spacex – Stilgherrian

23 March 202524 March 2025

Weekly Wrap 773: Remembering a little train in the sunshine

On a bright sunny day a pair of diesel railcars sit at a station platform in the open air. They’re silver, with their flat noses painted bright yellow, and just behind that a red stripe and a a small flash of blue.

My week of Monday 17 to Sunday 23 March 2025 wasn’t hugely productive but I’ve started planning more things. I also thought back to 2018, for some reason. Have a train.

09 March 202510 March 2025

Weekly Wrap 771: Never mind the productivity, feel the parrot

It’s a wet day in a eucalypt forest. On an old tree stump sits a pair of birds eating a handful of seed. On the left, the male bird has red head, breast, and lower undersides, with a blue band on the back of the neck between the red above and green on the back, the wings are green and each has a pale green shoulder band, the tail is green, and the rump is blue. On the right, the female has a green head and breast, a grey beak, and the pale shoulder band is small or absent

Productivity started to return during my week of Monday 3 to Sunday 9 March 2025, but not entirely. So here’s a photo of two king parrots and some links and stuff. There’s also a video of a grey butcherbird.

14 January 202514 January 2025

The 9pm Colonisation of Mars and the Universe with Dr Alice Gorman and Rami Mandow

Plotting the overthrow of the space colonies! Left: Dr Alice Gorman. (Photo: Simon Royal/ABC) Right: Rami Mandow. (Photo: Supplied; Post-processing: Stilgherrian)

Happy New Year. It’s time for another look at space news, I reckon, so once more my special guests are space archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman aka Dr Space Junk from Flinders University, and astrophysicist and founder of SpaceAustralia.com Rami Mandow.

16 December 202420 December 2024

Weekly Wrap 759: Am I the perfect parrot perch, perchance?

A male Australian king parrot, a medium-sized bird with a bright red head and belly with back and wings in various shades of green. He is standing on a man's left hand, the palm of which holds a selection of seeds to eat.

During my week of Monday 9 to Sunday 15 December 2024 a certain king parrot decided that I am now his feeding perch. I finally wrapped up the spring series of The 9pm Edict podcast. And my injuries continued to heal quite quickly. I’ll definitely tell you more about them soon.

26 August 202426 August 2024

The 9pm the Solar System is Being a Jerk with Rami Mandow

*Rami Mandow and two telescopes, one an optical scope and one part of a home-made radio telescope. (Photo: Supplied; Post-processing: Stilgherrian*)

It’s time for another podcast about space, so we’re joined once again by astrophysicist Rami Mandow, founder of SpaceAustralia.com.

14 July 202414 July 2024

Weekly Wrap 737: Admiring an enormous American car while my podcast guests fall ill

A big low-slung American car in silver grey.

My week of Monday 8 to Sunday 14 July 2024 was far less busy than I’d planned, because both of the podcast guests I’d booked in went down with throat infections. Still, I finally posted an episode recorded a couple weeks back, and started planning a Queensland expedition for October.