Profile avatar
vlk.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
ಕಲ್ಲಹಳ್ಳಿ / ಕೇಂಸೇತುವೆ, ಬೆಂದಕಾಳೂರು, Massachusetts Astronomer, operating incognito. Erdos number 3. [bridged from https://mastodon.social/@vlk on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
44 posts 0 followers 3 following
Prolific Poster
Conversation Starter
Posts 36 Comments 12

who called it crispr and not gene hackman

submitted 17 hours ago • 3 comments

Jared 'Rook' Isaacman's nomination for NASA Administrator is being withdrawn. This is bad news for NASA but maybe a good thing for Jared himself though, since being NASA head right now is a bit of a Kobayashi Maru scenario. Rumour is he will be replaced by someone more gungho about slashing NASA

submitted 1 day ago • 36 comments

This is amazing. I love fun internet stuff like this that reminds you the internet is supposed to be fun.

submitted 2 days ago • 11 comments

What the hell, Scripps National #SpellingBee, I have to ask, why is it that they think it is perfectly fine to butcher the pronunciations of Indian words? They had no trouble saying éclaircissement the French way, or Keighley the Yorkie way, but somehow dhaura becomes "dara". Are we are still […]

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

I have come to appreciate that "doing your own research" works only when you know how to do research. As they say, if it were easy, anybody could do it.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

https://pll.harvard.edu/subject/government harvard has begun offering free courses on the constitution, how government works, elections, congress, how the court system works, pandemic prevention, drug regulation, civic engagement and tons more

submitted 8 days ago • 4 comments

"Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly, we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other?" That quote from Herman Melville leads off our just published paper (Wang et al […]

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

It has been literally decades since I bought music, had to figure out from first principles how it is done nowadays, but I had to. https://music.apple.com/us/album/land-of-hope-dreams/1815617361

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

ಎದೆಯ ಹಣತೆ wins Booker as Heart Lamp I am 85% certain I attended the same school that Banu Mushtaq did. https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/an-extract-from-heart-lamp-by-banu-mushtaq-translated-by-deepa-bhasthi

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

“I’m sorry, Ms. Delacourt, but your son has tested positive for Linux.” “Give it to me straight, Doc. How bad is it?” “It’s terminal.” [anguished cry]

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

The International Astronomical Consortium for High-Energy Calibration recalibrates McCartney

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

#petpeeve Can people please stop calling it the "'Skinny' President's Budget". He is not. It is the President's Skinny Budget.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Input on the English language: In Danish we have a term called the "not test”, and we sometimes say about a political view, that it does not pass the not test, if no one would take the opposite view. For instance, if a politician campaigns on wanting children to live happy lives, we may say […]

submitted 25 days ago • 14 comments

Apropos of nothing, you could run Chandra at almost full capability for 3 whole years at $60 million/year.

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Mastodon isn't perfect. But the fact a social network exists that is completely free to use, has no venture capital investors, has no shareholders to answer to, has no growth targets, with a web interface with zero cookies, and mobile apps with zero trackers at all with ten thousand […]

submitted 178 days ago • 4 comments

This is a valiant effort, but I keep wondering how to answer Sherlock Holmes[*]. Finding a pithy answer to "why should I care" would be the pinnacle of public engagement. https://astro4edu.org/bigideas/ [*: who, when told about the structure of the solar system, says, "What the deuce is it to […]

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

This is a GREAT program for students who have completed their BA or BSc and haven’t yet joined a Masters program and are wondering whether a PhD is something they want to do. A stress-free introduction to the joys/rigors/tribulations (delete as needed) of astronomical research […]

submitted 42 days ago • 0 comments

New study: "We] tested five theoretically grounded intervention strategies to improve #conservatives’ [#trust in scientists. None of the interventions were successful, suggesting that trust in scientists reflects relatively stable attitudes that require more elaborate and time-intensive […]

submitted 47 days ago • 2 comments

Physics is hella addictive. Was looking through Somerfeld's 1949 book on Optics (as one does), and noticed that he has a derivation of stealth from Fresnel's laws! The amplitude of the reflected component is ∝ (1 – m12*cos(β)/cos(α)) where α and β are the […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

So Harvard isn't going to roll over! @universalhub https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/4/15/harvard-denies-trump-demands/

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

Massive (68%) cut to NASA astrophysics proposed in WH budget. If this stands, it's the end of American pre-eminence in space science. arstechnica.com/space/2025/0...

submitted 51 days ago • 11 comments

I really hope this was an April fools joke. If you send me an email that requires me to use a stripped down Gmail to read it you can bet I’ll add you to my spam list. Just another attempt of Google to make email even more proprietary forcing people to use their offering. Still looking into […]

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

“Last month I was just worried about my classes. Now I’m worried that I’ll simply disappear.” - From email from a talented student whose visa was just summarily cancelled because she’s from the wrong country. God damn this.

submitted 56 days ago • 5 comments

This advice to students on how to use chatGPT is quite decent except for the very first point. One should never, ever, use a method prone to hallucination to find appropriate citations. https://openai.com/chatgpt/use-cases/student-writing-guide/

submitted 56 days ago • 0 comments

TFW your cunning plan to eliminate paperwork by having all expenses be paid "in kind" ends up with three extra forms and continuing communications six months after the conclusion of the trip.

submitted 60 days ago • 0 comments

Today’s #worldle is one for the ages. #Worldle #1166 (01.04.2025) 1/6 (100%) 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉 ⭐📍🚩🗿📜🛡️🔤🗣️👫🪙 https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

Hmm.. we are on this side of the Pond of America, @dburke

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=66550 I should share this with all of my collaborators to explain why it is all *their* fault I haven’t yet finished the edits for the paper

submitted 65 days ago • 0 comments

A french research going to the #LPSC conference outside of Houston Texas wasn't allowed to enter the country. After a "random" control at the border, the police searched their phone and computer and found compromising statements about Trump […]

submitted 74 days ago • 1 comment

Update your terminology, @planet4589.bsky.social https://myjetpack.tumblr.com/post/778171673734201344/my-latest-new-scientist-cartoon

submitted 77 days ago • 0 comments

It is never not amusing to watch Americans as they first encounter "prepone"

submitted 81 days ago • 0 comments

Sin^2/(c+Sin^2+Cos^2) for sunspot numbers? Whew, my job is still safe. https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_astrophSR_bot/114148282173943419

submitted 82 days ago • 0 comments

I made a bit of a speech before our CHASC meeting last week on the subject of supporting science, and the usefulness of diversity and inclusivity in the execution thereof.

submitted 84 days ago • 0 comments

I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂 It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community […]

submitted 89 days ago • 1 comment

Evident Indian Exceptionalism: Virgin Atlantic has a policy of one checked bag worldwide, except on routes between India and UK/US, where they allow two. I guess they know they will have a mutiny on their hands if they try to restrict Indian pax to 1 bag.

submitted 93 days ago • 0 comments

You know why we Germans are so pedantic about data protection? Someone around 90 years ago went through all records available, selected people with certain criteria, with the help of IBM, and then killed them all. We don't want to be on any list. And now the US Gov and Musk is trying to get […]

submitted 104 days ago • 1 comment