If you make a coat of arms from it, I think the blazon would be something like: "Per bend or and sable, over all a hurt, with a plate set in dexter base"

"He looked up to heaven, and took one loaf and one fish for himself, and gave the rest to the twelve, based on their previously agreed-upon contractual per diem. But he distributed none to the crowd, because they needed to be taught a lesson."

@jamesmartinsj.bsky.social

this is dangerous information to be putting on the public internet!

Map of Nahwa, a counter-enclave

Poking around Google Maps near Hormuz, I learned about Nahwa: a UAE territory inside a part of Oman called Madha which is itself entirely inside the UAE.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahwa

web.archive.org/web/20191224...

I put Spotify on a Bluetooth speaker while I was doing the dishes; my middle schooler asked me if I was listening to my "coping music" 💀

Worth a read. PhD programs are meant to produce scientists, not papers. 🔭

Illustration of the solar system with planet orbits, surrounded by a blue donut cloud of asteroids. Rays of turquoise dots in the front half of the donut show thousands of objects revealed by Rubin.

Introducing over 11,000 new members of the Solar System...and our main survey hasn't quite started yet! ☄️

Using pre-survey observations from 2025, NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory scientists have reported more than 11,000 new asteroids and comets! 🔭🧪

🔗: rubinobservatory.org/news/11000-n...

Call your Program Officer Yes, you. Schedule a phone call. This is the hidden curriculum.

Wondering what you shouldn't say in a proposal? Call your program officer.

Wondering what happened in panel? Call your program officer.

Wondering how the latest federal stuff may affect your proposal? Call your program officer.

Call your PO. 🧪

scienceforeveryone.science/call-your-pr...

It was a great meeting with lots of exciting progress on alerts from ZTF, @vrubinobs.bsky.social, and @nancyromansci.bsky.social! 🔭

CERN finds a new particle + News alerts for the cosmos New views of reality, from the discovery of a “super-heavy” subatomic particle to an alert system announcing changes from the universe.

Yours truly on @scifri.bsky.social! Starting about 6:15. www.sciencefriday.com/segments/new...

The common denominator is spending formative years behind Cal's oline

"Spring and Fall" by Gerard Manly Hopkins, my preferred memento mori

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44400/...

DIRAC director Jim Davenport stands in front of a slide saying "Rubin First Alert Sprint"

Scientists sitting at tables

@dirac-institute.bsky.social enjoying a hack/sprint day working with alerts from @vrubinobs.bsky.social! 🔭

It's especially interesting because if they if they could steal or scrape it (as with the early model training) they of course would!

But it definitely feels jarring to see scientific research and expert judgement moved "below the API."

Add in the loss of the signaling power of the degree as AI displaces learning, parents perhaps finally hitting the limit on tuition, the coming demographic cliff (ngrawe.sites.carleton.edu/demographics...), and continued political hostility, and I think universities are unusually vulnerable.

I'm more worried about the impact on the teaching mission. Even a more-expensive AI "tutor" is cheaper than a lecturer, and decades of adjunctification suggest administrators prefer cost-savings to warm feelings about pedagogy. The models are already being trained: bsky.app/profile/ebel...

I don't think it's easy to predict the steady-state cost of LLMs; they are definitely underpriced now. Presumably there will always be expensive frontier models, and like everything else those will be used by the best-resourced institutions.

Why do we do astrophysics? At time of writing, large language models (LLMs) are beginning to obtain the ability to design, execute, write up, and referee scientific projects on the data-science side of astrophysics. What implic...

This seems relevant to @hogg.bsky.social 's "Why do we do astrophysics" (arxiv.org/abs/2602.10181). My worry is that while the reasons we do astrophysics might not change, the job conditions might.

The Laid-off Scientists and Lawyers Training AI to Steal Their Careers Experienced white-collar workers are now part of a miserable gig economy.

These "AI training" jobs are extremely miserable, like a DoorDash driver for knowledge work. nymag.com/intelligence... is a bracing read.

With your advanced degree you have the opportunity to train the AI in your specialized skills. Astronomy 🔭 may be economically worthless but xAI wants you to train it anyway: www.remotech.ai/jobs/space-s...

It's only COSPAR if it's from the General Assembly region, otherwise it's just sparkling IAU

The author in a high-viz vest standing outside in front of the Rubin Observatory

Oh hi, @vrubinobs.bsky.social! Looking good! 🔭

Everyone can come after me: switching is fine. Getting up in the dark in the winter would suck, but so would summer sunrises at 4am.

stat-us quo! stat-us quo!

Words fail me.

This should be well received.

knee deep in the hoopla

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇