Web Pages:

https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/astronomy-photographer-year/galleries/2024-shortlist

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gF40e8azWQ

75 Random Facts - A Series:

31. Big Ben's clock stopped at 10:07 p.m. on 27 May 2005, most likely due to an extremely hot temperature of 31.8 degrees Celsius.

32. Walt Disney currently holds the record for most Academy Awards. During his career, he won 26 Oscars and was nominated 59 times.

33. There's a fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding. Can we get in on this? Black sapote, a fruit native to Central and South America, tastes like chocolate and sweet custard.

34. Queen Elizabeth II was a trained mechanic. When she was 16, she joined the British employment agency at the Labour Exchange and learned the basics of truck repair. Apparently, she could repair tyres and engines.

35. The Easter Island heads have bodies—those iconic stone heads—you know the ones. In the 2010s, archaeologists found that two Pacific Island figures had torsos that measured as high as 33 feet.

36. M&Ms are named after the businessmen who created them. But what do the M's stand for? Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie didn't have the best relationship as Mars leveraged Merrie out of his 20% share of the business before it became the biggest-selling sweet in the US. Ouch.

37. Pigeons can tell the difference between Picasso and Monet. What?! A 1995 study shows that birds can differentiate between the two artists.

38. A hashtag's real name is an octothorpe. The 'octo' refers to the eight points in the symbol, but according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the 'thorpe' part is a mystery.

39. The actors who voiced Mickey and Minnie Mouse married in real life. Russi Taylor (Minnie)and Wayne Allwine (Mickey) tied the knot in 1991.

40. You can hear a blue whale's heartbeat four kilometres away. Blue whales weigh between 130,000 and 150,000kg, and their hearts weigh roughly 180kg.

41. The last letter added to the English alphabet was 'J'. The letter dates back to 1524, and before that, the letter 'i' was used for both the 'i's and 'j' sounds.

42. There is a word for someone who gives an opinion on something they know nothing about. An 'ultracrepidarian' is someone who voices thoughts beyond their expertise.

43. Salvador Dalí designed the Chupa Chups logo. The surrealist artist designed the logo in 1969.

44. Ketchup was once sold as medicine. In 1834, the condiment was prescribed and sold to people suffering from indigestion.

45. The world's longest walking distance is 2,255 kilometres. You can walk from Magadan in Russia to Cape Town in South Africa. It requires no flying or sailing - just bridges and open roads.

Techie Tips:

Quick Pin Your Location in Apple Maps

Don’t open your Maps app - just Long press on the Apple Maps Icon on your screen. A selection menu appears with options -

Mark my Location,

Send my Location,

Search Nearby

This is a quick and easy way to drop a pin to make getting back to your parked car easy or to send directions to your location to a friend who is looking for you.

In the Photo option, click and hold on 1x. A Zoom wheel appears for fine zoom settings.

In Photo setting press and hold photo shutter to change to video - then with finger still on screen slide upwards to zoom in.In Portrait setting you cna choose a variety of lighting and focus option from a dial.

The Names Of Things You Probably Didn't Know Had Names:

1. The space between your eyebrows is called a glabella.

2. The way it smells after it rains is called petrichor.

3. The plastic or metallic coating at the end of your shoelaces is called an aglet.

4. When your stomach rumbles, that's a wamble.

5. The cry of a newborn baby is called a vagitus.

6. The prongs of a fork are called tines.

7. The sheen of light that you see when you close your eyes and press your hands on them is called phosphenes.

8. The tiny plastic thing in the middle of a pizza box is called a box tent.

9. The day after tomorrow is called overmorrow.

10. Your little toe or finger is called the minimus.

11. The wired cage that holds the cork on a bottle of champagne is called an agraffe.

12. The 'na na na' and 'la la la', which don't have any meaning in the lyrics of any song, are called vocables.

13. Combining a question mark with an exclamation mark (?!) is referred to as an interrobang.

14. The space between your nostrils is called columella nasi.

15. The armhole in clothes, where the sleeves are sewn, is called armscye.

16. Finding it difficult to get out of bed in the morning is called dysania.

17. Illegible handwriting is called griffonage.

18. The dot over an "i" or a "j" is called tittle.

19. That sick feeling you get after eating or drinking too much is called crapulence.

20. The metal thing used to measure your feet at the shoe store is called the Bannock device.

10 Powerful AI Prompts for Fact-Checking Mainstream Media:

News Source Verification Prompt

Prompt: “Verify the credibility of the news source and check if it has a history of spreading misinformation or biased content. (paste article or link to news story)”

Cross-Referencing Prompt

Prompt: “Cross-reference key facts and claims with multiple reputable sources to confirm the accuracy and legitimacy of this news article. (paste article)”

Contextual Analysis Prompt

Prompt: “Analyse the context surrounding the news story, including events leading up to it, to provide a comprehensive understanding and prevent misinterpretation. (paste article)”

Data Verification Prompt

Prompt: “Verify the statistical data and figures mentioned in the news article through reliable databases and official sources to ensure accuracy. (paste article)”

Expert Opinion Prompt

Prompt: “Who are the subject matter experts or authorities in relevant fields to validate complex claims or provide additional insights that this news article discusses”

Image and Video Verification Prompt

Prompt: “What are the top reverse image and video search tools to verify the authenticity of visual content and identify any instances of manipulation or misinformation?”

Language Analysis Prompt

Prompt: “Conduct linguistic analysis to detect any misleading language or rhetorical techniques used in the following news article that could distort the truth. (paste news article)”

Fact-Checking Databases Prompt

Prompt: “What are the top reputable fact-checking databases and organizations that can verify the accuracy of specific claims or debunk common myths.”

Timeline Reconstruction Prompt

Prompt: “Reconstruct the timeline of events mentioned in the following news article to identify any discrepancies or inaccuracies in the reporting. (paste news article.”

Social Media Monitoring Prompt

Prompt: “Analyze the following social media posted news story for reactions and discussions that pay attention to any emerging inconsistencies or debunked claims.”

Sketchplanations:

It’s always been mind-boggling to me how some of the largest and heaviest things we build on Earth are ships that float on water. Cruise ships are like floating towns, some able to accommodate over 5,000 people. How can it be that these gigantic, impossibly heavy objects made of steel can float on water? The key is displacement and realising the considerable weight that the water already supports.

In a lake or ocean, each drop of water is supported by the water around it. 1m³ of fresh water weighs 1 metric tonne, which is 1,000 kg. If a ship displaces 1m³ of water, the buoyant force of the surrounding water supports 1 tonne of the ship’s weight. Therefore, a ship weighing 50,000 tonnes will just float if it displaces 50,000m³ of water.

Sea water contains salt, which makes it denser than freshwater. As the denser water supports a greater weight, a ship will float slightly higher in salt water than in fresh. The International Load Line, previously called the Plimsoll line, shows how deep a boat sits in the water.

To realise the immense power of water, you can try submerging a biscuit tin in a bath. It’ll put up quite a fight.

The Automation Paradox is that the better our machines get, the more we struggle when they fail.

I wrote this before this week's largest IT outage ever, but it's rather appropriate. When systems go down, previously straightforward things can't be done like checking in for flights, buying tickets for trains, or pay for coffee.

More generally, when heading out for a hike in the woods, it's tempting to skip the map and compass and rely on our phones and apps for navigation. Yet when we encounter no signal or lose power, we can find ourselves in a sticky situation. Or perhaps, like me, you've come to rely on popping your destination into the satnav or Google Maps whenever you get in the car and have nearly forgotten the ability to navigate without it.

These situations illustrate the paradox of automation, where the more sophisticated and automated our machines and technologies become, the more bewildered we find ourselves when they inevitably fail. Or: the smarter the machines get, the dumber we might get.

In his book Messy, Tim Harford suggests three strands to the paradox as our machines get more sophisticated:

Automation covers up our mistakes, hiding our incompetence, meaning we may not learn to correct ourselves—consider autocorrect cleaning up our typos as we go.When we rely on automation, we get less practice for our skills, so even highly skilled individuals may find their expertise diminishing—perhaps you've found yourself using your phone calculator for a trivial calculation.When the easy scenarios are taken care of, failures may occur in complex or unpredictable ways that we may find especially difficult to recover from—like a subtle but persistent failure in the steering of a passenger plane, recovering from a skid on an icy road, or when you're deeply lost in the wilderness.

More sophisticated technology can even make it useless or more dangerous when it fails. Older cars used to be reparable forever. Now, if your vehicle fails, it's likely to need plugging in at the dealership to figure out what's up. How many electronic devices are thrown away because somewhere inside, some tiny loose connection or component makes the whole thing worthless? Were pilots and flight crews better prepared and able to improvise before the autopilot became ubiquitous?

I often wish our devices would fail more like an escalator or an electric toothbrush. If an escalator fails, you can still walk up it. If your electric toothbrush dies, you can still use it to brush your teeth. These could be called Technology-Enhanced Products, perhaps. But when most of our devices die, they're often rendered worthless.

Automation and sophisticated machines help me so much. I did use Grammarly to help check this post. I use Google Maps nearly every time I put in my destination to home, and I often use a calculator to check my maths. But I do pay attention to grammar corrections, bring a paper map when I can, and keep trying to do the maths in my head.

But as Tim Harford explains it (podcast episode), we still face "the paradox of automation: the better the machines get, the more bewildered we are when the machines fail."

“When people worry about your mental diet, they tend to fret about the junk you’re pouring into your brain—the trashy videos, the cheap horror movies, the degrading reality TV, and ... I’m not so worried about the dangers of mental junk food. That’s because I’ve found that many of the true intellectuals I’ve met take pleasure in mental junk food too.

Having a taste for trashy rom-coms hasn’t rotted their brain or made them incapable of writing great history or doing deep physics. No, my worry is that, you won’t put enough really excellent stuff into your brain. I’m talking about what you might call the “theory of maximum taste.”

This theory is based on the idea that exposure to genius has the power to expand your consciousness. If you spend a lot of time with genius, your mind will end up bigger and broader than if you spend your time only with run-of-the-mill stuff. The theory of maximum taste says that each person’s mind is defined by its upper limit—the best that it habitually consumes and is capable of consuming.”

— David Brooks (lightly edited for clarity)

Article:

Ranking The Top 100 Professional Athletes Since the Year 2000:

I am not going to post the article here as it is very long. However, if you are a sports buff or looking to start a friendly debate, there is some tremendous writing and thinking gone into curating this list. I found it fascinating.

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/40446224/top-100-athletes-21st-century

The Top Five Only as a Taster:

1. Michael Phelps, Swimming

Key accomplishments:

Record 28-time Olympic medalist, 23-time Olympic gold medalist, most gold medals at a single Olympics when he won eight at Beijing in 2008.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phelps earned a historic eight gold medals, more than any athlete in a single Olympics, while breaking world records in seven of his eight races. Throughout the Games, fans and members of the media tried to crack the code on what made Phelps -- who eventually won 23 Olympic gold medals and became the most decorated Olympian of all time -- so unbeatable. His mother, Debbie Phelps, was in Beijing,and often fielded their questions. Was it his size-14 feet? His extra-long arms? His breakfast regimen? "No," Debbie answered repeatedly. "It's his hard work."

2. Serena Williams, Tennis

Key accomplishments:

23-time major champion (second most by any player all time), women's record 365 major match wins, 73 career titles are fifth most by a woman in the Open era.

There is little that Williams didn't achieve during her record-setting career, including winning 23 major titles. But it might have been her last one that was the most improbable. Sheneeded to win one more Grand Slam to break the tie with Steffi Graf for most in the Open era (which began in 1968) -- a mark Williams said she had been "chasing for a really long time" -- and remained in the 2017 Australian Open draw even after finding out she was pregnant shortly before competition began. She was in peak Serena form, never dropping a set enroute to a final showdown with her sister Venus. She defeated Venus to take sole ownershipof the record.

Williams played in four more major finals after her return from maternity leave and a complicated childbirth. She didn't win another title. "The way I see it, I should have had 30-plus Grand Slams," Williams wrote in Vogue in a 2022 essay announcing her impending retirement. "I didn't get there ... But I showed up 23 times, and that's fine. Actually it's extraordinary."

3. Lionel Messi, Football

Key accomplishments:

10-time LaLiga champion, seven-time Copa del Rey winner, four-time Champions League winner, six-time Champions League top scorer, 17-time FIFAFIFPRO World 11, World Cup winner, two-time Copa America winner, two-time FIFA World Cup Golden Ball winner, eight-time Ballon d'Or winner, record goal scorer for Barcelona and Argentina.

Messi winning the World Cup in Argentina in 2022 was perhaps the biggest Hollywood ending that football has ever seen. After losing the 2014 final, it looked like it would never happen for Messi, who had won everything else in the game for club and country, but thecrowning moment of his career finally arrived at age 34. He scored twice in the final as Argentina beat France on penalties, sparking an outpouring of emotion and celebrations around the globe. "This guy transcends rivalries -- even between Brazil and Argentina," Brazil legend Ronaldo said. "I saw Brazilians and people all over the world rooting for Messi. It's a fitting finale for a genius who has marked an era."

4. LeBron James, Basketball

Key accomplishments:

NBA 75th Anniversary team, NBA's all-time scoring leader, 20-time All-Star, 19-time All-NBA selection, six-time All-Defense, four-time MVP, four-time Finals MVP, four-time NBA champion, three-time All-Star Game MVP.

The "48 special" game happened 17 years ago this spring. That's when James scored 29 of the last 30 points for the Cleveland Cavaliers in a double-overtime upset Game 5 road winagainst the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals. The 48-point game was a mesmerizing performance that stands as one of the classic games of this century ... and it probably doesn't even rank in the top 10 of James' playoff performances. It might not be one of his top three conference finals games. This is what James' greatness rests on: No one hasever been this good for this long. That long-ago night in the Palace of Auburn Hills is merely one of 29 40-point games James has in the playoffs alone.

That win paved the way to his first Finals, starting a run of 10 appearances in 14 years. During that stretch he won four NBA titles, four MVPs and four Finals MVPs with three different teams, as well as two Olympic gold medals. He also won at least one road game in 29 consecutive playoff series. He has scored in double figures in 1,222 consecutive regular-season games -- the last time he didn't, his son Bronny, now his Laker teammate, was 2 years old. Volume isn't a vogue way to measure achievement in the NBA anymore, and it lends credence to those who want to push James down all-time lists. It's the only side of the argument to take against James, who has essentially renamed the NBA's record book forhimself.

5. Tom Brady, American Football

Key accomplishments:

Seven-time Super Bowl champion, five-time Super Bowl MVP, three-time NFL MVP, two-time AP Offensive POY, 15-time Pro Bowler, three-time first-team All-Pro, NFL record for career passing yards/TDs.

When Brady was asked which of his seven Super Bowl rings was his favorite, he was fond of answering: "The next one." That sums up the player whom Bill Belichick referred to as the"ultimate winner" who often played his best when the stakes were highest. Belichick noted how Brady entered the NFL as a sixth-round pick "with little to no fanfare" and left "as the most successful player in league history." Said Belichick: "His relentless pursuit of excellence drove him on a daily basis. His work ethic and desire to win were both motivational and inspirational to teammates and coaches alike."

“Courage is knowing it might hurt, and doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. And that's why life is hard.”

— Jeremy Goldberg

Humour: