Ruth Kneale
@desertlibrarian.bsky.social
Retired observatory systems librarian in the desert. Short, snarky, coffee-loving, and extremely liberal. In my dream life, I'm an archeologist, but astronomy will always rule. Ask me about my headaches!
Bringing in the New Year with rain! Yay! May 2026 bring you everything you need 🤞🏻🤞🏻🎉
#Tucson #DesertWeather #HappyNewYear
#Tucson #DesertWeather #HappyNewYear
January 1, 2026 at 4:45 AM
Bringing in the New Year with rain! Yay! May 2026 bring you everything you need 🤞🏻🤞🏻🎉
#Tucson #DesertWeather #HappyNewYear
#Tucson #DesertWeather #HappyNewYear
Yeah, we'll definitely not be having snow in the #OldPueblo for #Christmas - it was 85°F today! But there's a chance we might get rain! 🤞🏻🤞🏻 #DesertWeather
At least two dozen record highs are expected to be tied or broken across the Lower 48 on Christmas Day.
Near-record/Top 5 December 25th warmth is forecast for at least ~half of the U.S.
Climate Change now makes unseasonable, not-so-holly-jolly warmth like this at least twice as likely to occur
Near-record/Top 5 December 25th warmth is forecast for at least ~half of the U.S.
Climate Change now makes unseasonable, not-so-holly-jolly warmth like this at least twice as likely to occur
December 22, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Yeah, we'll definitely not be having snow in the #OldPueblo for #Christmas - it was 85°F today! But there's a chance we might get rain! 🤞🏻🤞🏻 #DesertWeather
I've already wrapped the Map of Good Burritos; I've got 3 days left to get the matching Perfect Salsa Radar. #christmas #tucson
Affordable last minute gift ideas!
- mysterious jar of moss
- invisible helmet
- thrift store goblin bones
- fox laughter
- map of good burritos
- curly fries & kindness
- mysterious jar of moss
- invisible helmet
- thrift store goblin bones
- fox laughter
- map of good burritos
- curly fries & kindness
December 22, 2025 at 5:49 AM
I've already wrapped the Map of Good Burritos; I've got 3 days left to get the matching Perfect Salsa Radar. #christmas #tucson
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
I cannot state any more baldly or clearly than I already have about what an immense menace RFK Jr. is. The number of preventable illnesses and deaths - of *babies* - will be horrific. This anti-vax crap is grotesque anti-science, and always has been.
Congratulations to everyone who wrote an op-ed about how he just wants americans to eat better
BREAKING: RFKJr directs that the US instantly stop recommending all vaccinations for children. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
December 20, 2025 at 1:55 AM
I cannot state any more baldly or clearly than I already have about what an immense menace RFK Jr. is. The number of preventable illnesses and deaths - of *babies* - will be horrific. This anti-vax crap is grotesque anti-science, and always has been.
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
NEWS: The Institute of Museum & Library Services has restored ALL previously canceled federal grants to libraries, following a ruling by a federal judge in Rhode Island last month.
This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory!
Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory!
Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
December 3, 2025 at 10:18 PM
NEWS: The Institute of Museum & Library Services has restored ALL previously canceled federal grants to libraries, following a ruling by a federal judge in Rhode Island last month.
This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory!
Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory!
Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
Gracefully carving through the solar corona, a mini eruption of filament plasma erupted from the Sun earlier today! Beautiful.
December 4, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Gracefully carving through the solar corona, a mini eruption of filament plasma erupted from the Sun earlier today! Beautiful.
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
A climatologist
told me it’s not normal
for it to be this hot
right now
An epidemiologist
told me it’s not normal
for so many to be sick
right now
A historian
told me it’s not normal
for the government to be shutdown
right now
It’s not normal,
my friends,
it’s not normal.
told me it’s not normal
for it to be this hot
right now
An epidemiologist
told me it’s not normal
for so many to be sick
right now
A historian
told me it’s not normal
for the government to be shutdown
right now
It’s not normal,
my friends,
it’s not normal.
October 1, 2025 at 7:24 PM
A climatologist
told me it’s not normal
for it to be this hot
right now
An epidemiologist
told me it’s not normal
for so many to be sick
right now
A historian
told me it’s not normal
for the government to be shutdown
right now
It’s not normal,
my friends,
it’s not normal.
told me it’s not normal
for it to be this hot
right now
An epidemiologist
told me it’s not normal
for so many to be sick
right now
A historian
told me it’s not normal
for the government to be shutdown
right now
It’s not normal,
my friends,
it’s not normal.
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
The people will boot you from your office, Mike “Moses” Johnson. May your party wander in a political desert long after.
October 1, 2025 at 7:30 PM
The people will boot you from your office, Mike “Moses” Johnson. May your party wander in a political desert long after.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you give a list of the prescriptions you take to a federal government that has directly targeted people with chronic illness, mental illness, disability, autism, etc, with the eugenic language of elimination and stated outright they’re everything wrong with the country.
Trump announces 'TrumpRx' website for pharmaceutical drugs after Pfizer deal
Trump said the move will help improve healthcare access for low-income Americans.
abcnews.go.com
October 1, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
Today marks the first day in public media’s history without federal funding. And we’re not going anywhere.
Listeners like you keep our mission alive. Protect one of the last places where America comes together to hear itself.
Stand with us today. Donate at this link: n.pr/46wamAj
Listeners like you keep our mission alive. Protect one of the last places where America comes together to hear itself.
Stand with us today. Donate at this link: n.pr/46wamAj
October 1, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Today marks the first day in public media’s history without federal funding. And we’re not going anywhere.
Listeners like you keep our mission alive. Protect one of the last places where America comes together to hear itself.
Stand with us today. Donate at this link: n.pr/46wamAj
Listeners like you keep our mission alive. Protect one of the last places where America comes together to hear itself.
Stand with us today. Donate at this link: n.pr/46wamAj
Go forth and support this!
Lego Ideas: Serenity with Interior
Lego Ideas: Serenity with Interior
Firefly SERENITY With Interior | LEGO® Ideas
Firefly has gone down in television history as one of the great tragedies. Cancelled after just one season, the cult-classic show has lived on for decades now a…
beta.ideas.lego.com
October 1, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Go forth and support this!
Lego Ideas: Serenity with Interior
Lego Ideas: Serenity with Interior
Terror Made Me Cruel
Terror Made Me Cruel
Sundays
open.substack.com
September 22, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Terror Made Me Cruel
This can't be America....yet, shamefully, it is.
Can't wait until I can see the whole movie, although I have no doubt it'll enrage, horrify, and deeply sadden me. The hypocrisy burns; the pain is the point.
#SaveLibraries #NoToCensorship #SaveLibrarians
Can't wait until I can see the whole movie, although I have no doubt it'll enrage, horrify, and deeply sadden me. The hypocrisy burns; the pain is the point.
#SaveLibraries #NoToCensorship #SaveLibrarians
THE LIBRARIANS | Official Trailer
YouTube video by The Librarians Film
youtu.be
September 10, 2025 at 4:32 PM
This can't be America....yet, shamefully, it is.
Can't wait until I can see the whole movie, although I have no doubt it'll enrage, horrify, and deeply sadden me. The hypocrisy burns; the pain is the point.
#SaveLibraries #NoToCensorship #SaveLibrarians
Can't wait until I can see the whole movie, although I have no doubt it'll enrage, horrify, and deeply sadden me. The hypocrisy burns; the pain is the point.
#SaveLibraries #NoToCensorship #SaveLibrarians
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
it's Saturday, and it's time for "this week in stupid: August 16 edition" — Jesse Watters sucks it up, Donny Convict fucks it up, and so much more...
thanks for reading, and please sign up for my daily newsletter to keep getting the good stuff —
thanks for reading, and please sign up for my daily newsletter to keep getting the good stuff —
this week in stupid: August 16 edition
Jesse Watters sucks it up, Donny Convict fucks it up, and so much more...
bit.ly
August 16, 2025 at 3:46 PM
it's Saturday, and it's time for "this week in stupid: August 16 edition" — Jesse Watters sucks it up, Donny Convict fucks it up, and so much more...
thanks for reading, and please sign up for my daily newsletter to keep getting the good stuff —
thanks for reading, and please sign up for my daily newsletter to keep getting the good stuff —
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
The White House is mobilizing red state military forces to occupy a Democratic stronghold and let me tell you: No one has ever pretended something isn't happening harder than Democratic leaders are pretending this isn't happening right now.
WASHINGTON (AP) — South Carolina, Ohio also sending National Guard troops to DC in further escalation of federal intervention in Dem city.
August 17, 2025 at 1:10 AM
The White House is mobilizing red state military forces to occupy a Democratic stronghold and let me tell you: No one has ever pretended something isn't happening harder than Democratic leaders are pretending this isn't happening right now.
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
Necessary tools from the bad old days (or: the smallest taste of why marriage equality matters.)
August 15, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Necessary tools from the bad old days (or: the smallest taste of why marriage equality matters.)
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
The only things republicans don’t want you to get shot with are life saving vaccines.
1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said."
It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy.
I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.
It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy.
I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.
RFK Jr. in interview with Scripps News: ‘Trusting the experts is not science’
HHS Secretary RFK Jr. sat down with Scripps News for a wide-ranging interview, discussing mRNA vaccine funding policy changes and a recent shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
www.scrippsnews.com
August 12, 2025 at 12:19 PM
The only things republicans don’t want you to get shot with are life saving vaccines.
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
Bowser: "I think I speak for all Americans -- we don't believe it's legal to use the American military against American citizens on American soil."
August 11, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Bowser: "I think I speak for all Americans -- we don't believe it's legal to use the American military against American citizens on American soil."
OMG this would be amazing!! Hawaii ain't gonna happen - trust this veteran of 2 Hawaiian observatories - but this offer from Spain & the site at La Palma would save this amazing project. #TMT #SaveTMT #SaveScience
The Thirty Meter Telescope — long planned to be built in Hawaii but now with its US funding on the chopping block — could be given a new lease of life in Spain, following a government bid to host at the telescope on La Palma. Will the TMT board accept?
🧪🔭 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
🧪🔭 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Spain bids €400 million to host mega telescope at risk in US budget cuts
New Canary Islands home could save controversial Thirty Meter Telescope first proposed for Hawaii.
www.nature.com
August 11, 2025 at 1:55 PM
OMG this would be amazing!! Hawaii ain't gonna happen - trust this veteran of 2 Hawaiian observatories - but this offer from Spain & the site at La Palma would save this amazing project. #TMT #SaveTMT #SaveScience
Reposted by Ruth Kneale
The key mistake here, and this happens a lot across all parts of our culture, is the idea that unless your action is the sole deciding factor in the outcome, the action is useless.
Even people who get that we’re all just pebbles need to believe they could be *the one* that starts the avalanche.
Even people who get that we’re all just pebbles need to believe they could be *the one* that starts the avalanche.
July 7, 2025 at 5:45 AM
The key mistake here, and this happens a lot across all parts of our culture, is the idea that unless your action is the sole deciding factor in the outcome, the action is useless.
Even people who get that we’re all just pebbles need to believe they could be *the one* that starts the avalanche.
Even people who get that we’re all just pebbles need to believe they could be *the one* that starts the avalanche.
