iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Andrew Cole

Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Free registration is open for Stars & Planets in Hobart, the biggest annual Australian exoplanet & stellar conference. Really looking forward to seeing everyone in Tassie! exoplanets.au/meetings/202... Abstract Submission: 18 September Registration: 31 October Dates: 16 – 20 November

exoplanets.au

ASA Stellar & Planetary Astronomy (SPA)

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Kinda nuts. Writing is thinking, and offloading one’s writing to an assistant sends a signal you didn’t want to spend the time thinking through your point. If someone can’t be bothered to write their stuff, why should anyone bother to read it?

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Dr Anna Clark @drannaclark.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer, revolutionised science with heliocentric theory of the universe, died #OTD 1543; landmark work De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium published 1543. Harmonia Macrocosmica, Andreas Cellarius, 1661 (Marriott Library)

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Just in the middle of fighting this fight, again

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Stealing this quote: "Comets are like cats: they have tails and they do as they please"

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Reposting because I assume that the fundamental arguments are no different whether the stadium is in the US or Australia...

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

More and more these days, science communication is about correcting misinformation. Luckily, this post does so very well!

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Discovering an old Tom Lehrer record in my parents' collection when I was about 10 set the tone for my whole worldview... this is a great anecdote.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Public engagement cannot just be the job of a couple of celebrity professors at Princeton and a small cohort of impoverished contingents whose projects can't be sustained against the cruel winds of adjunctcy. It has to be a major priority for the whole field.

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Ed B @ebenyon.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

Covid on the increase in #Tasmania, along with flu. "The best thing people can do is stay up to date with vaccinations and stay home while unwell." Consistent message that vaccines are "a simple, safe and effective way to protect you and your family...." #vaccine #health

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University of Tasmania @utas.edu.au · 30/06/2025

Dr Lucia McCallum shares "If we want satellite navigation to work, our supermarkets to be stocked and our online money transfers arriving safely, we need to make sure we have a clear view of black holes in distant galaxies – and that means clearing up the radio highway." Read more: utas.au/hd

utas.au

Scientists look to black holes to know exactly where we are in the Universe. But phones and wifi are blocking the view

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Reposted by Andrew Cole

Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Huge congratulations to @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social Director Prof. Matt King @deformedearth.bsky.social and Chief Investigator Prof. Anya Reading on being awarded an Australian Laureate Fellowship! @utas.edu.au @imas-utas.bsky.social | ARC | www.arc.gov.au/australian-l... Project details below ⬇️

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That's What I Call Science 🎙 @thatssciencetas.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Exoplanets are planets outside our Solar System 🌞 But how many are there? What do they look like? How do we find them? Do they contain other life 👾? We have so many questions!! Fortunately, Dr Erica Thygesen is here to tell us all about these magnificent far-off worlds 🪐 🔭 🛰️

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Rob Hortle @rlhortle.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Happy doomsday fish day to all who celebrate. In news totally unrelated to apocalyptic portents, the Premier will address the media at 9.45... #politas #auspol

tinyurl.com

BEAST FROM THE DEEP - Rare 3-metre ‘doomsday fish’ found on remote beach

A massive deep-sea "doomsday" oarfish has washed up on a remote beach in Tasmania.

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Simon Ellingsen @amasingsimon.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Well fore-warned is fore-armed 😊. Some new work from a UTas PhD project on the motion of the Large Magellanic Cloud is on the way as well. That will improve our understanding of Local Group Dynamics even more.

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Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Sure, there are caveats, but for me the operating position is getting closer and closer to "there are no legitimate uses for ChatGPT in college classes," and I'm not really encountering any compelling arguments to the contrary.

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Marco Langbroek @marcolangbroek.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

New day, new #reentry forecast for the #Kosmos 482 Descent Craft, a failed 1972 Soviet Venus lander set to reenter in a few days. Latest #TUDAT reentry forecast: 10 May +/- 21h (nominal: 7:51 UTC +/- 20.6h). Details in blogpost: sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/04/kosm...

sattrackcam.blogspot.com

Kosmos 482 Descent Craft reentry forecasts [PERIODICALLY UPDATED]

classified military Space (spy satellites) and Missiles

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Tennyson E. Stead @tennysonestead.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Objectively, being able to make things without AI makes us better at making things than the people who can't. I'm better than the kids who copied my homework, and you're the same person pulling the same crap 30 years later.

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Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Australia could be taking advantage of the millions of students now too scared to go to university in America. Instead both Dutton and Albanese are threatening to *massively reduce* intl student numbers.

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Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Men walked on the Moon - but women made the guidance computers that got them there and back. At the landing sites and command module crash sites the computers are evidence of a unique women's lunar heritage. 🧪🏺

zoharesque.blogspot.com

The Apollo core rope memory and women's heritage on the Moon

Between 1969 and 1972 there were six Apollo human spaceflight missions to the Moon, each leaving a complex site behind. A common joke now is...

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Shambolic - adjective (informal, British): chaotic, disorganised, or mismanaged.

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Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Very glad that the Australian government has announced they will extend funding of the Anglo-Australian Telescope until at least 2027. So many surveys depend on this facility - which for so long has been a vehicle for bringing wonderful astronomers to Australia to use it and growing our community.

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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Hi Australian Researchers. I have a plan. Let's thank the amazing @arc-tracker.bsky.social for a decade of selfless work by nominating them for a Eureka Prize (Leadership in science). Are you with me? If so, repost this. Please also reply and state your support for this quest. We can do this people.

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Presumably the definition of “ilku-duty” could be expanded to include committee work…

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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Almost certainly being paranoid, but astronomers: someone outside the US has ADS backed up, right?

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Very very interesting, since a black hole of this mass would be pretty elusive unless it happened to be accreting material from the surroundings. A spike in the velocity dispersion of stars within the dynamical sphere of influence of the BH? This is small, maybe a few to several tens of arc seconds.

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Lady Luddite (KJ Colt) @moistenedtart.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2... Here’s the direct link to read online

gutenberg.org

Simple Sabotage Field Manual

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Context matters! Was it by an Associate Dean?

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Mehreen Faruqi @mehreenfaruqi.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

PhD students deserve so much better than being abandoned to the poverty line. This situation is unacceptable—raising RTP stipends to at least minimum wage and access to parental leave entitlements is long overdue, yet Labor refuses to act.

canberratimes.com.au

53 cents in the bank: how Canberra's PhD students live on the poverty line

Cost of living turns bright minds away from vital research.

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Jeez, how is it I never encountered this Kipling poem before?

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Dr Paris Buttfield-Addison @hey.paris · 16/01/2025

happy 35th birthday to They Might Be Giants' "Flood"

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

#CentresOfExcellence Expression of Interest outcomes have been released to applicants in their RMS accounts: www.arc.gov.au/news-publica...

arc.gov.au

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Reposted by Andrew Cole

U.S. Naval Institute @usni.org · 10/01/2025

The USS Essex sailed from Hawaii to California using only celestial navigation methods. This is what the navigation team learned and why all ships should make similar voyages. usni.org/magazines/p...

usni.org

Ships Must Practice Celestial Navigation | Proceedings - January 2025 Vol. 151/1/1,463

The USS Essex sailed from Hawaii to California using only celestial navigation methods. This is what the navigation team learned and why all ships should make similar voyages.

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Has there ever been another president whose image was so poor upon leaving office, but so good 25+ years later? I was 8 when Carter left office, so memories of his term are vague at best: gas lines, the Moral Equivalent of War, Three-Mile Island, family arguments about plutonium, hostages in Iran.

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Merry solstice! We’ll see if the Sun actually stops and goes north, or just keeps on heading south this time. It’s been that kind of year.

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

In a proud parenting moment, I’ve discovered that if I look out the window and say “Donuts? what are donuts?”, the boy knows instantly that it’s raining again.

media.tenor.com

a cartoon of a kitchen with donuts and a stove

Alt: In a parallel universe too good to be true, Marge and Lisa Simpson watch a common meteorological phenomenon, intermittent donut rain.

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Took a gander at the old X site for some reason and it was wall to wall with people posting out of focus pics of commercial airplanes and ordinary satellites, and demanding that public officials respond to the terrifying “foreign drone attack”. People have well and truly lost their damn minds.

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Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Telescopes don't discover things. People discover things with telescopes. (see also: Spade Discovers New Potatoes in Vege Bed)

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Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

I’ve seen some posts recently, about the value of basic research, in light of funding cuts and demands that research have immediate economic justification. Let me collect some info here, in a thread, about why it’s a bad idea to attach those sorts of demands to funding. 🧵 🧪 ⚛️

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 25/11/2024

"Disrupt" is code for "Destroy reliable established services so that money previously widely distributed now funnels into a single source." Just like "AI" is code for "Mine the work humans did in the past so we don't have to pay them for their work in the future." That's why VCs like both words.

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

This is kind of how it should be when you’re on a long observing run, and which is basically impossible with remote observing and wifi at your fingertips.

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Reposted by Andrew Cole

Dr Paris Buttfield-Addison @hey.paris · 21/11/2024

#auspol Regarding the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 (aka. the social media kids ban), I sent a letter to my local federal MP + senators, and suggest you do the same. The senate committee inquiry is only open until end of Nov 22: www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...

A letter complaining about the social media legislation. Find the full text: https://files.paris.id.au/LETTER_2024_NOVEMBER_SOCIALMEDIA.pdf

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Andrew Cole @aacole42.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

This needs to be replicated as an art installation ASAP, with different LEDs representing stellar pops. Preferably someplace with a huge underground gallery and a bar, like Tasmania’s MONA.

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Reposted by Andrew Cole

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 15/11/2024

The Future of Orion xkcd.com/3012

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