Ben
@benritchie.co.uk
Astronomer, runner & parkrunner, cyclist. Former developer, day job is now engineering director. London & Sussex, UK.
Reposted by Ben
but your RBAC shouldn’t be
November 19, 2025 at 2:19 AM
but your RBAC shouldn’t be
Reposted by Ben
A section of Ara OB1, a stellar association, is visible in this image.
Stellar associations are large groupings of loosely bound stars that have not yet completely drifted away from their initial formation site.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1510/ 🔭
📷 ESO
#Flashback
Stellar associations are large groupings of loosely bound stars that have not yet completely drifted away from their initial formation site.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1510/ 🔭
📷 ESO
#Flashback
November 18, 2025 at 8:02 AM
A section of Ara OB1, a stellar association, is visible in this image.
Stellar associations are large groupings of loosely bound stars that have not yet completely drifted away from their initial formation site.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1510/ 🔭
📷 ESO
#Flashback
Stellar associations are large groupings of loosely bound stars that have not yet completely drifted away from their initial formation site.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1510/ 🔭
📷 ESO
#Flashback
Reposted by Ben
For the airplane + red aurora + big dipper fans. 😍
November 12, 2025 at 6:11 AM
For the airplane + red aurora + big dipper fans. 😍
Reposted by Ben
TV conspiracies: we’ve hacked their computers but they’ve perfectly cleaned up the evidence!
Real conspiracies:
To: conspirator
From: famous person
Attachment: evidence.png
Real conspiracies:
To: conspirator
From: famous person
Attachment: evidence.png
November 12, 2025 at 8:19 PM
TV conspiracies: we’ve hacked their computers but they’ve perfectly cleaned up the evidence!
Real conspiracies:
To: conspirator
From: famous person
Attachment: evidence.png
Real conspiracies:
To: conspirator
From: famous person
Attachment: evidence.png
Reposted by Ben
Reposted by Ben
![1
Nurse:
It’s become a real problem in this area
2
Nurse:
We’ve seen the whole community lost to addiction
3
Show a building sign posted:
Westminster ‘X’ Addiction Clinic
With various Westminster people or looking at their phones outside it
Nurse:
Ministers, Spads, Researchers…
4
Nurse:
Most mornings we’ll get a call about someone acting strangely
[Nurse on phone taking a call]
Ok - we’ll be right over
5
Nurse:
We just have a gentle chat
[Nurses approach a minister –Robert Jenrick? - standing in the Palace of Westminster
Minister:
I understand your concerns…
6
Nurse:
Are you OK love?
Minister:
Yes I’m just hearing legitimate concerns from real voters
7
Nurse:
That’s a robot, a Nazi and a poorly-disguised Russian
[Show that the people he is talking to are precisely these characters]
Nurse 2:
Give us your phone, love
8
Nurse:
At the clinic we put them in a Grass-Touching Pod, with a real voter to talk to
[We see them back at the clinic, holding the minister's head and pushing him into a glass isolation booth with a grass floor. And it is a baffled looking woman, on a chair, ready to talk to him.]
9
Minister:
YOU MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COMING CIVIL WAR
[woman looks baffled]
10
woman:
I just want a bus service
Minister:
LOOK AT MY FLAG
[produces a St George's flag]
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreicahofq6s4xow7vowj7dx6odw6ejdwr4kwcmzta7qwi4hg2nvywji@jpeg)
Reposted by Ben
This sadly demented man doesn't realize *he* was president on Jan 6, 2021. Get him in an assisted living facility ASAP.
October 12, 2025 at 1:58 PM
This sadly demented man doesn't realize *he* was president on Jan 6, 2021. Get him in an assisted living facility ASAP.
Reposted by Ben
It helps to be able to spell the country you say only you are competent enough to run.
October 6, 2025 at 2:06 PM
It helps to be able to spell the country you say only you are competent enough to run.
Reposted by Ben
This is so good from Cory Doctorow on all the tricks Amazon uses to get both consumers to pay more, and how businesses on the platform end up paying it 45-51 cents on every dollar.
Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and ...
www.theguardian.com
October 5, 2025 at 8:19 AM
This is so good from Cory Doctorow on all the tricks Amazon uses to get both consumers to pay more, and how businesses on the platform end up paying it 45-51 cents on every dollar.
Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Reposted by Ben
WHAT YOU FAIL TO SEE MR POPE
really enjoying all the people trying to explain the bible to the pope today
October 2, 2025 at 11:37 AM
WHAT YOU FAIL TO SEE MR POPE
Reposted by Ben
Trump Spends Entire U.K. Trip Trying To Figure Out Where He Knows Prince Andrew From
Trump Spends Entire U.K. Trip Trying To Figure Out Where He Knows Prince Andrew From
LONDON—Claiming that he recognized the member of the royal family, but his memory was hazy, President Donald Trump has spent his entire trip to the U.K. trying to figure out where he knows Prince Andr...
theonion.com
September 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Trump Spends Entire U.K. Trip Trying To Figure Out Where He Knows Prince Andrew From
Reposted by Ben
If you're new to the Unix or Linux command line, I just want you to know:
Me and all my colleagues with years of experience
Still get confused between `ln -s` and `ln` daily.
Me and all my colleagues with years of experience
Still get confused between `ln -s` and `ln` daily.
August 31, 2025 at 5:36 PM
If you're new to the Unix or Linux command line, I just want you to know:
Me and all my colleagues with years of experience
Still get confused between `ln -s` and `ln` daily.
Me and all my colleagues with years of experience
Still get confused between `ln -s` and `ln` daily.
Reposted by Ben
Flashback: A mirror shows a reflection of one of the telescopes located at La Silla Observatory, with an incredible background view of the Milky Way galaxy and the sunrise.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/IMG_0047-CC/
📷 Sangku Kim/ESO 🔭
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/IMG_0047-CC/
📷 Sangku Kim/ESO 🔭
August 12, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Flashback: A mirror shows a reflection of one of the telescopes located at La Silla Observatory, with an incredible background view of the Milky Way galaxy and the sunrise.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/IMG_0047-CC/
📷 Sangku Kim/ESO 🔭
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/IMG_0047-CC/
📷 Sangku Kim/ESO 🔭
Reposted by Ben
Warm, Encouraging Email From CEO Quickly Identified As Phishing Attempt theonion.com/warm-en...
August 7, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Warm, Encouraging Email From CEO Quickly Identified As Phishing Attempt theonion.com/warm-en...
Reposted by Ben
Me as an individual developer: “What do project managers do, exactly?”
Me managing a huge project: “Oh. OH. This is really hard…”
Me managing a huge project: “Oh. OH. This is really hard…”
August 6, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Me as an individual developer: “What do project managers do, exactly?”
Me managing a huge project: “Oh. OH. This is really hard…”
Me managing a huge project: “Oh. OH. This is really hard…”
Reposted by Ben
it has been said over and over but it’s worth reiterating in the face of this horrifying decision: RFK is quite literally joining the war on cancer on the side of cancer
"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced the beginning of a coordinated wind-down of its mRNA vaccine development activities...."
cc: Sen. Bill Cassidy
cc: Sen. Bill Cassidy
August 6, 2025 at 2:47 AM
it has been said over and over but it’s worth reiterating in the face of this horrifying decision: RFK is quite literally joining the war on cancer on the side of cancer
I remember my father bringing one of these home, probably late 1984. It weighed something like 30 pounds and I couldn’t lift it off the floor. Even had a 5MB (?) hard disk installed.
He had to carry it on the train to and from the office, until it was eventually replaced with a IBM PC Convertible.
He had to carry it on the train to and from the office, until it was eventually replaced with a IBM PC Convertible.
IBM Portable Personal Computer, released quickly after the first Compaq in 1984
August 4, 2025 at 6:37 AM
I remember my father bringing one of these home, probably late 1984. It weighed something like 30 pounds and I couldn’t lift it off the floor. Even had a 5MB (?) hard disk installed.
He had to carry it on the train to and from the office, until it was eventually replaced with a IBM PC Convertible.
He had to carry it on the train to and from the office, until it was eventually replaced with a IBM PC Convertible.
Reposted by Ben
Heard the latest news from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration? We detected the collision of the most massive pair of black holes so far: #GW231123 weighing in at ~137 + ~103 times the mass of the Sun!
So to celebrate, here’s a handy chart ✨
Just how chonky are these black holes? 🤔
So to celebrate, here’s a handy chart ✨
Just how chonky are these black holes? 🤔
July 26, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Heard the latest news from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration? We detected the collision of the most massive pair of black holes so far: #GW231123 weighing in at ~137 + ~103 times the mass of the Sun!
So to celebrate, here’s a handy chart ✨
Just how chonky are these black holes? 🤔
So to celebrate, here’s a handy chart ✨
Just how chonky are these black holes? 🤔
Reposted by Ben
Dive into this spectacular image of the stellar nursery IC 2944!
You see those thick clouds of dust? They are being bombarded by the UV radiation from nearby stars, and are likely to be destroyed before they can collapse and form new stars.
You see those thick clouds of dust? They are being bombarded by the UV radiation from nearby stars, and are likely to be destroyed before they can collapse and form new stars.
July 4, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Dive into this spectacular image of the stellar nursery IC 2944!
You see those thick clouds of dust? They are being bombarded by the UV radiation from nearby stars, and are likely to be destroyed before they can collapse and form new stars.
You see those thick clouds of dust? They are being bombarded by the UV radiation from nearby stars, and are likely to be destroyed before they can collapse and form new stars.
Reposted by Ben
I imagined the Chatsubo in 1984. 41 years later I opened its door. Neuromancer is in production.
July 1, 2025 at 7:14 PM
I imagined the Chatsubo in 1984. 41 years later I opened its door. Neuromancer is in production.
Reposted by Ben
Well this couldn’t have come at a better time www.bbc.com/news/article...
Scientists at Loughborough University create 'world's smallest violin'
The violin is smaller than a human hair and has "laid the groundwork" for future research.
www.bbc.com
June 5, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Well this couldn’t have come at a better time www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Ben
Reposted by Ben
If you want to catch up on the new pope, this thread is the wildest ride.
Because at any time like this for world news what everyone needs is a nerd whose wheelhouse it is livetweeting the process of finding out.
Because at any time like this for world news what everyone needs is a nerd whose wheelhouse it is livetweeting the process of finding out.
it’s a guy from Chicago named Robert Prevost I’ve never heard of in my life
May 9, 2025 at 12:03 AM
If you want to catch up on the new pope, this thread is the wildest ride.
Because at any time like this for world news what everyone needs is a nerd whose wheelhouse it is livetweeting the process of finding out.
Because at any time like this for world news what everyone needs is a nerd whose wheelhouse it is livetweeting the process of finding out.
Reposted by Ben
This is the globular cluster M15, imaged by Hubble. It's a great target for binoculars or backyard telescopes, in the constellation Pegasus.
Jiaqi Ying et al. measured M15's age with 3% precision. This group of stars formed *immediately* after the Universe did.
arxiv.org/abs/2505.02969
🔭🧪 #stars
Jiaqi Ying et al. measured M15's age with 3% precision. This group of stars formed *immediately* after the Universe did.
arxiv.org/abs/2505.02969
🔭🧪 #stars
May 7, 2025 at 4:13 PM
This is the globular cluster M15, imaged by Hubble. It's a great target for binoculars or backyard telescopes, in the constellation Pegasus.
Jiaqi Ying et al. measured M15's age with 3% precision. This group of stars formed *immediately* after the Universe did.
arxiv.org/abs/2505.02969
🔭🧪 #stars
Jiaqi Ying et al. measured M15's age with 3% precision. This group of stars formed *immediately* after the Universe did.
arxiv.org/abs/2505.02969
🔭🧪 #stars