Doug Merson @Micromineral@qoto.org

A two frame composite of the Milky Way and my kitty "Ding" waiting for me to join him in the freezing cold tent. Ding loved to go camping with me. I sure do missing Schrödinger, the Kampin' Kitty 💔. (Photo: Massacre Rim, International Dark Sky Sanctuary, Nevada (5/23/2020).)

#AstroPhotography #MilkyWay #Astronomy #Camping #CatsOfMastodon #Photography #LinuxPhotography #Darktable #GIMP

Throwback to hanging out at one of the most famous fault locations in the world - Wallace Creek.

The 1st image is of me standing near the current location of the creek on the downstream side of the fault. The 2nd image is a lidar image from OpenTopography of the fault with the location where I’m standing in the 1st image marked by an ❌.

#sanandreasfault #earthquake #wallacecreek #geology #lidar

Fantastic Wulfenite From Red Cloud Mine, Silver District, Trigo Mts., La Paz Co., #Arizona, #USA.
Photo Copyright ©️ @qileisi1987/IG

The kids are going to be alright. They're fighting like hell for their future. Will you join them?

Orange County valedictorian calls on school board members to resign at graduation

“Our teachers get paid virtually nothing, yet they protect their student body to the highest standard possible. What do they get in return? They’re called groomers by parents on Facebook. Instead of our school board backing these teachers, they buy into the narrative and concern themselves more with depriving students of their basic freedoms, releasing policies to take away Black history and forcibly outing students who are not heterosexual,” Mthethwa said, calling on the immediate resignation of three members of the Orange County School Board."

https://dailyprogress.com/community/orangenews/orange-county-valedictorian-calls-on-school-board-members-to-resign-at-graduation/article_a1cbcf70-f9af-11ed-9eff-ff57adb96e35.html

#Antifa #Education #News

Terrible news for the environment today. Sadly though, not unexpected news.

Small and "isolated" wetlands have connections in the groundwater system and treating these isolated wetlands as something that can be plowed under or build over is going to have serious environmental issues.

But ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/25/politics/supreme-court-wetlands-authority-epa/index.html

The US Supreme Court Clean Water Act decision could be disastrous for wetland protection - and therefore for our nation's flood risks and water quality. The continuous surface test ignores the physical / hydrologic realities of wetlands.

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/25/1178150234/supreme-court-epa-clean-water-act

#CleanWaterAct #WOTUS #Water #SupremeCourt #Wetlands #WetlandProtection

My shorthand for the approach we most need in election coberage is this:

"Not the odds, but the stakes."

How does this work in practice? Margaret Sullivan answers that in The Guardian today. "Now’s the time to think about just how bad a DeSantis presidency would be."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/25/ron-desantis-florida-record-presidential-campaign?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Not how DeSantis plans to outwit Trump and then succeed in "the general" (itself an insidery phrase...) but what life would be like if he took power.

Not the odds, but the stakes.

#uspol #journalism

I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore - or are we?

While much of the state is flat or punctuated by rolling hills, Kansas features some unique geological sights, including Monument Rocks in the western part of the state. Part of a series of badlands with notable fossil deposits, the outcrops are carved out of limestone that was deposited when the area was covered by an inland sea during the Cretaceous. The formations rise 21 m (70 ft) above the landscape.

#Photography #Kansas #Geology

Pro-Tip: Anytime you see a headline about a bill dying/passing "in Congress," always think to yourself:

That’s a Both Sides framing.

The ERA bill did not fail in the Senate today, it was filibustered by the Republicans. The Framing that it failed in the Senate is a way to distribute the failure to Both Sides.

The hostage note that K-Mac passed today is another one; not one Democrat voted for it, so the Republicans passed that bill, not The House.

/Rant
#FailedPress

#BothSidesDont

Amongst other fun on a family visit to Boston this week, we visited the Bunker Hill Monument, which it turns out is not on Bunker Hill, because neither was the Battle of Bunker Hill (a pyrrhic victory for the British in the Revolutionary War) that it commemorates.

The monument is built of granite: I didn’t see any on the monument itself, but the curbstones on the walkway around it had some very nice pegmatite veins. #geology #rocks

Today Jim Jordan is holding a Judiciary Committee hearing in NYC to attack Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for prosecuting Trump. Yet Jordan will NOT hold a hearing to investigate Clarence Thomas's obvious misconduct. This is what WEAPONIZATION of the govt looks like! My new CNN http://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/17/opinions/jim-jordan-clarence-thomas-judiciary-committee-obeidallah/index.html

Here’s a simple idea: If you’re going to have ‘news’ in the name of your company, report actual news. Don’t just make stuff up because your audience doesn’t want to hear the truth.

I’ve posted about the Great Unconformity several times now (and you still must capitalize it), and had the chance to see when visiting the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area in Las Vegas.

After almost 5 years, I didn’t trust I’d be able to find it again. I decided to search Google maps and sure enough, there it was. Thank you to the wonderful person who put it on the map, and thank you Google for adding it! See the location below.

In the last picture it is in the rocks near the left of the picture where the trail can be seen and the metal sign is standing (zoom in). They are the same rocks layers known as the Great Unconformity at the bottom of the Grand Canyon in an easily accessible part of Las Vegas. You’re welcome.

The Great Unconformity
https://maps.app.goo.gl/THA4SbtdXtqvVotVA?g_st=ic

Refresher:
Tapeats Sandstone - 525 million years old
Vishnu Schist - 1.7 billion years old
Time Gap of 1.2 billion years = The Great Unconformity

The crazy vivid colours of an Azure Kingfisher just before sunrise this morning

We followed this one as it worked its way upstream, finding a new perch after each dive into the river. Despite these bright colours, they're surprisingly difficult to see when they're not moving

#WildOz #OzBirds #birds South Pine River

If this insane ruling by the Texas judge is allowed to stand, any drug could be open to being removed by a judge overriding the FDA. And it could go the other way as another judge could literally tell the FDA to approve an unsafe or ineffective drug because a drug maker or a citizen wants it available. This judge is not qualified to overrule or second guess the experts, scientists, and medical professionals on what is a safe and effective medication after intense scrutiny and rigorous testing. And if this stands, what will happen to other regulatory agencies in this country if someone, say, doesn't like the fact they cannot dump sewage in the ocean and sues in court to override the clean water act so he can dispose of his raw sewage in the nearest river or ocean? The ramifications of this ruling could be wide-reaching and devastating to everyone.
#AbortionIsHealthcare #AbortionRights #FuckJudgeKacsmaryk
#StandUp #FightBack

Leonidas is King of the Bookcase

#cat #CatsOfMastodon #books #bookshelf

For those of you who might be wondering - here are the original photographs that the two Polaroids above are derived from.

These were shot on very expired Ektachrome E100G on an overcast winter day, these are the colours exactly as they came out on the original slides!

You can 'correct' the colour on slides like these but honestly I like them just as they are 💜 If I wanted accurate colour I'd use fresh film!

#BelieveInFilm

#caturday

Andres Amador’s sacred geometry art. #art #sacredgeometry

I don't know about you but I want an organization of people trained in medicine to determine what drugs to put to market, like say the FDA, and not some lone rando judge who may be educated in the law but not much more.