@JamesGleick I actually muted @pluralistic for quite a while because I couldn't stand my feed being flooded with his posts. It's much more manageable now with the CWs since I can visually filter when I want or click into a thread when I want.
I've started adding an extra credit question to all my exams that is, in a nutshell, "Describe, in detail, some topic you studied for the exam but that the exam did not cover".
Most of the responses I get are of the form "I found <thing> really interesting and studied it in great detail, but you didn't ask me enough about it and I want to talk about it more."
This is super rewarding.
Cool pic and great story!
"In the early hours of Saturday morning, Todd Salat was outside near Delta Junction doing he what he does often: directing his camera at the sky, hoping to capture dazzling images of the aurora borealis.
That’s when the Anchorage-based photographer saw something wild — a sudden, bright light on the northern horizon that quickly started to take on a spiral shape as it drew nearer.
“It got bigger and bigger,” Salat said Saturday. “And I had absolutely no idea what it was.”
The white-ish blue spiral appeared to moving quickly. After about five minutes, it was almost overhead, he said.
“It was a beautiful piece of art in the sky,” he said. “I would say this was maybe the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen in my life."
It was rocket engine exhaust from a SpaceX Transporter-7 mission that launched on the Falcon 9 in CA.
#Alaska #NorthernLightsPlus
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2023/04/15/mysterious-glowing-spiral-in-the-sky-over-alaska-draws-questions-and-a-simple-explanation/
re: subpost
@izaya why are you shitting on Americans? our electoral system isn't even nearly one of the worst
I have an indoor cat. She greets me at the front door, like a good indoor cat.
Except this morning, when I returned home in an unfamiliar car, from the wrong direction. As I got out of the car I saw my good indoor cat barrel down a treetrunk, scoot across the lawn, and leap up a wall and through a window I didn't know she could access.
Then she demurely greeted me at the front door like any good indoor cat.
How long has this been going on?
Carving #trilobites and am cursing myself. Blanks I cut about a year ago, and must have been trying to use up odd pieces… cut the one in front with the grain running sideways instead of lengthwise… oops! It’s making carving… interesting…
@est thanks for sharing. I hope symptoms lessen for you.
Took my kids to MicroCenter today to get parts for their very first built-completely-to-spec PCs. Gave them a budget and just kept them from making any actually-bad purchases.
Highlights: the sales person that helped with the keyboard and mouse selection was a younger gamer enby, and did a great job engaging with helping the kids make good choices like "prioritize stats over aesthetic, but still honor your aesthetic".
Kid1 saying "I want my tower to be pink; but not if I have to pay a Pink Tax", and the sales person helping her finding a case that was pink, met requirements, and wasn't more expensive than a black one.
Kid2 saying, to my surprise, "I'll spend the extra $30 on the AMD GPU because the Linux drivers are better and I want to run Manjaro" (clearly she took my advice to do some research! Holy crap!)
@Jorvon_Moss C2-E2?
A capable software engineer and aspirating (sic) cook. Also posting about space stuff (mostly NASA) occasionally
pronouns: he, him