Ben Farmer
@bjfar.bsky.social
Ex-physicist with strange hobbies like growing trees, playing video games, and thinking about floating habitats in the clouds of Venus.
Reposted by Ben Farmer
Kosmos 482 rocketed into space in 1972 on a quest to reach Venus, but its journey was scuttled by an apparent engine malfunction.
A Soviet-era space probe crashed back to Earth after more than 50 years in orbit
Kosmos 482 rocketed into space in 1972 on a quest to reach Venus, but its journey was scuttled by an apparent engine malfunction.
www.npr.org
May 12, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Kosmos 482 rocketed into space in 1972 on a quest to reach Venus, but its journey was scuttled by an apparent engine malfunction.
If you happen to need high-resolution images of the entire planet #Earth, and are happy with the Japan side of the planet, I recently came across this very excellent interface to #Himawara8 weather satellite data, maintained by the "Digital Typhoon" website: agora.ex.nii.ac.jp/digital-typh...
April 16, 2025 at 10:03 AM
If you happen to need high-resolution images of the entire planet #Earth, and are happy with the Japan side of the planet, I recently came across this very excellent interface to #Himawara8 weather satellite data, maintained by the "Digital Typhoon" website: agora.ex.nii.ac.jp/digital-typh...
Reposted by Ben Farmer
It was a huge honor to speak with Stephanie Nolen at the @nytimes.com about our mutual obsession with tuberculosis. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/h...
For John Green, It’s Tuberculosis All the Way Down
The best-selling author chatted with The Times’s global health reporter about the past, present and troubling future of the world’s deadliest infectious disease.
www.nytimes.com
March 27, 2025 at 1:08 PM
It was a huge honor to speak with Stephanie Nolen at the @nytimes.com about our mutual obsession with tuberculosis. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/h...
Reposted by Ben Farmer
Oh wow, this is *such* a cool concept - a 'game' procedurally generated from Wikipedia, in which you can literally traverse all of human knowledge and walk down rabbit holes
I just released the Museum of All Things version 1.0!!! You can find it at mayeclair.itch.io/museum-of-al...
March 12, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Oh wow, this is *such* a cool concept - a 'game' procedurally generated from Wikipedia, in which you can literally traverse all of human knowledge and walk down rabbit holes
Reposted by Ben Farmer
This will directly cause hundreds of thousands of new and needless deaths from tuberculosis every year, and reverse decades of progress in fighting our deadliest infection. I'm just devastated.
Tuberculosis, the deadliest infectious disease on the planet, kills more than 1.25M people a year. New infections are expected to surge by 30% as a result of closing USAID, a memo says. The increase will inevitably lead to cases in the U.S.
Internal Memos: Senior USAID Leaders Warned Trump Appointees of Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths From Closing Agency
One million children will go untreated for severe malnutrition, up to 166,000 people will die from malaria and 200,000 more children will be paralyzed by polio over the next decade, the memos…
propub.li
March 10, 2025 at 12:39 PM
This will directly cause hundreds of thousands of new and needless deaths from tuberculosis every year, and reverse decades of progress in fighting our deadliest infection. I'm just devastated.
Reposted by Ben Farmer
forget everything you think you know about data visualisation and go try @emily.space's sk8plotlib package
January 19, 2025 at 10:42 PM
forget everything you think you know about data visualisation and go try @emily.space's sk8plotlib package
Reposted by Ben Farmer
Thinking of Bill Anders, on the first anniversary since his passing, of one of the most influential photographs ever taken.
He took 'Earthrise' during Apollo 8 #OTD in 1968. Remastered here from the original flight film.
Happy holidays one and all.
He took 'Earthrise' during Apollo 8 #OTD in 1968. Remastered here from the original flight film.
Happy holidays one and all.
December 24, 2024 at 2:22 PM
Thinking of Bill Anders, on the first anniversary since his passing, of one of the most influential photographs ever taken.
He took 'Earthrise' during Apollo 8 #OTD in 1968. Remastered here from the original flight film.
Happy holidays one and all.
He took 'Earthrise' during Apollo 8 #OTD in 1968. Remastered here from the original flight film.
Happy holidays one and all.
From the preface of Carl Sagan's book "The Cosmic Connection", 1973. Such optimism for what we would have accomplished by now!
#astronomy #carlsagan
#astronomy #carlsagan
December 14, 2024 at 8:27 PM
From the preface of Carl Sagan's book "The Cosmic Connection", 1973. Such optimism for what we would have accomplished by now!
#astronomy #carlsagan
#astronomy #carlsagan
Reposted by Ben Farmer
Learning math mostly isn't about specific rules and certainly isn't about memorising anything at all. It's about training and developing the brain.
Looking around the world, I can't help feel like we need a whole lot more of it, not less.
Looking around the world, I can't help feel like we need a whole lot more of it, not less.
My cartoon in this week’s issue of The New Yorker. Huge thanks to all my middle school and high school math teachers for inspiring this cartoon by wasting years of my life.
December 14, 2024 at 6:22 PM
Learning math mostly isn't about specific rules and certainly isn't about memorising anything at all. It's about training and developing the brain.
Looking around the world, I can't help feel like we need a whole lot more of it, not less.
Looking around the world, I can't help feel like we need a whole lot more of it, not less.
FYI this is the official account of an excellent high resolution camera in orbit around Mars
November 30, 2024 at 9:03 PM
FYI this is the official account of an excellent high resolution camera in orbit around Mars
It can be hard to explain why DayZ is so great and unlike pretty much any other game, but this interaction comes close. It's part game, part psychology experiment: youtube.com/shorts/6z8ip...
Meet Steve: A DayZ Short Story
YouTube video by Kaitiac
youtube.com
November 28, 2024 at 10:37 PM
It can be hard to explain why DayZ is so great and unlike pretty much any other game, but this interaction comes close. It's part game, part psychology experiment: youtube.com/shorts/6z8ip...
Almost exactly 51 years ago, in November 1973, the Pioneer 10 spacecraft was passing by Jupiter, the first spacecraft to do so. It took the attached photographs during its flyby. It was the first human-made object to reach the outer solar system, and it is still on its way into interstellar space.
November 22, 2024 at 12:00 AM
Almost exactly 51 years ago, in November 1973, the Pioneer 10 spacecraft was passing by Jupiter, the first spacecraft to do so. It took the attached photographs during its flyby. It was the first human-made object to reach the outer solar system, and it is still on its way into interstellar space.
An experiment in dynamic histogram generation with #Bokeh, #Python, #Jupyter. You'd think this would be in the library, but it is not, unless I am dumb and missed it. Fortunately the custom JS was not so complicated. Code here: snippet.host/cfxnwc
November 21, 2024 at 10:47 PM
An experiment in dynamic histogram generation with #Bokeh, #Python, #Jupyter. You'd think this would be in the library, but it is not, unless I am dumb and missed it. Fortunately the custom JS was not so complicated. Code here: snippet.host/cfxnwc
Still learning this app, so here's a thing I built in #NoMansSky one time, that seemed to be appreciated by the people of Reddit.
November 20, 2024 at 3:17 AM
Still learning this app, so here's a thing I built in #NoMansSky one time, that seemed to be appreciated by the people of Reddit.
I don't even play Minecraft, but this is incredible: youtu.be/3Aq0KJMo4RA?...
Ten years of building Middle-earth in Minecraft.
YouTube video by ArdaCraft
youtu.be
November 19, 2024 at 10:50 PM
I don't even play Minecraft, but this is incredible: youtu.be/3Aq0KJMo4RA?...
Reposted by Ben Farmer
Nasa's cassini spacecraft captured the incredible view of Saturn
November 19, 2024 at 8:55 PM
Nasa's cassini spacecraft captured the incredible view of Saturn
Beautiful 3D renderings of Mars terrain by @theseaning.bsky.social using @uahirise.bsky.social data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: youtu.be/AL5GtfAzVT8?...
HiRISin' I
YouTube video by Seán Doran
youtu.be
November 18, 2024 at 9:48 PM
Beautiful 3D renderings of Mars terrain by @theseaning.bsky.social using @uahirise.bsky.social data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: youtu.be/AL5GtfAzVT8?...
I somehow missed this back in May :(. RIP Akastuki, probably. More Venus missions please! Personally I want a permanent Venus weather satellite! www.space.com/jaxa-loses-c...
Japan loses contact with Akatsuki, humanity's only active Venus probe
Akatsuki has overcome big challenges in the past.
www.space.com
November 17, 2024 at 11:53 PM
I somehow missed this back in May :(. RIP Akastuki, probably. More Venus missions please! Personally I want a permanent Venus weather satellite! www.space.com/jaxa-loses-c...