Andy Lowry @AndyLowry@qoto.org
Retired SysAdmin living in the high country of Arizona, USA. I enjoy learning about physics, cosmology, genetics, neurology, and suchlike. Deeply confused by worldwide trends towards authoritarianism. I thought we'd already learned about that stuff. But I guess not.
Joined Nov 2022
Andy Lowry
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Hominins, including Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, and Homo neanderthalensis, travelled the Aegean sea 450,000 years ago.
This was about 150,000 years before Homo sapiens (us) emerged in Africa.
Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618222002774
Andy Lowry
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"And may all your active galactic nuclei be bright" 🎅🎄
Lovely new #JWST NIRCam image of the face-on spiral galaxy, NGC7469, in Pegasus.
The big red eight-pointed diffraction spike is due to bright long-wavelength emission from hot gas & dust spiralling into the central supermassive black hole, surrounded by a ring of vigorous star formation.
More info on the data & the GOALS project they come from: https://esawebb.org/images/potm2212a/
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus, A. S. Evans
Andy Lowry
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@Krassenstein
Not to mention the 4th of July visit to Moscow, which still bugs me for some reason even though I know they're completely immune to shame.
@matdesgro @rvaughnmd
That Gandalf fellow always did have a way with words.
@izstranger
Very cool! That's the one that Mr. Knievel was was trying to jump way back when? Lordy, wouldn't want to try THAT, jet or no.
@DeanObeidallah
As an Arizonan, I shudder at the words "Cyber Ninja." Though I guess there's a lot to be said for free entertainment.
Andy Lowry
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Proud to be a #TwitterQuitter. I deactivated my Twitter account and I'm not creating revenue for Elon anymore.
@jayarava
I think it kind of depends on who you're hanging out with. I know several quite critical Zen people, and count myself amongst them, but then again they and I are American, so maybe not a huge sample size. 😉
Steve Hagen, for example, has a little trouble even calling himself a Buddhist or Zen Buddhist since he's opposed to the idea of "belief" in the first place.
Andy Lowry
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I could wish that my article on the Heart Sutra in Tricycle Magazine had gained more traction. It's still there though... https://tricycle.org/magazine/heart-sutra-history/ #buddhism #heartsutra #prajnaparamita
@theghostoftomjoad
I just this moment discovered that the fellow Jayarava whom I mentioned is here on Mastodon, should you ever want a really really deep dive into the "Heart." He's done hundreds of pages of research and reporting on the topic, despite not actually even being a Mahayana guy. 😉 In case you're not already familiar with his work, the Heart topics can be found at
https://jayarava.blogspot.com/
A cheerful Solstice to you.
@jayarava
As I'm sometimes a little slow on the uptake, I only just now noticed that you are here. Thanks for mentioning it on your Raves site, as I would probably not have thought to try to search you out otherwise. Delighted to see you, and I look forward to your commentary and insights.
@b_hawk
I have to confess to thinking Sophocles was "So-fockles," but then I was about twelve at the time and had never heard anybody pronounce it.
Andy Lowry
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Tomorrow is the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and in anticipation of the usual confusion and righteous indignation about the dates for our seasons I'm giving this diagramme, which I made about six years ago, it's first airing on @mastodonie
#solstice #equinox #calendar #meteorological #astronomical #celtic #Mastodaoine
Andy Lowry
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@PenguinJunk @ccferrie @mastodonie
IMO the supposedly "4" seasons are jamming two different categories of thing together.
Summer and winter are astronomical and take up half a year each. Spring and autumn overlap the join and are about whatever the vegetation is doing where you are.
@craigbuchanan
THAT IS GENIUS.
Andy Lowry
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@gregdavill
Cool stuff! Glad to know you're around.
Retired SysAdmin living in the high country of Arizona, USA. I enjoy learning about physics, cosmology, genetics, neurology, and suchlike. Deeply confused by worldwide trends towards authoritarianism. I thought we'd already learned about that stuff. But I guess not.
Joined Nov 2022
