iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

totally incomprehensible that infant mortality is now seen as a woke thing to care about

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Brendan Keogh @brkeogh.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

NTEU members at QUT are today escalating our Protected Industrial Action with a 24-hour ban on using Outlook. They're calling it the first industrial action that leads to more work getting done.

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

This sucks. I suppose I need to enjoy astronomy while I still can, because the odds of getting a job it in are slimmer by the day :/

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

These would be so cool, if not for all the perverts. In a world where legitimately blind people were the only people using this, that be the future I imagined

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dave @gloomfather.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

yeah man "woke 1" sucked ass. I "woke 1" morning from uneasy dreams to find myself transformed into a giant insect

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

I had an unexpected experience with a live LLM chatbot when I was trying to cancel a hotel booking by phone. This seems like a place where an LLM might be more useful or quicker than a standard decision tree. Anyway after talking to it, and it appearing to understand, I got kicked to a decision tree

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Coleen Murphy @ctmurphy1.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

one anecdote: I was searching for a link to one of my old papers on Google, and the automated Gemini summary attributed all of my lab's work to my husband

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

The increase of the precision of science this paper will allow is legitimately worth billions. If you use JWST data at all, read this.

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Shashank Dholakia @astroshashank.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Thread on our new paper on arxiv today! We stumbled across a weird sinusoidal systematic that we think appears in every observation from the NIRISS instrument on JWST. We derive a correction and see how much it impacts exoplanet spectra. (1/N) #astro #exoplanets 🔭🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2606.11983

arxiv.org

Calibration of an Analog-to-Digital Conversion Nonlinearity in JWST/NIRISS

We quantify an unusual flux-dependent systematic which is periodic in raw counts in flight data from the James Webb Space Telescope's Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (JWST/NIRISS), used...

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Michael Brown @mjibrown.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

It takes modern academic leadership to do this. Western Sydney University’s pro vice-chancellor for quality and integrity used AI to write SMH opinion piece urging students to avoid using tech to ‘cut corners.’ www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

theguardian.com

Sydney academic used AI to write SMH opinion piece urging students to avoid using tech to ‘cut corners’

Sydney Morning Herald removes piece by Cath Ellis, despite Western Sydney University saying her use of AI was ‘appropriate’

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Happy to say that my second paper “Astrometric exoplanet detection survives solar-like stellar contamination” has been accepted by MNRAS and is now up on the arxiv: arxiv.org/pdf/2605.18953 Takeaway: Missions like TOLIMAN and SHERA could find earth-twins assuming solar like noise.

arxiv.org

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Dr. Holly Walters @manigarm.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

I'm sorry, what? In writing my first monograph, I spent six weeks trying to track down a citation in TWO languages I didn't know. And good thing too, because the citation was wrong. That's scholarship. That's research. You know, the thing we're trained to do?!?

The reactions of some researchers on Twitter finally being held responsible for not having read the very paper they submitted are... something. Mainly, they don't think they should have to check every citation or make sure the data is real and accurate. Because it's too hard, I guess.

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Astrobites @astrobites.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

From Ryan White @astroryan.bsky.social and Jayde Willingham @jaydewst.bsky.social : Literally and figuratively, Australia is closing its eyes to the future of astronomy. Where does that leave its next generation of students? ⚛️ 🔭 ☄️ 🧪 astrobites.org/2026/05/01/a...

astrobites.org

Australia is closing its Very Large eyes to the Universe

Literally and figuratively, Australia is closing its eyes to the future of astronomy. Where does that leave its next generation of students?

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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 03/04/2026

This 👇🏽 “Astronomy does more than deliver discoveries. It inspires students, engages communities, and builds the pipeline of future scientists. Stepping back from a flagship international collaboration at the very moment the world is looking up risks dimming that inspiration for a generation”

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

I had a Yeltsin-esque reaction in a Michigan grocery store after seeing hard to find and expensive bottles of liquor being cheap and readily available in the US. I don’t think it is possible to buy any mezcal in Aus for less than $100aud, but a nice bottle of it was $40USD here. End sin taxes!

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

I see no reason for TACs to not randomly select 5-10% of the time from the submissions (or the top half of submissions). The only reason would be the tacit agreement that ranking proposals is somewhat arbitrary

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Peter Gao @planetarygao.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

if you tell claude not to make mistakes then how would it learn

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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Seriously though, if you journal clubbed or astro-coffeed about one, you should also do the other. Both super interesting and meta.

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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Astronomers: highly recommend this thoughtful opinion piece by @hogg.bsky.social on how to think about our field in light of the development of large language models. whether you agree with him or not it’s vital to discuss the principles behind our science. 🔭 arxiv.org/abs/2602.10181

arxiv.org

Why do we do astrophysics?

At time of writing, large language models (LLMs) are beginning to obtain the ability to design, execute, write up, and referee scientific projects on the data-science side of astrophysics. What implic...

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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Hey, my name is in the Epstein files! I've told the story before, but should probably re-up. TLDR: never met the guy, never took (or asked for) any money from him, never visited the island. I was invited to the island, and said no. It's not that hard to just say no.

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Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

the Premier should resign after the disgraceful actions of the NSW police today

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

The only time I’ve ever had a package stolen was when it was a book. I wonder what they did with that book.

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Happy to say that my paper “Inferring hemispheric asymmetries of stellar active regions through the information content of astrometric signals” is on the archive: arxiv.org/abs/2601.11707 It’s about what degeneracies are present (and importantly, what aren’t) in stellar surface mapping

arxiv.org

Inferring hemispheric asymmetries of stellar active regions through the information content of astrometric signals

Photometric light curves suffer from fundamental degeneracies that limit surface information recovery. We demonstrate that astrometry enables access to complementary information through photocentre va...

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

I am creating some Bayesian statistics documents for phds students at UNSW and I thought it would be fun to look at the history of Jeffrey’s and Fisher. Goddamn Fisher was an awful person - Professor of Eugenics, and wrote in favour of nazi eugenicists AFTER Nuremberg 😕

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Mulder is a Bayesian and Scully is a Frequentist.

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

I was reading a paper that got a bit of buzz a little bit ago about the adult literacy crisis. Ironically, the paper itself seems to lack numerical literacy, reporting basic percentages incorrectly…. 😕

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

I find it funny that when reading books on SETI, many authors describe the inherent chauvinism in assuming intelligence as an “evolutionary goal”, but to describe the pinnacle of technology they all invariably put the peak at radio telescopes. Perhaps radio astronomers are also chauvinists lol

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Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 17/12/2025

War doesn’t just destroy buildings—it erases places where children learn, play, and grow. Bellingcat and journalists from @afp.com bureaus in Paris and Kyiv take a look at the lost spaces of youth in Ukraine. www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/12...

bellingcat.com

How Russia’s Invasion is Impacting Ukraine’s Youth - bellingcat

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukrainian educational facilities and spaces used by children have been damaged in air strikes or closed because of them.

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Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Very concerning that these guys were armed and not under surveillance.

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

I am concerned about the literacy rates in the adult population.

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Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Sick and twisted massacre today. Had never imagined that this could happen here, like this. Solidarity to the Jewish community, solidarity to Bondi.

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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 14/12/2025

Confirmed: the attack at #Bondi was targeting the Jewish community. It’s a terrorism event. Awful for all involved. Thoughts are with Australia’s Jewish community and everyone who was on Bondi who had to witness such horrific events. This is so sad and not what our country is about. Devastating.

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

I don’t know how these people have gotten guns, but there needs to be a crackdown. We cannot be like the US and allows this shit to happen. It’s unclear how many victims there are, but I hope for a speedy recovery for them. Fuck those shooter cunts.

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🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 @militarynewsua.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

❗️Shocking footage. A passerby disarmed the shooter "with bare hands" at Bondi Beach in Sydney.

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

How is it that every bus I ride on there is always someone who has apparently never been in a bus before

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Andy Rivkin @asrivkin.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

For comparison, every robotic mission NASA has ever sent in its history, from the dawn of the Space Age 65 years ago to today, from Mercury to Pluto and beyond, has cost less than $40B. I know which one has done more for humankind and which one should be dismantled.

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Spencer Wells @spwells.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Archaeologists find evidence that a wave of mass brutality accompanied the collapse of the first pan-European culture ⛏️☠️ www.science.org/content/arti...

science.org

Headless bodies hint at why Europe’s first farmers vanished

Wave of mass brutality accompanied the collapse of the first pan-European culture

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Ryan White @astroryan.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Very excited to share the NASA/ESA/STScI press release of our team's work on Apep! It's a terrific writeup, complete with a brand new beautiful visualisation of the nebula geometry. 1/? ⚛️🔭🧪 science.nasa.gov/missions/web...

science.nasa.gov

Webb First to Show 4 Dust Shells 'Spiraling' Apep, Limits Long Orbit - NASA Science

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered a first of its kind: a crisp mid-infrared image of a system of four serpentine spirals of dust, one expanding

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Today is the first time I have seen explicit Nazi/antisemitic graffiti on the #usyd campus. I’ve reported it to campus maintenance, but I feel it is important to call out that this crap is never acceptable. I’ve tagged @sydney.edu.au so that they can hopefully resolve this quickly, as…

Photo of a bathroom cubicle. In the wall is a swastika and the phrase “fuck the Jews” written in black marker.

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

The decline in vegan options in the supermarkets correlates with the rise in fascism. In this essay I will argue that this is a causal relationship

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Richard Easther @rjme.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

What it took to get tenure in the Batman Studies Department in the 1960s, and what it takes to get tenure in Batman Studies today...

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METR @metr.org · 10/07/2025

We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers. The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Anybody know where I can get a physical copy of this book that isn’t stupid expensive?

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Conaire Deagan @conairedeagan.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

This whole operation is probably the most successful / impressive infiltration attacks committed since ww2. Doubly impressive that it is against a nation with a sophisticated intelligence network

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