Sign in

Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD

@astrobarker.bsky.social
1.2K followers 268 following 177 posts

computational astrophysicist, developer, appalachian starboy, miso’s owner

PostsRepliesMedia
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
News: we moved to New York! I’m excited to share that I am joining Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Astrophysics as a research software engineer supporting MESA and broader software needs. Software is a pillar of sci. infrastructure and I am elated to continue to support it
LakeCat in windowCats on bedCat confused; Culver’s in background
4120
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
At what point do i shell the $ to maintain my own CI infrastructure instead of waiting for GitHub actions to not be down, again
310
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
the beggars out of here getter @milesklee.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
My privilege to share some lovely stories from the science community about what Sam Neill's timeless performance as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park meant to them—and why it will continue to inspire kids to chase their own discoveries for years to come.
wired.com
Sam Neill Inspired a Generation of Scientists
The actor, who died at age 78 on Monday, embodied a passionate approach to research and positive masculinity in his role as paleontologist Alan Grant in the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park.
232762798
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
The Irish Times @irishtimes.com · 13/07/2026
Sam Neill: An intelligent performer with a personal warmth that always shone through
irishtimes.com
Sam Neill: An intelligent performer with a personal warmth that always shone through
The breadth of Omagh-born Neill’s work was extraordinary. Any festival celebrating his work would last for weeks
0115
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Words can’t express how happy we are with the event and with the venue everyone should get married now
181
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Pictures forthcoming, but I am married 🙂
370
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Michael Zingale @michaelzingale.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
I also added a bonus lecture to my MESA summer school on integrating stiff reaction networks: zingale.github.io/mesa-labs/re... as with the others, it is a collection of Jupyter notebooks that you can run. #astro #astrocode
zingale.github.io
Reaction Networks 101 — mesa-labs documentation
061
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
i am just a man chasing the experience of playing outer wilds for the first time again
010
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Gun to my head i would not be able to find a good thing to say about GitHub actions
140
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Guy who has had enough
040
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
this is fine
TN democrats stripped of committee assignments
131
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Angry @angrystaffer.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Based on this Virginia ruling, the Tennessee and Florida maps should both also be shot down. If not, Virginia should just pull a Tennessee and change the rules to ram it though the legislature. 🤷‍♂️
35599502690
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Arfon Smith @arfon.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
After 10 years, I'm stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of @joss-openjournals.bsky.social. A few thoughts on the decade: www.arfon.org/stepping-dow... The EiC call: blog.joss.theoj.org/2026/05/call... #opensource #openscience
arfon.org
Stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of JOSS | Arfon Smith
After 10 years, reflecting on launching the Journal of Open Source Software and what comes next.
22712
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Hacker News 300 @betterhn300.e-work.xyz · 29/04/2026
Before GitHub lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/4/28/before-g… (news.ycombinator.com/item?id=479409…)
lucumr.pocoo.org
Before GitHub
Open Source before GitHub was reputation-driven and full of friction
021
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Cameron Watters @watters.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 29/04/2026
RE: hachyderm.io/@mitchellh/11648405172… There are too many good reasons to minimize or eliminate one's GitHub usage and footprint: the increasingly flaky service and clunkification of the web UI, in-band advertising for their slopIfication tools, their recent switching of […]
hachyderm.io
Original post on hachyderm.io
001
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Catalin Cimpanu @campuscodi.risky.biz · 28/04/2026
The Ghostty founder is leaving GitHub When you read his blog post, I want you to keep this image in your mind mitchellh.com/writing/ghos...
12911
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Tom Warren @tomwarren.co.uk · 24/04/2026
yesterday I reported on GitHub employee concerns about reliability and leadership, and then hours later GitHub suffered a catastrophic outage 😬 www.theverge.com/news/918001/...
3582158
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Emily Hunt @emily.space · 16/04/2026
This is the aspect that bothers me the most about AI, and is why I still refuse to use e.g. Claude Code for now. It's obvious that this tech has uses (+ MANY dystopic ones too), just I also don't endorse big tech being allowed to dictate to the world that ownership of writing/music/art is over
3463
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
In San Diego for a software citation workshop! Remember: scientific software is as crucial a piece of infrastructure as instrumentation and deserves such recognition :) softwarecitationworkshop.ucsd.edu
softwarecitationworkshop.ucsd.edu
Software Citation Workshop
020
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Senate Republicans refused to convict Trump after Jan 6. Republican SCOTUS appointees gave him immunity. Republicans in Congress today stand idly by as he unleashes death and destruction across the globe. We are now at the whims of a mad king because GOP leaders have refused to constrain him.
27662321771
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Not impeachment or the 25th amendment but a secret, third thing (criticizing his tax policies) on a day he threatens to wipe out a civilization
2477
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
"It's a distraction"- maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Doesn't matter if it's all an elaborate conspiracy or a desperate tantrum from a dying man who wants to nuke *something* before he goes. What matters is that millions of people in Iran might die because of it. Don't lose sight of that.
0143
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
We’re in hell
120
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 06/04/2026
⚛️🔭 Hey physics/astronomy science communicators: apply to come to @perimeterinstitute.ca for a workshop in October on how to engage the public in science! Anyone can apply, working in any kind of scicomm (video, audio, text, live performance, whatever it is you do). Check the link for more details!
events.perimeterinstitute.ca
Scicomm Collider 2026
The Scicomm Collider workshop will bring together a group of the most innovative science communicators helping to connect the public with topics in physics and astronomy for a three-day workshop aimed...
715668
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 06/04/2026
It's frequently pointed out that NASA activities (and basic/exploratory science in general) have a fantastic return on investment, contributing far more to the economy than they take. But even if they didn't, no one's actually taking from the "cure sick people" pot to put money in the "rockets" pot.
232554321
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Very embarrassing work from the NSF
NSF FY27 budget request; mention of woke; embarrassing
000
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
András Gáspár @andrasgaspar.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Looking at the AAS jobregister lately, it seemed to me that there are less positions available in all categories than in previous years. Wanting to quantify, I used the wayback machine to check on the number of postings in the January-March window and it is quite depressing.
A Table showing the number of positions posted at AAS job-registed for various categories.
68036
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
🧌🥛 🏨 @comraderobot.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
my basic “should I use generative AI” rules: * the 3 D’s of automation are Dirty, Dull, & Dangerous, and Dull is the only one applicable—so stick to that * dont use it for any task where doing it yourself would improve your skill at that task * “hard to guess, easy to check” format + ALWAYS CHECK
27516
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them) @ewcss.info · 15/02/2026
This piece is about CS conferences, but it speaks to a larger trend. What are we, as individual researchers and scholarly communities, doing to prevent epistemic poison? What can we do to preserve and maintain the quality of our knowledge in this era of bullshit and slop? ⚗️ 🧪 #SciComm #Ethics
33010
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Riley Black 🏳️‍⚧️ 🦖 @restingdinoface.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
It’s infuriating and dispiriting how cozy scientists and science communicators were with Epstein. Not just creeps like Krauss and Horner, but former SciAm editor-in-chief Mariette DiChristina corresponding with Epstein in 2014-2015. “He’s done so much for science, I think that deserves some fun!”
dailyfreepress.com
BU COM dean corresponded extensively with Jeffrey Epstein in 2014 and 2015, files show
Mariette DiChristina, dean of Boston University’s College of Communication, corresponded extensively with Jeffrey Epstein in 2014 and 2015. The two set up a one-on-one meeting, had “phone dates” and D...
613858
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
The academy continues to impress
000
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Here we go again
Beer
000
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
God I missed Detroit
010
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Heading to god honoring Michigan … maybe the worst day of the year to fly (had cancellations..) but god I miss it
011
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Traded code crashes for snowboard crashes
Me sitting with snowboard on; in pain
020
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
command line app called chat (subtitle “is this real”) that takes a number at the command line and prints yes if real false if complex
020
Reposted by Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD
Yvette Cendes @whereisyvette.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Hi #aas247 people! Just saw some slides from an education session about astronomy majors across the country that looks super relevant to the new astro program we’re trying to start in Oregon. Anyone know where the full report lives, or can share the full slides? 🔭
3171
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Rewrite substantial parts of technically functional (albeit ugly, outgrown its scope) code or implement features necessary to make a production capable product? Easy
120
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Christmas Day is finally here, and that means two things: Lord of the Rings (extended) and a day full of hobbit meals
Lord of the rings
190
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Christmas time
Tamales in a pot
171
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
This year in GitHub: 72 merged PRs for a total of 912 commits — and more to come (and more uncounted on gitlab). Not too bad but pushing for more next year!
120
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
How it feels when optimizing code
120
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Monday night
020
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Went to Michigan over thanksgiving and got to take a god honoring nap
Someone taking a nap outside in the Michigan winterMichigan lake in the winter
010
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
im not much of a football fan but i feel strongly that we need the weaker teams regularly playing in the snow
000
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
DTW brewery crawl
A beer
010
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
No it’s actually an elite level code development strategy that i left that unused variable there. The warnings tell me “finish implementing this” every time i compile
000
Brandon Bright-Barker, PhD @astrobarker.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
PBS always serving the public good
050