iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

AI companies made an imaginary friend who you talk to all day and are addicted to and now they can pitch big clients on "hey we got all these people on the hook and can push them to buy your product or vote for your guy and they'll trust the message because it's coming from their friend"

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

🥳 New Observatory alert! (Yes, she cuts ribbons!) Huge congratulations to Dr Charles Wang and all the wonderful #Aberdeen University team who have built the brand new Anne Cruickshank Observatory! 🔭🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ℹ️: www.abdn.ac.uk/news/26204/ 🎥: Dave Galloway NorthSound1

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

As arXiv announces a new submission rate limit policy, I refer anyone who is up in arms about it to👇Hogg 2026👇. I'm so confused who would want to submit so much slop? For me (both writing and hiring) it's always been about quality over quantity, every single time. 🧪⚛️ blog.arxiv.org/2026/10/01/u...

blog.arxiv.org

Fair Moderation, Equitable Access, and AI: arXiv’s Updated Rate Limit Policy

arXiv, and the scientific community at large, are facing a watershed moment. Scholarly publishing is currently changing at a rapid pace, and we are seeing a…

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ESO @eso.org · 02/10/2026

Discover the opportunities of Europe’s Big Science ecosystem! Co-organised by ESO, #BSBF2026 will bring together companies, research organisations, knowledge institutions and governments around the technologies and investments of the future. 📅 27–30 October 📍 Maastricht 🔗 www.bsbf2026.org 🔭

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Justin Walsh @jstpwalsh.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Shane Ross at Virginia Tech created a simulation of what 500k orbital data centers, as proposed by SpaceX, would look like from your home latitude sdross0.github.io/orbital-data...

sdross0.github.io

What would orbital data centers look like from your sky?

500,000 satellites from SpaceX's FCC filing, two published brightness models and the real stars, for any latitude, date and time. Computed in your browser.

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Lucien Heurtier @lucienheurtier.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Excellent article about the crisis faced by physics research in the UK: Brian Cox: "I have no idea who mandated this shift or why they think it’s a good idea, but from my perspective it’s a disaster. I urge the new Burnham government to step in..." 🧪🔭 www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

thetimes.com

Brian Cox: Physics in Britain is facing a crisis

The celebrity physicist has joined officials in condemning the UK’s decision to withdraw £45 million in funding from the Large Hadron Collider

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NGU HANH GAMES @nguhanhgames.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I crowdfunded $7,000 for my first Euro game in Vietnam - The game name is Restoration. 🇻🇳🎲 It wasn’t a huge campaign by global crowdfunding standards but it taught me more than I expected. Here are some things I learned. What’s one thing you wish you knew before launching your first game?

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Robin Wigglesworth @robinwigglesworth.ft.com · 18/09/2026

Damn. @tobyn.bsky.social has produced the most detailed map of Big AI’s incestuous relationships I’ve seen so far. And it’s interactive! www.ft.com/content/8475...

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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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Alice Ruppert 🐴🎮 @malicedafirenze.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Random thought I could probably write a whole essay about some time: the fact that there aren‘t more mainstream Romance video games is such a bizarre failure, like don‘t you people wanna make money? Why not cater to the infamously ever hungry audience of Romance book readers in another medium?

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Anna Megill @annamegill.com · 13/09/2026

Writers, just tell your story. Don't worry if it's checking every box on some standard model of a perfect plot or hitting every point of the story diamond (please!). Write the story you want to tell the way you want to tell it. Use your own voice and your own words. It's your story!

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Daniel José Older @djolder.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"The University of Chicago’s undergrad social-sciences division will go “analog” this fall, implementing a blanket policy banning technology in class and AI assistance on coursework across the division’s core courses." www.chronicle.com/article/u-of...

chronicle.com

U. of Chicago Bans Tech, AI in Social Sciences Core Courses

The new restrictions apply to students and faculty members.

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SPIE @spie.org · 09/09/2026

Yaryna Mamchur began her academic journey as a teacher in Ukraine before moving to Canada for her PhD at the University of Ottawa. Today, she researches magneto-optics + metamaterials, hoping to contribute to Ukraine’s #photonics community. bit.ly/4y8d0XF #WomenInStem

A person stands in a laboratory holding a small object with two fingers. They are wearing blue gloves and have sunglasses resting on their head. In the background, there is scientific equipment, including a microscope.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 06/09/2026

I feel especially bad for the kids who e-mail me, asking me to read their ChatGPT-derived theories that the bot told them were breakthroughs.

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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 06/09/2026

AI is certainly making all of this much worse, but every scientist you know, or at least all the physicists, astronomers, mathematicians, and climate scientists, gets tons of emails from men, especially engineers, who think they are Einstein. It’s sad and complicated and messy.

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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 06/09/2026

I’m going to need everyone who’s reporting on AI psychosis and how it’s making people, especially men, come up with theories of everything to please talk with the scientists who have been getting multiple emails from “theory of everything” guys for decades

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Incase you missed this last night .... thank you PM! This is an excellent start which I hope will lead to the reversal of the very damaging UKRI policy decisions that have resulted in countless first-class research projects facing significant funding cuts.

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Not every day your opinion piece gets published by @newscientist.com (indeed this is my first 😊). Apologies that it's behind a paywall, but hopefully some of you are subscribers and can now enjoy the existential crisis that I’m about to drag you into. 🧪🔭⚛️ www.newscientist.com/article/2586...

newscientist.com

Are you made of real-world quarks or virtual-world qubits? | New Scientist

Is it possible we’re living in a virtual simulation? Professor Catherine Heymans, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, does the maths on whether anything is actually real

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ESO @eso.org · 02/09/2026

Saturn isn’t just a planet! Meet the Saturn Nebula, a spectacular planetary nebula named for its resemblance to the iconic ringed planet seen edge-on. But what created it? And what lies at its heart? Find out: www.eso.org/public/news/eso1731 🔭

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

A full-on week, fighting to #SaveUKAstronomy & PPAN from 30% funding cuts. There were highs (👇hanging out with fab-folk) & lows (@ukri.org trying to erase history in old Council minutes) but the amazing support & ❤️ from the wonderful wide astro-community makes it all worth it. Onwards and upwards 💪🔭

A group of smiling individuals outside Westminster.

Professor Brian Cox CBE (centre) is joined by, from left, Dr Robert Ferdman, Dr Estifa'a Zaid, Dr Becky Smethurst, Dr Melissa Uchida, Professor Catherine Heymans, Professor Chris Lintott, Dr Harry Cliff, RAS President Professor Jim Wild, Professor Jon Butterworth, Dr Linda Cremonesi and Professor Nina Hatch.
Credit
Nick Willoughby/Royal Astronomical Society

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

That was a v fast-paced debate on the STFC funding cuts! Good things: * The minister did not trot out the infuriating "there are no cuts" line * Lots of MPs there passionately standing up for their constituents who are directly impacted * Everyone there seemed to genuinely love the work we do!

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Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I sometimes wonder if men really GET the privilege and preferment that they are born with. I mean, women were and still are thought to be STUPID. Like not smart enough to be physicists or scientists or leaders or even just competent. #WomenInSTEM 🧪

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Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Nancy Grace Roman was paid 60% of her male colleague's wages. 'the Nobel prize-winning physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar ... told her: “We don’t discriminate against women. We can just get them for less.”' #WomenInSTEM 🧪 🔭

theconversation.com

Nasa’s new telescope is named after astronomer Nancy Grace Roman – but who was she?

The US astronomer battled discrimination in a male dominated field.

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Jonathan McDowell @planet4589.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

The Roman Space Telescope is complementary to ESA's Euclid mission, which was launched in 2023. Euclid has twice as many pixels in its camera and will cover a broader area of sky, but Roman's bigger mirror will let it see fainter galaxies.

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Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Spirals, ellipticals, irregulars, oh my! These new photos from NASA offer a glimpse into different types of dazzling galaxies.

scientificamerican.com

New NASA photos reveal 16 galaxies from across the cosmos in dazzling detail

Spirals, ellipticals, irregulars, oh my!

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ESO @eso.org · 28/08/2026

This gorgeous star trail image, captured by Chilean astrophotographer Osvaldo Castillo at our Paranal Observatory, is today's Astronomy Picture of the Day! 🥳 🔭 apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap26082...

apod.nasa.gov

APOD: 2026 August 28 – The Sky Turns Above Paranal

A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.

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Royal Astronomical Society @royalastrosoc.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

🚨 Astronomy cuts update 🚨 Next Tuesday (1 September) a debate about the ongoing funding crisis will take place in Westminster Hall from 1-1.30pm. 🗣️🔭 The RAS welcomes the debate and is encouraging all Fellows to contact their MPs to urge them to attend. ✍️ Find out more 👉️ ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Srebrenica happened with the whole world watching and in position to take military action and they didn't.

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Very excited to see Roman edging ever closer to launch. The "go/no go" decision will be this Friday, for a planned Sun 30th launch at 11:26 UTC, 07:26 EDT 🤞 Once in space this telescope will discover >100,000 planets orbiting distant stars and so so much more 🤩🧪🔭🛰️ science.nasa.gov/blogs/roman/...

science.nasa.gov

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Arrives at Hangar

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arrived Tuesday to the SpaceX hangar at Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy’s Space Center in Florida, just days before its scheduled launch.

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Hey folks! There's an alllllmost total lunar eclipse this Thursday night, and it's visible to all of America. I wrote about it in today's newsletter, and put that article above the fold so everyone can see it. badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/watch-the-...

badastronomy.beehiiv.com

Watch the (nearly total) lunar eclipse Thursday night!

Also: An eclipse from Mars… of Earth. Kinda.

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Robert Heinze @rheinze.myatproto.social · 25/08/2026

New Open Letter by Ghent colleagues refuting the allegations in those two letters of support for Cofnas: - not suspended because of „whistleblowing“ - many problems with and protests about his behaviour long before Arday

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Charles Takalana @astrocharlest.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Join us for the OAD@15 Symposium, taking place 15–17 February 2027 in Cape Town and online, as we reflect on our shared impact and shape what comes next. Registration is now open: events.saao.ac.za/event/15/ #OAD15 #OADat15 #AstronomyForABetterWorld

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

"Using generative AI inherently exposes you to the risk of career-ending accusations of plagiarism." "That means that all of us [on multi-author papers] have the ability to end each other’s career. " Full marks to the Carlson Lab for their blanket ban on the use of generative AI for writing! 👏🧪

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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 24/08/2026

“These glasses are cringe stalkerware and as we already see every cool person hates them” as.ft.com/r/87ab36fa-3...

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ESA Earth Observation @esaearth.esa.int · 24/08/2026

Earlier this month, a 76 sq km section of Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland broke away. The newly formed tabular iceberg covers an area about the same size of Manhattan and is estimated to be up to 150 metres thick. This huge loss was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar vision ⬇️

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Margaret Morgan 🇪🇺🇳🇱🇦🇺 @margaretmorgan.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Letter (1962) from Bertrand Russell to Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists in response to Mosley's demands that they debate publicly.

22 January 1962
Sir Oswald Mosley,
5, Lowndes Court,
Lowndes Square,
London, S.W.1.

Dear Sir Oswald,

Thank you for your letter and for your enclosures. I have given some thought to our recent correspondence. It is always difficult to decide on how to respond to people whose ethos is so alien and, in fact, repellent to one’s own. It is not that I take exception to the general points made by you but that every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active opposition to cruel bigotry, compulsive violence, and the sadistic persecution which has characterised the philosophy and practice of fascism.

I feel obliged to say that the emotional universes we inhabit are so distinct, and in deepest ways opposed, that nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us.

I should like you to understand the intensity of this conviction on my part. It is not out of any attempt to be rude that I say this but because of all that I value in human experience and human achievement.

Yours sincerely,

Bertrand Russell

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Buy Mass Effect The Board Game! @ithayla.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

so this is free on epic game store this week (until friday), check this out i think many of you will like it. adorable open world narrative game (i haven't played it i just think lots of you should get it for free, + the devs earn money every time you do it)

all pics are of caravan sandwitch, a colorful game where a young witch explores the land with a van.

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Prof. Abel Méndez @profabelmendez.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Ten radio telescopes searched for a repetition of the Wow! Signal over the past 50 years, but not all of them searched the correct location. #AreciboWow

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dee 方传嫣 @hellenus.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

there was a typo in the earlier poster so I'm just sharing again lmao

Poster for Malaysian games panel with Aaron Lim (TTRPGs), Sophie Azlan (video games), Poon Jon (board games)

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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 21/08/2026

Last thread for #NeutronStarWeek! A collection of articles, visualisations and fun facts showing how awesome neutron stars (and esp. pulsars) are! Let's start with this .... Neutron stars are TINY! ~20km across. Let's zoom in to one hovering over Sydney! 📸 Daniel Wysocki and HanGyeol Suh

Simulated graphic of a neutron star hovering over Earth with Earth's curvature showing

Simulated graphic of a neutron star hovering over the coastline of NSW in Australia

Simulated graphic of a neutron star hovering over the city of Sydney with coastline showing

Zoomed in simulated graphic of a neutron star hovering over Sydney

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Leonore (Lee) Carpenter @leecarpenter.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

In case you are an academic who is currently being gaslit into believing that you're a caveman who wants their students to be jobless if you resist allowing AI in your classrooms... I present to you Berkeley Law's response, which can be summarized as "Fuck off directly into the sun."

law.berkeley.edu

Artificial Intelligence Policy

Effective Summer 2026 Purpose Future lawyers may need to use artificial intelligence (“AI”) fluently. But the current state of the technology requires that AI use be coupled with the cognitive […]

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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

🔴 The Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday The academic's coordinated targeting by an explicitly anti-black race science network did not come out of nowhere, reports @nafeez.bsky.social

bylinetimes.com

The Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday

The media's coverage of the academic's life was fuelled by the campaign of an established far-right network

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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Ghent university statement on Racist Zero here in English -

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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 18/08/2026

My latest attempt at an AI/LLM policy in my intro to social science stats class. Basically two rules: 1. Everything human-facing must be human-generated 2. You are responsible for understanding, verifying, and citing everything an LLM generates quantf26.classes.andrewheiss.com/syllabus.htm...

Generative AI and LLMs
In this class, I have two general rules regarding LLMs:

Everything human-facing must be human-generated.
You are responsible for understanding, verifying, and citing everything an LLM generates.
I’ll explain what these mean below, but first, an important warning!

LLMs and learning
Phew, I can talk about the relationship between learning and LLMs for hours (see this for a more formal explanation of my thinking). LLMs and generative AI can be useful for statistical programming, but only when you already know what you are doing. They can be dangerous and counterproductive for beginners.

Additionally, using LLMs and generative AI to write does not lead to deeper learning. The point of writing is to help crystalize and organize your thinking. Pasting LLM-generated words into an assignment to make it look like you read and understood the content will not help you learn. Pasting LLM-generated code into an assignment and hoping that it works will not help you learn.

Rule 1: Everything human-facing must be human-generated
Generative AI tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude can be helpful for generating ideas or topics for your assignments and can even help you find existing research about topics you’re interested in. They are useful for debugging and troubleshooting code.

These uses are permitted in this course.

If you want to use LLM tools to document your code, clean up your notes, look up error messages, search for research related to your topic, and so on, cool. Do it. That’s fine. It’s unavoidable nowadays anyway, since every R-related Google search will give you a Gemini-generated answer at the top with mostly working R code.

Any writing and revisions, however, must be your own. You may not use AI tools to write any of the text you submit to me. AI text adds nothing to my understanding. I have no interest in engaging with it at all. There is nothing more disheartening for me than spending my time grading something that ChatGPT spat out in 10 seconds. I want to see good engagement with the readings. I want to see your thinking process. I want to see you make connections between the readings. I want to see your personal insights. I don’t want to see a bunch of words that look like a human wrote them. That’s not useful for future-you. That’s not useful for me. That’s a waste of time.

Thus, anything human-facing (i.e. not stuff done just for yourself, like your own personal notes, research, etc.) must be human-generated (i.e. written by you). You may not use AI tools to write any portion of your assignments. Using AI tools in this way, or failing to disclose the use of AI tools, will be treated as a case of plagiarism and referred to the Honor Council.

Rule 2: You are responsible for understanding, verifying, and citing everything an LLM generates
These tools are really good at working with code, but again, only if you know what you’re doing. Without guidance and expertise, LLMs love making lots of extraneous, convoluted, and weird code by default. The code ostensibly works, but it’s often strange and unnecessary and uses uncommon syntax and packages.

If you use LLMs for help with code, you must understand and verify what’s going on with your code and you must cite where it came from.

This means that you need to know what each line is doing. If the LLM uses a function or gives you an argument that you don’t understand or haven’t seen before, figure out why and figure out if it’s necessary. Look at the documentation for the function. Search Google for other examples. Ask the LLM about it, and then add comments to the code explaining what’s going on.

The citation doesn’t need to be anything formal (i.e. don’t worry about Chicago or APA guidelines)—it just needs to (1) say which LLM you used, and (2) mention what you asked the LLM.

You should do this by using code comments—inside your code chunk, add a # to the beginning of a line so that it’s treated as a comment (or text) instead of actual code.

Here’s an example of what this can look like:

Here’s an example of what this can look like:

# This calculates the average GDP per capita in each region in the dataset,
# for all countries after 2015. I couldn't remember how to use group_by() and
# summarise() together, so I asked Gemini:
#
# "I'm using tidyverse. I have a dataset named my_dataset and I'm filtering it
# to include all countries after 2015. I want to calculate region averages with
# group_by and summarise but cannot remember the syntax"

my_dataset |>
filter(year > 2015) |>
group_by(region) |>
# Gemini here included na.rm = TRUE, which omits any rows with missing values
# when calculating the average. That's okay and necessary here because
# South Sudan is missing some years of GDP data
summarise(avg_gdp = mean(gdp_per_cap, na.rm = TRUE))

# Gemini also included an extra ungroup() function at the end, but I don't need
# that because there are no groups leftover after summarising here

↑ That’s a lot of extra comments and you won’t always see stuff like that in real life code, but I want to see it here, and future-you will want to see it too.

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Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I needed something spectacular, and here it is: a view of the August 12 solar eclipse as seen from South Korea's Danuri satellite, in orbit around the Moon. You can see the lunar shadow sweeping across Greenland. 🔭🧪 www.mt.co.kr/amp/tech/202...

The Korean lunar orbiter Danuri succeeded in capturing the total eclipse observed on the European continent on the 12th (local time). The part of the shadow that touches the surface of the moon (top left) is a total solar eclipse. /Photo: Korea Aerospace Research Institute

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