iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Just came across this cool artifact: “Viking Lander Biological Instrument, Life on Mars” matchbox. (“The most complex instrument ever flown “) From a party in Pasadena for first Mars landing in 1976. Handed down to me by the late, great Shirley Arden (Carl Sagan’s long time executive assistant). 🧪

Picture of a gold matchbox with black design of a little Martian bug holding a spear and sword, with the lettering: VLBI, the most complex instrument ever flown.

Other side of the matchbook .The little Martian dude with “TRW” and “Life on Mars?”

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

“There is nothing new under the sun. But there are new suns.” — Octavia Butler 🧪

A JWST image of the “pillars of creation”

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Thank you @exploratorium.bsky.social for hosting my talk Thursday on “Shaping Earth’s Future” What a cool museum and great audience. 🙏🏼 🧪

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

47 years ago today the magnificent ringed planet Saturn was visited for the first time by a spacecraft from Earth: NASA’s Pioneer 11. 🧪🔭

Saturn, half lit, and a sliver of ring, looking in vast darkness, photographed by Pioneer 11.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Early moment of self-reflection: Today in 1966 Lunar Orbiter 1 took this -The first pic of Earth from lunar orbit. 🧪

A grainy, striped photo of the lunar limb with a crescent Earth hanging above.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

What my puppy decided to chew on this AM. Ashes to ashes, star stuff to poop… 🧪

An envelope with return address of Carl Sagan at Cornell, letter addressed to David Grinsooon at NASA/Ames research center

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Front page of yesterday’s Financial Times, one of the most widely read and respected mainstream/conservative papers in the world:

Headline reads “Trimp is dismantling US democratic guardrails, warn former CIA officials “
Subhead: “moves out of autocrat’s playbook” “checks on executive power eroded” “alarm at personality cult “

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

The art of dying: The sublime beauty of dying stars, blowing their guts back out into space and seeding new stars, planets, life? 🧪

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Moment of anthropocene self-reflection: 67 y.a. today Explorer 6 launched & took first photos of Earth from orbit. 🧪🔭

A grainy black and white image of Earth from space, bright clouds and dark, indistinct shapes…

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

14 years ago Curiosity was snapping its first pics on Mars. Unbelievable! 🧪🔭

Desolate flat Martian plain, rim of mountains on horizon, selfie shadow of spacecraft camera arm in foreground.

Flat martiana plane with scattered dust & pebbles. Crater rim
Mountains in background. Rover instrument deck in foreground.

Gently sloping pebble-strewn plain with hints of crater rim
Mountains in distance.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Sinéad. Three years gone. Her beautiful, courageous, honest voice will always be treasured by me.

A black and white photo of beautiful Sinead, holding a mic, head shaved, eyes downcast, contemplative.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

So according to the Times opinion page today, Gen-Z are not working and not having sex. What the hell are they doing, reading books?!?!

Headline: Gen Z fell out of love with work.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Holy Shit!!! It was 57 years ago today… 🧪

Cover of The Onion: Holy Shit Man Walks on Fucking Moon!!!

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

When a child, I thought the stars are the atoms of some gigantic being. And who of us did not? - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, 1928 🧪

A nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula, JWST.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Today’s news, brought to you by the fossil fuel industry:

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

And now, if there is a hell, Lindsey is there…

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

I had a public conversation with poet Diane Ackerman about the new edition of her classic "The Planets: A Cosmic Pastoral". (Released on @mariapopova.bsky.social Marginalian books) A recording has now appeared on Archive.org. Have a listen if you fancy. (link below). 🧪 archive.org/details/4-25...

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

How is technology currently changing us? And what should be be paying attention to? Little ambush interview I did at South by Southwest London, just appeared in Insta: 🧪 www.instagram.com/reel/DakhrAr...

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Sealant Team 6! Some choice comments this AM.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

It’s now official: Avi Loeb is the RFK Jr. of astrophysics. 🧪

A post by Avi Loeb announcing he has been tasked by Trump to
Lead some wacky UAP advisory council.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Funky Funky Aliens! 👽🎶💃🕺🏻 Would extraterrestrials have music? Would they dig our grooves? Here’s I get into all that with @neildegrassetyson.com and @chucknicecomic.bsky.social (A new mash-up of @startalkradio.bsky.social and some DC GROOVADELICS shows) 🧪 www.instagram.com/reel/DZrLiH8... #funk

Funky Funky Aliens with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice and David Grinspoon. And featuring GROOVADELICS

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Bill Anders, who took this iconic “Earthrise” photo from Apollo 8 on Christmas Eve 1968, died 2 years ago today when a plane he was flying solo, at age 90, crashed into Puget Sound. RIP Spaceman!

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

If I was an NYC cop I might be rooting for the Spurs… www.nytimes.com/2026/06/06/n...

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Thanks Elon! Enjoy your big SpaceX IPO & your lucrative NASA contracts while Africans die and world health is threatened by your cruel, callous stupidity. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/h...

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Now do Tr*mp and the fishing boats off Venezuela.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Here’s Jill Tarter looking badass outside the SETI Institute yesterday. 🧪

Dr.Jill Tarter facing the camera looking cool with her elbows on the hood of a Mercedes- license plate SETI.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

With an engineering model of the frame for the sapphire window on our DAVINCI probe we will launch to Venus in 2030… (Sapphire because it’s very strong and transparent and won’t etch like glass as we fall through the sulfuric acid clouds…) 🧪

A nerdy looking scientist with round glasses and a crumpled black fedora smiles as he holds a 5 inch diameter round netal window frame, in a large industrial looking space.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

You know it’s possible that this soldier thought that was a statue of Trump.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

56 years ago today: Relief at Mission Control as Apollo 13 astronauts return safely to Earth. 🧪🔭

A bunch of white guys with skinny ties and cigars behind bulky 1960s style Mission control console exultant and relieved.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Today’s surreal split screen: Brave, brilliant astronauts swinging AROUND THE MOON, returning wondrous new photos of our exquisite planet and its ancient companion, while our dangerously unhinged “leader” threatens unspeakable war crimes. “Diving for dear life, when we should be diving for pearls”

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Huh. Here’s a piece about using AI for writing that is actually interesting and provocative. Neither fawning nor reflexively fearful. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The task of writing in the age of AI is the same as it has always been: to see through the various manias and cults, to unpack the mechanisms that make the world turn, to ring the bells that still can ring.

Common sense might also help. “Render unto man the things which are man’s and unto the computer the things which are the computer’s,” Norbert Wiener, the father of cybernetics, wrote. “This would seem the intelligent policy to adopt when we employ men and computers together in common undertakings. It is a policy as far removed from that of the gadget worshiper as it is from the man who sees only blasphemy and degradation of man in the use of any mechanical adjuvants whatever to thoughts.”

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Amazing orbital view of the Artemis 2 launch, as seen from the GOES-19 satellite. 🧪

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Wow - here are 3 really nice comments I’ve received in the 24 hours since I posted this:

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

News flash!! ☄️🌗 Big new crater on the moon. The size of two football fields. A once in a century event! 🧪

Title of meeting abstract:
A NEW 225-M DIAMETER CRATER ON THE MOON.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

I sat under this cherry tree all day, and wrote, and read, had my morning coffee here, and my evening cocktail. This morning there were only buds on these branches. Now it’s full of flowers. A day to remember!

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

It’s happening people. This shit is getting real.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Seems like Israel and the U.S., with this indiscriminate destruction breeding hatred and despair, are trying to turn Iran into Gaza (but with 50 times the population). www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/w...

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

a NASA and a Clipper science team to retrieve and analyze the data which will tell us if there’s a habitable environment within that beautiful cracked icy moon! (7/7)

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

On the winds of war, a new moment of self reflection, our first distant view of ourselves. OTD in 1947 American scientists launched a V-2 rocket which captured these first pictures of Earth taken from greater than 100 miles altitude. 🧪🔭

Somewhat grainy mosaicked pictures showing the bright ling of Earth, with swirling clouds, against the black of space.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

This meme I made a while ago seems apropos tonight:

Carter Burke from Alien = Sam Altman ?
Photos showing them looking nearly identical.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Well good morning giant rapturous brain in the sky! Here a dying star is blowing its mass into space, shedding its hydrogen skin, in clouds of gas expanding beyond that expiring mortal coil perhaps to begin anew, forming and fertilizing generations of new young stars in a rapture of stellar (1/n) 🧪

James Webb Space Telescope images showing two views of what looks like a giant glowing brain in space.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

GROSS! They should rename it the Metropolitan Museum of Botox and Oligarchy.

New York Times headline Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos will be honorary chairs of the Met Gala. With accompanying photo emphasizing pumped up breasts, plumped up lips and smug smirking tux wearing overlord.

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

I made this meme a while back. Seems apropos…

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