I have what is likely an irrational irritation from whenever someone makes a comment about the "over/under" on binary events. For example: "What's the over/under that the Paramount merger goes through?" There's no over/under for that. It does or doesn't.

Hailing TNI supporters on all frequencies! The vulcans, Dr. Jess and Dr. Liv, will be at the Star Trek 60th Anniversary: Trek to Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, from August 5th to August 9th! #StarTrek #TrekToVegas #STLV #StarTrek60 #SciComm #STEM #ScienceCommunication #Outreach #womeninstem

When you build scientific infrastructure that lasts decades, still performs optimal science, and inspires many, people form emotional connections to these iconic instruments. Cutting funding for them not only harms science, but it also impacts the wider community. And they will speak up. 👏👏👏

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 3d ago

Jarvis Cocker, New Order, Elbow, Dr Who (v. Eccleston), @daraobriain.bsky.social, Kraftwerk, Mogwai, Brian May, 2 astronauts (Peake & Hadfield), the Poet Laureate, the Lovell family & many more. Heartwarming to see how much the UK loves Jodrell Bank & astronomy🔭🙏 www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

my top four would be: 1. 12 Angry Men 2. Casablanca 3. Kwaidan 4. Voyage of the Rock Aliens Not sure on the fifth spot, maybe return of the Jedi, rescuers down under, or Robin Hood (the Disney version) as possibilities coming to mind

CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️@rami.spaceaustralia.com · 4d ago

Last night before we watched The Odyssey I asked my friends what their top five fav films were. The common one that came up with all of us was Donnie Darko. Here’s my top five: 1. Silence of the Lambs 2. Jurassic Park 3. Donnie Darko 4. Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind 5. Amélie What’s yours?

If I wanted to have to remember a bunch of fairly unique names instead of having names that follow a semi-predictable format, I'd have studied o-chem instead of astronomy. This is functional

Dr. Jessie Christiansen@aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 5d ago

Just my whole job being dragged by Andy Weir.

So, it seems to me like really the DoJ has indicated they now know who ordered the vandalism of the reflecting pool but won't pursue it anymore. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Trump administration drops Reflecting Pool case, blaming damage on ‘botched’ installation

The Justice Department said “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”

nbcnews.com

It's been 31 years since the band formed. Shouldn't they have saved Ferris by now?

The headlines are actually downplaying how wrong this is. Yes, it is entirely wrong about where all of these countries are, bus also the colored regions on the map don't correspond to countries. It didn't mislabel countries, it made up new country boundaries and misidentified THOSE.

Reuters@reuters.com · 6d ago

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference reut.rs/4x9eTCW

Vera Rubin Observatory xkcd.com/3278/

Starting Thursday in Indianapolis @heliumcomedyind w @jaredlogan and @gwenderwoman_ after? in the midst? of @gen_con come see some dorky rage at the machine filled comedy. jackiekashian.com or indianapolis.heliumcomedy.com for info and tickets.

The fun part is this happens for YEARS. I got an email this month asking if I want to submit based on a 2022 April Fool's Paper.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · last wk.

Thanks to predatory journal spam, April Fool's Day papers are really the gift that keeps on giving. It makes me giggle every time I get one of these.

Ok this is HILARIOUS: DarkSky International made April Fool's Day "nighttime sunscreen" (supposed to protect you from reflected sunlight from satellites...) https://darksky.org/news/darksky-international-announces-first-sunscreen-designed-for-the-night/ Even funnier, I heard a rumour in a […]

So far finding the best takeaway from a #sagan2026 group project, because of just how ubiquitous it is, is the importance of having a method where you don't accidentally overwrite data. Definitely been there before.

An underappreciated part of any mission is commitment to the bit

Dr. Jessie Christiansen@aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 2w ago

Guys, I didn't even ask them to do this, but the engineers have named SHERA's astrometry pipeline ADORA (Astrometric Differential Optics and Retrieval Algorithm), and I just CAN'T with how amazing that is and how much I love it. (Adora is her name when she's not She-Ra.) #PIDaily

Here's a pic I took a few years back from CDSCC. I believe MDSCC is designed in same way? Note how there isn't many trees (fire fuel) near telescopes and they sit on concrete pads. Surrounding grass will burn quick if it does. Electronic and gas/liquid storage facilities nearby at risk as well

CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️@rami.spaceaustralia.com · 2w ago

Waking up to notifications of the MDSCC fire. Hope everyone was safely evacuated and the fires didn’t reach the telescopes. Fire mitigation usually de-risk infrastructure damage by ensuring fire fuel breaks are created (ie vegetation is set back away from antennas) + controlled back burning.

The Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex at Robledo de Chavela municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain on fire. Burgohondo wildfire. 📷 via Infues Avila

In my day, asking the internet for health advice always just said you're probably going to die and would never delay treatment (though related, I've started seeing ads for Amazon Health AI to do this dystopian nonsense)

Dr. Jessie Christiansen@aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 2w ago

Please check in on your elders and remind them (kindly but endlessly) not to use ChatGPT for medical advice.

Donations to two organizations - on the ground - doing the work. You buy fundraising pin/cards and I send the money to help those people helping the f’ing persecuted. Bee Enamel Pins and download cards for Alter-Kashian MN bought 52 and Oakland bought 49.

Discovered that Super Mario Bros Super Show is in Tubi, which I hadn't realized. Con: It lists 52 episodes out of 65, so I'm having to crossmatch which episodes aren't on there and I need to find elsewhere Pro: There's a bunch of @stillloadingpodcast.com minisodes I'm starting to catch up on now

One of the greatest things I think I ever learned came from working outreach and having the phrase "I don't know, let's find out" taught as a a totally acceptable answer if I got a question I didn't know. And then having the actual resources there to try to look up an answer

In February, USA Rugby banned trans women from all levels of one of the world’s most inclusive sports. What happened next was telling. Across the country, teams refused to comply. The story of the Baltimore Ferals, who are pushing back: www.thebanner.com/sports/rugby...

Had the pleasure of contributing to this episode that I can't wait to listen to about Pokemon Go... can't believe it's been ten years now. Got some stuff really due for lucky trades now, clearly

Josh | Still Loading Podcast | 🔜Long Island Retro Gaming Expo@stillloadingpodcast.com · 2w ago

NEW EPISODE! This week I am joined by Jared Moss from @playalong.bsky.social to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Pokemon Go! But we didn't do this alone. Check out the posts below to see everyone who contributed to this episode! 1/3 Listen here ⬇️⬇️⬇️ stillloading.libsyn.com/still-loadin...

Thing I would like to see: a graph of how scary The Birds would be if you replaced x% of the birds with flamingos. My theory is that just a few wouldn't change it much, then a non-trivial portion of flamingos would start to get funny, then as you approach 100% flamingo it would get terrifying.

I feel like these were the sort of people that were on the fire's side when LA was on fire and don't view that as a favor.

Greg Greene (he/him/his)@greene.haus · 3w ago

Canadian firefighters hauled ass to get down here when half of Los Angeles was on fire last year. What a characteristically classy way to repay that favor.

A great laying out of the world of nonagrams and separating out the variations in puzzles - I have played most that show up in here, and recognize even more of them, but this still did a really good job of getting me to know how to prioritize some of the ones I haven't yet played or seen

Jack Ververis@jverv.bsky.social · last mo.

New video! There are so, so, so many picross games. Why? What makes them unique? And can I ever my wasted free time back?

AI advertising is extra depressing. I've now seen an ad for one of them and it's someone using it to provide infographics instead of watching a TV show because he doesn't understand the TV show

Celebrating Sam Neill and one of my fav movies: The Dish 📡 5 min scene from them playing cricket atop Murriyang (CSIRO Parkes radio telescope) to Apollo 11's lift off. They made this scene so well. The camera shot pauses on faces dramatically as the rocket launches. Gives me goosebumps still!

"We're A Professional Unit!" | The Launch Of Apollo 11 | The Dish

YouTube video by Working Dog Productions

youtube.com

Super awesome to notice that #SGDQ2026 looks like it has over 60k concurrent viewers, with 43k on the English Twitch stream, 14k on YouTube, 1.1k on French Twitch restream, 1.7k on Japanese restream, and another several hundred from Russian, Spanish, German, and Portuguese restreams

I really like TAS runs, but this one really feels wild

Games Done Quick@gamesdonequick.com · 4w ago

Blink and you’ll miss a star or Toad! This Super Mario 64 120 Star TAS uses every frame and 14 years of perfection to deliver absolute precision. #SGDQ2026

Rave? On. Residents? Evil. Captain? Ezekiel. @captainezekiel.bsky.social faces the horrors of Resident Evil: Requiem in this new game no intro run upgraded to insanity difficulty thanks to you meeting the milestone! #SGDQ2026