Author | Lightnews

Joshua Tan

Joshua Tan

@joshuatan.bsky.social

230 followers 370 following 160 posts

Astronomer, CUNY, AMNH

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Reposted by Joshua Tan

Maq @maqusan.bsky.social · 7d

lol. lmao, even.

The top 20 accounts blocked in the last 24 hours. They're almost entirely US government accounts. And they're catching block numbers that would easily put them in the all-time top blocked list, just in the first day.

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · 9d

I always thought Ecuadoran would make more sense than the usual “Ecuadorean”. The country isn’t named “Ecuadorea” after all.

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · 10d

Ecuador suffers a similar fate.

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · 17d

Agreed. In a past dream, I had wanted to follow in the research footsteps of Davis and Lineweaver, but I couldn’t convince any cosmology mentors that this was a worthy direction to pursue. I had to settle for sprinkling references to their work liberally through Wikipedia.

Reposted by Joshua Tan

Molly White @molly.wiki · 25d

Someone should probably inform the White House's "AI & Crypto Czar" that no one is forcing AI companies to train their models on Wikipedia

Tweet by David Sacks: "Wikipedia is hopelessly biased. An army of left-wing activists maintain the bios and fight reasonable corrections. Magnifying the problem, Wikipedia often appears first in Google search results, and now it’s a trusted source for AI model training. This is a huge problem."

Reposted by Joshua Tan

Dr. Jen Gunter @drjengunter.bsky.social · 25d

Take the threats about banning or restricting mifepristone seriously. It’s all based on junk science. open.substack.com/pub/vajenda/...

The FDA Plans to Review Mifepristone

When junk science shapes policy, it's fascism

open.substack.com

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Sep 6

Suck it, RFK Jr!

I may have had to go to Connecticut, and I may have had to affirm having a condition that puts me at “high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19 virus” which, if anyone asks, is “being alive”. In spite of the attempts of the antivax establishment to stop me, they could not!

Screenshot: Sept 6, 2025 vaccine record indicating that I received the COVID booster in spite of the attempt by the health secretary to prevent me from getting it.

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Aug 20

I think that inconsequential debates where the stakes are low are good for science comm. People are often surprised when I say that I will take either side of the “Is Pluto a planet?” debate… but that is mostly because the stakes are so low.

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Aug 20

It was Peacocke’s diatribe that convinced me that the expanding space view was misleading in part. David Hogg also once gave a great popular science lecture that explained the expanding universe starting from the Doppler effect, and that went so well that it is the approach I now take in Astro 101.

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Aug 20

He may not live long enough to get it.

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Aug 19

For sure extravagance is the whole point for Dyson, but it sometimes has knock off effects that I find uncomfortable to the point of being nearly disconfirming. It was not for nothing that Dyson was a climate change denier. I do see these as being related peccadillos.

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Aug 19

I suspect he was speaking with hand waving gestures to the concept of “solar system”. Indeed “inner solar system” is the scale Dyson first envisioned in what *I*, for one, consider to be a hellish nightmare concept.

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Aug 19

Book recommendation: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

A revealing look at the parallel mythologies behind the colonization of Earth and space—and a bold vision for a more equitable, responsible future both on and beyond our planet. As environmental, po...

press.uchicago.edu

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Aug 19

*happen to

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Aug 19

But I think he is, sadly, acting out of the technoutopian hyperbole that did happen envision reprocessing stellar output at a 1 AU bubble.

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Aug 19

For sure, the guy is riffing on subjects which he thought about for almost no time, and putting junk in space is likely the goal, but it is a *classic* goal and likely not out of place from Dyson’s imagination, sadly.

Yeah, enveloping a star is a waste and unstable (thus swarms… even more scary).

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Aug 19

I blame the Star Trek TNG episode which snatched this obscure also-ran concept and brought it into the mainstream… I kinda wish it would stay in science fiction since, like many of Dyson’s proposals, it sits in my uncanny valley of the imagination to extravagance progression.

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Aug 19

I think Altman is referencing Dyson spheres (obscure technosignature fever dreams of Freeman Dyson popularized by a Star Trek episode) which envelope an inner solar system in what I would describe as a pretty hellish fashion. All for “Type II Kardashev” energy extraction. What is misunderstood?

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Aug 4

I am going to start by contacting Mothership Strategies to see whether they can help remove my phone number from the spam text database: mothershipstrategies.com/contact/

Contact Us | Mothership Strategies

WE’RE READY. ARE YOU? Let’s Work Together Are you a Democrat looking to raise money online? Mothership is the best digital fundraising partner. Period. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Goog...

mothershipstrategies.com

Reposted by Joshua Tan

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · Jul 31

I NEED to tell you the story of Tae Heung “William” Kim.

He's a graduate student at Texas A&M where he's working on a vaccine for Lyme disease.

He's a *legal permanent resident* of the United States.

And he's been in ICE detention for 12 days & counting, transferred Tuesday to South Texas.

From left to right, Dr. Albert Mulenga, William Tae Heung Kim, Dr. Thu Thuy Nguyen, Dr. Alex Kiarie Gaithuma, Dr Hassan Hakimi and Emily Bencosme Cuevas. Kim is a Texas A&M researcher who was detained in San Francisco last Monday despite being a permanent resident of the United States and a green card holder.

COURTESY OF TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Reposted by Joshua Tan

Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · Jul 19

The EPA has eliminated its research division, which for decades has provided the science behind regulations on clean air, clean water, and toxic chemicals.

The US can afford to monitor, research, and regulate the impacts of industries on human and environmental health. We are just choosing not to.

EPA eliminates research and development office, begins layoffs

The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees.

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Jul 13

The reality is that this proposal is meant to help *current renters* who are being priced out. But for some reason, the needs and concerns of those people are irrelevant to the principled market forces and rent-seeking class to which we must pay homage?

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Jul 13

"Property owners will not be able to afford having a rent-stabilized portfolio if there is a freeze." But then wouldn't this be true of the unregulated market as well where prices drop due to increased supply? (4/n)

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Jul 13

Then they say, "Well, the developers will have no incentive to make more housing if they can't make money because of under-market rates due to the rent control." But when I ask for details for how this disincentive functions considering the current lack of housing... another pivot...

Joshua Tan @joshuatan.bsky.social · Jul 13

E.g., a lot of them think that what will happen as supply is limited is that people will turn around to sublet their rent-controlled apartments to make money. When I point out that this is against the law, then the goalpost moves... (2/n)