Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoySociety for Social Studies of Science @4sweb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026 The 4S Toronto 2026 final program is now available in multiple formats. (a) PDF final program is online here: tinyurl.com/sdes6emw 186
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyThe Open Notebook @theopennotebook.bsky.social · 14hHere’s what you need to know about our Early-Career Fellowship: ☑️ Length: 12 months (part time) ☑️ Start Date: February 9, 2027 ☑️ Location: Remote ☑️ Stipend: $6,600 ☑️ Deadline: October 31, 2026 Apply now: www.theopennotebook.com/early-career...theopennotebook.comEarly-Career Fellowship Program - The Open NotebookEvery year, The Open Notebook offers a paid, part-time fellowship program for early-career science journalists. This ten-month program offers fellows the opportunity to explore their career interests… 021
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyAlondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 14hTo think that there is nothing to be learned and innovated on from the safety practices of other industries is lunacy. AI tools are power. They are not magical or exempt from safety practices that work for other complex systems. Governing AI requires disenchantment; break the spell. 413237
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyDr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 02/10/2026Hey heads up, if you're presenting at @4sweb.bsky.social Toronto, in case you haven't heard yet: you probably want to go check the XCDSYSTEM live page to make sure your day/time hasn't changed. I was warned earlier this is a thing that has happened to some people, and come to find out People Is Me.… 23412
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyArtButMakeItSports @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Circus Performers, by Walt Kuhn, 1978, 📸 via @marisakabas.bsky.social 177124372666
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyKathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I actually can’t get past the first sentence of this opinion piece: “Most college professors I know believe that students learn to think — critically, creatively, reflectively, tenaciously — only by writing.” This simply isn’t true, at least not in my experience, and it sets up quite the straw man.nytimes.comOpinion | I’m a College Professor. Writing Isn’t as Important as We Think.If I do not treat writing as essential for achieving thought, it is not clear why I should force my students to. 79214
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyIan G. Williams @igraywill.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Who else in the Blueskyverse is also going to @4sweb.bsky.social's 4S conference this October? #4Sconference #STS 131
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 21/09/2026I narrowly avoided being a first-gen college student when my mom finished her B.A. when I was a kid. I also remember nervously slipping into my Appalachian dialect roots while speaking to Philosophy Dept Head and he corrected: “I ‘have’ seen… you’d wouldn’t want to go around saying ‘I seen it.’” 040
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 19/09/2026TFW someone wants to be the voice of Pragmatism but can’t accept that ideas/words/names have real world impacts. Maybe think about it in terms of responsibility? Commonly, adults are held responsible for the actions of children. If we frame AI as superior intellect, creators might be unaccountable. 100
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 18/09/2026So… the U.S. didn’t have to annex Greenland to achieve Pres. Trump’s goals? 010
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyWilliam Gibson @greatdismal.bsky.social · 14/09/2026I’ve now lived so much longer than I would ever have expected to that I feel I’m living in the future. This is when I imagined Neuromancer happening. And now the creators of today’s AI warn us that it threatens humanity. 841965388
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyMatt Bors @mattbors.bsky.social · 14/09/2026It was exactly ten years ago today, on my 33rd birthday, that I posted this comic online. 485297697666
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Jane Darby Menton’s sober take on what we know, what we don’t know, and what Congress should make their businesses to find out about the US-Saudi deal. Concise and thorough. #NukeSkycarnegieendowment.orgIs the U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Deal Moving From the Gold Standard to a Gilded Standard?Congress should ask tough questions about the agreement’s more unique features and whether they advance U.S. interests or compromise them. 032
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 10/09/2026A key political worry here (beyond day-to-day affordability for most folks) is that the only face-saving measure available to GOP faced with skyrocketing $$$ is to blame Ukraine for attacking Russian oil. It could ugly if it moves beyond rhetoric and grandstanding. Hopefully, there won’t be time. 000
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 10/09/2026At least two obnoxious “both sides” accounts are harping on Ossoff/Warnock back in 2021… which was also a Trump proposal: “pitch to approve $2,000 stimulus payments to Americans, a popular issue backed by Democrats and President Donald Trump but opposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell”nbcnews.comIn Georgia, Democrats close with populist pitch vowing $2,000 stimulus checksIn a historically conservative state won by President-elect Joe Biden, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are leaning in to the prospect of a Democratic Senate. 110
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 09/09/2026I love the framing of this assignment. Implicit in the design (as most thoughtfully designed college courses) is that there is no pre-determined student outcome. The only failure case would be a student who resists considering the complexity of meanings and motivations. 030
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Yeah, complete non-sequitur “We had other buildings… United States Steel building was creaking, really creaking…” Seems like he just started talking about another building where he was the VIP being protected and maybe not even something that occurred on 9/11. Unclear ramblings. 010
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 08/09/2026I was really hoping for an incriminating documentary on someone who wasn’t already imprisoned for their crimes. 020
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 08/09/2026It’s like half the world is enrolled in a undergrad Philosophy of Mind course, and we’ve gotta listen to the same people chime in over and over during the lectures to pretend like they’ve done the reading. 0414
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyCheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Unsurprisingly, nothing was accomplished by the Steve and Jared show. About trilateral talks: "Everyone was speaking in Russian to each other. We were discussing these issues in a very extra-friendly manner, all in Russian." And you, Jared, were you speaking or listening in Russian?kyivindependent.com'The war will continue' — US peace push fails to achieve deal after Witkoff, Kushner's first visit to KyivThe latest peace talks in Kyiv and Moscow did not appear to yield a diplomatic breakthrough. "We expect the war will continue," Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine is counting on U.S. energy and air de... 3608
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 05/09/2026I’m just sittin’ on the dock of the Bayesian priors wastin’ time. 010
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Do high-level defense officials actually believe that polygraph tests detect lying? 2201
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Good books are good on their own terms, but for those who might need the motivation to start @mattdinniman.bsky.social’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series it is everything that we hoped/pretended that Ready Player One was. And I’m only on Book 3. I’m consistently amazed at the ambition and delivery. 220
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Thermodynamics is a brutal mistress. I don’t know about humidity but the turbine floor at Browns Ferry can reach >115F during the summer. 3 steam turbine-generators producing nearly 4 GWe. Turbine rounds require maybe 15-20 min on the turbine floor. It was hellish. 010
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 30/08/2026I got to meet Chantek ~23 years ago when she was at the Atlanta zoo. I worked as a videographer briefly for the anthropologist Lyn Miles who taught Chantek sign language as a baby/toddler. That was this whole other thing I was doing. I didn’t know she had been moved. 140
Reposted by Dr. Taylor Loy🇵🇸Martin “Doomsday” Pfeiffer🖖🏳️🌈 @nuclearanthro.bsky.social · 29/08/2026yo #nukesky any info? ORPS has been down for a few days and DOE O 232.2a Chg1(minchg) is in the "inactive" directives set at the DoE directives page: www.energy.gov/management/d...energy.govDirectives, Guidance, and DelegationsDOE Directives, Guidance, and Delegations 121
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Some context for those who missed it. It’s only been a few months since folks were floating naming BNA after Trump. Trump couldn’t get the juice in deep red Tennessee. But Dolly is the real Tennessee, and yall need to recognize that. Trump will disappear. Dolly is forever.wkrn.comNashville’s airport could soon have Dolly Parton’s name on itFor now, it’s still Nashville International Airport, but soon, one of Tennessee’s most famous names could be welcoming travelers to Music City: Dolly Parton. 030
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 27/08/2026I rename Tennessee the Iridescent Domain of Dolly. It is hearby decreed. 010
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 20/08/2026If AI is advancing exponentially, then the longer I wait to incorporate it into my workflow the better and easier it will be when I do. Why learn the best prompts for 2026 AI when 2027 AI (1st qtr) will just respond “OK, Boomer. You don’t have to do all that. Let’s just have a norm convo”? 030
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026I’m 207 (of 1257!) pages into Richard Rhodes’ Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb and I’m certainly fascinated by the minutia of Fuchs, Rosenberg, etc espionage activities, but I also know these materials didn’t actually help the Soviets crack their H bomb designs, so it’s a little awkward. 141
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 18/08/2026I don’t know the monetary cost but TLD/OSL chemical dosimetry would just need to be swapped every 6 months and measured. Just another addition to a lanyard. (That you don’t want to put through xray or nanowave machines). 011
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyJames @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Not that anything matters anymore, but Oman hosts U.S. forces including USAF air wings alongside allowing us access to naval support facilities at Duqm. Great coalition building Mr. President! Very reassuring to our security partners! 391536326
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 14/08/2026@pmalonejourno.bsky.social does a great job highlighting challenges faced by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The DNFSB is often unsung part of the Executive branch. Their pushback on fire safety at SRS tritium facilities is an ongoing saga.seattletimes.comTrump administration denies nuclear safety watchdog crucial accessThe Energy Department for the first time is denying the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board access to some information on operations of nuclear weapons work. 053
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 14/08/2026This is the logical consequence of Trump’s cultish command to deem climate change a hoax. Big tech talked a big game about nuclear power, but what’s the point if fossil plants are ready faster and carbon has no externalized costs? We can switch to nuclear and renewables later. Apparently. 010
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyNaomi Saphra @nsaphra.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Vast and Trunkless Leg of Stone, Standing in the Desert from classic poem Ozymandias. 9955331133
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 04/08/2026It’s not all wins. For the last 2 years following a successful PhD defense, a lot went well: an exciting consultancy with CSR, several tritium pubs, and a postdoc at Virginia Tech generously funded by the newly renamed Andrew Carnegie Foundation. And, the Tritium Matters Working Group kickoff. 110
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyNicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 04/08/2026The U.S. threat is now that Iran has to hurry up and finalize a deal with Oman to control the Strait of Hormuz, charging fees, or the U.S. will attack. No, I’m not kidding. The U.S. president demands that Iran achieve exactly the thing he’s repeatedly said the U.S. was fighting to prevent. 914756
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyFrançois Diaz-Maurin @francoisdm.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Congress now has 90 continuous session days to review a 123 agreement once submitted. Lawmakers must demand to see the unreleased side letters and technical "black box" details, and they must place strict nonproliferation conditions on the deal. 6/7 151
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 29/07/2026NPT Art. IV.2 “All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in. the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.” The “mere suggestion” is part of the NPT already. 251
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 28/07/2026IAEA Inspector: Do you know why I pulled you over? Anna: … IAEA Inspector: Get out of the car and open the trunk. 2359
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyShannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Philip K. Dick couldn’t have invented a fictional company as good at eroding social trust and goodwill as Meta. It’s almost as if it’s their sole purpose. 714845
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 26/07/2026This thread is mostly on point but here are some key caveats: It’s significant Canadian nukes are part of discourse. CANDU Rxs are operationally better suited for Pu production vs LWR. Canada already has tritium for boosted weapons. It might take a decade or more. It would be obvious/detectable 181
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Called it!thehill-com.cdn.ampproject.orgHegseth turns to University of North Carolina, Virginia Tech after cutting Ivy League tiesThe Defense Department has selected the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Virginia Tech to host a revamped fellowship program for senior military officers — the first universities app… 1112
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 25/07/2026For reference, I'm going to roughly calculate tritium in an Apollo launch. T in 201,721 lbs of hydrogen fuel: based on a natural abundance of 10⁻¹⁸ 2.736 × 10⁻⁷ μg or 2634 pCi Based on a rough estimate of T abundance in 1969 (~40x): 1.094 × 10⁻⁵ μg or 105,326 pCi 020
Dr. Taylor Loy @tayloraloy.bsky.social · 25/07/2026Does anyone have information on how much tritium is in the BOHR battery? 182
Reposted by Dr. Taylor LoyKingston Reif @kingstonareif.bsky.social · 24/07/2026QUESTION: Would you be comfortable with Saudi Arabia enriching and reprocessing uranium? SECRETARY RUBIO: I’ll let the agreement speak for itself. www.state.gov/releases/off... 101