It's probably obvious to most of you, but a big difference between the commercial social media platforms and the fediverse is that as those commercial platform grow, they get additional revenue from ads, from selling personal information, and otherwise monetizing their users. While that is turning out to not actually pay the bills for them, in the fediverse, just about every instance is run by volunteers and funded by donations or out of the volunteers' pockets. It's a labor of love and a hope for a better future. When traffic grows, we need to expand our capacity.

That is why I am asking, if you are able, please consider donating to the instance you on to help keep the fediverse ecosystem going. Typically the /about web page will have details on how to donate.

Note: I am well aware that many of you are not in a financial position to donate - and that is OK. We are here to serve you as well. Donations are completely optional.

For anyone who's come over to the #Fediverse from #Twitter: One of the first things I did when coming here was seek out a bunch of #journalists to follow, so my TL could mimic the "current events" feed. Here's a curated Google Sheet listing over a thousand journalists who've made accounts over here, who cover all sorts of things from cycling to sports to breaking news. Use it to help populate your #timeline, #share broadly for exposure.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14vfonxtyy0JFDxu5dZOZo-yAJrRXcu2lZ33atkFb7GM/edit#gid=0

"Oh wow, you are on fire lately!" 🍿

#krita #MastoArt

[edit: at popular demand in the comments, I added Pleroma-tan and AI, Misskey]

#BBC 📆 2021 In 📆 1992, two #astronomers 🔭 discovered the #KuiperBelt. In 📆 2016, two professors of #PlanetaryScience at #Caltech proposed a massive #planet 🪐, between five and 10 times the size of #Earth 🌏. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210216-the-massive-planet-scientists-cant-find

"At the moment the only game in town for finding #PlanetNine is the Subaru #Telescope 🔭" 🗺️ https://graphhopper.com/maps/?point=Subaru+Telescope&layer=Esri+Satellite

The Vera Rubin #Observatory 🔭 will start searching for long period #comets ☄️ coming from the #OortCloud when it is completed 📆 2023. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210618-the-solar-systems-icy-shell-contaminated-by-other-stars 🗺️ https://graphhopper.com/maps/?point=Vera+Rubin+Observatory&layer=Esri+Satellite

#OortCloud #comet up to 230 miles wide, traveling 1 #AU per year passing by in 📆 2031 “#Comets ☄️are like #cats, you never know what they’re going to do.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/giant-comet-oort-cloud-will-pass-sun-2031-180978048

Pictures :  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PIA17046_-_Voyager_1_Goes_Interstellar.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA-PathsOfSpaceProbesThroughTheKuiperBelt-20190105.jpg, Halley's #comet  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Halley%27s_Comet_animation.gif

Both Twitter and BlueSky - backed by untold amounts of money and white tech bros - are down.

Mastodon - run by trans furries and femboys high on anxiety - is running just fine.