Did you know that the Pope has an astronomer?

Fascinating article about Guy Consolmagno, head of the Vatican observatory.

The Pope's Astronomer

When the late Pope Francis was elected, a dozen years ago, and famously declined the pomp and perquisites typically associated with the office, among his renunciations was the use of the papal summer residence—a seventeenth-century palazzo in Castel Gandolfo, about fifteen miles south of Rome. Generations of Popes had enjoyed the use of the mansion, which overlooks a volcanic lake and is surrounded by spectacular terraced gardens. The palazzo is now a museum where visitors can admire a gallery of papal portraits, of varying quality, and imagine the dreams that visited the successive occupants of the papal bedroom, with its narrow twin bed. Castel Gandolfo is also home to one of the Holy See’s more unexpected institutions: the Vatican Observatory, which since its founding, in 1891, has been dedicated to the scientific study of the heavens.

Guy Consolmagno, the director of the observatory, first came to Castel Gandolfo as a newly minted Jesuit brother, in 1993. When I met him outside the palazzo, early this spring, he gestured at a window overlooking the building’s courtyard. This was the location of his first, decidedly modest bedroom in the mansion. Consolmagno, who grew up in suburban Detroit and retains a buoyant, emphatic, Midwestern manner, told me, “The Pope then was John Paul II, and when he was first elected he had made a rookie mistake, as we say in America. Somebody, a journalist—one of those terrible journalists—had asked him, ‘What’s your favorite hymn?’ And, being a fool, he actually gave the name of a hymn that he happened to like. So, every Sunday during the summertime, when he was living here, the doors would open at 10 a.m., and this place would be filled with two thousand Polish pilgrims singing that hymn underneath my window. I got totally sick of it.” Consolmagno never got sick, though, of being saluted by the Swiss Guards stationed at the palace gates.

Has America finally been defeated by the Confederacy?

I've been thinking about this since I started following Tad Stoermer and his perspective on how Reconstructionism was stifled by Johnson in the name of unity.

We are moving backwards, and being controlled by the rich white racists who have always wanted slavery and 'Christian values'.

Why They Tried to Erase Thomas Paine -- The Real Revolution vs. The Patriot Myth

Tad Stoermer - History professor

From a knife maker I know here in France

"If we don’t make it dangerous to be a Nazi, they’ll make it dangerous not to be."

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/16ox4uDdAv/

What's the difference between Merrick Garland and Cholesterol?

Brain activity much lower when using AI chatbots, MIT boffins find

The Register - the place to go for all things IT and geeky with a full helping of English snark - put this interesting piece out about using LLM chatbots for writing.
I read the opening paragraphs to Mrs GoS and her response was 'Well, duh!"

Democrats Abroad demo in Marseille France today

We had around 75 people show up at la Vieux Port in Marseille from Democrats Abroad.
And seven or eight Americans who didn't know about the 'manifestation' but were visiting France joined our group.
The first photo is from a guy who is a photojournalist and has just moved to France.
Photo courtesy of Paul Brown

Herding cats!






A Springsteen fan


Mrs GoS


My favourite sign of the day.






Photo courtesy of Paul Brown -



And edited to include the demo in Nice

Some Puerto Ricans want the island to become part of Spain.

An interesting article from the Daily Express.
Taco man might explode - https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/174270/us-territory-where-locals-want-rejoin-spain-become-like-canary-islands

Robert DeNiro at the Cannes Festival

"Our Philistine president"

https://fb.watch/zAHvX3j1KZ/

'Treated like a criminal': US citizen says he was detained returning from Canada

He voted for #Felon47

"I really thought things would change after this administration, when we have Mr. Trump in office, things would change to the better," Atallah said. "Things actually changed to the worse."

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/treated-like-a-criminal-us-citizen-says-he-was-detained-returning-from-canada/4160718/