It's the start of postdoc job application season again. I see quite a few #astro fellowship postdocs posting the same salary this year as they offered when I was applying in 2016, almost 9 years ago :O For those who are applying, this was the hardest part of my career! Take care of yourselves <3

New 4yo exclamation: Whoa! That scared me out of the fuck 🤣🤣🤣

Saying goodnight to 4yo: "Okay, last hug of the night, let's make it count!" *starts to hug* 4yo: "1, 2, 3, 4...."

TOMORROW: the final day of first round voting in the Search for B.C.'s Best Symbol! featuring: debates over culture! highway stuff! the okanagan! mascots! also if mr. pg can't beat expo ernie then prince george is BANNED from complaining about the roadside attraction bracket

My perspective was that I put in as much effort into preparing for these "pass or fail out" exams/comps/quals/orals as I was willing for the rest of my PhD (and career). If that wasn't enough then I would have been content moving onto something else.

Contrary to a lot of opinion on this, I think generative AI actually does have some useful applications! Sometimes you do just need a crane! But these people are deluding themselves into thinking they've exercised and the mismatch between what they know and what they think they know is dangerous

I am surrounded by people who are outsourcing their own thinking to ChatGPT and they are quickly and obviously becoming dependent on it for even the most banal tasks. Once again, the "figuring it out" is the important part. Yes, you can use a crane to lift weights but you will not get stronger

Apparently when the doctor says "no solid foods for today and tomorrow", he isn't talking about states of matter. When he continued to list examples of acceptable foods such as soups, yogurt, applesauce, my brain was stuck on processing why yogurt isn't a solid that I almost missed the list.

Everything that’s happened over the past six months has been a response to an imaginary crisis. There is no immigrant invasion. No trade crisis. No scientific or governance crisis. Just people completely high off their own supply trying to fundamentally reorder society. None of this had to happen.

Bravo, Glendale. Bravo. More, please. And it's time for Democrats to loudly say, "Abolish ICE." Someone please stand up and have a spine.

Planners: to connect British Columbians living next to the ocean, we'll have a fleet of publicly owned ferries People: cool Planners: the main terminals will be in greater vancouver, greater victoria, nanaimo and gibsons People: makes sense Planners: every terminal will be called something else

Time for our scientific society leadership to take the case to the people by getting on national news and putting op eds in national publications, rather than just sending letters to members of congress who feel no pressure by that whatsoever

I don’t know who is ready to hear this but people don’t have to add value Like people should also be allowed to exist for free

They need to watch a Canadian Heritage Minute: www.youtube.com/watch?v=amCe...

Definitely a first world problem: dishwasher leaking/malfunction on a Saturday and all the "24/7" appliance repair places just take messages and will return calls on Monday.

Again, @ft.com reporters or whoever else needs to hear this: "Hallucinations" are not the result of "flaws," they are literally inherent in & inextricable from what LLM systems do & are. Whether an "AI" tells you something that matches reality or something that doesn't, *it is working as designed*

The people of Battle River --- Crowfoot have the chance to do funniest thing ever. Not really since the CPC winner there had well over 50% of all eligible voters. But would love to see the margin decrease when PP gets involved.

For Pride month this year, Astrobites is looking to highlight transgender astronomers and we want YOU! We are planning to interview four astronomers about their experience being transgender in science, how they've dealt with barriers throughout their career . . . (1/4)

One clear way to see how Canada votes people out, not in: Four out of seven party leaders lost their own seat. And two of those were from the top 3 parties.

I'm very relieved Poilievre didn't win, but it is so, so weird seeing US / UK peeps celebrating this on Canada's behalf as a win for the left. We just elected a centrist banker and our actual-left party was crushed and may lose official status. This is a move to the right for us, by the numbers.

All the Americans in my feed: Phew, good job Canada! Rest easy! All the Canadians in my feed: many stressful things are happening on several fronts

we're seeing what we saw out of Atlantic Canada — as advanced polls come in, what goes from a very nervous moment for Liberal supports eases, as more seats flip their way Liberals were up by 2 seats just 20 minutes ago. Now it's 17 seats. It's why that government call was made so early.

Depends. BC Liberals are conservatives. Federal Liberals are the center progressives. NDP are socialist progressives. Conservatives are an amalgamation of all non-progressives. Green are inconsistently environmental progressives & social conservatives, maybe? Bloc are provincial advocates.

Also pour one out for the NDP, who died so Canada could live.

he should have done the hip flip

"Peace, order, and good government" is Canada's version of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Where the U.S. bets on individualism, Canada bets on collective well-being. Not perfect—but the promise still matters. #ElbowsUp #StrongandFree #🇨🇦

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

7yo, fully into Pokemon hyper focus now, looking thru their "Pokedex". "Hey, this one is weird. Doduo flying type but how does it fly? Does it use its head?" *bobs head around* Asking the classic questions lol

Voted in the advance polls this weekend! So very well run, a constant stream of people in and out of the polling place but each station was at most 1 person in line in front of you. Had two little kids with me they didn't have a chance to even get bored before we were already out

Elections Canada says they estimate that 2 million people voted on Friday, a new record

Introduced our kids to the Pokemon TV show for the first time! (Indigo League of course). That first episode is so intense. We have a chat before and after each episode.

Cars. People. People with pets who don't understand boundaries. We do supervised outdoor play in vetted spaces. Why is the "street" needed?? Our goal is 1000 hours per year and we do get pretty close. It's at least 2 hours per day even in winter and often 5-6 hours per day in summer.

At some point we need to have a discussion about the ethics of participation in press releases as scientists. From today’s K2-18b saga, Nikku Madhusudhan in the press release says ‘The signal came through loud and clear’ (1/n)

Sick of being taken advantage of by OTHER PACKAGES?! Use python package {tariff} to show those packages WHO IS BOSS. Make Reinventing The Wheel Great Again! pypi.org/project/tari...

I’m sorry but if your students use AI to write papers and you use AI to grade them zero school is happening. You are running together on a hamster wheel

Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.

US students. Looking to apply to graduate school? Had an offer rescinded recently? The University of British Columbia in Canada will re-open the application portal in some departments for US students from April 14-18. Details: www.grad.ubc.ca/us-applicant... #ubc #AcademicSky #PhDSky #ScienceSky

Poilievre threatens to replicate the purge on academic research as is happening in the US. This should shake most reasonable Canadians from complacency.

Every Canadian Election I approach all the different party leaders and see if they will do an interview/Hip Flip .Here's a clip of Canadian NDP leader Jagmeet Singh . Check out the *FULL* interview at youtu.be/stlWcmJSNuk Doot doo !

Every Canadian Election I approach all the different party leaders and see if they will do an interview / Hip Flip. Here's a clip of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Check out the *FULL* interview at youtu.be/TZmh_PNMImE Doot doo !

“From April 14-18, select UBC graduate programs at UBC Vancouver will re-open their applications for US citizens to be considered for Sept 2025 or Jan 2026 entry - they are ready to provide quick admissions decisions for these applicants“ #gradstudent #gradschool www.grad.ubc.ca/us-applicant...

You guys, they're not stupid They're doing propaganda When they lie through their teeth, they are doing propaganda Do you think the people behind Big Brother in 1984 were stupid? Big Brother says lots of nonsensical shit. It's called p r o p a g a n d a

a neighbourhood cat visited our door twice this week and it stayed for pets this evening, so a pretty good way to end the day :)

Queen of Oak Bay: you're....you're REPLACING me???? 😭😭😭😭

Always glad to see Justin's charts! Happy that they are back

As someone who spends a lot time thinking about the values I want to teach my kid (besides PLEASE DON’T EAT DIRT), the thing I keep coming back to is this: I want him to believe that the strongest, bravest thing he can do is give a shit about other people—especially ones who aren’t like him at all.

Huh. In totally unrelated news, maybe there is a good use case for plausible but incorrect generative AI output after all.

Bluey has added wonderful minced oaths to our kids vocab. For example, our almost 4yo tripped and yelled out "Fucking biscuits!!" ("Swear words" are just words in our home, we only teach them not to direct unkind words at people who don't deserve them)

“If you don’t like it, then GTFO, you’re the reason it’s there” is my mantra now