ScottinSoCal 🇺🇦 🕊 🏳‍🌈 @ScottSoCal@computerfairi.es

Third time's a charm as I shop around for a Twitter alternative. I've tried Hive Social, Post, and now I'm hoping that Mastodon is my new hangout.

I mostly post about my virtual adventures as a kids author doing online presentations, but I have an interest in local politics in my home city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I'm sometimes snarky, but I try to be fair and funny.

This video will give you a little idea of my kid author persona.

My brother got called into HR at work today, because he was having a private conversation with someone else about the fact that they give Chick-fil-A giftcards as incentives, and he won't use them because that company is homophobic.

Conservatives are such snowflakes that the truth hurts their feelings.

Hello and a good meowing everyone! Have a most wonderful day and stay safe ❤️

When you only have 30 minutes break but you need to both eat and exercise.

Sorry #Terminator but for most #maga cultists your amazing message will never be understood.
They passed already the point of no return.

I support drag as freedom of speech.
I support drag as artistic expression.
I support drag artists as human beings with inalienable rights.

I reject bullying, including using the law.

Trans is beautiful.
Gay is beautiful.

#trans #LGBTQIA #drag

You don’t hear YOLO very much anymore because all those people are dead.

Many on the right have openly embraced “Christian nationalism” as a goal, even though it is wholly anathema to our fundamental democratic values and cherished personal freedoms.

How have we stumbled our way toward the Gilead America of The Handmaid’s Tale? And how do we fight back against it? That’s today’s subject in The Big Picture. Visit this link to read my team's latest piece on the topic: https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/christian-nationalism-threat-democracy-freedom

Photo by Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Musk apologized to Halli, his attorneys must have demanded it:

Many galaxies have a 'supermassive black hole' at their center. These range from hundreds of thousands to billions times the mass of our Sun.

I was shocked to read that astronomers have found evidence for a supermassive black hole shooting out of its host galaxy.

They've seen a long thin feature - apparently a 'wake' of shocked gas and young stars - stretching 200,000 light years from the galaxy's center and ending in a bright object that's putting out 100 million times more power than our Sun.

This is consistent with a supermassive black hole that was thrown out the galactic center at a speed of 1600 kilometers/second, which has been traveling for about 40 million years. This speed is faster than the galactic escape velocity!

But what could be muscular enough to throw a supermassive black hole around?

Only two possibilities are known.

One is another supermassive black hole. When two galaxies collide, their central black holes meet - and may start orbiting each other. If a third galaxy with its own supermassive black hole crashes in, one of the three black holes can get flung out.

That seems quite reasonable to me: galactic collisions are fairly common.

The other possibility is weirder.

When two black holes collide, they can emit gravitational radiation that's beamed mainly in one direction... and this can give them a 'kick' in the opposite direction. I find this surprising in the first place. And it's more surprising that this effect can be big enough to kick a black hole out of a galaxy! But that's what some calculations say.

The paper is here:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.04888

and for more about the kick caused by gravitational waves, try this:

https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0702133

Just added the mugshot back to my LinkedIn profile because why not?

Always read the manual before assembling your Zelda.

Oh dear Lord! Fox is fucked. I hope Dominion takes them to the cleaners. The evidence of malicious libel is blatant and beyond doubt.

If you think a man should be worshipped because he has billions of dollars, then you’re a very special kind of moron.

Got dolled up yesterday cause I had a teacher parent conference for my kindergartener.

I don’t often put on make up but when I do I like to have fun & be super girly with it.

💋❤️🥰