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oursin

Happy birthday,

afuna and

katharine_b!

modzilla posting in

yuletide

fffx is a multifandom gift exchange where the standard minimum of a gift is a fanfic of 10,000+ words or fanart in panelled comic style of 40+ panels.

We've passed the deadline and have 5 remaining pinch hits, mostly requiring a half-length gift of 5,000+ words (fic) or 20+ panels (comic art).

Please take a look if you think you might be able to post a gift of this kind by 11:59pm EDT, Thursday 19 March.

My participants and I are very grateful for your interest!

Pinch hit #32 - fic - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV), Murder She Wrote, Jem and the Holograms (Cartoon), G.I. Joe (Cartoon), Voltron: Lion Force (1984)

Pinch hit #39 - fic - Stargate Atlantis, Kolja | Kolya (1996), Cesta do pravěku | Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955), Jurassic Park Original Trilogy (Movies)

Pinch hit #62 - art, fic - 少年歌行 | The Blood of Youth (Live Action TV), 莲花楼 | Mysterious Lotus Casebook (TV), 琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV), 伪装者 | The Disguiser (TV), 少年白马醉春风 | Dashing Youth (Live Action TV), 杀破狼 | Sha Po Lang - priest )

Pinch hit #65 - fic - Columbo, Criminal Minds (US TV), Grey's Anatomy, Miss Marple - Agatha Christie, NCIS: Los Angeles, SEAL Team (TV), Sherlock (TV) The Professionals (TV 1977)

PH #67 - art, fic [varies by request] - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game), Original Work, Crossover Fandom [Brooklyn 99 & The Labyrinth], Hades (Supergiant Games Video Games)

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260304.html

What’s looking back at you isn’t a cosmic eye, but

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260304.html

earthobservatory_iod_feed

Posted by Lauren Dauphin

https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/a-little-town-with-a-long-name/

https://science.nasa.gov/?p=1204297

The long-named town in Wales appears as a gray patch amidst a bucolic image with green farmland bordering the Menai Strait. Two bridges mark an area known for treacherous whirlpools.

April 9, 2025

On the southeastern coast of Anglesey, an island off the coast of mainland Wales, lies a little town with a big name. Following a Welsh tradition of naming towns after churches and nearby geographic features, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch roughly translates to “St. Mary’s Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave.”

Though Wales has many towns with long names, the unusual length of this one is intentional. The settlement, now home to about 3,000 people, was once called Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, but a local resident pushed for the longer version of the name in the 1860s as part of an effort to promote tourism and give its train station the longest name in Britain. Locals usually use a short version of the name—either Llanfairpwll or Llanfair PG.

The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured this image of the town on April 9, 2025. The image below shows a wider view of the same area. The whirlpool mentioned in the name likely refers to a section of the Menai Strait between the Menai Suspension Bridge and Britannia Bridge known as the Swellies. The area is known for having exceptionally treacherous waters because of its complex bathymetry and because tides enter the strait from both ends at different times, creating strong swirling currents. Menai Suspension Bridge, often described as the first modern suspension bridge, was completed in 1826.

A wider view of the same area shows how the Strait of Menai connects to the open ocean to the north and south of Anglesey island. The right side of the image transitions to hillier terrain with less farmland.

April 9, 2025

Llanddaniel Fab, a village nearby, is the hometown of NASA luminary Tecwyn Roberts. Roberts was a shy boy who grew up without electricity but went on to become one of NASA’s first flight dynamics officers. He is credited with helping to conceptualize NASA’s Deep Space Network, helping design Mission Control at Johnson Space Center, and leading the development of key systems used to communicate with Apollo astronauts.

Llanfairpwll’s full name, with 58 characters, is still shorter than the ceremonial 168-character name for Bangkok, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. However, Llanfairpwll’s full name is said to be the longest one-word place name in Europe and among the longest in the world.

Neighboring planets also boast some lengthy place names. Among the contenders on these other worlds: Schiaparelli crater on Mars, Nantosuelta valley on Venus, and Tchaikovsky crater on Mercury. But even these are less than half the length of the Welsh town’s name. The International Astronomical Union working group responsible for naming planetary features recommends that the first consideration for potential names is that they be “simple, clear, and unambiguous.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.

Downloads

April 9, 2025

JPEG (4.14 MB)

References & Resources

BBC (2019, July 18) The Welshman behind Nasa’s Apollo 11 moon landing mission. Accessed March 4, 2026.
BBC (2015, March 4) Welsh place names. Accessed March 4, 2026.
Comerford Way (2016, May 1) I know what Llanfair PG means, but can I pronounce the longest name in Wales? Accessed March 4, 2026.
HistoryHit (2022, March 30) Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Accessed March 4, 2026.
History Points (2012) NASA space officer’s school, Llanddaniel-fab. Accessed March 4, 2026.
History Extra (2019, July 18) NASA’s unknown Welsh hero: the story of Tecwyn Roberts. Accessed March 4, 2026.
NASA (2019, November 5) Goddard Honors an Apollo-era Pioneer, His Legacy. Accessed March 4, 2026.
University of Southampton (2019, July 17) Rocket Man: Welsh hero of NASA’s moon landings. Accessed March 4, 2026.
USGS Astrogeology Science Center Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Accessed March 4, 2026.
Yahoo (2015, September 12) Here’s the story behind the 58-letter town name in Wales that everyone is talking about. Accessed March 4, 2026.

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The post A Little Town with a Long Name appeared first on NASA Science.

https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/a-little-town-with-a-long-name/

https://science.nasa.gov/?p=1204297

troisoiseaux

Read Tolkien's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which I was not expecting to start with the fall of Troy?? (Only briefly mentioned as a sort of city, state, country, continent, Planet Earth, Milky Way Galaxy approach to setting the scene of Arthur's Britain, but I did find myself momentarily baffled about whether I'd opened the correct e-book.) Interesting to finally read the poem after having seen/read various retellings/adaptations of it— for one thing, it turns out the answer to why would Gawain jump straight to "chop this guy's head off" when presented with the challenge of "whatever blow you deal now, I'll return in one year's time"? is because the challenge was, in fact, set up that way. (Of course, even with the Green Knight kneeling and helpfully baring his neck and making unsubtle comments like I'll tell you where to find me in a year's time afterwards... if I can! If not, you're off the hook!, he could have not done that, but I guess it's a load-bearing detail of Arthuriana that absolutely no one can see a trap when they're about to walk into one or else no one would have weird adventures.) For another: ohhhhh, okay, the OT3 reading is not a stretch of the imagination at all. It also spent more time describing food, clothing, armor, horses' gear, castle architecture, and other luxuries than I would have expected - on the other hand, it also spent quite a lot of time on how to disembowel a deer?? - and each stanza ended with an ABABA rhyme scheme, although I guess in this case, we are not meant to pronounce Gawain as Gar-win—

'What is here, all is your own, to have in your rule
and sway.'
'Gramercy!' quoth Gawain,
'May Christ you this repay!'
As men that to meet were fain
they both embraced that day.

Later, it also rhymes Gawain with retain, so I guess the pronunciation is supposed to be "Ga-wayne," which is frankly how I always assumed it was pronounced, until The Green Knight (2021)...?

In War and Peace, Dolokhov (of the "just fought a duel over sleeping with Pierre's wife" incident) has fallen in love with - and proposed to - Sonya, the poor Rostov cousin/ward who is in love with Nikolai but (spoiler!) he ends up jilting her for Princess Mary, and Sonya ends up never marrying and moves in with them to care for their children. ANYWAY. We are not there yet; Dolokhov has proposed to Sonya, Sonya refused out of love for Nikolai, and Dolokhov proceeded to take his revenge by needling Nikolai into gambling himself into financial ruin, because Nikolai has the backbone of a chocolate eclair as well as one (1) singular brain cell just bouncing around thinking about how much he loves Emperor Alexander.

delphi

Fandom 50 #1

I'm trying another March to March round of Fandom 50 (the challenge where you try to make fifty themed posts in a year), and this time around I thought I'd focus on Canadian music. As a bit of extra fun for myself, I'm going to try to find one song I love per year from the past fifty years—and as it happens, 1977 gave us one of my all-time faves.

We're Here for a Good Time (Not a Long Time) by Trooper

Watch on YouTube

torachan

1. Did another store visit today. I hadn't been to this store for quite some time (I think not since the summer) so it was nice to have an opportunity to check it out again, and just in general to get out of the office and do something different. Tomorrow I plan to do a store visit, too, but just the store down the street from me, so at least there won't be a long drive involved.

2. Carla made miso marinated salmon for dinner tonight, which we haven't had in ages. I forgot how good it is!

3. Carla got some Brooks shoes a few months ago and has really been enjoying them and then it turns out that they occasionally release Disney collabs, and their most recent ones include Rapunzel themed ones. Rapunzel is one of her favorite Disney characters and pink and purple are some of her favorite colors. Plus they actually have them in larger sizes, which is so rare for cute shoes like these. They were released to buy in person at the runDisney event in Disney World this past weekend and just finally showed up on the website today and she was able to order some. And in this instance having larger feet actually worked in her favor, since a lot of the smaller sizes were sold out already.

4. The other day after I got the new shelf set up in the garage, Carla put a couple Star Wars legos on it, and then decided she wanted it to be a Star Wars themed shelf (I was already thinking we should organize some of the lego displays since right now they're just sort of wherever we had space at the time they were built, rather than displayed thematically, so that works out perfectly). It's still in progress, but I think it looks pretty nice. (And I really do love that shelf.)

5. Tuxie's been enjoying the long grass we have after all the rain last month.

fanweeklymod posting in

fandomweekly

Challenge 291:
SAFE HARBOR

It’s been a long, dangerous voyage, through storms and rough waters, past obstacles and opponents (sea monsters? Enemy ships? Dimensional portals?). But finally, a familiar sight comes into view, and you know that the worst of the journey is past. You’ve reached a safe harbor.

It doesn’t have to be a literal harbor, of course. It could be the final exit off the highway after a multi-week road trip from hell, or the first sign of familiar houses as you take a well-worn path home after too long away, or the sight of an old friend coming to greet you in a crowd of hostile strangers. The important part is that you know the worst is over; you’re safe now, or close enough.

Write a story about a safe harbor (literal or metaphorical).

BONUS GOAL: When The Gulls Call

If your submission features seagulls, it will earn an extra point to be tallied in voting!

Challenge ends Monday, March 9 at 9:00PM EST.

• Post submissions as new entries using the template in the profile
• Tag this week's entries as: [#] submission, 291 – safe harbor
• If you have questions about this challenge, please ask them here

fanweeklymod posting in

fandomweekly

Our twenty-ninth Amnesty Week gathered 3 entries across five themes. Well done, everybody!

See under the cut for a list of fics for Amnesty #029.

( List of entries )

If you missed out on Amnesty this time, don’t worry! All of these prompts will be included for Amnesty Week #030 as well. (And thank you very much for your patience with the delay last week. Your mod had some unexpected schedule conflicts!)

kass

I wrote a trio of Stardew ficlets for PeacePangolin for

purimgifts. (And the images I shared along with them are simple re-colorings of in-game images; I am chagrined now to see the kinds of beautiful things people created, and I will need to level up before next year!) Anyway: here's what I wrote.

1. Sam (373 words) by Kass
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sam/Sebastian (Stardew Valley)
Characters: Sam (Stardew Valley)
Additional Tags: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1
Summary:

He can’t remember a time before he knew Sebastian.

2. Sebastian (443 words) by Kass
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sam/Sebastian (Stardew Valley)
Characters: Sebastian
Additional Tags: Purimgifts day 2
Summary:

Nevermind I’m going to delete all of this and start over.

3. Abigail (401 words) by Kass
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sam/Sebastian (Stardew Valley)
Characters: Abigail (Stardew Valley)
Additional Tags: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3

kaberett

This evening I am having A Headache. It's an annoying headache; it's definitely a distracting headache; but it's "just" A Headache. No other symptoms that I'm noticing.

... except that it's Exactly The Right Time For A Migraine, and yesterday I had a bunch of migraine prodrome symptoms. (Being Too Warm. Wanting to close my eyes a lot. Nausea. Overwhelming despair.)

I find myself Wondering whether my regular menstrual migraines actually started on 1^st January 2021, or if that's just the point at which symptoms tipped over into very obviously photosensitive migraine. At that point I was on continuous acute pain relief, and it is slowly dawning on me that An Annoying Headache with no other symptoms distinguishable from background noise (anxiety, depression, thesis-related stress, ...) is the kind of thing I'd have just merrily ignored, and for that matter that I'd still be ignoring if I weren't now Keeping A Headache Diary...

oursin

What I read

Finished A Slowly Dying Cause and she does seem to be grinding these out rather. Also I didn't actually check the details but there were some descriptive passages of places that seemed very similar, or least deploying the same epithets - 'the demilune beach' I think was one - that seemed a bit cut and paste. Also maybe more Havers, but when she finally appeared did we want that plot development??? And something entirely new (or rather, old and heritage) for Lynley to angst about.

Then read the latest Slightly Foxed.

Then onto GB Stern, The Woman in the Hall (1939), which it is longer since I last read than I thought. Still v good but not sure that I will be reccing it for the book group.

Then this already discussed - further thought that it was rather like hearing somebody tell one about book they have read - at least this bore a fairly close resemblance to the original, was not like that scene in one of E Nesbit's Bastable novels in which they talk about Charlotte Yonge's The Daisy Chain and all appear to have been reading entirely different book.... But still left a lot out.

On the go

After that I actually started Nicola Barker, TonyInterrupter (2025), Kobo deal/sortes ereader, which I was quite enjoying, and then -

Arrival of Barbara Hambly, Death at the Palace (A Silver Screen Historical Mystery Book 4) so am currently immersed in that.

Next up

And after that, imagine it will be straight on to Cat Sebastian, Star Shipped, which also published yesterday. Then maybe back to TonyInterrupter.

sovay

Diameter of mental blast crater not diminished. Outside is absurdly springlike following the double-tap of winter that required me to shovel my mother's car out twice, once for the unexpected four inches of snow and then for the glacial swamp the succeeding sleet turned the driveway into. In the process I seem to have inherited the Bat, the stupidest motorcycle jacket I have met in my life. It doesn't have sleeves so much as it has patagia. It is covered with snaps that open into flaps and none of them into pockets. The total design suggests that it may be so heavily constructed because otherwise in a sufficiently stiff gust of wind its owner could achieve accidental unpowered flight. It looks like an opera cape with ambitions of fetish night. My mother insisted on it because I had run out to shovel the first time in my flannel shirtsleeves and the second time my corduroy coat was obviously not adequate to the slush-fall, but it was a present to my father from my grandparents about forty years ago and it looks functionally mint because he has spent most of that time avoiding ever wearing it. In its defense, it is extremely warm and also I look like a tire. There will be no photographs.

Current Music: PJ Harvey, "Memphis"

kass

My final

purimgifts fic and collage are Lady Astronaut ones again -- absolutely lovely. Thank you so much, Mystery Author! You have brightened my Purim a ton.

2329 Days (329 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Lady Astronaut Series - Mary Robinette Kowal
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Elma York, Nathaniel York, Jean-Paul Lebourgeois, Estevan Terrazas
Additional Tags: Canon Jewish Character, Canon Compliant, Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Outer Space
Summary:

A moment of prayer for when Elma sees the stars

likeadeuce

I've entered the "Fandom Trumps Hate" auction this year. How this works is offering to create fanworks to people who pledge charitable donations. I'm offering fic, and I'm open to pretty much any fandom that I'm familiar with (ask if you're not sure). My auction page is here with more information!

maevedarcy posting in

recthething

February was full of fan events! I'm still browsing through some collections, so here's two of the rec list I made recently for those:

Bitesize Erotic Horror Flash Exchange Recs

Warning for disturbing topics as the topic of this flash exchange was Erotic Horror

Fandoms featured in this list:

The forbidden book
NoPixel
Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon (Song)
In a Week - Hozier (Song)

Candy Hearts Exchange 2026 Rec List

Fandoms featured in this list:

Teen Wolf
Carmilla- J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Doctor Who (2005)
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022)
Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Torchwood
Venom
Heated Rivalry

dinosaur_comics_feed

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4442


archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about

but i LOVE universes where aphorisms suddenly become literally true comics!!

← previous

March 4th, 2026

March 4th, 2026: It's March! It's the month where Winter Finally Starts To End A Li'l Bit!

– Ryan

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4442

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3215/

This replaces the previous solar activity watch, which was issued last month when the sun took off its sunglasses.

https://xkcd.com/3215/

midnight_heavenly_bodies posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Six Hats and a Suitcase
Fandom: Culture Club
Pairing: Boy George/Jon Moss
Rating: G
Length: 955 words
Content notes: N/A
Author notes: This was so fun to write. I love these two so much.
Written for: Challenge 508 - Anticipation
Summary: George is packing like he's emigrating, Jon is pretending not to panic about how much he cares. Four days before their first holiday together, the flat is full of hats, silk shirts, and things neither of them are quite ready to say out loud. Domestic chaos, soft glances, one suitcase, and the quiet realization that this might be something real.

( Read more... )

oursin

Happy birthday,

sister_luck!

Profile

kindkit

September 2025

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Page Summary

oursin - (no subject)
modzilla in yuletide - FFFX Post-Deadline PHs
apod_feed - (no subject)
earthobservatory_iod_feed - A Little Town with a Long Name
troisoiseaux - Reading Wednesday
delphi - Post and Jam: We're Here for a Good Time (Not a Long Time) by Trooper [1977]
torachan - Daily Happiness
fanweeklymod in fandomweekly - [#291 | Safe Harbor] Challenge Post
fanweeklymod in fandomweekly - [Amnesty #029] Roundup
kass - Purimgifts reveal
kaberett - [migraine] a belated realisation
oursin - Wednesday offers condolences
sovay - In Memphis, on Valentine's Day
kass - One final Purim rec
likeadeuce - Fandom Trumps Hate Auction!
maevedarcy in recthething - 2 Rec lists from events I recently took part in
dinosaur_comics_feed - universe where aphorisms suddenly become literally true comics
xkcd_feed - Solar Warning
midnight_heavenly_bodies in fan_flashworks - Culture Club: Fanfic: Six Hats and a Suitcase
oursin - (no subject)

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something queer going on

Reading

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FFFX Post-Deadline PHs

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A Little Town with a Long Name

Downloads

April 9, 2025

References & Resources

You may also be interested in:

Discover More from NASA Earth Science

Subscribe to Earth Observatory Newsletters

Earth Observatory Image of the Day

Reading Wednesday

Post and Jam: We're Here for a Good Time (Not a Long Time) by Trooper [1977]

Daily Happiness

[#291 | Safe Harbor] Challenge Post

[Amnesty #029] Roundup

Purimgifts reveal

[migraine] a belated realisation

Wednesday offers condolences

In Memphis, on Valentine's Day

One final Purim rec

Fandom Trumps Hate Auction!

2 Rec lists from events I recently took part in

Bitesize Erotic Horror Flash Exchange Recs

Candy Hearts Exchange 2026 Rec List

universe where aphorisms suddenly become literally true comics

Solar Warning

Culture Club: Fanfic: Six Hats and a Suitcase

(no subject)

Profile

September 2025

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