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astrojthe3.bsky.social
John Lewis
@astrojthe3.bsky.social
2.7K followers 250 following 51 posts
Astronomer, Learning and Education Design specialist @harvard.edu @cosmicds.bsky.social

Comments, RTs, likes are all me and represent on one else
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Reposted by John Lewis
coreyspowell.bsky.social
I find this remarkable:

The Dresden Codex, one of the few surviving Mayan manuscripts, contains tables that give highly accurate timings of solar eclipses over more than 700 years, from 350 CE to the 12 century. 🧪🔭

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Sheets of the Dresden Codex depicting eclipses, multiplication tables, and the flood.
November 11, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Reposted by John Lewis
cait.bsky.social
a few months ago I said "having generative AI handle absolutely anything with regards to healthcare is a nightmare and should be banned" and a bunch of people made fun of me and called me stupid. anyways,
r/ExpectationVsReality u/Additional-Simple858 • 3d Join Al 'doctor' said my back pain is depression, not a slipped disc. Now physical therapy won't get approved. Al Expectation We are reviewing claim #& submitted on 09/28/2025. Our records indicate the claim was filed under diagnosis code F32.9 (Depressive disorder, unspecified), while the corresponding prescription and referral history list treatment for lumbar disc herniation (back pain). Re: Incorrect Diagnosis in Record Hi Thank you for reaching out. We have reviewed your visit documentation and can confirm that the notes in question were generated using our Al scribe system. It appears the Al tool assigned diagnosis code F32.9 (Depressive disorder, unspecified), while your visit notes and treatment plan reference lumbar disc herniation (back pain). Per compliance policy, certain Al-generated fields cannot be manually updated by clinic staff and require vendor correction. We have escalated this to our vendor support team and opened ticket # . We'll notify you once we receive confirmation or correction from the vendor.
November 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
atrupar.com
it's time for journos to start asking Johnson meta questions

"Speaker, on 5 occasions last week you said 'I haven't seen it' when asked about news events w/big implications for public policy. Do you ever read the news, and do you agree it's problematic for the Speaker to be so woefully uninformed?"
November 3, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
emily.space
uv makes installing and using Python *so* easy! It works on pretty much any computer and it's lightning fast. 🔭☄️ #astrocode

If you're still using conda, pyenv, or... basically any other tool, then I can *highly* recommend switching:
uv is the best thing to happen to the Python ecosystem in a decade - Blog - Dr. Emily L. Hunt
Released in 2024, uv is hands-down the best tool for managing Python installations and dependencies. Here's why.
emily.space
October 24, 2025 at 1:03 PM
astrojthe3.bsky.social
really great post about uv from @emily.space.
October 30, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
una.im
Nice little details in Quiet UI 🥰

quietui.org/docs 💜
inline typography styles toast with counter softer, soft, mid, loud, louder colors
October 21, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
jradavenport.com
A good, accessible dive on the 3I/ATLAS and aliens hoopla from @hankgreen.bsky.social , reinforcing what a lot of us actual SETI researchers have been saying: This ain’t aliens, but someday it might be!
youtu.be/sZYSjqr6mIc?...
Why it's Never Aliens
YouTube video by Hank Green
youtu.be
October 22, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Reposted by John Lewis
boghuma.bsky.social
"A river doesn't argue with rocks, it flows around them"
Public health, Science and evidence based medicine much like a river will find a way to keep flowing during this time. Sad it's coming to this, but alternatives are important and needed right now.
www.statnews.com/2025/10/21/c...
NEJM and public health group are launching rival to CDC’s MMWR publication
Two institutions are coming together to create an alternative to the CDC’s vaunted Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
www.statnews.com
October 21, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
developers.google.com
Debugging is like solving an escape room where you built the room yourself and forgot all the clues. 🔐
October 20, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
wesbos.com
AI coding sucks

CJ just one-shotted a 15 min rant and it's incredibly refreshing.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZUk...
AI Coding Sucks
YouTube video by Syntax
www.youtube.com
October 9, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
npr.org
The remnant of Typhoon Halong slammed the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, an area in Western Alaska hundreds of miles from the U.S. road system. More than a thousand people are displaced.
What we know about the devastating storm in Western Alaska
The remnant of Typhoon Halong slammed the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, an area in Western Alaska hundreds of miles from the U.S. road system. More than a thousand people are displaced.
n.pr
October 17, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
politico.com
EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇
‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat
Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.
www.politico.com
October 14, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
cajunblue.bsky.social
🚨The absence of media coverage of this natural disaster in Alaska, the lost/missing people, and the destruction of the aftermath is up to us to share. Please help if you can - even if it is just spreading awareness. There is no FEMA going to help them. 1/2
October 13, 2025 at 1:41 PM
astrojthe3.bsky.social
sjbastro.bsky.social Steve Brown - astronomy and astrophotography @sjbastro.bsky.social · 29d
Sirius season is almost here! Or really, it's already started for early morning observers. Here's a shot I captured at 4.30am on 12 October from North Yorkshire, UK 😀 #Astronomy #Astrophotography #SciArt #PhotoHour
A swirl of multi-coloured lines against a dark background. These are the colours produced by light from the bright star Sirius passing through our turbulent atmosphere. Moving the camera a little while taking a long exposure of Sirius helps to bring out the rainbow of colours. In effect, this technique 'freezes' the twinkling of Sirius to show all the colours on display. It is a fairly easy thing to do with basic camera equipment, that produces beautiful results.
October 13, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
astrobites.bsky.social
From Kylee Carden: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are small molecules consisting of rings of carbons, ubiquitous in the interstellar medium though they don't seem to be present in disks around the youngest stars. Today’s paper tries to understand why that is. 🔭✨☄️
astrobites.org/2025/10/09/d...
Zapping PAHs? Yee-haw!
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are small molecules consisting of rings of carbons, ubiquitous in the interstellar medium. However, PAHs do not seem to be present in protoplanetary disks aroun...
astrobites.org
October 9, 2025 at 9:50 PM
astrojthe3.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
chibdm.bsky.social
Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop
October 6, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
cgsunit.bsky.social
Today's the day for my anti-AI zine volume 2: "Human Perspectives on the Latest AI Hype Cycle" 🎉

Enjoy the fruits of my focus these past few months and learn from many great people!

Scanned zine to print your own and the full text and references are available at padlet.com/laurenUU/antiAI
Front and back cover of the Zine sitting among Japanese maple leaves. Front cover has the title "Human Perspectives on the Latest AI Hype Cycle" with subtitle "AI Sucks and You Should Not Use It, Volume 2" along with the date of October 2025 and author Lauren Woolsey. Back cover has the text "References available on the back of this unfolded sheet and at padlet.com/laurenUU/antiAI" along with a QR code to that link. Then it has the text "Share with a friend, light the world! Connect w/ me: @cgsunit.bsky.social" Pages 2 and 3 of the Zine, open among tree leaves. Page 2 starts with handwritten "First...some backstory!" and then the text reads as follows: "Version Volume 1 of this zine, (June 2025), is called “Why GenAI Sucks and you should not use it.” I gave copies to my friends, did swaps at Grand Rapids Zine Fest, and shared the digital scan with hundreds of folks. It’s been great to connect with a community of humans who also think AI sucks! Since June, more great folks have added to the conversation. Let me introduce a few here..." Page 3 is titled Anthony Moser and has the following text: "“I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.” So opens this most excellent essay (posted August 2025). You absolutely need to read it. Also, it has 24 linked resources, if my Zine v1.1 list wasn’t enough to get you started being a hater." Pages 4 and 5 of the Zine, open among tree leaves. Page 4 is titled Olivia Guest and has the text: "1. Look at Guest’s incredible collection promoting Critical AI Literacy (CAIL): olivia.science/ai . 2. Discover a framework to define AI in “What Does 'Human-Centred AI' Mean?” (July 2025). 3. Share with educator friends Guest et al: “Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia” (September 2025). Such a helpful paper for advocacy!" Page 5 is titled Ali Alkhatib and has the following text: "“AI is an ideological project to shift authority and autonomy away from individuals, towards centralized structures of power.” -from his essay Defining AI. Ali is on my recent radar because he’s starting “AI Skeptics Reading Group” the same month that this Zine launches (October 2025)! If you're a reader, check out the book list on p. 7 here!" Pages 6 and 7 of the Zine, in partial shadow from tree leaves and surrounded by Japanese maple leaves. Page 6 is titled Distributed AI Research (DAIR) Institute and has the text: "Great projects DAIR supports: Data Workers Inquiry (work led by Dr. Milagros Miceli), Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 (by E. Bender and A. Hanna), Possible Futures workshop and Zine series. Timnit Gebru is founder and executive director of DAIR and co-author of the “TESCREAL Bundle” research paper. (Read it!) Page 7 is titled Further Reading and has a drawn stack of books with the following titles and publication months: Resisting AI (08/22), Blood in the Machine (09/23), The AI Mirror (06/24), Taming Silicon Valley (09/24), Why We Fear AI (03/25), More Everything Forever (04/25), The AI Con (05/25), Empire of AI (05/25). There are notes for The AI Con that the authors run the podcast mentioned on page 6 and that it is the book that the Reading Group from page 5 started on 10/13/25. The page ends with the text "Authors and full titles in reference list!" and a signature from Lauren "Double U."
October 3, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
astroshashank.bsky.social
Been imaging Saturn while its rings are nearly edge-on and tried some infrared filters. At this 889nm methane band, Saturn strongly absorbs light, whereas its rings scatter equally across wavelengths.

Also a good visual demo of how astronomers measure exoplanet atmospheres!

🔭🧪 #astrophotography
Three images of Saturn from top to bottom: First, a standard RGB color image showing the rings nearly edge-on at about a 30 degree angle. Middle, a black and white image similar to above, but a little sharper taken with a filter that allows only wavelengths longer than 850nm. Lastly, at bottom, the rings seen as starkly white and the planet dark. This is a very narrow wavelength range of about 20nm centered on 889nm where methane absorbs light, making Saturn itself appear dark and the rings bright.
October 6, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by John Lewis
mcnees.bsky.social
Astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt was born #OTD in 1868. She established the period-luminosity relation for Cepheid variable stars, an essential tool for understanding the scale of our Universe. 🧪 👩‍🔬 🔭

Image: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
A black and white photograph of Henrietta Swan Leavitt. She is wearing a white blouse with a large lace collar that covers her shoulders, upper chest, and neck. Her hair is pulled up and she is looking directly at the camera. She has dark eyes in tis photo, strong eyebrows, and a long, thin nose.
July 4, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
mcnees.bsky.social
VAR!

In the early morning hours #OTD in 1923, Edwin Hubble took a photo plate of M31 that showed a Cepheid variable star.

Using Henrietta Swan Leavitt’s distance-luminosity relationship, Hubble concluded that M31 is another galaxy outside the Milky Way. 🧪 🔭 ⚛️

Image: Carnegie Observatories
Photo plate of Hubble's famous "VAR!" discovery. This is a photonegative plate of an image of the Andromeda Galaxy, with several small annotations made in grease pencil. One of them was previously marked "N" for "nova," but the N has been crossed out and replaced with an excited "VAR!" to indicate a Cepheid Variable.
October 6, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
sxs-collaboration.bsky.social
🎉 Happy paper publication day! 🎉 Our third catalog of binary black hole simulations, now published in Classical and Quantum Gravity. And it's open access!

Scheel et al. 2025 Class. Quantum Grav. 42 195017
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

Also on the @arxiv.bsky.social at arxiv.org/abs/2505.13378
October 6, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
abbiestev.bsky.social
If any of you fine folks are planetarians in (or want to be in) mid-Michigan, the Abrams Planetarium is hiring a full-time-staff position for the first time in 11 years!! Come work with the astro, scicomm, and informal ed folks at MSU!! 🔭 🧪 (reskeets welcome) careers.msu.edu/jobs/educati...
Educational Program Coordinator II - East Lansing, Michigan, United States
Position Summary The program coordinator will maintain the planetarium, present live shows, and create new planetarium visualizations. In addition, this position will assist customers, assist in educa...
careers.msu.edu
September 29, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by John Lewis
cnn.com
At least two people were killed and eight others were wounded in a shooting at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, police said.

Follow live updates: https://cnn.it/42gDOb3
September 28, 2025 at 10:59 PM