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Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band will launch their Land Of Hope And Dreams American Tour across the country this spring, kicking off at Minneapolis’ Target Center on March 31.
“We are living through dark, disturbing and dangerous times, but do not despair — the cavalry is coming! We will be rocking your town in celebration and in defense of America — American democracy, American freedom, our American Constitution and our sacred American dream.”
That is a gorgeous image of Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś), which is closest to Earth today, but at a distance of 1.012 AU.
Requires binoculars or a telescope and a dark sky to see it in the evening sky.
The comet sports a characteristic green coma, a 5° long ion tail and 3 shorter dust tails.
The high inclination Oort cloud comet has a hyperbolic trajectory and will leave the solar system.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260217.html
https://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2024_E1_(Wierzcho%C5%9B)
Image Credit: José J. Chambó
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I agree that most European leaders are not fooled by this performance by Rubio. They probably want to keep a low profile and not openly speak out against the White House.
How about the right-wing parties in Europe?
"Rubio’s message was more sophisticated and strategic than Vance's in 2025. But it was just as dangerous, if not more so, because it lowered the transatlantic temperature and may have lulled Europe into a false sense of calm.
There are good reasons to believe this will not happen.
The message - Europe and the US should be defined by ethno-political values of culture, tradition and religion (and nationalism, racism, fascism and colonialism)."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/16/marco-rubio-speech-europe-munich-jd-vance-maga-us
#UsPol
2/n
Christofascism, red in tooth and claw, was on full display in Rubio's speech at the Munich Security Conference. Could very well have been written by Miller.
Let's make sure the world rejects the rapacious goals of these self-serving monsters.
https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/02/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-at-the-munich-security-conference
#UsPol
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@DrJay
Obama mentoring Steph 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atm3P3XsAag
President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry at the 2026 NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles.
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The Obamas got a rousing ovation at the NBA All-Star game yesterday.
This is in stark contrast to the boos and jeers typically heard when trump and his billionaire friends attend a major sports event.
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Check out this article for some outstanding examples of ambigrams, many used as logos and in books.
https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/a-clever-collection-of-40-inspiring-ambigrams--vector-3170
4/n
Douglas Hofstadter in 2008 -
"I am a deep admirer of humanity at its finest and deepest ... and I would hate to think that all that beauty and profundity and goodness could be captured — even approximated — in the horribly rigid computational devices of our era.
I suppose AI will eventually happen. I wouldn’t want to be around then, though. Such a world would be too alien for me. I prefer living in a world where computers are still very very stupid."
Wave-particle ambigram by Douglas Hofstadter.
An ambigram is a calligraphic composition of glyphs (letters, numbers, symbols or other shapes) that can yield different meanings depending on the orientation of observation. Although the concept is older, the term "ambigram" was coined by Douglas Hofstadter in 1983–1984.
Happy Birthday to Douglas Hofstadter (born 15 February 1945), cognitive and computer scientist, author of "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" and "I Am a Strange Loop".
From GEB, Hofstadter's law - "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law."
From IAASL - “In the end, we self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are little miracles of self-reference.”
How many of you were influenced by GEB?
Sagan and other members of the Voyager team felt the images were needed — they wanted humanity to see Earth’s vulnerability, and that our home world is just a tiny, fragile speck in the cosmic ocean.
JPL mounted the entire 20-foot mosaic on a wall in its Theodore von Kármán Auditorium.
"Members of the Voyager imaging team said in a 2019 research paper that the image of Earth on the wall had to be replaced often because so many people touched it."
🥲
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1s-pale-blue-dot/
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The "Pale Blue Dot" image was part of the "Family Portrait" set of images taken by Voyager 1 on Feb 14, 1990, from a vantage point 6 billion km away and ~32° above the ecliptic.
Starting at 01:00 UTC after a 3 hour warm-up, Voyager 1's cameras imaged Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Mars, the Sun, and then Jupiter, Earth, and Venus. The Earth images were taken at 04:48 UTC. The cameras were turned off permanently at 05:22.
Image data download was completed on May 1, 1990.
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1s-pale-blue-dot/
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NYT Op-Ed:
"A close reading of the released emails suggests that what is being protected is the comfort of a class of people who believed they were untouchable.
The files released reveal a merito-aristocracy that traded favors, influence and access.
They reveal a world where character is irrelevant and connection is everything."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/opinion/bondi-epstein-justice.html
#UsPol
2/n
NYT Op-Ed:
"When offered the opportunity to apologize to these women for the DOJ’s disastrous handling of the Epstein files, Ms. Bondi didn’t just decline; she sneered. Instead, she demanded that Democrats apologize to Trump.
Ms. Bondi’s performance was more than just political theater. Under the guise of transparency, the DOJ has managed to expose the victims to further humiliation while shielding the powerful behind a wall of redactions."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/opinion/bondi-epstein-justice.html
#UsPol
1/n
In other Olympics news -
"Having a bigger bulge on a required 3D body scan taken in the pre-season could earn jumpers extra centimeters of material in their jumpsuits—and a suit’s larger nether regions provide more surface area to glide to the gold.
A 2025 simulation-based study suggested that every 2 cm of extra fabric in a ski jumpsuit could increase drag by about 4% and increase lift by about 5%, providing an extra 5.8 meters of distance."
