iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

A week into the new fiscal year, and my research group is still averaging more than one submitted proposal per day (PI-ed in my group). Not something we will be able to sustain, mind you, but it's fun while it is lasting! #AcademicChatter #Astrodon

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

There's an active bomb threat at #Harvard, which is probably (hopefully) just an incel and/or someone not wanting to take a quiz, but it's been going on for over two hours now and they're still keeping two buildings closed. Hopefully just an overabundance of caution...

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🎃🔪KNIFER🔪🎃 @knizer.toot.boston.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

#TIL that local minor celebrity Elliot Davis, known mostly for his decades of the same hustle (I forgot my wallet but need 13.95 to buy some fix-a-flat for my cr around the corner, I hate to ask but can you help me out?) died in 2025 […]

toot.boston

Original post on toot.boston

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

Dang, that sunset was fantastic! Glad I happened to look outside when I did. #Boston

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

#PRIMA it is -- NASA selected the FIR probe for future study. While it's sad the X-ray probe competing against PRIMA didn't get a fair shake, hopefully this will lead to prioritizing a Flagship followup […]

mstdn.social

Original post on mstdn.social

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Reposted by Thomas Connor

Tab C @drtcombs.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

of course the next step for predatory publishing is bots emailing me AI-generated summaries of my copyrighted peer-reviewed works and asking me about my plans to address their limitations #AcademicSky

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026

#DarthAndDroids has come to an end, reaching the closing shot of Episode IX. One of the top tier narrative + humor web comics, a relic of a more civilized age. www.darthsanddroids.net

darthsanddroids.net

Darths & Droids

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

I am so incredibly disappointed in this peach.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

@vicgrinberg (Which is to say ... if you want a Wikipedia page ...)

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

@vicgrinberg Well, to be fair, you probably only recently reached the notability threshold for Wikipedia: "Criterion 7 may also be satisfied if the person has authored widely popular general audience books on academic subjects provided the author is widely regarded inside academia as a […]

mstdn.social

Original post on mstdn.social

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

@vicgrinberg I don't rate high enough to get them, but I've heard of this racket for a while ... Pre COVID, even, if I remember right.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

@Kevin I hate to be the one to say it, but that looks almost exactly like when you're running to get to the toilet on time...

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026

Alas, were that any of the other races in the Commonwealth kept this same energy.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026

Pushing Wu--Kraft levels of calling speed.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026

Twice yearly request to Massachusetts to send "I voted" stickers with absentee ballots. I had to duck into my polling place to get them. (Also, polling places should accept absentees. And there should be at least six times the number of ballot drop off points.) ((Basically copy everything LA […]

mstdn.social

Original post on mstdn.social

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2026

All I've got is a phone camera right now, so I'm using a window to get a second order image for clarity... The moon is weird presently! Enjoy it if you can! #LunarEclipse

The moon undergoing a partial eclipse. A secondary and tertiary image are seen, caused by internal reflection in the window. These are fainter, but better show the structure: a big chunk of red darkness eating the bottom left of the moon.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2026

A room full of X-ray astronomers focusing on time domain all learning the #SwiftReboost will not be successful... #NASA #Astrodon #Astronomy

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Reposted by Thomas Connor

Saustrup @saustrup.mstdn.dk.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

Wife's idea. It worked! 😂😎 #floppy #floppydisk #SolarEclipse

Looking at the solar eclipse through the magnetic plate of a 3.5" floppy disk. Sun visible.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

The limited #eclipse over #Boston. Nowhere near as fun as a totality, but it's still cute to play with the Day Star not looking quite like it should...

A rooftop view looking toward Boston from Cambridge; a mile or so in the distance are skyscrapers peaking over the intervening tree canopy and mid-height buildings. The sky is blue, with large clouds floating overhead. At the top right corner of the frame are eclipse glasses; in the eyepiece of one is the Sun, roughly 15% covered by the shadow of the Moon.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/08/2026

@my_roxbury all the teams are named after prominent women; in this case, Harriet Hunt.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

Looks like I was able to keep it to exactly 3:1, not counting the title slide. Surprisingly good for me!

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

Oooh, Tuesday's talk is definitely glowing to blow past three slides per minute, isn't it? #Astrodon #AcademicChatter

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Reposted by Thomas Connor

Stuart | V1RL @v1rl.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 01/08/2026

📸 Bunker Hill Panorama, Boston MA Unintentional stitch from the top of the Bunker Hill Monument. I shot iPhone through two of the four narrow windows and only later realized I could probably stitch them together with Hugin. Worked surprisingly well, and captures […] [Original post on mas.to]

A panoramic wide-angle aerial shot captures the city skyline of Boston, Massachusetts, under a bright blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds. In the foreground, dense residential neighborhoods feature tightly packed brick and wooden buildings nestled among lush green trees. To the left, Boston Harbor opens into calm blue waters filled with boats, piers, and historic waterfront ships. On the right, modern downtown skyscrapers tower in the distance, featuring prominent architectural landmarks like the cable-stayed Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge spanning across the water and connecting highway infrastructure.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/07/2026

As a Cleveland fan, I'm glad he isn't coming home this time. The current team just isn't built well, and it'd be a shame to see his career ending with such a fizz out. That being said, part of me was kind of rooting for him to bring the Celtics a title, if only to confuse the Hell out of a bunch […]

mstdn.social

Original post on mstdn.social

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/07/2026

Finding out about LeBron going to Philly from a random Italian news post spamming hash tags. The Fediverse!

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/07/2026

#Boston folks, you're embarrassing me in front of my California friends. I told them you were cool, but now you're all freaking out about a little tiny wildfire cloud like Texans seeing a quarter inch of snow. Come on, be chill, act like we've been here before!

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/07/2026

Sometimes the commute takes more than an hour Purple line stuck under Back Bay without any Power @universalhub The train is going 33 seconds from wheels starting to turn to power failure. Then a five minute restart. It sounds like the locomotive is still […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

The interior of the upper level of an MBTA bilevel passenger car, but all the lights are off except the emergency lighting system.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/07/2026

The last sunset before the 250th puts on a red white and blue show #Boston #Sunset @universalhub

Whisps of red and white clouds lit by the setting sun in a blue sky

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2026

In good news for me (and other #BikeBoston riders), #CambridgeMA has made the lead-in section of the Garden St. bike lane parking protected. I'd been hoping they would do this for ages; now, assuming they actually put some physical barriers in to keep people […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

A bike lane on a two-way street. The side the photographer is on has a line of parked cars but also a dedicated bike lane between the cars and the sidewalk. The opposite direction of travel has no parking, and the bike lane there is simply between the travel lane and the sidewalk.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/05/2026

Literally the day @planet4589.bsky.social leaves #Boston and we get a big explosion in the sky. If this was a bolide not even twenty-four hours after the modern Space Pope left us... #BostonMA #Massachusetts #BostonBoom #LoudNoises

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/05/2026

#Boston and surrounding environs, presently. Comments are pretty much everyone within 128 reporting it.

Screenshot of Reddit showing multiple new posts on a loud boom.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/05/2026

@vicgrinberg I believe she's the HEAD Early-Career awardee, so it's a double-honor.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/05/2026

The American Astronomical Society, the primary professional society of #astronomy and #astrophysics in the US, has two meetings every year. In each meeting, ~12-14 distinguished scientists and awardees are given plenary talks, a rare honor most astronomers will *not* receive in their career. By […]

mstdn.social

Original post on mstdn.social

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Reposted by Thomas Connor

Dr. Victoria Grinberg @vicgrinberg.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/05/2026

I have a bit of time on my hands, so let's do another 24h round of #AskAnAstrophysicist, but this time it's a thematic one. ⭐ What do you want to ask an astrophysicist about stars? ⭐ (I am a professional astrophysicist, part of whose work concerns itself with high mass stars & their winds and […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/05/2026

#BikeToWorkDay here in #Boston. A little more puddles than I might have liked, but all told not a bad time. Despite trying her best to anger the bicycle cohort, you can even see Mayor Wu on this ride, in a purple rain coat.

A view down a rain-slicked city street, albeit one much more pedestrianized than typical for the United States. A loose group of a dozen or more bike riders fills the street ahead.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2026

It's a sad day for X-ray Astronomy: Martin Weisskopf passed away this past weekend. #Astrodon #Astronomy #XraysAreTheBestRays

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/04/2026

Today's rando email to my Harvard email was addressed to "Your Excellency the Honorable Mr.Liam Connor" which is a beautiful mashup of overly flattering and factually inaccurate.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/04/2026

Statistically speaking, if you run a marathon in under 2 hours you only have a 50% chance of winning the race.

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/04/2026

Ooof, Fisk-Vanderbilt's bridge program is not accepting any applicants this year. A rough add-on to an already terribly rough year for recent grads. #Astrodon #AcademicChatter

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Thomas Connor @thomasconnor.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/04/2026

Hitting a double achievement on the #MBTA today -- traveling backwards (train reversing with passengers on board) while in the lowest numbered car in active service (not the oldest ... The Internet says that's 1616). Supposedly something is under the wheels of a […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

An MBTA red line car. The photo is centered on the train number, which reads 01500 in black letters over a faded yellow light background.

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