Me whining to my bestfriend, every day: I want a girlfriend! No one ever likes me on dating apps. blah blah blah... The only content on my dating app accounts:
Pooyan
@pooyan.xyz
Pseudo-Physicist | PhD student | Playing with Gravitational-Wave detectors @ UC Riverside | Linux Enthusiast | Mustache-bearer | Runner | Feminist | 🇪🇺🏳️🌈
Emojis are fascinating creatures. Unfortunately, there aren't many Science emojis out there. (especially Astronomy ones) UNICODE consortium is the body that manages the standard emoji list. Proposals for addition of new ones could be submitted by the public. Maybe a few of us should submit one.
ESA Space Science@science.esa.int · last wk.Emoji x space 🌌 When it comes to space science, we find our way around emoji with a stretch of imagination – but wouldn't it be cool to have some more science-y ones? What space emoji would you like to have? 🔭
This reminded me to talk about the difference between a visa and status in the US immigration laws, and how what we regularly refer to as a visa, is in fact usually not a visa. Imagine how disastrous it could be if you need to explain this nuance to a bigoted ICE agent with a gun aimed at your face.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · last wk.This includes people who came here legally on a visa, applied for another form of status, and are just waiting for the US government to decide their case. People who haven’t done a single thing wrong.
Overconfident humans who don’t listen to anybody else scare the hell out of me.
How I cringe when someone says "AI" is inevitable.
Rav@rvbdrm.com · 2w agoQuick thinking having a tablecloth handy. I didn’t even notice the twitching from that dead robot.
As an Iranian, I fully support her majesty's coronation as the Shah of Iran.
Sean Marshall@seanyyz.bsky.social · 3w agoWhy I’m a fan of the Oxford comma.
Study suggests we might all be wormholes:
AstroArxiv@astroarxiv.bsky.social · 2w agoCan wormholes have vanishing Love numbers?. Shauvik Biswas https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.03025
My legacy here would be that I bake fresh cakes for people attending our weekly seminar-thingy.
Pooyan@pooyan.xyz · 2mo agoI've been at the LIGO Livingston for 5 weeks now, and the experience has been mesmerizing. People are nice, and the science is mind-blowing. It's a shame that we can create such amazing public-serving facilities, with people who absolutely love to do the work, but instead use the money on wars.
Class, repeat after me: "AI" is not a search engine. "AI" does not search webpages and return results. "AI" scrapes together random shavings from the internet and presents them as though they're answers. If you use "AI" as a search engine, you're better off consulting your own rectum with a mirror.
I am once again asking us to abolish men. This guy has zero awareness on how embarrassingly stupid he is.
The Columbus Dispatch@dispatch.com · 3w agoOpinion: A retired professor shares how political polarization is impacting his dating life in modern America.
"Nothing really new in here but recent debates have prompted us to offer further clarification on the topic building on the excellent previous contributions" [Continues with citing prominent transphobe grifter and fraudulent data-fabricating spider guy]
Random dude on the Internet/Street: "I'm apolitical, but everything is woke nowadays." "Chill! Nothing is that serious. We're just having fun." RFK with his explosive diarrhea:
Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 4w agoCDC stopped monitoring parasite now causing explosive diarrhea across the country
How did I miss that UW Astro has a new graduation banger! youtu.be/8bwoPD1A0EU?...
PAB - 2026 Astro Graduation Video
YouTube video by James Davenport
youtu.be
Star Trek has been the faithful companion of my depressed periods in the past few years, so here are my unsolicited controversial opinions: Best ST series IMO is DS9. Voyager, Lower Decks, and TNG are next in no particular order. Best ST captions IMO are Janeway, Sisko, Picard, and Burnham.
On top of all the brilliant things people have said in the comments here, it is very absurd that MS products are the standard in our governmental and public services. (also administrative work in academia)
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · last mo.I dunno if this is offensive to say because I seem to upset people when I say this, but humanities people should consider joining us, or at least join us in decoupling from Word and other MS products where we can... and @acollierastro.bsky.social says it more convincingly than I can!
I've been at the LIGO Livingston for 5 weeks now, and the experience has been mesmerizing. People are nice, and the science is mind-blowing. It's a shame that we can create such amazing public-serving facilities, with people who absolutely love to do the work, but instead use the money on wars.
Today's APOD is so fascinating! Here is the explanation from its creator:
Cees Bassa@cbassa.bsky.social · 7mo agoSince posting this 2025 year-long keogram, there have been quite a few questions asking how it was created and what is visible. In this thread I'll try to explain how it all works.
Shall we even call it a dog whistle at this point?
Nathan Kalman-Lamb@nkalamb.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe players and coach actually have a responsibility to say something about this.
Strongly agree! Ads in public spaces? Nope! Not happening at all. Ads in my personal spaces? Nope! I should be able to easily opt out of all of them. My services should not be conditional to me seeing ads. Ads with unsupported or exaggerated claims? Heavy regulations should stop them.
cait (and adonis)@cait.bsky.social · 2mo agoI consider it a violation of my personal human rights to have to look at an ad at basically any time
Right after reading this and being very pissed about the way we tolerate harassment in our communities, I read the official news that a well-known bully from my own institute has won the best graduate advisor of the year award. They f*** dare calling him supportive of "underrepresented students".
Peter Coles 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ 🇮🇪@telescoper.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe Cambridge Whistleblowing Saga This is an update concerning the Employment tribunal I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. The claimant in the case is Professor Wyn Evans of the Institute of Astronomy. Now that he has finished given evidence, it is now possible to release some of the background…
Unpopular opinion: (maybe?) Australian and Scottish are the hottest English accents ever. See Peter Capaldi's Doctor Who, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch clone accents, especially Omega PS I: All other accents from the British isles are also hot PS II: The clones' accent is Kiwi, but the same applies
DHS is a disgrace to this country. What we should demand is not just to abolish ICE, but to abolish the whole system whose whole mission is to dehumanize people based on race and gender identity for profit. We need a second reconstruction, starting with DHS, Citizens United, and private prisons.
Jacob Soboroff@jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 2mo agoNEW from @ms.now + @themarshallproject.org: ICE has detained *over 500 babies and toddlers* during Trump's second term. www.ms.now/news/trump-i...
This guy's understanding of academia, research, grad school, and science in general is so twisted that I wonder what their day job is... Oh, wait, he is a bloody full professor. 🤦🏽♀️
Sarah T Roberts, PhD@ubiquity75.xyz · 2mo agoI can’t.
This f'ing department is regressing day by day. My brothers and sisters in Christ, being a boot-leaker would not save your asses from the other racist and sexist assholes. Grow a spine and f'ing protect the most vulnerable people in your vicinity. This is your responsibility as a faculty member.
"Hitler told the world around he would tear our union down But our union's gonna break them slavery chains"
I made it to Louisiana. 🥳 The journey was great! In 3 days I passed through ~10 states. I loved how what I was seeing was not just cars and highways, but farms and mountains and deers.
Pooyan@pooyan.xyz · 3mo agoThis glorious journey has started. I'm taking the Amtrak from LA to Chicago, and from Chicago to New Orleans. Then I'll take a taxi from there to Baton Rouge. It will be 3000+ miles in 3 days!
This glorious journey has started. I'm taking the Amtrak from LA to Chicago, and from Chicago to New Orleans. Then I'll take a taxi from there to Baton Rouge. It will be 3000+ miles in 3 days!
Pooyan@pooyan.xyz · 3mo agoI will be going to the LIGO Livingston in less than a week from now, and I can not state how excited and terrified I am right now. The science that we do is so fantastically cool, and yet I am anxious and depressed all the time. I wish we humans had a switch to tune this thing down.
This is my alternative career path option. If academia at some point decided that it doesn't want me anymore, the alternative is public service.
Miriam Posner@miriamposner.com · 3mo agoNice moment in class yesterday talking about, where does one go if one is good with data analysis and tech stuff but also cares about structural injustice? I keep seeing students like that. We talked about policy, data journalism, labor research—but I’m afraid it might be a harder path than others.