing more - from a "fan" of the show with a personal net worth of over $200 billion? Hmmm.

I'm really hoping that the creators and cast find a way to bring it back for books 7-9, after the gap in time in the books (I guess they'd shorten it a bit) and a similar gap after the show's ending - maybe as three movies? That would be so great. But, who knows.

The Sky Isn't Falling, but Starlink Satellites Are Watch your head.

And this was just published yesterday: gizmodo.com/starlink-sat... Not just a problem in orbit, then.

Japan's huge magnetic net will trawl for space junk Gravity wasn't all fiction: tiny pieces of high-speed orbiting debris endanger our satellites. Now Japan is set to launch an electromagnetic net to catch them

Or magnetic nets! www.newscientist.com/article/mg22... And it should be the biggest polluters that pay for them. Looking at you, StarLink...

Illustration by Denys Watkins-Pitchford, 'B.B.', showing a bright waterfall surrounded by greenery and shadow.

Just astounding. I'm a fan of the illustrator and author Denys Watkins-Pitchford, and he had a similar eye for seeing the dark and shadows in natural scenes.

I think the film "Gravity" has messed up our thinking a bit in recently years - really terrific film, but it took huge liberties with the real-life distances between things in orbit, so now it feels like junk in orbit is more of a linear obstacle-course than it really is.

Yep! This was touched upon in "Babylon's Ashes (The Expanse, book 6). As I understand it - you're right, but it's also offset by the unbelievably vast enormity of space and the incredible distances between things. Even if PDC rounds are in an orbit, the likelihood of a hit is still very small!

HE PAINTED OVER A HUNDRED OF THESE

okay okay. get it together, Mike.

I really want to!

a dark room with a ladder leading up to the top of it Alt: Scene from season 2 of "The Expanse" where two ships fly past each other, firing holes in each other and punching PPC rounds through crewed areas of the ship as everyone sits in space-suits, expecting the hull to be breached in this way.

It's been nearly a decade since this scene in "The Expanse", and I can't believe no other sci-fi show is doing this kind of thing with the blood-curdling realism of space combat. No other show is building on this level of grit? Really? ("For All Mankind" is fabulous, but a different kind of show.)

*'Danish painter Peder Mørk Mønsted', no 'of', because LOOK I WAS EXCITED, that's how typos happen to humans and I am painfully human.

Photo....no, wait, a PAINTING, by Peder Mørk Mønsted, of the snow-laden banks of a river that looks absolutely photo-real.

Another painting by Peder Mørk Mønsted that looks utterly photo-realistic of a tree-lined river with utterly convincing shades of green-tinted darkness and perfect reflections in the river below.

Thanks to my friend James Horton, I have just discovered the work of Danish painter of Peder Mørk Mønsted (1859-1941) and HOW CAN A PERSON NEARLY A HUNDRED YEARS AGO PAINT SOMETHING THAT LOOKS LIKE IT'S A PHOTO ON AN IPHONE WHAT IS THIS ABSOLUTE SORCERY.

two men in tuxedos are standing next to each other on a stage and one of them is asking the other what is with the music . Alt: Matt Damon & Ben Affleck at the Oscars standing next to each other on a stage and one of them is asking the other "what is with the music? Are you playing me off? Seriously?"

And lesson 2 should be about how being tricked into quote-shaming folk on social media is *exactly* how those bad-faith idiots out there get everyone to amplify their nonsense when they have no ability to do it in any other way...

Okay okay. Stepping away before the music starts.

Sealioning - Wikipedia

If there was a training course for being an online science communicator/enthusiast, this should be in the very first lesson of it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealion...

Hell yes. Also, a specific small-time-social-media-presence offshoot:

When someone with 7 followers & no profile pic challenges you on some basic, overwhelmingly confirmed science, any reply you give is fruitless because they ignored pretty much *the whole of science* to get to you. Ignore/block.

😁 Absolutely my pleasure. I spat my tea at that one.

This moment from our latest episode with science writer @edyong209.bsky.social is 🔥

We asked Ed — how do we talk up the benefits of science in the face of government cuts? He told us that's the wrong approach. 🧪

Listen wherever, or watch on Spotify 👇

open.spotify.com/episode/7Evh...

Famous National Geographic image (taken by Hugo Van Lawick) of a young Jane Goodall reaching out to a baby chimpanzee.

Oh, Jane Goodall. You were such a good'un.

We'll struggle to see your like again - but we promise to remember what you tried to teach us about extending curiosity and kindness beyond the selfish, inward-looking needs of our own species.

Jane Goodall, renowned chimpanzee researcher and animal advocate, dies at 91 "Dr. Goodall's discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world," the Jane Goodall Institute said in a Wedne...

Jane Goodall has died.

She was truly a beacon of light in this world.

I had the good fortune of seeing her speak shortly before COVID arrived. She showed such warmth, compassion, integrity, and intelligence.

Jane, the animals thank you for your selfless work.

www.nbcnews.com/news/obituar...

Thank you, Beth! ♥️Why was I not following you? Ghagh. Amended!

Thank you! SO OLD NOW ye gods.

*Taken ME

54 years old and I still cant tpye.

Frontiers | From Smelly Buildings to the Scented Past: An Overview of Olfactory Heritage Olfactory heritage is an aspect of cultural heritage concerning the smells that are meaningful to a community due to their connections with significant place...

"Olfactory heritage is an aspect of cultural heritage concerning the smells that are meaningful to a community due to their connections with significant places, practices, objects or traditions."

www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

GOOD LORD SO INTERESTING.

Hey, What Are All These Books Doing To Us? And is everything about to change?

I can't believe it's taken my 54 years, exactly 54 today, to learn there's such a thing as OLFACTORY ARCHAEOLOGY and you're damn right I'm going to have to write about this soon, yes indeed: everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/hey-what-a...

UPDATE bsky.app/profile/scie... STOP MY BRAIN IT CANNOT