57 Years Ago, Jocelyn Bell Burnell Discovered Pulsars

"On 28 November 1967, it came again—a string of pulses, one-and-a-third seconds apart."

At first, some joked, "Little Green Men?" But what Jocelyn Bell Burnell had found was far more remarkable.

A Little Backstory🧵

Sunday is usually Jazz Day around here and seeing it’s December…

In the beginning there was rhythm…

Yep, it’s day one on thjs year’s advent singles and it’s The Slits, signed for me by Viv, Ari and Tessa.

#adventsingles #theslits

You will feel sleepy, you will do as I say! 😊

The best part of it is the book is it's a record of "...the vulgar tongue of the twin sister counties, Norfolk and Suffolk, as it existed in the last twenty years of the eighteenth century..." Of course, this makes it a 19th century book about the 18th century. But, I'm sure that's what you meant.

Jaco Pastorius, one of the greatest bassists of all time, was born on this day in 1951 → cos.lv/5OTN50UixsV

Yesterday’s victory by Syrian rebel forces in Aleppo after their shock offensive is a huge defeat for both Russia and Iran.

Some light reading today

We really need to teach our kids how to spot intellectual garbage. This is a hug hole in our educational system.

Alright. It’s 35 degrees and the sun is setting at 4:30. It’s that time of year: WWII dad season. Drop what you’re reading. I’m doing an eastern front circuit with Richard Overy’s “Russia’s War” and David Stahel’s “Operation Barbarossa and Germany’s Defeat in the East.”

My partner (Radio 3 in the womb, choir baby, met all her pals at borough youth orchestra) has a classical version of Whamaggeddon. It's called Lambaggeddon. Same rules, but the trigger is The Lamb by John Taverner. (She also likes Wham.)

Twin Peaks: An Owl in the woods.

If you’re looking for a free way to support an author, did you know you can ask your library to stock a book you want to read that they don’t have yet? And usually it’s a very basic online form? Google your library name plus the words “request a title” or “suggest a title” to find yours.

Some of you have asked, so: if you’d like to give a signed copy of any of my books for the holidays, you can order them via @portersqbooks.bsky.social! Put a note in the comments saying you’d like it signed/personalized (& to whom), they tell me, I come in and sign, they ship it out. Done!

One of my favourite winter wild camps ❄️✨😌 #LakeDistrict #winter #snow #wildcamp #nightsky

A long, dark, helpful H5N1 explainer thread.