Phil Benson

OBITUARY Jim Lovell, commander of NASA's Apollo 13 moon mission, dies at 97 American astronaut Jim Lovell, commander of the failed 1970 mission to the moon that nearly ended in disaster but became an inspirational saga of survival and the basis for the hit movie "Apollo 13," has died at the age of 97, NASA said on Friday.

OBITUARY Jim Lovell, commander of NASA's Apollo 13 moon mission, dies at 97 reut.rs/3UPKubN

And here is Part II of Aesop.

Aesop III and an episode on Medusa 16/8 are the last of Season 1. As I research and write Season 2, if you can afford to support my work you can do so on ko-fi.com/podyssey - a monthly subscription is best. Thanks, you lovely people.

bsky.app/profile/alex...

La catastrophe à bas bruit.

Pendant ce temps, en France, on se bat pour augmenter le trafic aérien low cost et repousser le développement de l’éolien aux calendes grecques.
#fatigue

Hearing cheers from the Oval carrying over on the wind… doesn’t tell me the result though!!!

The Great Nebula in Orion (taken some time ago - around 7/Jan 2025). #astrophotography.

North American Nebula, taken 20.05.25. #astrophotography

UK gets first female Astronomer Royal in 350 years Prof Michele Dougherty is the first woman to be appointed to the influential post.

Big day for the matriarchy! 🥳 Huge congrats to the awesome Prof. Doughtery, lead on the Jupiter-bound ESA JUICE mission & STFC Exec Chair.

If anyone's confused on the astro royal hierarchy: Michele and I are the astro equivalents of 🇬🇧Westminster and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Holyrood 🤗

ℹ️: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 👩‍🔬🔭🧪

Good episode. One of my favorites of the "leading" series....

Hello!

It’d be helpful if comments were enabled on the article rather than forcing people to to reply here @theguardian.com. Opportunity lost.

Another brilliant eposide, cheers! This made me laugh: … a vacuum begs to be filled - I can’t pop 4:33 on the turntable, without being tempted to hum a bit of Rossini, just to spike Cage.”

8. AESOP II - A dolphin and a seagull were hurling insults at each other Podcast Episode · Alex Andreou's Podyssey · 26/07/2025 · 1h 13m

🆕 AESOP II: A dolphin and a seagull were hurling insults at each other 🐬

Is truth a set of facts? Might something fake be authentic? Can you contruct a truth out of lies? And why are unreliable narrators more compelling?

🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/4hZ8...

🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

Brexit trade meetings remain a state secret Secrecy maintained over the extent to which Britain is willing to abandon environmental and consumer protections to secure trade deals after Brexit.

This is a huge and highly consequential story in @theecologist.org‬
We have no idea what is being traded away to secure deals with other countries, and it turns out we are not allowed to know.
So much for democracy.
theecologist.org/2025/jul/23/...

The advice I always give my students is to treat it like any other 9-5 job. When you’re done for the day go for a run, swim, whatever you like. Yes you’ll occasionally go “off schedule” unintentionally and when it happens, just remember, tomorrow’s another day.

Better listen carefully in case there’s a test later I guess!

The internet remains undefeated 😂😅

All you’re missing is a big cartoon of a bubble? I guess? 🫧🫧🫧

Well (again) it depends on the detail of the “V” but I’d argue there are better methods to achieve all this over forcing people to sell who simply cannot afford an LVT as well as mortgage. Hence it’s political toxicity. We might have to agree to disagree on this one! Good chat though cheers.

after purchase whereas area, size etc. can be readily quantified and changes are simpler to add/charge for.

Location value is an issue though: people shouldn’t be penalised for where they live; and I am sure many methods would be deployed to reduce ‘V’ mitigating the simplicity. Hence I think LVT would be politically toxic. After all we don’t have much influence over the price of a fixed housing asset…

Indeed it is. But the danger is that LVT introduces a lot of volatility: houses sell for what someone else will pay for them. The V in LVT to me is the snag. Particularly as LVT itself will influence the value of a property/land. Income tax is fairer, perhaps combined with a ‘land area tax’.

Possibly. But who will buy a 1.2m terrace when LVT at 1% would be 1k per month? Assuming it still sells for that. And non pensioners (middle class professionals say) might also have such a place… added to a mortgage could render a present situation unaffordable overnight…

Only snag are the low income/high value property scenarios, of which there are plenty particularly in the SE/London. Depending on %rate of course. What about land area instead? Bigger footprint = more tax, still progressive but maybe gentler/less volatile?

How dark money is taking our politics backwards Podcast Episode · Quiet Riot · S2, E77 Bonus · 39m

💣 SPECIAL: How dark money is taking our politics backwards

Issues thought closed - like women's reproductive health - are now relitigated. @sturdyalex.bsky.social chats to @petergeoghegan.bsky.social about how this is funded.

🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/4XSX...

🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...

Rather pleased with how this came out. The crescent nebula, taken over the last 2 nights, around 3.5 hours total exposure time. #astrophotography

7. AESOP I - Virtue Signaller or Fake News Merchant? Podcast Episode · Alex Andreou's Podyssey · 13/07/2025 · 44m

📜 New AESOP I - Virtue Signaller or Fake News Merchant? 🏛️

Part One of Three: Stories have had a moral for as long as we've had stories. So why is Aesop, enduringly, one of the few moralists we accept can dish it out?

🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/0lP7...

🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

Where are all the briefcase wankers? The nerd:jock ratio in government is askew

The great question of our age: WHERE are all the briefcase wankers?
economist.com/britain/2025...

Or a carousel of actual slides…!

Conservative MPs think the crisis in special educational needs provision is one big laugh. Couldn’t be more out of touch if they tried.

‘It’s too late’: David Suzuki says the fight against climate change is lost - iPolitics "We have failed to shift the narrative and we are still caught up in the same legal, economic and political systems," said David Suzuki in an exclusive interview with iPolitics. "For me, what we've go...

New from me: An exclusive interview with David Suzuki, who talked about reaching the conclusion that humanity has failed in the fight against climate change, and why communities should start preparing for more destructive natural disasters #cdnpoli #cdnenviro

www.ipolitics.ca/2025/07/02/i...