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Jeff Rich

@astrojrich.bsky.social
907 followers 624 following 869 posts

Astronomer in Pasadena & beyond. Posts mine etc. From Bremerton (www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKtB1Oij-Eg…). he/him.

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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 11m
This seemed like baby logic when I started college 25 years ago and my take has not grown more nuanced since. All the positives are done by other campus groups without all the negatives, it’s already been tested for decades.
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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 22h
!!!!!
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Sam Antics @dsoart.com · 28/09/2026
Garffeld Pt 15
3 panel Garffeld comic: panels 1 and 2, Nergal is sitting next to Garffeld who thinks, "Nergal thinks himself a comely cat; a picture of vanity. I hate vanity."; panel 3, Nergal thinks, "Envy is no less a sin deserving of hate in the eyes of God."
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
just tried >man man man man man man and learned it's recursive this feels exploitable
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The worst part about the AI bubble is hearing people who didn’t comparison shop for video cards 25 years ago prononounce “Nvidia”
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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
hey honey look, this airport has a new noodle shop
Hudson news but sign burnt out
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Coyote vs. LinkedIn @knabewolf.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
September, but I lost my 45 adapter
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The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Card from the autumn "suit" of the Astronomia playing card deck, 1829. Featuring 3 other seasonal suits the pack was used to play two games — Conjunction and Combination — which were trumps-based, similar to Whist. More images of the cards here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/a... #autumn
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Link’s awakening
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Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Interested by ISOs like 3I/ATLAS? PhD opportunity in interstellar object observations, here in New Zealand. Join our Ōtautahi-Oxford group & the NZ Gravity collaboration. Start by March 1. ☄️🔭
gravity.ac.nz
PhD Scholarships – Statistics, Astrophysics, Cosmology and Gravitational Wave Astronomy | New Zealand Gravity
About us The NZ Astrostatistics and General Relativity Group (NZ Gravity) is a cross-institutional research team spanning astrophysics, cosmology, ma...
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neutral @neutral.zone · 18/09/2026
This got quote-posted with some really cool things I didn’t get a chance to repost yet, by the way
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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 18/09/2026
I'm finally so excited to share this! My second PhD paper, and what I've spent the last year working on ... We've discovered not one, BUT TWO, profile change events on the closest and brightest millisecond pulsar (MSP) to Earth! www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/disc... Let's jump ito a 🧵👇 🔭📡
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 16/09/2026
Today, with backing from the ACLU, Kelton and twelve other named researchers filed a class action suit against the NIH under director Jay Bhattacharya for censoring their research and violating their First Amendment rights.
aclu.org
Researchers Challenge NIH Screening of Grants for Disfavored Viewpoints | American Civil Liberties Union
Class action lawsuit seeks to stop censorship and termination of federally funded scientific research
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Maggie Harrison Dupré @mharrisondupre.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
These fake writers have included made-up NASA and ESA scientists named "Dr. Katherine Chen" and "Dr. James Whitfield." For a taste of the kind of content they were bylining at the site Space Daily, I'd recommend this piece from Whitfield, who again is a fake persona: web.archive.org/web/20260403...
The space news site Space Daily, for instance — one of BBM’s most successful publications, according to Similarweb data we reviewed, with an estimated average of 10 million page views per month over the past year — has published many articles under bylines it identified as scientists with distinguished résumés. There was “Dr. Katherine Chen,” for example, a supposed former “systems engineer” at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory whose bio claimed she’d “spent fifteen years designing autonomous systems for deep space missions.” Publishing alongside Chen was “Dr. James Whitfield,” who was said to be an “aerospace medicine researcher at the European Space Agency.”

Yet beyond Space Daily, neither Chen nor Whitfield actually exist — not on social media, nor in press releases, nor as coauthors on research they would have conducted at two of the world’s premier space agencies. NASA’s site doesn’t make a single mention of Chen, and the ESA’s site has never once referred to Whitfield. And though NASA declined to comment on grounds that it “does not verify past employment or affiliations with the agency,” the ESA confirmed that “Mr. James Whitfield is not currently employed by the European Space Agency, nor do our records indicate that he has ever worked here in the past.”From this article, bylined by fake writer and made-up ESA scientist Dr. James Whitfield:

https://web.archive.org/web/20260403014222/https://spacedaily.com/sd-a-the-people-who-seem-fearless-in-conversations-arent-brave-they-just-decided-a-long-time-ago-that-awkward-silence-was-worse-than-any-truth/

For years I studied how astronauts communicate under pressure, cataloguing the micro-dynamics of honesty and evasion in confined crews, and I believed I understood what directness cost people. Then my marriage ended, and I discovered the full weight of that gap between knowing and doing. I remember one evening in particular. My wife was standing at the kitchen counter, her back half-turned, and she asked a question that wasn’t really a question—something about whether I was happy. I knew what she was actually asking. I had spent my career decoding exactly this kind of indirect communication in high-stakes environments. I could have said what was true: that I loved her, that I was also drowning, that something between us had shifted and I didn’t know how to name it. Instead, I said something careful. Something designed to manage the moment rather than meet it. She nodded, and we moved on, and that moving-on was one of a thousand small surrenders that eventually became the whole story of how we fell apart. I was an expert in communication breakdowns who couldn’t stop one from happening in his own kitchen, because expertise is not the same as willingness.
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Observing remotely for the first time in over a decade
Dining room table with a monitor and laptop displaying a remote telescope observing setup  for integral field spectroscopy at Las Campanas Observatory
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michael lutz @ztul.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Barber CEO: You Risk Falling Behind If You Don't Get A Haircut "Right Now" Industry Experts Foresee Future In Which Everyone Receives Multiple Haircuts Every Day Today Your Hair, Tomorrow The World: Barbers Say They Are On Track To Build A Pair Of Scissors So Big, It Could End Life As We Know It
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Peter Griffin?
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Markus Pössel @mpoessel.de · 10/09/2026
When we do outreach or education, astronomers frequently claim that public and student interest in astronomy is greater than in other sciences, making it an ideal entry way for science. My article analyzing Wikipedia page views which (somewhat) supports this claim is out in the CAP Journal. 🔭⚛️🧪🎢
capjournal.org
English-speaking Wikipedia users’ interest in astronomy
Wikipedia users’ interest in astronomy is examined using data available for pageviews over the period 2016–2025. Interest, as measured by the level of engagement, is gauged by examining the top 30 ast...
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Funranium (AKA Phil Broughton) @funranium.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
[taps the sign]
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Robert McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Ida Henrietta Hyde was born #OTD in 1857. She invented a micro-electrode capable of stimulating and monitoring electrical activity in cells. Later in this thread there will be an amazing story about an octopus and Kaiser Wilhelm II. 🧪 👩‍🔬 🐙 Image: American Physiological Society
Black and white photo of Ida Henrietta Hyde in a lab or lecturing demonstration surgery. She wears a long black dress with billowy sleeves and her hair pulled up. There are shelves or benches behind her.
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Kim Kelly @kimkelly.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I don’t want to be too mean about Labor Day but people should know the history!! www.teenvogue.com/story/histor...
teenvogue.com
Labor Day Is a Government Scam
Even if the holiday wasn’t always intended to be a rip-off, it sure is now.
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Wonder how differently Americans would respond to climate change statistics if they were in f instead of C. Someone has probably already done the study, right?
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
It’s a grossly harmful worldview that has no relationship to the scientific consensus on the drivers of chronic disease. America’s disease burden (which is falling btw) is mostly a function of income and healthcare inequality, not the refusal of Americans to eat beef tallow.
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Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
A couple of cancellations so we have a few seats available!
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
km/s ~ pc/Myr π*10^7 s ~ 1 yr
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Tod Lauer @todlauer.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
An Earth-mass BH has the size of this black marble. You couldn't get much closer than 100km without being ripped apart by tidal forces. It swallows a Rose Bowl of water in 1s to generate 0.1 solar luminosity (Eddington).
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darth™️ @darthbluesky.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
i have used 1password probably since their first version and now i have to move everything including my passkeys what a mess
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Simon W Davis @woodforbrains.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Ho-LEE fuck democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-r...
democrats-appropriations.house.gov
Defense Officials Attempt to Raid NIH Funds to Cover Department of Defense Activities
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) has learned that officials at the Department of Defense (DoD) are working to divert billions of dollars from the National Institute...
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Google continues to make user experience worse part 10^6 support.google.com/earth/thread...
support.google.com
Update on Google Earth Pro desktop app downloads - Google Earth Community
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Luke Ontario @coolhand.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Hexsweeper is out! Free! Addictive! Pretty! So many people here helped with testing and feedback on this that it should be co-credited. There’s an Easter egg 😈 Android and web in comments.
apps.apple.com
Hexsweeper 3D App - App Store
Download Hexsweeper 3D by LanguageCraft on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like Hexsweeper 3D.
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Dog does not understand strawberry
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Go Roman!
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Excited for (and a little jealous of) friends and colleagues down in Florida to watch the launch this weekend!
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Moon’s broken
Moon nearly fully eclipsed, reddish orange
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Miles Pen @militarypenguin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
You're all contractually obligated to read this comment Rob Paulsen made on a Tim Curry interview in 2025
Rob Paulsen - Voice Actor

I had the remarkable privilege to work with Tim a few dozen times.
Kind, generous, playful, naughty and a TOTAL pro. A couple years ago, at NY Comic Con, I was in the green room having lunch and Tim
came in in his chair. Of course, I was aware of his stroke, so l walked over knelt down and said, "Tim! It's Rob Paulsen. We
worked together on..." he looked me and said, "I know who you are,
you fucking wanker." It was like a blessing from the Pope. Utterly
unique. Unstoppable. A total star.
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daniel sieradski @self.agency · 26/08/2026
😭
youtube.com
The Rocky Horror Picture Show - I'm Going Home
YouTube video by THIRDPROJECT
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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Both Dolly Parton and Tim Curry had such a genuine enthusiasm for performing that it was impossible not to love them for it, there were things more highly and lowly regarded in their bodies of work but both of them threw themselves into everything because it was pure joy for them and that rules
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kate bush’s husband @airbagged.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
RIP COMRADE SEE YOU IN THE STARS
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Fall of the Berlin Wall. First distinct memory of watching the news on TV with my parents
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Micah @rincewind.run · 25/08/2026
Discworld QOTD, from The Shepherd's Crown "FOR I CAN SEE THE BALANCE AND YOU HAVE LEFT THE WORLD MUCH BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT, AND IF YOU ASK ME, said Death, NOBODY COULD DO ANY BETTER THAN THAT…"
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FT @fucktheory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.
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Jeff Rich @astrojrich.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Dog
Stocky grey dog with a white chest and big pink tongue lolling out sitting on the sidewalk. Behind the dog there is a view down a canyon with trees and scrub on the hills, and the sky is showing an orange gradient as the sun has set.
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onion person @junlper.beer · 23/08/2026
nathan cofnas, the man who got jason arday killed, is an explicit white nationalist and race realist who has been cited endlessly in aporia, a propaganda network funded by the human diversity fund, rebranded from the pioneer fund started in the 1930s as an explicit nazi project
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Microplastics Sommelier @leastactionhero.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
nearly every reactionary cause is some form of it. i guess they figured that if they waited a while, people would forget that previous generations had already relocated their ideas to the trash compactor.
Microplastics Sommelier @leastactionhero.bsky.social
95% of "heterodox views that academia is too afraid to touch" is stuff that was painstakingly discredited a generation or two ago, recycled into a new form. modern people missed those debates, and the views appeal b/c they're based on common misunderstandings or more intuitive (but wrong) reasoning.
11:40 PM • May 13, 2026
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Jesse Thorn @jessethorn.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
If anybody in SoCal wants to buy my 96 Subaru Sambar Classic, lmk. It’s in good original shape, runs well. Manual transmission. Very fair price.
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Snowden St. @snowden.st · 20/08/2026
[swish]
(completely off the cuff, informed by no details, but some familiarity with elite Religious Right spaces) I'd bet serious money that this is a “worshipful servant" situation, which is (i) almost assuredly chaste, (ii) really emotionally weird, and so weird (iii) that's why all the others are freakin)
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dillo saint dillo @dillo.media · 19/08/2026
"we can learn so much from these betting sites"
kalshi screenshot of Dem Senate nominee odds
 showing vindman at 95% for most of it and then it flips to Nixon at the end
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 01/07/2026
NEW BLOG FOR YOU Google's energy consumption numbers in their new climate report are mind-blowing. 2 years ago they flipped from linear to exponential growth, and their climate impact is blowing out, too. A WILD testament to the obscene bloat and waste of GenAI: ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g...
a chart showing google's rising energy consumption - huge, and rising faster than ever beforea chart showing google's rising energy consumption - huge, and rising faster than ever beforea chart showing google's rising energy consumption - huge, and rising faster than ever beforeGoogle's total energy consumption more than new zealand
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Thembo @thembo.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
good morning
comic panel depicting Lois lane saying "just think, out of the six million people in metropolis, you and I above under countless stars..."
superman replies "wrong-- there are 1549 stars, two planets, and I've asteroids visible tonight!"
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