Is the creature atop this obscene arch the same one from the AI Jesus post? Well I can't unsee it, so it felt good to take a few minutes today to tell the NPS many more serious reasons why this should never come to pass.

Public comments on Donald Trump's proposed "Triumphal Arch" are open until June 15. Please share. Thank you. #CivilWarMemory 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

Two telescopes, two epochs, the same nebula. You might have to stare for a little bit to fully appreciate all the movement going. Apologies to any faint stars who got deleted. I tried to remove the NICMOS PSFs from the Hubble view (which is lower resolution/blurrier)

Wonderful to see NASA, Hubble (Edwin & HST), + astronauts John Grunsfeld, & Mike Massimino spotlighted this week in @hcrichardson.bsky.social's 250 to 250! 🇺🇸🛰️🔭 www.youtube.com/watch?v=brOb...

"Across nearly all responses, students described a shared feeling of uncertainty about the future despite strong motivation and love for physics and astronomy." physicstoday.aip.org/features/und...

Scientists ejected from diabetes conference for distributing journal reprints of editorial critical of the Trump administrations's ongoing attacks on science. Those ousted included ADA journal editor-in-chief Steven Kahn and former ADA president Desmond Schatz arstechnica.com/science/2026...

Breaking news: this is not a bird.

This is an example of a scientific association censoring its members, real scientists, for defending attacks on science. The police were called to remove the scientists for handing out hard copies of this editorial. diabetesjournals.org/care/article...

IMO, senior faculty at top R1 institutions rushing to use AI to flood journals with papers before future students or early career researchers can have an opportunity is not just greedy, it's salting the earth of the discipline.

A really great read about the current moment, and how astronomy got here, building on thousands of years of data science. I feel like I should have known that Muriel Mussells Seyfert cataloged the Coma cluster galaxies used to infer the existence of dark matter..! 🔭 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_...

"While I would never suggest that Yale should lose the benefits of its nonprofit status, it is worth asking why an organization that declares no responsibility to advance the public good should receive a public subsidy." 👏👏 👏 www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

I also think about this a lot. But what a twist ending, for Lightman to conclude, after deep reflection, that the primary responsibility that comes with our great fortune of existence is only to ourselves! www.theatlantic.com/philosophy/2...

At my house the "real men" do the cooking.

Sighhhhhhh

RIP Waffle House, RIP USA. 🧇🇺🇸🪦 text by Prester John Andrews music by me

My SSN was exposed in a breach at Columbia—a school I have no connection with arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

I'd read a piece about someone sharing this information with rural voters at truck stop diners across the country. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/03/u...

I waited a while to write this one. The time finally felt right.

HOUSE PASSES RESOLUTION TO END IRAN WAR

A new PhD was minted today! Congratulations to my amazing former student, Dr. Sam Creech! 🎉 Look for her next as a NASA postdoctoral fellow at Goddard! 🛰️

The State of the Science Address 2026 is getting started (3-5pm ET today). Marcia McNutt, after summarizing OMB's newly proposed regulations for federal research grants, comments: "What could possibly go wrong with that?" www.nationalacademies.org/events/1133

Issuing an urgent statement in response to inquiry from @natureportfolio.nature.com

For more than 10 years, astronomers have been carefully tracking the motion of millions of stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud using our VISTA telescope in Chile. They found that the galaxy is being stretched due to gravitational interactions with its bigger sibling, the Large Magellanic cloud. 🔭🧪

Not reported here: just 8% of graduates say that they wouldn't go to university if they could choose again www.kcl.ac.uk/news/public-...

Sounds like an agenda #wnc would support & Jamie Ager should endorse #ncpol

We’ve spent decades told that if the economy grows, people’s lives will get better. Millions are working harder, paying more, and losing faith that institutions can deliver. Imagine an economy and democracy that actually make life better. That’s why today, we’re launching The #GoodLife Agenda. 🧵

There's a lot to unpack in this NYTimes piece about AI adoption at CSU -- but this passage in particular is confounding. Is a Karl Marx chatbot behind the declining labor force? Maybe! www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/m...

I was a fan of the poet Mark Strand & was thrilled to get a spot in his Moby Dick class. But he felt it was over-enrolled & spent the 1st week trying to push students out. He singled me out in class & after learning I was a physics major asked what I "could possibly expect to learn" from his class.

I used to be the POC for this when at NSF. I esp recommend the introductory remarks that last an hour or so.

I know it's boring in 2026 to be scolding people about masking, but I just sat for 9.5 hrs on a transatlantic flight a few feet in front of the sickest woman on the plane, and I have to say... if you can afford that flight you can afford a KN95. It's not 2019. Anyway, I'm going to go have a shower.

Reminder:

Dear colleagues, PLEASE submit a comment against OMB's proposed rule. Elizabeth wrote great guide on drafting a comment. To submit it, go to www.regulations.gov/search and search for OMB-2026-0034. It will take time & effort to write a good comment, but a worthwhile effort to save our profession.

I strongly encourage US-based astronomers to attend the virtual Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee meeting tomorrow (Mon June 1st), where the heads of NASA, NSF, and DOE astronomy/astrophysics divisions will be presenting updates & taking questions 🔭 www.nsf.gov/events/astro...

In ⤵️, I recommend sending your comment to your state electeds (Gov., legislators) and federal electeds (MoC, Senators) and content could, depending on the elected, matter much more there. Because many of our elected would-be allies simply won't know/understand why this is bad 🧵

This post is not about this NPRM, but the way this commenting guide talks about credentials applies to this NPRM www.patreon.com/posts/commen... Section IV How To Comment Effectively

Vought is probably going to enact the rule, and then there'll be litigation. At that point, the content of comments from noteables, heavy hitters, like colleges/unis, professional associations, learned societies, etc. will matter in federal court. 🧵

NEW: A lot of bad has happened to American science over the last year but nothing comes even close to what’s about to happen if we don’t speak out in opposition to the OMB rule changes and I hope @aaas-socsci.bsky.social @apsphysics.bsky.social and others will launch public campaigns about this. 🧪🔭⚛️

I'm translating old family letters this summer & found my immigrant ancestor's last preserved written words: "Då du plockar corn så försök att lägga undan de bästa axen wad du tror skall duga för seed." When you pick the corn, try to put aside the best ears that you think will be good for seed.

It remains baffling to me that we have a clear constitutional requirement that the president can't enrich himself on the job, something we had no problem enforcing strictly for hundreds of years, and then this sweaty conman came by and the nation just sorta shrugged it off.

I know there is a lot going on, and not all of this is new, but numerous aspects of this OMB proposal are highly alarming and would, if enacted, effectively force American scientists receiving federal funding (which is...most of them in some capacity or another) to stop engaging with the public.

"Congress has repeatedly appropriated funds for science agencies with the expectation that those funds would be administered through merit-based, expert-driven processes insulated from political interference. This rule attempts to override that expectation administratively"

An unapologetically angry post about what’s being done to US science:

and having political commissars (presidential appointees) running science agencies is incompatible with successful science. We have seen that in the USSR with Lysenko and in Romania under Ceaucescu. Scientific experts (acct'ble to the public through the legislature) must run science agencies.

"Members of the academic staff cease to be regarded [by university management] as colleagues whose co-operation should be solicited; instead, they are treated as a disaffected workforce liable to make trouble if given a hint of the cuts being prepared by the senior management team."

Critical state workers are about to strike in NC, which forbids it. Their exploitation has reached a breaking point. Solidarity! avlwatchdog.org/death-takes-...

⚫ It significantly expands Executive Branch authority to suspend or terminate grants that agencies determine no longer align with “agency priorities,” “public interest,” or the Administration’s policy direction. Peer review is no longer the rule, and political appointees have the final word. 5/x

It remains way past time to stop letting corporations unilaterally make a mess of the sky. And, no, we cannot avoid the problem by putting telescopes in space. Borlaff et al. 2026, "SPHEREx confirms predictions for artificial satellite trail pollution in Low Earth Orbit" - arxiv.org/abs/2605.27501

Predatory recruitment ‘will cause UK university failures’. Hepi report proposes capping student numbers for high-tariff universities with soaring undergraduate recruitment. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

JFC new IEA report shows: orders for fossil methane plants for data centres are bigger in the US than they for *any other country for any other reason* (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) "if data centres were a country, they would be the second-largest destination for gas turbines ordered from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026"

A NYTimes OpEd this morning pointed to this Brookings report on AI in education. There seems to be a lot of AI slop even in the report! But this caught my eye: "It does appear that many users are using these AI tools as part of their educational experience." www.brookings.edu/articles/a-n...