This was a chilling email to receive tonight, the government's ethnic cleansing campaign continues and now (at least for the moment) it's happening in my oldest son's school district

Thomas Friedman continues to be incredibly bad at his job.

ICE agents are responsible for the majority of homicides committed in the Twin Cities so far this year. In most US cities, homicides committed by armed police represent a significant fraction, but I can’t think of any prior examples where it was as high as 2/3.

Broke out my mittens for the first time since leaving Chicago 10 years ago. Exciting!

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Jan 24 AOL: Under increasing pressure from the Trump admin. CA's largest pediatric hospital system will stop providing GAC for minors. Rady Children's Health including Children's Hospital of Orange Cty, Children's Hospital San Diego & Rady Children's in Riverside Cty.

Chat, if the Moon is rising at midnight, what phase is the moon? Draw a diagram. UMGPT: Sunlight | V [Sun]---->[Earth]---->[Moon] | midnight | (midnight rise) Chat, where does sunlight come from? WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?!?

Back on sky!

“Fuck, the telescope crashed”—Mauricio Definitely not a good way to start the night, but grateful to everyone at LCO who rushed to Baade to try and get it working tonight.

He told the UofC Chronicle: “My mother raised three children on Social Security and part-time employment.. The chance I have had in life is rare, so my involvement in the public schools is payback, if you will.. Public schools are really the only vehicle that reaches into all corners of society.”

Most people know Don's work on the SDSS; but at he was also deeply engaged in community education projects. He co-founded the Chicago Public Schools/University of Chicago Internet Project, which brought the Internet to 24 schools in the University's neighborhood.

Don was an exceptional scientist and mentor, and one of the best humans I've ever known. He had a profoundly positive impact on my life, and I'm really going to miss him. news.uchicago.edu/story/donald...

Walked past a very odd "Uncensored America" tent while walking across the Diag this evening and overheard some wildly misogynistic statements... I'm shocked, shocked to find that they are now throwing Nazi salutes.

I can’t believe this crap worked on Walz. They’re gunna run the same play again and again now.

Is downtown Ann Arbor dying with businesses closing left and right? Or is it so desirable that the ultra wealthy own a large fraction of apartments as second homes that are empty much of the year? WHICH ONE??

So listen, I’m sure it would have turned out differently if, instead of assassinating Archduke Ferdinand, they’d just bombed Vienna and captured Archduke Ludwig.

The FDA says tight underwear is a medical device if trans people enjoy wearing it. More on the nonsense from our federal government by @alyssaur.bsky.social www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

Trans youth healthcare is based in decades of research and supported by every major medical organization in the US. Under RFK Jr, a handpicked panel produced a dodgy report claiming otherwise. It's a clear example of Kennedy's war on science. So why aren't news organizations treating it that way?

On the way back home after a week out of the country, and the number of cruel and heartrending policy decisions that directly impact my family is astounding. All expected, but still. And also, somehow, Hunger Games???

In possibly the most stereotypically Dutch manner I have ever experienced, the Captain of my KLM flight opened her pre-flight announcements “I would like to assure you that the airplane is ok to fly. There is no major problem, we just had to turn off the avionics computer and turn it on again.”

This announcement alone is going to kill people and we need to prepare for that

congress is voting later this week to criminalize trans care for minors and i now spend my days watching people i used to work with totally pretend like that isn’t happening

No, the Hubble Space Telescope Cycle 34 Call for Proposals is DEFINITELY NOT SPAM

Nothing says privacy like armed men with body cams demanding government ID before allowing use of the toilet.

The only good news I have seen coming from FDA. I'm not sure that this is a good move for the population-level health of cis men... but there are other populations the administration certainly doesn't have in mind that will benefit immensely. www.urologytimes.com/view/experts...

NSF - Forced reorg - POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements) - Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …) I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing. “Details matter” 🙃

Humans are great at cognitive dissonance, but AIs are next level. Aftering Googling “HUD secretary”, their AI helpfully informed me it is Marcia Fudge. And while that is a fantasy land I would love to be in… A slightly different Google AI search helpfully informed me that she isn’t anymore.

this week, congress has agreed to ban trans participation in sports at military academies and the opening bid to fix aca subsidies bans trans care coverage on obamacare exchanges why does it feel like we’re not seeing a five alarm fire from the lgbtq+ advocacy groups yet

Dear Ea-nāṣir, The shoes you delivered to my servant Nanni were substandard as you can see in this picture of me trying to wear them.

Anyone else read this and want to come to the defense of ancient Mesopotamia?

Nov 25 2025 @rikiwilchins.bsky.social -- At least four federal judges have now blocked portions of or the entirety of invasive DOJ subpoenas served on 20 health providers of gender-affirming medical care for trans minors.

Nov 2025 @rikiwilchins.bsky.social -- Reps privately push ban on trans care in ACA/Obamacare as part of moving any subsidy deal forward. It was stripped from the last ACA deal. This one would hurt perhaps 500k trans ppl among the 20m who need Obamacare subsidies. Even blue states would be impacted.

And you may look the other way But we can try to understand The New York Times' effect on man

With UM daily parking permits (saves $ if you walk/bike/bus on most days), the new parking system doesn't select your license plate by default when buying refills. So despite having 10 valid passes on the permit that let me enter the lot, they claim I owe a $75 ticket. Incompetent UI design.

There are negative aspects of the LANL+UMich facility proposed in Ypsi, but it isn’t an AI data center. It is for high performance computing, mostly nuke simulations. Nukes are very bad, but nukes+active testing is worse. Accurate sims mean DOE/DOD don’t need to explode actual bombs in tests.

There has been a lot of hay made over the Kim Davis challenge against Obergefell at SCOTUS, whether or not they'll decide to take up the case. IMO, I'd pay a lot more attention to efforts like this to erode gay marriage:

Would be great if the NYT went on record about exactly what level of influence and resources they think Area studies departments have, cause I’d love to compare their vibes-based assertions with reality.

The receipts @astromonnier.bsky.social!

Shared with a British friend who informed me that “louvre” is the correct British English spelling. So I guess my observing logs are just a bit posh?

Observing while the Louvre is in the news, and it slowly dawned on me that I’ve been misspelling “louver” for years. Literally a decade of fits files and logs with me saying things like “louvre flats at 50% open”.

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the human rights of a transgender weightlifter were violated when USA Powerlifting refused to let her compete as a woman at two of their events held in Minnesota, but elements of the lawsuit remain unsettled.

"Enthusiasm for testosterone [for cis people] cuts across political lines. [Cis] women [in] religious communities that [...] oppose gender-affirming care [... take] testosterone in amounts comparable to [...] trans men." Corrections above. Bodily autonomy for all. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/m...

And again!

0.35” seeing!!!

It seems a number of us had the idea of going to Detroit Shipping before Rocky Horror at the Masonic Temple

It should be noted that the entire justification underpinning this policy is Texas House Bill 229, a law that only says that state documents may only have "male" or "female" on them and enshrines definition of "male" and "female" into law. The bill says absolutely nothing about class curriculum.

Am I missing something, or does the Astro Data Lab at NOIRLab really not have a finder chart generator?

Accidentally taught a lesson in balloon animal biology in ASTRO 102 today. Turns out, balloon animals can undergo mitosis after hibernating in liquid nitrogen!

A body blow to LGBTQ+ news and trans news in particular. NBC Out was the best of the best. Jo Yurcaba's work in particular (not tagging them bc it seems rude) was the best of the best.

I have reached the stage of JWST proposaling that involves zooming in on figures so much that I can identify the absolute heroes of astronomy who are still using SuperMongo and pgplot.

What’s especially wild (legally) about this is that NSBP, NSHP, and SACNAS have always welcomed people of all backgrounds, including white people. NSHP has had a white president, my SACNAS leadership institute class has several white members, and NSBP has a sizable white membership.