Josh Hopkins

Did someone mention Blue Sky? New Glenn showing off its plumage on its first flight.

A day late, but this is one of the first images taken of Earth from space. Ever. It was acquired from an altitude of 105 km (five times higher than the previous record) eighty years ago, on 24 October 1946, with a 35 mm camera mounted on a V-2 rocket launched from the White Sands Missile Range.

"Have you checked your car's alignment?" "Well, the tire wear seems to be pretty even..." "No, I mean does your car share human values?"

Speaking of Saturn photobombing pics of moons (see my earlier post today)... This video sequence, taken in 2007 by astronomer Jan Koet, shows the Moon moving in the sky—revealing giant Saturn, almost 1.5 billion km away. The video is at twice actual speed.

"It looks delicious," she said, "but one question, what actually is 'homemade ghee'?" its butter i clarified

At the VEXAG 2026 meeting in Boulder just now, we've learned that NASA's VERITAS mission has been scheduled for a November 2032 launch. Folks, this is CRAZY good news. Earlier this year we were concerned that NASA would *cancel* VERITAS!

Time for 2026 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread, now with storage. If you like these, you might like edition 2 of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website til end of Nov 2026. www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...

Ils étaient mi-cerf mi-escargot, et re mi-cerf derrière

four years ago I posted this image of paleontologist Jan Smit looking at rocks and his son-in-law replied with something even better

I am the very model of a modern day typographer I know the type tonalities from elegant to jocular I am a master tracker and my kerning is harmonical I know the sacred swatches and can name the hues Pantonical (Full version of Modern Day Typographer now on my YouTube channel)

Lift-off of Sputnik 8K71PS rocket with Sputnik 1.

The loss of living memory of the Second World War is absolutely catastrophic

I've long had a fascination with Bellcomm, the think-tank Bell System created at NASA's request in 1962. Often it's called NASA's "Apollo planning contractor," but it studied much more than that. There was, for example, this mad crewed Mars concept. spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com/2021/12/mssr...

Squirrels on suicide missions have knocked out power to Castle Rock, Colorado twice this week. Our investigation has revealed a century of squirrel attacks covered up by the pro-squirrel media.

"The little turtles are looking at the Moon and the Earth through the porthole of their spacecraft. An artistic interpretation of that very journey aboard the ‘Zond-5’ spacecraft." (The turtles were actually glued to posts, to stop them from moving around).

Here is a fun little animation showing how the shadows on Phobos change over the course of its short (7h 39m) day. The other image was actually taken two weeks ago, but since Phobos is tidally locked to Mars, it doesn't really matter. 🔭🧪

Honestly, "big-name studios can't agree on the premise of the Muppet Show" sounds like the premise of the Muppet Show

Let's learn some surprising things about hummingbird tongues. First, as you can see, their tongues are forked & feathery, highly specialized for lapping up their liquid diet of nectar. But it gets weirder up close!

100%. The notion that the President can conjure up revenue streams that free him from constitutional congressional control over spending is far more alarming than just another questionable spending proposal.

Astrophotographer Adam (AJ) Smadi caught this image a few hours ago from Washington state. A thin crescent Moon, sunlight illuminating the rugged lunar surface. And 2,400 times farther away—and on the other side of the Sun—mighty Jupiter, and its moons Io (left) and Ganymede (right).

The NYT version did indeed work more correctly for me than the other one.

Every time I hear a fuss about "we should stop using Mercator projection maps!" I wonder who in the world was still getting fooled by Mercator projection maps. National Geographic started using Van Der Grinten in *1922* and Robertson in the 80s.

This is a very cool way to get a sense of the real breadth of history, the distribution of humanity in time and geography, and how many people lived mundane, very short lives. I am slightly skeptical of the probably false precision involved, but it seems first-order reasonable. anyhumanever.com

FinalFinal_reallyFinal_thistimeImeanit_Rev2.pdf

Today's the 50th anniversary of the Viking 2 landing. An excuse to re-up this. science.nasa.gov/resource/vik...

Insane lightning over Ohio, from 37,000 feet, @planetarygao.bsky.social !

Dots Poca, WV

People may legitimately ding Bluesky for being a politically homogenous echo chamber, but I’ll say one thing for it: I’m still getting likes on a pun I made several months ago, which would never happen on Twitter.

Ward Maps in Cambridge is an excellent map store. It's BIG and has a ton of delightful MBTA merch that is creative and fun. I'm suspicious of most antique dealers who are just scavengers of history but Ward's owner is a real maker because he cowrote an excellent book about Boston map history.

I've been trying for years to get a decent picture of a dragonfly in flight....

not to be confused with quesadilla

🌒 En fouillant les images de Yutu-2 🇨🇳, j'ai découvert que l'atterrisseur Chang'e 4 inclinait ses panneaux solaires pour les orienter vers le Soleil 🤯 Cette animation montre deux photos prises depuis le même endroit, à 7 jours d'écart (1/4 de rotation de la Lune, l'équivalent de 6h sur Terre)

📷🔭 An amazing achievement! Astrophotographer Charline Giroud has captured an incredible image of China’s Tiangong Space Station passing over Spain at 8:20 AM UTC Aug 9. A stunning view from here on Earth of a truly “Heavenly Palace” — Tiangong. 🛰️🌍🌌

Welcome sign Tangent, OR

Going through my parents' stuff and found this weird little gal. She's a transistor radio. Her right eyeball is tuner and her left eyeball is power/volume.

I really recommend the 2022 documentary “It’s Quieter in the Twilight,” which profiles the scientists working in relative obscurity to keep the Voyager spacecraft operating—many of them past retirement age, but unwilling to quit until the Voyagers do. It was very sweet and thought-provoking.

51 years ago I painted a trio of Viking related works for NASA HQ including the widely reproduced one of the landing on Mars. I have reimagined the Landing portrayal in updated form using digital methods of visualization and painting. I chose the same angle but with reality replacing anticipation.

Whenever I read about discoveries in the Amazon, I recall a lecture I saw by an archeologist of South American cultures. He said the reason we know so much about the civilizations of Peru and so little about the ancient Amazon is not because the Amazon was empty, but because Peru is easier to study.

A spaceship entered Earth's orbit and broadcast a message: "We are the Interstellar Library. Do you want to swap? We have thousands of stories." There were many replies. The library was silent for a whole day, then: "What do you mean, 'We have millions'?"

"After years of painstaking research in ancient grimoires and microcontroller logic, I have perfected it!" the professor exclaimed. "What?" "All printers are possessed. I've made a PDF which performs an exorcism." "So you print it, and then the printer works?" "Yes!" "What if it won't print?"

"You have tampered in the Gods' domain!" the god shouted. "Well, maybe, but you gods tamper in the human domain all the time!" "That's... That's different!" "How?" "We are Gods! It's what we do!" "And we are human. Likewise." "I..." The god sighed. "Fair. But keep it quiet, okay?"

Los Angeles Public Library unveils the world’s largest pop-up book www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/07/dani...

I would not have guessed that southeast Colorado had a fishing economy, but now I know.

Today in 1976, 50 years ago, the Viking 1 lander touched down on Chryse Planitia, Mars, and became humanity's first long term outpost on another world (the Venera Venus landers lasted an hour or two, Viking 1 lasted over 6 years).

The fact that the Founders were profoundly imperfect men and not gods is what makes them relevant, not irrelevant.

Seen at a bank, a sign. Photo: A smiling bank employee greeting a pair of customers. Text: PERSONALIZED FINANCIAL PLANNING FROM J.P. MORGAN Meet with an advisor today.. Folks, JP Morgan died in 1913. You could look it up. The smiling lady must be a medium, who will conduct a séance with J.P.

Have you heard the news? A possible new stone or timber circle has been discovered at Machrie Moor on Arainn (Arran) using geophysical survey 🏔️ How do these techniques reveal hidden features below ground? Find out from the investigation's lead archaeologist: www.digitscotland.com/what-is-geop...