Alexander Kirby
@astrokirby.bsky.social
Former Science Teacher
Current physics PhD Student
Astrophysicist
Silly Little Guy
He/Him
Current physics PhD Student
Astrophysicist
Silly Little Guy
He/Him
Reposted by Alexander Kirby
Reposted by Alexander Kirby
Visiting my old undergrad and found out my advisor still has the first poster I made while I was here 🥲
October 11, 2024 at 3:18 AM
Visiting my old undergrad and found out my advisor still has the first poster I made while I was here 🥲
Reposted by Alexander Kirby
Have people considered that the hurricanes are God's punishment for homophobia?
October 10, 2024 at 4:03 AM
Have people considered that the hurricanes are God's punishment for homophobia?
Creating a new idea for a non-empty set of objects which has the property that its intersection with all other sets is the empty set, I think it will find a lot of use in modeling where people in power think protestors come from.
UT Austin claims police found “baseball size rocks … strategically placed within the encampment” and blames protests on outsiders
April 30, 2024 at 12:21 AM
Creating a new idea for a non-empty set of objects which has the property that its intersection with all other sets is the empty set, I think it will find a lot of use in modeling where people in power think protestors come from.
Ancient Israelites when their God tells them to invade the country that they were already planning to invade anyway.
January 5, 2024 at 5:26 PM
Ancient Israelites when their God tells them to invade the country that they were already planning to invade anyway.
Love being in school again and seeing which classmates have rich parents who can take them to Brazil for winter break and who has to work for a living.
January 4, 2024 at 5:20 AM
Love being in school again and seeing which classmates have rich parents who can take them to Brazil for winter break and who has to work for a living.
Reposted by Alexander Kirby
Kennedy applying to Harvard: Harvard good. I’ll take 1 Harvard degree.
Some unfortunate kid in 2024: I have 4 patents, speak 8 languages fluently, star in 3 sports, and operate a charity in my free time.
Bret Stephens: affirmative action has killed meritocracy
Some unfortunate kid in 2024: I have 4 patents, speak 8 languages fluently, star in 3 sports, and operate a charity in my free time.
Bret Stephens: affirmative action has killed meritocracy
January 3, 2024 at 3:04 PM
Kennedy applying to Harvard: Harvard good. I’ll take 1 Harvard degree.
Some unfortunate kid in 2024: I have 4 patents, speak 8 languages fluently, star in 3 sports, and operate a charity in my free time.
Bret Stephens: affirmative action has killed meritocracy
Some unfortunate kid in 2024: I have 4 patents, speak 8 languages fluently, star in 3 sports, and operate a charity in my free time.
Bret Stephens: affirmative action has killed meritocracy
I tried to send my friend a cute little motivational post on Instagram as she tries to tackle a problem only to learn when you type those words into their search feature it is exclusively alpha dudes trying to sell you Tate's pyramid scheme.
January 3, 2024 at 3:24 AM
I tried to send my friend a cute little motivational post on Instagram as she tries to tackle a problem only to learn when you type those words into their search feature it is exclusively alpha dudes trying to sell you Tate's pyramid scheme.
Can't wait to go into my next research meeting and drop the funniest joke of all time pertaining to what year I last saw the group.
January 1, 2024 at 5:07 AM
Can't wait to go into my next research meeting and drop the funniest joke of all time pertaining to what year I last saw the group.
New content idea: secretly gifting my homophobic family members pride merchandise until they notice.
December 29, 2023 at 9:52 PM
New content idea: secretly gifting my homophobic family members pride merchandise until they notice.
"Wholesome Christians" will censor themselves saying swear words when singing along to songs on the radio and then say the n word with their whole chest the moment they're given an opportunity.
December 25, 2023 at 6:56 PM
"Wholesome Christians" will censor themselves saying swear words when singing along to songs on the radio and then say the n word with their whole chest the moment they're given an opportunity.
I think I may have gone too far too quickly on the path of a graduate student because I have just found myself upset that I will be spending 3 days with my family for Christmas instead of reading papers while I wait for the weekend long simulation I'm running to finish.
December 22, 2023 at 10:31 PM
I think I may have gone too far too quickly on the path of a graduate student because I have just found myself upset that I will be spending 3 days with my family for Christmas instead of reading papers while I wait for the weekend long simulation I'm running to finish.
Having seen the casting for Percy Jackson now I think they really hit the nail on the head with Hermes because I'd also do what Luke does if Lin-Manuel Miranda was my dad.
December 22, 2023 at 10:21 PM
Having seen the casting for Percy Jackson now I think they really hit the nail on the head with Hermes because I'd also do what Luke does if Lin-Manuel Miranda was my dad.
RIP to the students doing the Devil's Arithmetic right now trying to figure out what they need on their finals to pass their classes.
December 3, 2023 at 11:28 PM
RIP to the students doing the Devil's Arithmetic right now trying to figure out what they need on their finals to pass their classes.
In retrospect we should have known people wouldn't take covid seriously because for decades people have been risking their entire homes to make deep fried turkey that they refuse to season every Thanksgiving despite the government constantly telling them not to.
November 19, 2023 at 5:38 AM
In retrospect we should have known people wouldn't take covid seriously because for decades people have been risking their entire homes to make deep fried turkey that they refuse to season every Thanksgiving despite the government constantly telling them not to.
One of the things that people don't mention as much about being in STEM is seeing 100 antisocial kids with a Genshin Impact addiction immediately get 6 figure jobs making knife missiles that only target Yemeni weddings right out of undergrad and that being a totally normal thing.
October 4, 2023 at 5:51 PM
One of the things that people don't mention as much about being in STEM is seeing 100 antisocial kids with a Genshin Impact addiction immediately get 6 figure jobs making knife missiles that only target Yemeni weddings right out of undergrad and that being a totally normal thing.
Fellowship of Christian Athletes seems kinda redundant as I have never met a student athlete who did not have 3+ bible verses in their social media bios and at least one jesus-related tattoo if 18+.
October 4, 2023 at 2:08 AM
Fellowship of Christian Athletes seems kinda redundant as I have never met a student athlete who did not have 3+ bible verses in their social media bios and at least one jesus-related tattoo if 18+.
Wonderful example of why you really need to check any work you do for statistical biases because I think I may know another reason people getting the highest career honor possible in their late 60s may suddenly not be as productive.
www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/s...
www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/s...
A Nobel Prize Might Lower a Scientist’s Impact
A team of researchers at Stanford find that older scientists are less productive after winning major awards like the Nobel and the MacArthur Fellowship.
www.nytimes.com
October 1, 2023 at 7:46 PM
Wonderful example of why you really need to check any work you do for statistical biases because I think I may know another reason people getting the highest career honor possible in their late 60s may suddenly not be as productive.
www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/s...
www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/s...
Just spent like 5 hours learning C++ to get an algorithm that runs in 0.45 seconds instead of 0.65 seconds. It may seem like a waste now but over the course of using this algorithm it could save 100s of seconds. Minutes even.
September 29, 2023 at 10:28 PM
Just spent like 5 hours learning C++ to get an algorithm that runs in 0.45 seconds instead of 0.65 seconds. It may seem like a waste now but over the course of using this algorithm it could save 100s of seconds. Minutes even.
Most of the reason I want to move away from the idea that math is this super difficult thing is to share it with others, but I won't lie by saying that engineers no longer pretending that they're braniacs because they know how to integrate isn't nice too.
September 27, 2023 at 8:01 PM
Most of the reason I want to move away from the idea that math is this super difficult thing is to share it with others, but I won't lie by saying that engineers no longer pretending that they're braniacs because they know how to integrate isn't nice too.
I love my Instagram timeline because it's all memes, cute animals, and guys I went to college with posting their girlfriends twice a year on anniversaries/birthdays.
September 23, 2023 at 7:40 PM
I love my Instagram timeline because it's all memes, cute animals, and guys I went to college with posting their girlfriends twice a year on anniversaries/birthdays.
My advisor keeps giving me cryptic feedback like "you did a great job on this" and "you're progressing much faster than I'd anticipated in this time scale" so I'm really confused as to how to connect this to me being useless, as my quirky little brain is apt to do.
September 17, 2023 at 9:51 PM
My advisor keeps giving me cryptic feedback like "you did a great job on this" and "you're progressing much faster than I'd anticipated in this time scale" so I'm really confused as to how to connect this to me being useless, as my quirky little brain is apt to do.
I'm sure this is true of many fields, but I am not aware of them and there is an extremely common story of women in astronomy being put in a position where it's almost impossible to succeed and then making enormous contributions to the field.
Born in 1928, Vera Rubin set her sights on Princeton, but they wouldn’t accept female grad students in astronomy. So she earned her PhD from Georgetown.
Rubin went on to find evidence for the existence of dark matter. She was awarded the National Medal of Science. Curiously, never a Nobel Prize.
Rubin went on to find evidence for the existence of dark matter. She was awarded the National Medal of Science. Curiously, never a Nobel Prize.
September 17, 2023 at 9:47 PM
I'm sure this is true of many fields, but I am not aware of them and there is an extremely common story of women in astronomy being put in a position where it's almost impossible to succeed and then making enormous contributions to the field.