Scott Trager

Some #astronomy - a weird discovery, even.☺️

Ontdekking van een ijzeren ‘balk’ in de Ringnevel

🚀 Een Europees team van astronomen – waaronder onderzoekers van @kapteynastro.bsky.social – heeft met WEAVE iets onverwachts ontdekt in de Ringnevel: een smalle ‘balk’ van sterk geïoniseerd ijzer. Lees meer: www.astronomie.nl/nieuws/ontde...

Ontdekking van een ijzeren ‘balk’ in de Ringnevel

Ontdekking van een ijzeren ‘balk’ in de Ringnevel

(Onderzoek van onder anderen @sctrager.bsky.social met #weave)

www.astronomie.nl/nieuws/ontde...

Selected WEAVE emission-line maps, ordered by the minimum photon energy required to create the species being traced: the relevant ion is the detected ion in the case of collisionally excited lines, and the recombining ion in the case of recombination lines. The emitting species and the associated creation energy are indicated on each map. Contours derived from the [Fe V] map are overlaid in each panel. [Fe V] is produced by collisional excitation of Fe (54.8 eV ionization potential). All images are displayed on a linear surface brightness scale with cuts at intensity percentiles of 0.1 per cent and 99.9 per cent.

Published in #MNRAS: "WEAVE imaging spectroscopy of NGC 6720: an iron bar in the Ring", Wesson et al. This is Fig. 3: please visit academic.oup.com/mnras/articl... to read the paper. @royalastrosoc.bsky.social @academic.oup.com

Mysterious iron 'bar' discovered in famous nebula drupal-media[data-view-mode=half_page_width] { display: inline-block; width: 50%; } A mysterious bar-shaped cloud of iron has been discovered inside the iconic Ring ...

Our discovery of a Mars-mass bar of highly-ionized iron with WEAVE is now out in the wild!

ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

*story for another long set of posts at a yet-unspecified time

While I remember that meeting rather well — it’s the reason that we wound up in Groningen, after all* — what I particularly remember is the Russian astronomer who read his talk while sitting at a desk on the podium… and had to be cut off by the moderator after he had exceeded his time by 50%

There’s a Rush song in there somewhere.

Summer of 2000.

Father Ted is about to get into some wacky hijinx

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

Ding Dong, the Cheney is Dead.

😱

Quarter of UK university physics departments at risk of closing, survey finds Four out of five making staff cuts as physicists say findings are ‘great concern’ for UK’s leadership in important areas

“In an anonymous survey of (UK Physics) department heads by the Institute of Physics (IoP), 26% said they faced potential closure of their department within the next two years, while 60% said they expected courses to be reduced.”
www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task This study explores the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, Search Engine, and Brain-only (no tools). Each completed thr...

"Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels. These results raise concerns about the long-term educational implications of LLM reliance and underscore the need for deeper inquiry into AI's role in learning."
arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

I can save you the effort.

Clippy Plagiarism Thirstwater does not suffer.

To suffer, you have to be alive, and it's not fucking alive, you daft motherfuckers.

If you're so concerned about the suffering of sentients, there's plenty of that going around that you can pour billions into alleviating.

This is the best product listing copy I’ve ever read

Former Mastodon Guitarist Brent Hinds Has Died Brent Hinds, former guitarist of Atlanta metal band Mastodon has died, aged 51. In a statement, Mastodon said: “We are in a state of unfathomable sadness and grief… last night Brent Hinds passed away ...

Brent Hinds, former guitarist and co-founder of Mastodon, has died

thequietus.com/news/brent-h...

Oh geez. Much too young. Leviathan and Blood Mountain are all-timers. RIP.

this is literally Lex Luthor shit

Apropos of several recent logo reveals. H/t @kmci.bsky.social

The Arsenal rescuing England

Ozzy Osbourne Farewell Show Was The Highest-Grossing Charity Concert Of All Time On July 5, Ozzy Osbourne put on a farewell concert, performing as a solo artist and with Black Sabbath for the last time in the band’s hometown of Birmingham, UK. Billed as the “Back To The Beginning”...

Ozzy going out after raising $190 million for sick kids and a Parkinson’s cure is metal AF.

Ozzy Osbourne visited my magic shop. He said he'd like to buy some stink bombs. How many? All of them. I had to go through drawers finding every last one. He bought 900 of them. To sign the credit card slip I handed him a shock pen, which he thought was hilarious and bought that too. RIP

Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath frontman and icon of British heavy metal, dies aged 76 The singer, who later became famous on reality TV show The Osbournes, dies less than three weeks after retirement concert

The voice of my entire lifetime, or at least since I was 13.

RIP Ozzy. You deserve it.

www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

In memoriam Jaap Vreeling (1956-2025)

In memoriam Jaap Vreeling (1956-2025)

🔭

Dutch:
www.astronomie.nl/nieuws/in-me...

English:
www.astronomie.nl/nieuws/en/in...

Fucking THANK YOU.

Like, for real, I need a lot of you to dispense with the fantasies of objective, impartial tech. You are watching the intended purpose of this shit on display as we speak as Grok is hammered into compliance behind the scenes.

(It’s because we’re going back to Orkney this summer and I want to have better pictures of the puffins this year!)

I appear to have reached that “certain age” where I’m looking for telephoto lenses for my DSLR camera for birdwatching. How did it come to this?

The Wirecutter Is Wrong About The Best Plain Potato Chip - Aftermath The Wirecutter has selected the Amazon Fresh brand as their winner for the Best Plain Potato Chip. This is spiritually wrong.

The Wirecutter “recommending the Amazon Fresh Classic Potato Chips as the best plain potato chip fundamentally misunderstands the spiritual and practical place of the potato chip.”

The Wirecutter Is Wrong About The Best Plain Potato Chip - aftermath.site/the-best-pla...