Anna Richards @MsHouseMD@qoto.org

now that our server qoto.org is (temporarily) not listed in the main mastodon website joinmastodon.org, it seems convenient to promote our server directly in the birdsite. Therefore please follow the link below and like or retweet the post, so that it will be ranked higher in the search field of the #birdsite
@freemo @Gargron

https://twitter.com/eantonicelli/status/1594080051494002688?t=DXyofpLz3gIXczviUa_TNw&s=19

How freakin' cool. A #meteor was picked up by EarthCam's CN Tower webcam in #Toronto.

Several hours before it hit, David Rankin at NASA's Catalina Sky Survey spotted the object, and Michael Busch started a thread: https://mastodon.online/@michael_w_busch/109368965024525842.

As the night unfolded: https://groups.io/g/mpml/topic/c8ff042_probable_impactor/95129080

EarthCam archives about a day's worth of video, so you can still catch it here: https://www.earthcam.com/world/canada/toronto/cntower/?cam=towerview. Tap Archive, select the 3-4AM clip and scroll to the 3:25:56 mark. #astronomy #space

The German word "bitte" means "please".

Combined with other words, it means more:

Bittebitte! (expandable by as many "bitte" as you want) = Prettyplease!
Wie bitte? = Say what?
Bitteschön (literally: pleasenice) = There you are.
Bittesehr (pleasevery) = There you are.
Na, bitte! = Told you so.
Also bitte! = Stop that!
Aber bitte doch! = Go ahead!
Bitte was? = That's impossible.
WIE BITTE?! = ARE YOU F*CKING SERIOUS?!

Enjoy our language!

Fall aflame at #UVic

So it seems joinmastodon removed QOTO from their directory without cause, without contacting us, and without any discussion or due diligence.

Since this is the only way to actually find QOTO for new users if it isnt reversed soon it could mean the end for our wonderful community.

If you care about this place remaining fair, respectful, and inclusive environment I highly suggest everyone reach out to them annd voice your objecttion and your disapointment and having no procedure to keep this fair and inclusive.

If you want to see QOTO stick around you can email your objecttion here:

hello@joinmastodon.org

Feel free to CC me here: jeffrey.freeman@qoto.org

Please be respectful, we want to show them we are the good guys and not give them any reason to object.

@Gargron @trinsec @khird

Welcome to longtime scicomm friend and inspiration @JenLucPiquant !

Brief trip to London #london #photography

So, in today’s incredibly interconnected society, this seems like a reasonable plan, although why 2035 is set as the deadline for adding leap seconds as opposed to, err, now, I don’t know.

Still, philosophically, it perhaps marks another drifting disconnect between the physical world, the linked to the passage of the Sun, stars, & seasons, & the technological bubble we humans now inhabit.

And for that reason, this decision makes me slightly sad. But I’m weird like that 🤷‍♂️

Of course, the imprecise UT1 solar time & atomic-clock based UTC will still drift apart & adjustments will still be needed to avoid getting too disconnected from physical sunrise & sunset.

But the idea is to accumulate a bigger offset of one minute, which should take 50-100 years, & then make the last minute of the year twice as long as normal, meaning just a little more anticipation before the New Year’s fireworks & champagne 🎉🍾

But adding extra seconds to all of our clocks worldwide can cause all sorts of problems in today’s highly technological & interconnected society, where precise time-stamping is critical in many systems.

So this week in Paris, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) at the 27th General Conference on Weights and Measure, decided to stop the practice of adding leap seconds by or before 2035.

The idea of leap seconds is to keep UT1 & UTC no more than 0.9 seconds apart, & as above, 27 such seconds have been added to UTC since 1972.

They’re added irregularly as the slowing of Earth’s rotation rate depends on our molten core, ocean currents, & even climate change, as the ice caps melt.

If we didn’t adjust UTC to match UT1, then over ~50,000-100,000 years (I think 🧐), our clocks would drift apart by ~12 hours & the Sun would be at its highest at 00:00 & it’d be midnight at 12:00.

Observed solar time (UT1) is tied to Earth’s rotation & when we see the Sun & distant objects in the universe rise & set in our skies.

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is a human construct, the time our civilisation runs on, & is tied to International Atomic Time (TAI), the fundamental flow of time measured in labs.

Because of tidal friction between Earth & the Moon, our planet’s rotation is slowing & our day gets longer, so UT1 & UTC drift apart.

Everyone knows about leap years, when an extra day at the end of (almost) every fourth February accounts for a full solar year taking 365.2422 rotations of Earth.

Leap seconds, however, adjust for the irregular slowing of that rotation: 27 have been added since 1972.

But that’s going to stop in 2035, & solar time & atomic clock time will be allowed to drift up to a minute different 👇

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/18/do-not-adjust-your-clock-scientists-call-time-on-the-leap-second

I joined this site a fortnight ago today.

I did not have a clue how it worked, or about its lore and culture.

Now, it seems intuitive - though not because I am adept but because networks and protocols are familiar and practical things.

We use them all the time: www, mobiles, emails, etc.

And this place is structured to encourage calm civility.

It was Twitter which was strange and, in many ways, inhumane - rewarding clicks and rage and vileness.

We just got used to it.

And now we are out.

First look at the #Moon from the #Orion capsule. Image via @AndySaunders_1@twitter

I guess it's time for #introductions over here. I'm a human geneticist/computational biologist working at Seattle Children's Research. I come from population genetics but now working on individual genomes and looking forward to getting into long read. Pick a phenotype, any phenotype.

I'm just as likely to be posting about life, hiking, running, swimming. Mother of a schizophrenic son and hugely advocating for understanding and compassion. Also possibly pictures of food.

The BioSentinel spacecraft was one of 10 CubeSats deployed by Artemis yesterday. The astrobiology mission will use yeast to study DNA damage and repair due to radiation in deep space, far beyond low earth orbit (LEO).

The study, led by NASA Ames, will use two strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which will be activated at different times during the 6-12 month mission, in a solar orbit similar to that of earth.

https://www.nasa.gov/ames/biosentinel

Go #Artemis #BioSentinel

The Medieval Werewolves Course at Clockworks Academy begins tomorrow! Sign up and join us! I GUARANTEE* you'll love it!

*not a guarantee

https://clockworksacademy.com/courses/werewolf-course

#Artemis1 is going to produce a lot of science not only about the #moon, but #radiation, #space and even a little bit of help for people living on #Earth.

I recently wrote about 10 passengers and payloads, some flying on the #Orion spacecraft for #STEM purposes and others carrying a wide variety of #science in #space right now.

https://www.space.com/artemis-1-strange-things-moon-mission

#artemis #nasa