On this eve, both near and far The almost-full Moon Visits a stunning bright star. Wait a moment — just a minute. That’s a planet. And not a star. Discover Jupiter, by Jove. And a good sense of where we are.

Still thinking -- the pudgy, lovable, mildly creepy, microscopic Tardigrade "WaterBear" would make a most excellent @Macys Thanksgiving Day parade balloon.

Mom, R-I-P November 22, 1928 — November 20, 2023 From the @StarTalkRadio Archives - Mother’s Day 2019 [Video: 36 minutes] youtube.com/watch?v=T3KkTI… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

My annual posting of, perhaps, the most important things I've ever said about science. [Video: 4min] youtube.com/watch?v=8MqTOE… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

October 1, 2023 Happy 99th Birthday Jimmy Carter - a US President with authentic geek credentials. From the @StarTalkRadio archives - 2015. [Video: 90 secs] youtube.com/watch?v=O-5PHy…

My urge to complain about Manhattan traffic during UN week is tempered by the reminder that most of the assembled Delegates and World Leaders are trying to do good in the world. I can be stuck in traffic for that.

August 28, 1963 Sixty years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr. had a Dream -- shared from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC. Today, I too have a dream. [Video: 4m 40s] youtube.com/watch?v=Y9oB6q…

Congratulations to India for landing Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon — joining Russia, USA, & China as the only countries to have achieved this feat. More importantly, it’s the first mission of any country to arrive near the Lunar South Pole - a possible location for future Moon bases.

August 2023 Happy 50th Birthday, Hip Hop.

My HipHop nephew @Ellect217 helps me become more fluent in the genre than I'd otherwise be. This full @StarTalkRadio interview (from the archives) is with GZA from the @WuTangClan. [Video: 34min] youtu.be/vHfdd-PQVwo

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the birth of Hip Hop. Earlier this year, I shared brief reflections with @djvlad on the subject.

It’s that time of year again — the celebrated Perseus Meteor Shower. Coming the night of August 12, 2023, in a sky near you. Hayden’s own Joe Rao tells you all about it. space.com/perseid-meteor…

From when they were founded... It would take @Mattel six years to introduce a spacefaring female doll — Astronaut Barbie in 1965. It would take @NASA twenty-five years to achieve the same feat with a spacefaring female human — launching Sally Ride in 1983. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

A two-minute riff on the Barbie doll…

@michaelshermer A most excellent illusion, enabled by human physiology, which creates identical twins in two out of 125 people. If you look carefully, the precise "do not move" position of their hands on the side walls is slightly different in the teleported box from the original.

Christopher Nolan’s attention to detail in #Oppenheimer was so thorough I’m giving him a hall pass on this one: July 16, 1945, 5:30am Los Alamos, New Mexico is in full dawn of summer twilight. But cinematically, the atomic explosion looks more striking against the dark of night twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

**Barbieheimer** In 1958 the USA, USSR, & UK tested 116 Nuclear Bombs. The second most of any year during or after the Cold War. In 1959, the year #Barbie was created, there were no nuclear tests at all. In 1997, the next year with zero tests, Sweetheart Barbie was introduced.

In @barbiethemovie, the Moon's orientation places Barbie World between 20 & 40 deg North Latitude on Earth. Palm trees further constrain latitude between 20 & 30 deg. The Sun & Moon rose & set over the ocean. If it’s in the US, Barbie World lands somewhere in the Florida Keys.

August 9, 2023 On this, the 78th anniversary of the plutonium fission bomb dropped on Nagasaki, I teared multiple times while watching the film #Oppenheimer. Bearing witness to my physics brethren, some reluctant, some enthusiastic, create weapons of mass destruction.

Late to the party, but I'm playing hookey and Barbieheimering today. Will give a full report.

Sometimes I wonder whether alien space vessels are inherently fuzzy & out-of-focus (that would be terrifying). And whether they love the @USNavy (that would be charming). If so, it would explain a lot.

To be clear, all animal, plant, and microbial life on Earth, minus humans, constitutes “non-human biologics.”

There’s no truth to the rumor that Carl Sagan and I starred in Kung Fu movies before we took interest in the heavens. (“Be water, my friend” — Bruce Lee gone 50 years today, July 20, 1973.)

Friday June 14. Happy Matariki to all Kiwis - a new national holiday in New Zealand, commemorating the Pleiades star cluster as it emerges in their Winter skies and starts the Maori New Year.

Down under for a spell — south of Earth’s equator. Not interested in observing which way the water circulates in anybody’s toilet bowl. But the revolving doors in Australia do, in fact, spin clockwise. Opposite from those in the USA.

In principle, @theFlash could kiss his own cheek in a mirror... If he moves backwards through time when traveling faster than light, he could kiss the mirror before his reflection knows about it. Then press the side of his face against the mirror, kissing himself on the cheek.