The FCC has approved (PDF) Reflect Orbital's Earendil-1 test satellite, which will use a 60-by-60-foot mirror to reflect sunlight back to Earth after dark. "The reflected light from the satellite is supposed to span an area about 3 miles wide on the ground," reports PCMag. It comes despite objections from astronomers and environmental groups who are concerned that the satellites will unleash intrusive light pollution. From the report: The approval is only for one satellite, dubbed Earendil-1, which is meant to test Reflect Orbital's technology for shining sunlight back to Earth. The satellite will boast a steerable thin-film reflector measuring about 60 feet by 60 feet, with the goal of powering solar farms at night or illuminating disaster-struck areas after dark to help rescue teams. Reflect Orbital envisions operating over 50,000 satellites by 2035, effectively surrounding the Earth with a fleet of mirrors. The proposal has faced stiff pushback from environmental groups and astronomers who are concerned that the satellites will unleash intrusive light pollution. The opposition has been so strong that the FCC received over 1,800 public comments on the application, many of them objecting to Reflect Orbital's plan for Earendil-1.

[...] [T]he FCC approved the satellite, noting the grant is only "for a single demonstration satellite" to test an innovative technology that could advance American leadership in space. "The Communications Act states that it is the policy of the United States to 'encourage the provision of new technologies and services to the public,' and Reflect Orbital's demonstration satellite is an example of a potentially groundbreaking technology that the Commission has found is in the public interest to support," the order says. But on the most controversial aspect of the satellite, the FCC said the concerns around Reflect Orbital's solar reflector are "unrelated to the Commission's role in authorizing use of radiofrequency spectrum, and even if the Commission had authority to review and condition these operations (which it does not), these harms are unlikely to occur.

In addition, the commission said that U.S. courts have blocked the FCC from using "a generalized public interest requirement beyond its statutory authority in regulating communications. Accordingly, the operations of a solar reflector in space would not be reviewed as part of the Bureau's public interest analysis." The regulator also noted that conducting an environmental review for the satellite went beyond its authority. Even if the FCC did have the power, the commission emphasized that the grant is for a single satellite, not 50,000. "The majority of these comments focus on a hypothetical plan to deploy tens of thousands of satellites, and those who argue the single satellite will harm the human environment do not demonstrate with specificity the potential harm will be caused by the single satellite, but rather rely on the same studies as the commenters objecting to a larger constellation," the FCC adds.

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China successfully recovered an orbital rocket booster for the first time, landing the Long March 10B's first stage into a net-equipped sea platform after its maiden launch. "This mission marks my country's first successful controlled recovery of a launch vehicle and the world's first network-based recovery of a launch vehicle," the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced via social media shortly after the launch. (Translation by Google.) "It signifies a historic breakthrough for my country in the field of reusable rocket technology and will lay a solid foundation for accelerating the improvement of my country's space access capabilities." Space.com reports: The Long March 10B is a two-stage rocket that stands about 207 feet (63 meters) tall, according to the state-owned CASC, the main contractor for China's space program. The vehicle's first stage burns kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX) propellants, whereas the second stage uses LOX and liquid methane. In reusable mode, the Long March 10B can loft about 16 tons of payload to low Earth orbit.

And the rocket flew with a payload on its debut liftoff -- a satellite that successfully reached "its predetermined orbit," according to the CASC update. That post did not provide any details about the spacecraft or its orbit. It did give a brief rundown of the first-stage recovery, however. "Approximately 6 minutes after the first and second stages separated, the first stage returned vertically and was successfully recovered at a sea-based recovery platform using a net system," CASC officials wrote, noting that launch occurred from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site on Friday at 12:15 a.m. EDT (0415 GMT; 12:15 p.m. Beijing time.) "The launch and first-stage recovery missions were a complete success."

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ajpscs posted a photo:

the SQUARE
LOTUS & WATER LILIES
ON MY KNEES, I CAN SEE FOREVER
© ajpscs

Vanillasludge posted a photo:

Okaya, Nagano Japan

Vanillasludge posted a photo:

Okaya, Nagano Japan

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide, July 1982

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide September 1963

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

peaceful-jp-scenery posted a photo:

Hakuba Goryu Alpine Botanical Garden
白馬五竜高山植物園・ニッコウキスゲ

Summer is finally in full swing! I’m starting to long for the refreshing air of the highlands.

いよいよ夏本番ですね！爽やかな高原が恋しくなって来ました。

Hakuba-mura, Nagano pref, Japan

mikeleonardvisualarts posted a photo:

“Wij doen onze schoenen altijd in de hal uit”, klinkt het zodra jij de woonkamer binnenstapt. Je bent op bezoek bij Corine en Rob, die zich behendig tussen jou en de rest van het huis positioneren. Achter hen trekken twee Berner Sennenhonden een spoor van modder, kwijl en straatvuil over de vloer.

“Heb je soms niet gezien dat wij gewoon op sokken lopen?”, zegt Corine. “Misschien is dat voor jou niet gebruikelijk hoor, dat kan natuurlijk, maar wij vinden dat nou eenmaal een stuk hygiënischer.”

Corine en Rob kijken toe hoe jij voorover buigt, je schoenen uitdoet en netjes naast de andere schoenen zet. Eenmaal binnen aai je de honden, terwijl zij hun kleverige vachten aan jouw benen en de meubels schoonwrijven. “Sorry nog van daarnet”, zeg je.

“In bijna elke beschaving is het normaal om je schoenen uit te doen voordat je ergens naar binnen gaat", antwoordt Rob. “Het laat zien dat je respect hebt voor de mensen bij wie je te gast bent.”

&

Voor de derde keer deze zomer kampt Frankrijk met een hittegolf. Rondom Parijs en in het westen van het land geldt dit weekend code rood: er worden temperaturen verwacht tot wel…

Er stroomt de komende dagen opvallend weinig water door de Rijn. Dat vergroot de kans op watertekorten en verzilting.

De tropische storm veroorzaakte eerder dodelijke aardverschuivingen op de Filippijnen en zorgde voor schade in Japan en Taiwan. Nu zet de Chinese kustprovincie Zhejiang zich schrap voor hevige regenval en windstoten.

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Okee de Goodwood Revival is nóg vetter met allemaal coureurs die met vintage superkarren willen laten zien wie de grootste kloten heeft, maar het échte festival of speed is natuurlijk de Goodwood FOS. Hele dag met supercars, hypercars, driftcars, F1-wagens, vintage F1-racers, testmodellen, prototypes en allerlei andere krankzinnige gevaartes een heuvel opjanken, en langs de kant maar bier toeteren. MotoGP-icoon Valentino Rossi spinde zojuist met de krankzinnige BMW V12 LM, de winnaar van Le Mans 1999. Lando Norris ragt wat driftwagens naar boven. Andere oud-F1-coureurs doen een aanval op de snelste tijd. Timetable hier - effe een uurtje erbij tellen. De winnaars van de laatste twee jaar waren trouwens Ford Supertrucks en besef: deze totaal krankzinnige Groenlinks020-beuker reed een snellere tijd dan déze McLaren Solus. U mag lekker thuis, op de bank, biertje erbij, geen gedoe, veel plezier.

Gisteren

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Ford Supervan - 2024

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McLaren Solus - 2023 winnaar

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De wandelende Komrijcyclopedie Arie Pos is bezig met zijn magnum opus over Onze Gerrit: de ultieme en definitieve biografie. Zo'n boek heeft een Stempel van de Tijd maar bij de uitgever zit een 'zeer sensitive reader' te schrapen en te schrappen in woorden als 'homokroeg' en 'homoschrijvers'. Vraagt die knakker van de Gelderlander ook nog aan Arie: "Homokroeg en homoschrijvers of kroeg en schrijvers, wat is het verschil?" Die is zeker nog nooit met schrijvers in een kroeg geweest! Welnu, Arie brengt z'n definitieve Komrij-bio onder bij een andere uitgever (Prometheus), en z'n oude uitgever (Bezige Bij) komt met een sussende verklaring over 'suggesties die worden gedaan en spiegelende vragen die worden gesteld over teksten'. En zonder kant te kiezen in dit specifieke conflict (toch wel: Team Arie) is het gebeuren tekenend voor de zouteloze staat van de Nederlandse lieteratuuurrrr, dat grandioos ten onder gaat in het schuim van een helse golf aan Chabotisme (homoschrijver!) en Smithuijsificatie.

Electricity used by datacenters in Ireland increased by 10 percent during 2025, despite an effective moratorium on most new datacenter grid connections in the Dublin area. The latest figures from Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that giant server farms now account for nearly a quarter of the country's metered electricity consumption. Their share rose to 23 percent in 2025 after passing 20 percent in 2023 and 14 percent in 2021 – up from just 5 percent way back in 2015. According to the CSO, the energy sucked up by massive bit barns increased by 10 percent last year, expanding from 6,973 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2024 to 7,663 GWh in 2025. All other customers consumed just 2 percent more electricity over the same period. In fact, datacenters used more electricity than urban households, which accounted for 18 percent of metered use, and more than twice the rural-household share of 9 percent. "Datacenter consumption has grown every single year without exception, more than doubling between 2015 and 2019 from 1,240 GWh to 2,490 GWh, and tripling again between 2019 and 2025, reaching 7,663 GWh," commented Grzegorz Głaczyński, statistician in the CSO's Climate and Energy Division. Things got so bad in Ireland that at one point there were fears that the ever-expanding data dormitories might eat up as much as a third of the Emerald Isle's electricity by now. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) put an effective moratorium on connecting new server farms to the electricity grid, at least in the Dublin area, where much of the activity tends to concentrate. This was lifted in December of last year, meaning electricity consumption still rose by a tenth while the moratorium was in place for nearly all of 2025. Under stricter new regulations, server farm operators seeking a grid connection of more than 10 MW must also now provide generators or battery systems capable of providing the same power. They will be required to feed power back to the national grid, if and when required, a system already pioneered by Microsoft and Digital Realty. Like a growing number of places, Ireland has also seen protests against datacenters, which perhaps isn't surprising given that there are understood to be more than 80 of them for a relatively small country of just over 5 million people. Even in the US, the Trump administration is having to work to defuse public opposition to datacenters, asking the tech giants to commit that their expanding server farm estates won't spike energy bills or drain local water supplies across the US. ®

For the past few days, he has been unsubtly trying to write this story, the Tom Junod profile. Perhaps that explains why he steered his sensible midsize SUV to an eerie graveyard. (He knows texture.) And, of course, he quickly finds the most dramatic detail, the headstone of a dead infant. "Huh," Tom says. "Looks like Clara had one day." [Esquire; ungated]

Tom Junod on Finding the Right Trick Tom Junod Would Like to Tell You About His Father In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man: A Memoir