Only within the last few months quite gradually. I think there are docs on the atproto dev website about it now

I'm in this post and I don't like it

(apologies if this was actually the joke lmao)

I mean, *technically* they do, since E=mc²...

... which for a 20 Wh phone battery means
m = E/c²
= 72 kJ / (3×10⁸ m/s)²
= 8×10⁻¹³ kg of lost mass

I agree with a)! With b), I wasn't referencing science cuts in particular - the small scope of Artemis is a result of 20+ years of NASA budget cuts & scope reduction in their human spaceflight program, which I find really sad =( there used to be a lot more cool post-Shuttle plans

US tech companies shouldn't get to decide that European (or any other!) telescopes are now obsolete in the name of profits, and we need to find ways to get policymakers to care about them & to fight back 🔭☄️

This is a really nice analysis of the impact of proposed satellite constellations on ground-based astronomy. 🔭☄️

One thing that might otherwise get lost in the margins is that these satellite constellations would waste many, many billions of euros of government funding spent on telescopes.

Large or bright satellite constellations: Effects on observations, including on the background sky brightness This study evaluates the effect of proposed constellations -- ranging from current deployments to mega-constellations and very bright reflector concepts -- on direct trail losses, diffuse background, ...

Nice new (peer-reviewed) analysis of the impact of satellite constellations on ground-based astronomical observations. By Olivier Hainault from @eso.org 🔭https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.09427

"students expressed concerns about how LLM use
might dampen creativity and reflection during the research process" has been and remains my biggest concern too (aside from the awful ethics)

Can LLMs Produce Original Astronomy Research in a Semester? A Graduate Class Experiment We discuss the results of using large language models (LLMs) to conduct original scientific research in an unfamiliar subject area during the Fall 2025 semester. Students in a graduate astronomy and a...

This study asked graduate students to use LLMs to try and produce original astronomy research - it's an interesting experiment.

While there were some uses, there were also a lot of predictable failures (e.g. false citations or summaries). 🔭☄️

Has anyone else been completely non-excited by Artemis II, or is it just me?

I find it immensely hard to celebrate a mission that represents all that decades of NASA budget cuts was able to produce.

It's also difficult to root for anything with a US flag on it right now. 🤷‍♀️

Opposition leader Péter Magyar at a rally.

Orbán's electoral crushing is a far greater achievement than most people outside Hungary realise.

He systemically consolidated power for 16 years, fixed the electoral map, abused govt power for political purposes & censored media.

The hurdles that Hungarians overcame for this moment were immense.

This still requires a TON of trust in Magyar, an ex-Fidesz man - but as long as he has a supermajority and dismantles many Orbán-era messes (both of which look likely), Hungary should be ok again

Immensely happy for Hungary today ♥️🇭🇺 welcome back to democratic Europe!

I wish it didn't take Signal Desktop so long to load my messages every time 😭 encryption is important, but gosh is it slow

I get on super well with reveal.js - I agree though, there are no obvious easy alternatives. reveal.js had a way steeper learning curve (though I LOVE the setup I now have).

I think that Microsoft intentionally doesn't make MS Office for Linux because it's too much of a threat...

The nerds are building a new internet, and I could feel it in the room The AT Protocol is a quiet attempt to rebuild social software the way email was built — open, portable, owned by no one. A meetup in Portland this week made the stakes feel real.

“The open web […] didn't win because the tools were better. It won because a critical mass of people decided that the alternative, a handful of AOL-style walled gardens choosing what everyone saw, was not the future they wanted. Then they built their way out of it.” timtrautmann.com/blog/the-ner...

finally, 2026 will be the year of the Linux desktop

Scientists invented a fake disease. AI told people it was real Bixonimania doesn’t exist except in a clutch of obviously bogus academic papers. So why did AI chatbots warn people about this fictional illness?

This is quite extraordinary- scientists set a kind of trap for AI chat bots by inventing a fake disease. AI told people it was real and… the deliberately bogus preprints started being cited in peer reviewed literature 🫣
🧪 #MedSky

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The Center for Computational Astrophysics @flatironinstitute.org is hiring a new Research Software Engineer to work on @astropy.org and to support the software and computing efforts within the CCA. Apply by May 22!
apply.interfolio.com/184639
🔭 🧪 ☄️

🔭☄️

I'll sign you up tomorrow manually if not (requires database edit but can do easily enough)

Gah wtf so weird!! Try one last time?

Engagement bait.

🔭☄️

Occasionally it misses posts, so try doing the same command again?

If you just want to see / post about astronomy research in particular, then check out the AstroSci feed:

'lil reminder in these trying times that this app has a feed of astronomy posts that we hand-vet as being from real astronomers.

So, if you're looking for something MUCH more fun to scroll:

One of the hardest things to get across to most software people with great intentions is *how strong defaults are* and how tired everyone else is of dorking around trying to get things to work, but this understanding is the thing that made Apple, for all its many flaws, such a giant.

This ×100. Feeds are best for power users, but some sort of groups/communities feature would go SUCH a long way on the app.