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Taka

@astrobassball.bsky.social
973 followers 867 following 593 posts

Data person, astrophysicist, bassist, New Englander, New Yorker. He/him.

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Reposted by Taka
CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 28/09/2026
Just saw this news now (looks like it is a few days old) arXiv has received private funding -- $17.2M to be distributed across the next 3-5 years to help it establish and transition to an independent not-for-profit. This is good news for the preprint server and open access resources! 🔭🧪
blog.arxiv.org
arXiv receives Multiyear Philanthropic Commitments to Support Its Launch as an Independent Nonprofit
arXiv is pleased to announce that three leading philanthropic organizations have provided multimillion-dollar support for arXiv. These new multiyear…
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reni 🦌 @reniadeb.com · 25/09/2026
this is just to say i have eaten the moon that was in my orbit and which you were probably wanting to observe forgive me it was delicious so crunchy and so cold
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 24/09/2026
Never been to the opera before? Now’s your chance. We’re giving away 70,000 free tickets to the @metopera at the iconic Lincoln Center. Go to on.nyc.gov/opera to enter the lottery. There’s not a bad seat in the house.
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Greatest trick AI leaders have pulled is convincing many people—especially influential people in govt, media, and business—that their software is intelligent, independent, yet never culpable. Humans build it, humans deploy it, but no one bears responsibility for the things that happen when they do.
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Max Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
One of my most galaxy-brained takes is that politicians and political groups should talk more about workers’ share of national income. It's one of the clearest, simplest ways to describe how billionaires and corporate elites captured so much of the economy--and something policy can change.
axios.com
U.S. workers' share of national income falls to a new low
Labor's bargaining position has worsened markedly in the last half-decade.
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Taka @astrobassball.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
That feeling when everyone is cutting it real close to the deadline on the group project.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
WSJ: The AI build-out is on track to become the biggest economic bet in US history, dwarfing the investments made to fund other huge US infrastructure projects — such as the railroads, the highway system and the plumbing for the internet.” (via Jefferies)
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A Tea Walks Home Alone at Night @teaberryblue.net · 23/09/2026
I have a food cart that only sells day-old German sausages. It’s called Spoiled Brats.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026
Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵
Martin Kao, CEO of defense contractor Navatek, poses next to Sen. Susan Collins for a photo. Collins is holding a model of a boat in her hands. Behind them is a large sign with the Navatek logo.
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Doc Impossible @impossiblephd.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
*Frothing at the mouth with excitement* HEY GUESS WHAT, YOU DON'T HAVE ONE BRAIN, YOU HAVE TWO! med.stanford.edu/news/all-new...
med.stanford.edu
Human brain is two separate organs, Stanford Medicine-led research finds
Stanford Health Care delivers the highest levels of care and compassion. SHC treats cancer, heart disease, brain disorders, primary care issues, and many more.
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Taka @astrobassball.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This implies “they can keep MS Now banned.” 🙃
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Scott Nover @scottnover.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
BREAKING: TV pool will not be providing coverage of presidential events until further notice b/c of CNN's ban, pool chair and FOX News Washington Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton said. It's effectively a boycott by the fellow members — ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX: www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 17/09/2026
newrepublic.com/post/215534/...
newrepublic.com
U.N. Finds Trump Likely Committed War Crimes in Iran War
The United Nations’ human rights watchdog has found that two U.S. strikes likely constitute war crimes.
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WIRED @wired.com · 17/09/2026
Amazon Web Services didn’t design its data centers to withstand war, and now the company admits it can’t recover what’s been lost. www.wired.com/story/custom...
wired.com
Customer Data Permanently Lost in Iran Strikes on Amazon Data Centers
Amazon Web Services didn’t design its data centers to withstand war, and now the company admits it can’t recover what’s been lost.
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Oaf @languidoaf.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
CEO of Taco Bell: we’re actually worried that some of our upcoming items could destroy humanity as well
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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran. Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.

I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.
But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.

The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that.

Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.

Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other
stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.

Ed was in …What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me.

And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.

I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed.
Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation.

When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic:
لا شكر على واجب
"La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty.
That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human.

Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…
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kate bush’s husband @airbagged.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
He cooked Ed Sheeran on IG
macklemore
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Ed was in a fucked up position. He knew it. His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before. He told me that the words
"Free Palestine" and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with. I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn't get past his public facing, "I don't take sides."
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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The rule they are overturning was predicted to give $120 billion in public health benefits by 2047, with projections that by 2035, it would would prevent up to 1,200 premature deaths, 870 hospital and emergency room visits, 360K asthma attacks, 48K school absence days and 57K lost workdays each year
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Space.com @space.com · 11/09/2026
A star is exploding 45 million light-years away — here's how you can see it www.space.com/stargazing/a...
space.com
A star is exploding 45 million light-years away — here's how you can see it
The newly discovered Type Ia supernova SN 2026aaiv in NGC 7331 offers amateur astronomers and astrophotographers a rare opportunity to observe and image an exploding star before it fades.
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Bradford Pearson @bradfordpearson.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
I truly don’t see how this country can go on if we don’t ban online sports betting. This story is stomach-turning.
inquirer.com
FanDuel sent a personal message from Phillies star Bryce Harper to a customer with a gambling addiction
Terry Thompson lost $1.5 million on bets he placed with FanDuel. The company gave him VIP treatment — including a personalized video message from the Phillies' All-Star first baseman.
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 04/09/2026
Technology being everywhere doesn’t mean it belongs everywhere. The tech industry wants us to believe that AI in early education is not only inevitable, but necessary. We don't see it that way. This week, we announced a moratorium on generative AI for public school students in 2-K to 8th grade.
We’re eliminating AI use for students in 2-K through 8th grade for the upcoming school year.
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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 03/09/2026
I hereby declare the "learn to code" era officially dead: Big declines in the number of people studying computer science in the last year or two 📉 Chart from this week’s edition of our newsletter on AI and the labour market www.ft.com/content/9183...
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Micah @rincewind.run · 03/09/2026
every single day elon musk says or endorses stuff on x dot com that is worse than any of the quotes they've pulled up for hasan piker and he will be the single biggest political donor in the entire country, supporting republicans up and down the ballot somehow none of them are asked about it
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Taka @astrobassball.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
So many problems stem from extremely unserious people believing they deserve to be taken seriously.
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Taka @astrobassball.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Each team should draw lots to get a different AI. Team Gemini. GPT Gang. Clan Claude. Grok Goons. Nova Ninjas (RIP).
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The Verge @theverge.com · 02/09/2026
As a new Harry Potter trailer makes the rounds, it bears repeating that there’s no way to watch this show without supporting J.K. Rowling’s bigotry and the structural violence she’s inflicting on the trans community.
theverge.com
There is no ethical consumption of HBO’s Harry Potter series
You can’t without supporting Rowling’s transphobic bigotry.
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Mike Brown @plutokiller.com · 31/08/2026
um, no? calling it a planet in 1930 was the actual mistake. but we fixed it and are all good now thanks.
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 02/09/2026
Trade xkcd.com/3290/
Comic. [Person standing holding hammer above raised knee.] PERSON: Listen up, leg. I’ve been sending you rich, oxygenated blood for years, while you send me worthless used-up blood with no oxygen. Time to teach you a lesson about not ripping me off! [caption] Tariffs
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Lora Kolodny @lorak.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
OpenAI is ending model access on Cursor after Elon Musk's SpaceX completed its $60B acquisition of the AI coding startup earlier this month... www.cnbc.com/2026/08/29/o... It's causing BEEF in the broader vibe coding community too.
cnbc.com
OpenAI to end model access to Cursor after acquisition by Elon Musk's SpaceX
OpenAI plans to end model access through Cursor on Nov. 12, citing concerns after SpaceX’s $60 billion acquisition of the coding startup.
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
If you haven’t heard, @trufelman.bsky.social and I started a new podcast about fashion and philosophy. Each month, we read canonical text — Voltaire, Rousseau, Hegel — and talk about how the author's ideas help us understand why we dress the way we do.
An illustration of Lord Chesterfield.
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PBS News @pbsnews.org · 28/08/2026
In recent years, there has been attention and worries about how reading has changed among kids. Those concerns include the nature of what kids are reading and how many fewer books are part of their education diet. to.pbs.org/4yqeHRe
pbs.org
'Post-literate age': Why fewer Americans are reading for pleasure
In recent years, there has been attention and worries about how reading has changed among kids. Those concerns include the nature of what kids are reading and how many fewer books are part of their education diet. A new cover story in The Atlantic is ca...
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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 28/08/2026
The deadly flash flood in Nepal on Wednesday was likely caused by a huge chunk of a glacier that broke off and temporarily dammed a river, according to preliminary investigations by scientists.
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Leo C. Stein @duetosymmetry.com · 26/08/2026
Tim Curry and Dolly Parton both demonstrated how gender is a social construct. RIP legends
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Daphne Keller @daphnek.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
This data on self-censorship among U.S. academic scientists and engineers -- not even humanities people, this is STEM -- is so disturbing. theconversation.com/self-censors...
How are scientists adjusting the way they work during the Trump administration?
The survey asked a representative sample of university based scientists: "Since January 2025, have you intentionally done any of the following due to concerns about possible negative consequences for you, your work environment, or your career?" [then data]
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Taka @astrobassball.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The NESN broadcast really did Sonny Gray dirty last night. 😭
“1-800-GET-HAIR” mid-inning ad, while the broadcast zooms in on Sonny Gray’s head.“1-800-GET-HAIR” mid-inning ad, while the broadcast zooms in on Sonny Gray’s face and head.
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Jason Wilson @jasonaw.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I use agentic tools but i don’t really care about imaginary internet people yelling at me and i wouldn’t go back to x. The more general problem on here is that it is dominated by voices that represent a narrow slice of specifically American liberalism which makes it predictable and stifling
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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
“These students are joining a wave of local opposition to data centers that stretches from coast to coast and encompasses Americans of vastly different backgrounds and political beliefs. And young adults tend to have more negative views of data centers than their elders do”
nytimes.com
The Teens Taking On A.I. Data Centers
Gen Z-ers are forming after-school clubs, speaking at community meetings — and sometimes wrestling with their own dependence on the technology.
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
At an invitation-only gathering in Italy, white supremacists mapped out strategies to target rural America while local press coverage vanishes www.confrontthehate.com/p/white-nati...
As economic pressures gut local newsrooms across the country, white nationalist figures see an untapped opening: stepping into media deserts where there are few journalists left to sound the alarm.

“Local media has been dying all over America, which means that there’s essentially no real way to hold local governments accountable—and they can do whatever they want,” Kevin DeAnna told an invitation-only gathering of approximately 50 white nationalists in Rome.

Breaking into a broad smile, he excitedly added: “You should be fantasizing about this. This is a good thing.”
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 19/08/2026
Woah.
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The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 19/08/2026
Gross U.S. debt has surpassed $40 trillion, a new milestone in the country’s struggle to control its finances. A look at how we got here. on.wsj.com/4xePmZG
on.wsj.com
U.S. Debt Just Topped $40 Trillion: How We Got Here
The U.S. has reached a new borrowing milestone in its struggle to get hold of its finances.
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Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
You don't say... www.ms.now/news/frame-u...
ms.now
Whistleblower says probes into antisemitism at colleges were ploys to harass and strip millions
A former Justice Department lawyer says the Trump investigations squeezed Ivy League universities for millions before they were even concluded. A top Democrat is demanding answers.
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Sarah Langs @slangsonsports.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Leadoff home run on first pitch and walk-off home run in same game: 8/17/26 Pete Crow-Armstrong 5/7/57 Vic Power
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18/08/2026
Ossoff: "I have zero interest in running for president in 2028, and frankly zero interest in the 2028 fantasy football right now ... these midterms are the whole ballgame ... I don't know that we have a free and fair election in 2028 unless we restore checks and balances in these 2026 midterms."
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 17/08/2026
US child vaccination rates have plunged since before the pandemic, with kindergarten classrooms in more than 70% of counties now lacking herd immunity against measles.
US choropleth map showing percentage change in MMR or overall vaccination rates since before the pandemic, by county. Decreases are shown in pink, increases in green.
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Sage Tyrtle 🇨🇦 @sagetyrtle.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Truly biodegradable plastic exists now: #ShareGoodNewsToo www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
reuters.com
Scientists in Japan develop plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours
Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours, offering up a potential solution for a modern-day scourge polluting oceans and harming wildlife.
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WIRED @wired.com · 17/08/2026
Platforms are finally recognizing that people don’t want to consume AI slop. A growing number of sites and apps now have tools and policies to flag, label, and ban AI-generated content.
wired.com
The AI Slop Backlash Is Actually Having an Impact
Platforms are finally recognizing that people don’t want to consume AI slop. A growing number of sites and apps now have tools and policies to flag, label, and ban AI-generated content.
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Jen Taub @jentaub.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
“A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace, according to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.” ysph.yale.edu/news-article...
ysph.yale.edu
Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year, Yale Study Projects
A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it
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Jason Karsh @jkarsh.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I remember when Bill Clinton—a FORMER president—met Obama’s sitting AG on an airplane and it was a massive scandal. Now, here’s Trump’s new AG just doing Trump political rallies like it’s NBD.
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Michael Zingale @michaelzingale.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
are there any Physics or Astro programs that teach an UG class on machine learning methods for data analysis / simulation? It could be as part of a larger class on numerical methods. #astro
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11/08/2026
So Trump and the White House lied about which plane Trump was on flying out of Turkey, setting up journalists who thought they were on the same plane as the president to possibly be the target of an Iranian attack while he secretly departed on a different one. Words fail.
wapo.st
Contradicting public statements, Trump took secret flight from Turkey amid Iranian threat
The White House said the president was aboard Air Force One as he left a NATO summit. Instead, his departure included an elaborate ruse that concealed his travel.
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