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Britt Lundgren

@brittlundgren.bsky.social
3.1K followers 1.3K following 2K posts

quasar gazer | science & education policy wonk | prof. of physics & astronomy at a public liberal arts college | Illinoisan

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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 14h
In the future, everything will be done in blue books.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 14h
The horror of realizing that this was not the class of '03, but the new class of '30.
University of Chicago post showing the group photo for the incoming class of 2030 on a sports field, with the Chicago skyline in the background
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Julianne Dalcanton @dalcantonjd.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The Real Scientists of the future are envisioned to be those pushing agentic LLMs to the forefront of rapid knowledge discovery. And then that work is supposed to be tediously verified and translated by who exactly?
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I like Sherrod Brown, but I don't live in Ohio and keep receiving weird fundraising texts like this.
Will you please please please please pretty please pitch in $15 to Sherrod Brown's campaign today?
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 05/10/2026
Holy shit.
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Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Science - always and particularly in the 21st century - is a collaborative human enterprise. IceCube is another example, with LIGO, of a successful long-term investment by the National Science Foundation, which has been subject to vicious attacks and recissions since 2025.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Congratulations to Francis Halzen, UW-Madison, and the entire IceCube team! (Another Nobel prize in physics brought to you by the NSF!) www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physi...
nobelprize.org
Nobel Prize in Physics 2026
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2026 was awarded to Francis Halzen “for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.”
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David H Feldman @dhfeldman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I had a good conversation with Megan Pauly of Virginia Public Media (VPM) a few days ago about new return on investment calculations for every degree program at all of Virginia's public universities. I spent my time cautioning people against reading too much into these numbers. lnkd.in/p/eEcnMgje
lnkd.in
Doug Webber: Data | David Feldman
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) now has a metric that families can access to see which programs at various universities have high and low return on investment (ROI). There i...
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The rest is in the form of a comic book
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I bought a cassette digitizer to complete a hobby project during "fall break", and it has already exceeded expectations
KLIM product document, reading: " if you're in a hurry, you can stop reading here, otherwise keep going. This document is of absolutely no practical use but we hope you will find it entertaining and maybe even bring a smile to your face! If you experience any issues, please do contact us at support@klimtechnologies.com"
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Warrior ethos is not a strategy. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/u...
nytimes.com
U.S. Rushes to Withdraw Bombers From U.K. Air Base After New Threats (Gift Article)
The withdrawal came with unusual speed, following what U.S. officials said were threats of an Iran-based plot against the installation.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
You feel like you're working more for less every day. But think hard.. are you personally better off than an average American during the Great Depression? Yes, you are. QED. Capitalism is working for you!
"Anticipating the unfolding prosperity of his time, John Maynard Keynes wrote in his 1930 essay, “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” that within a century, the average worker would toil for only 15 hours a week. Keynes got that wrong, but not for the seemingly obvious reason. Productivity — and accordingly, inflation-adjusted wages — has risen so much since then that Americans could labor just seven hours a week to afford the same lifestyle they enjoyed in 1930. Instead, the average American works 38.3 hours a week, down only 20 percent from 1930. But workers now have more time for leisure and family, and the hours they do spend on the job support bigger incomes and more comfortable lifestyles than their grandparents enjoyed — more goods, bigger houses, pleasure travel and the like."
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I suppose this chart is meant to suggest that technological innovations magically delivered workers the 40 hour work week, rather than decades of labor organizing & the FDR administration's New Deal & labor laws?
Charts from a NYTimes article, titled "working less, earning more". It shows hours worked per week dropping by nearly 50% since 1830 while GDP per capita rose.
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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Best part of this muddled article by one of Bloomberg's money guys is that two of the charts make a compelling case that knee-jerk opposition to AI is wholly justified because technological progress doesn't increase productivity, it just enables greater income extraction by capital. Oops!
Productivity Growth Has Been Stuck Below Its Postwar Pace for 50 YearsWorkers’ Slice Shrinks, Profits’ Slice Grows
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Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Elusive ‘Geoneutrinos’ Are Building a New Map of Earth’s Volatile Interior www.wired.com/story/elusiv...
wired.com
Elusive ‘Geoneutrinos’ Are Building a New Map of Earth’s Volatile Interior
A global network of detectors are reporting some of the most substantial measurements yet of neutrinos created deep underground by the radioactive elements that power our planet’s tectonic activity.
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Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Once again, I gotta say: you cannot treat anything you’re feeding into an AI as anonymous. There are enormous ethics implications for, e.g. referees who are clearly uploading others’ unpublished papers without consent, let alone health care professionals or law enforcement
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/10/2026
Moreover, Congress designed NSF to have a presidentially-appointed and Senate confirmed director, and a National Science Board serving not at the pleasure of the pres, to check the power of the director. But SCOTUS and Trump killed that structure. NSF today isn’t what Congress designed
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The most surprising part of this story to me is that the couple didn't get murdered at sea by the person they just met kite surfing and took on as crew. This whole story is so far outside my risk tolerance.
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Paul Voosen @voosen.me · 02/10/2026
Update on this: Alan Stern, New Horizons's PI, just told me that the instruments will stay on until Oct 12, when the first opportunity comes to send instructions to turn them off in this new fiscal year. So there's still some time.
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Laura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
@aussiastronomer.bsky.social! Here's the other stuff Chris Smith said that may be helpful to astronomers! Will have office hours on Wed, Oct 7 at 2pm ET and Thurs, Oct 15 at 3pm ET. 🔭
FY27 Core Astronomical Sciences
• Astro-Core is expected to be especially competitive.
o Multiple proposals by the same PI are strongly discouraged.
o PIs who already have an active AST award should contact their cognizant
Program Officer before considering submitting a proposal for another
concurrent award.
o Resubmissions of previously declined proposals that have not been sufficiently
revised to account for reviewer feedback may be returned without review.
o Projects that request more than the typical 3 years in order to deliver
transformative outcomes should include strong justification.
o Collaborative projects should be well-justified.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Protest sign, reading "Get out the Vought"
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Big news in the Senate battle. After pouring $30 million in NC, John Thune's GOP SuperPAC stops spending there, effectively conceding Cooper is likely to win. And they're dumping their first 7-figures in Kansas. (Note: a Dem internal found Hamilton up today.) www.semafor.com/article/10/0...
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
NC just decided that high school graduates don't need trig. How in the world the state with the largest furniture manufacturing industry could come to this conclusion is beyond me. www.newsobserver.com/news/local/e...
newsobserver.com
NC has changed math standards. Here’s what high school students will now take
Math 3 will be eliminated under new high school math standards that are supposed to make the subject more relevant to students.
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
OMB's focus on NIH and NSF, which has confused a lot of folks, pretty much boils down to stopping money going to universities.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
No rest for the weary. The FCC is accepting comments until Nov 9. www.aip.org/fyi/direct-t...
aip.org
Direct-to-Device Proposal to Disrupt Radio Astronomy
Radio telescopes are losing important data as the government and companies look to increase Earth-to-space communications.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I still don't fully trust the backup camera on my car to keep me from hitting things when I park. I can't believe people want this.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Sparing no expense.
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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
“Cutting this much from the university budget will mean that some of the core functions of the university will be lost. It’s not possible to just do more with less — to work smarter, to trim around the edges. We’re going to have to do less with less.” Gift link: www.startribune.com/umn-cuts-sta...
startribune.com
Perry: What we lose if the U cuts $225 million
"Austerity doesn’t work. Instead, it creates a death spiral, where reduction in services leads to reductions in revenue, which lead to reductions in services, which leads to reduction in revenue, whic...
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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The Cycle 6 JWST 🔭 Call for Proposals deadline has been extended to October 1, at 5 pm Eastern Time (US) due to APT server issues. For updates, please check: “Late Breaking News” at the Call for Proposals jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-opportu...
static.klipy.com
Me Using James Webb Telescope To Find Who Asked
ALT: Me Using James Webb Telescope To Find Who Asked
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
☝️
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
That pesky scientific establishment.. ever the arbiter of what is gauche.
Loeb is also as controversial as he is revered, in no small part because he has embraced a search for evidence of extraterrestrial life in a way that the scientific establishment considers unfashionable, even gauche.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
a kind of what now?
About two months earlier Loeb had been appointed by Trump to be a kind of extraterrestrial czar with a mandate to apply scientific rigor to get to the bottom of whether what used to be called UFOs are evidence of unearthly intelligence.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Smh www.politico.com/news/magazin...
politico.com
Trump Promised the Truth About UFOs. These Scientists Are Waiting.
The president named a science council to review the government’s data. What's taking so long?
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A totally normal new ad from Palantir.
Ad for Palantir.com that features a wolf in the dark, growling with reflective eyes.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"All students deserve the benefits of wide-ranging intellectual training in the Humanities, deserve to be full members of our twenty-first century society, even those who attend a regional public school in Appalachia." 👏👏👏
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is THE argument to be making for the survival of public liberal arts colleges. It's why I wanted to work at one, and it's what gets me out of bed every morning, despite the moral injuries dealt every day by forces from above. It is a good and important fight & necessary for a democracy.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"Centering the public good means offering to [regional public university] students the same robust intellectual environment their elite private-school peers enjoy. In higher ed’s austerity era, Humanities degrees are poised to be the purview of the wealthy alone."
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Melissa Johnson, PhD @ladyhistorian.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We should let people dream of something besides labor
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“like 5s on AP test” - Maya Angelou I’ll say again. @annieabrams.bsky.social was right.
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Helen Kyriakoudes @hkyria.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Did you know Nina Simone and Langston Hughes first met in Asheville? Check out this excerpt from DON'T LET ME BE MISUNDERSTOOD: Nina Simone, Langston Hughes, and the Birth of Black Power by @wjasonmiller.bsky.social (out next week 9/29) in @indyweek.bsky.social 🎶 indyweek.com/news/culture...
indyweek.com
The Day the Priestess and the Poet Met in Asheville
Langston Hughes first met Nina Simone in 1949, when he visited her high school NAACP chapter. Their friendship would go on to make history.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Rockford Peaches in the news 🍑⚾ www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/b...
nytimes.com
Women Sluggers Are No Longer in a League of Their Own (Gift Article)
As a group of players from an all-women’s baseball league in the 1940s and ’50s gathered at a recent reunion, the future of women’s baseball looks bright again.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Exhibit A: www.wunc.org/politics/202...
wunc.org
Former Trump chief, NC congressman Meadows' voter registration in question
Public records show Meadows is registered to vote in two states, including North Carolina, where he listed a mobile home he did not own — and may never have visited — as his legal residence weeks befo...
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This is fun 😄 I did pretty well just recalling counties I regularly heard named in tornado warnings. 53.2%!
53.2% of Illinoisans live in counties shaded orange
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Stop trying to make Rahm happen.
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Ultimately what is killing higher Ed in the United States is not just hostile politics at the Federal level, but the greed and ineptitude of university leadership.
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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Russ Vought just sent a rescissions request to Congress, signaling he intends to illegally impound funds. The $810 million highlighted in this “request” (but this is a pretext to just illegally impound the funds) is not the exhaustive list of many billions of dollars he’s impounding this year.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Yes - we've added e-sports already too.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
We could try communicating to the public what a great value education we provide, how nerds & LGBTQ+ students thrive in our kind campus culture, & that our small faculty bring in ~3x the research funding of WCU. But adding MMA & a Chick-fil-A is another option. www.theassemblync.com/news/educati...
theassemblync.com
How UNC Asheville Plans to Attract More Students After Another Enrollment Drop
UNC Asheville continues to struggle with enrollment challenges, but the chancellor says she has a plan to turn things around.
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I think about this episode regularly
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Britt Lundgren @brittlundgren.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We've recently reduced our core requirements and students are coming in with more "college credit" from high school. So students are graduating faster.
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