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

This is Arp 271, a pair of spiral galaxies locked in a gravitational dance. In a few billion years the #MilkyWay and the Andromeda galaxy might look like this!

This is the very last #photo ever taken with the VIMOS instrument at ESO's Very Large #Telescope in #Chile, back in 2018. After I finished the decommissioning procedures that night, I decided to take one last image as a farewell, and this was the result.

➡️ https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1821a/

#astrodon #astronomy #space #astrophotography

As a violinist, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Dorset back country.

As I was not familiar with the country lanes, I got lost and, being a typical man, I didn't stop for directions.

I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guys had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch.

I felt bad and apologised to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play.

The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends.

I played like I've never played before for this homeless man.

And as I played 'Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished I packed up my violin and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full.

As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "I never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."

26 year old david filling an escalade with clothes, and driving from texas --> new york, to live with my best friend

#throwbackthursday #tbt #selfie

The Monterey Bay Aquarium have announced their departure from Twitter with this.

If you didn’t already love Fani Willis, love her for this simple clause:

"In light of Defendant Donald John Trump’s other criminal and civil matters pending in the courts of our sister sovereigns ..." https://law-and-politics.online/@Teri_Kanefield/110901306376545526

One problem with leaving the birdsite is that I had built up a reasonable list of illustrators to follow there, and I really haven't here. But I bet they're around. If you're a #fantasy or #sciencefiction or #comedy #illustrator, especially if you're interested in commissions from an author, give this post a like so I can check out your work. Or recommend me someone in the comments. Or boost this so more people see it. Or just tell me what good hashtags I should be following.
#illustration #sff

James Baldwin said it best. #BlackMastodon #Mastodon #JamesBaldwin

Marion attorney withdraws search warrant against Kansas newspaper; returns items https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/marion-county-attorney-withdraws-search-warrant-against-kansas-newspaper-returns-items

We don’t deserve dogs. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

#Dogs #Love #ServiceDogs #Dog

@StillIRise1963
I hate white Supremacy just as much. We got years of death threats and vandalism when we moved into a formerly restricted "white" suburb in 1971. That was just for being brown, I can't begin to understand how bad it is for black people.

High school sound track: Section: Forbidden music. Subsection: Andrew's boom box collection. This song is called My First Christmas As a Woman. It's a punk track, and it may not even appeal to my trans friends. But, I'm putting it here anyway, because it survived the anti-cult library purge.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vlbcz60z42wctfo9hdzbu/The-Vandals-My-First-Christmas-As-A-Woman.mp3?rlkey=2d6io6ve6x705ec8wegc193aa&dl=0

Amplify #Bidenomics, IRA: Rural Mingo Co, WV, is one of America’s poorest counties. ~1/3 of its residents live below the poverty line, only 1/3 of its pop. is employed & countless lives -upended by opioid addiction. But this community scored a badly needed win this Apr when Adams Fork Energy & CNX Resources unveiled plans to build the nation’s largest clean ammonia PROD facility there.
The $3B project -expected to support 2,000 CONST jobs & generate an influx of tax rev. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/08/16/economy/jobs-inflation-reduction-act-clean-energy/index.html

Stian Jensen, Director of the Private Office of the NATO Secretary General, stated Ukraine should cede territory to Putin in exchange for NATO membership. Giving a prize for genocide is absolutely a recipe for disaster. #FireJensen
#StandWithUkraine

#USA
Mark Meadows seeks to move Georgia case to federal court
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9616oXBZA0

@ScottSoCal
I’m still struggling with the #s as someone who owned a chevy geo in the 90s (50 mpg, struggled to go up hills I’ll admit 😂) A honda fit in the 00s (~50 mpg) & the prius c (I’m a small car lover 🚙) that just got totaled (also ~50 mpg). Feels like opportunties to truly improve mpg have existed in the last 30 years. Not dissing the better mileage some sedans & trucks are getting but ….Im also seriously depressed we dont have flying cars yet so I have lots of issues 🤷🏼‍♀️

https://t.me/liveukraine_media/12809
⚡️🇺🇦The installation of the Ukrainian coat of arms on the Motherland monument will be completed by August 23. The builders have already sewn up the shield with metal, and now they are welding the plates of the shield and trident. The Ministry of Culture says that the work is on schedule. #Ukraine #Press #News #Russia #RussiaUkraineWar #9yrInvasionofUkraine #WantedDeadOrAlive
#PutinEndTheInvasion