Week 47-25 - Curiosities

Greetings from the Mesa

This past week we were greeted with another awesome night of aurora/northern lights courtesy of a X5.1 solar flare. The reds danced across the northern night sky, while a green glow as bright as a cities light pollution hugged the horizon. It was WOW! So grateful for another night of aurora in New Mexico. I'm still plugging away at my so-far secret projects. Winter is coming on slowly here... still no snow, but lots of cold! The wood stove is go-man-going!

Curiosities of the Week

1. The next Carrington-level solar superstorm could wipe out 'all our satellites,' new simulations reveal (Live Science). Pair that with this happy news - SpaceX’s Satellites Are Falling From the Sky Every Single Day (Popular Mechanics). Nobody knows what any of this is doing to the stratosphere, to our planet, or to us. "It's raining bullshit tonight".
2. I am here for all things Africanfuturist. This animation looks terrific, please consider supporting it! Crocodile Dance - An indie animated thriller where a musician reclaims her voice to face the Mami Wata, a monster goddess threatening her family.(Kickstarter)
3. Turning MRIs into artwork: (Youtube) How an Oregon artist - Lindsey Holcomb - transforms pain into beauty. Gorgeous!
4. Cornell University Library on Archive.org - >76,000 classic books scanned.
5. Road Trips Where America Shines (NYTimes-Gift Link). I'm definitely putting a visit to the Drive-In resort in San Luis Valley on the bucket list.

Consuming

Currently Reading: Someone on Mastodon recommended Playground by Richard Powers. I loved it! I also recently finished Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's Wizard of The Crow and found it to be a perfect companion for the times we are living in right now... tin pot dictators, wizards, and feckless sycophants galore.

TV/Movies: Apple TV is delivering the goods this fall. Enjoying Down Cemetery Road and Pluribus immensely. Also enjoying season 2 of Matlock although it's been a little hit or miss this season. Network TV is just so vanilla and formulaic compared to the streamers.

Music: Emily King finally on Tiny Desk

Thinking about: the difference in response to the Epstein emails was in Bluesky and Mastodon. Bluesky was all legal, social and political response, Mastodon was all nerdy/techy response. Both interesting and illuminating.

Thanks for reading, see you next time!