Abbabadook 🎃
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abbiestev.bsky.social
Abbabadook 🎃
@abbiestev.bsky.social
Experimental public programs in sci + art + tech, extronomer, nerd doctor of black holes & neutron stars, Michigoose, toddler mom, neurospicy, sober, pro-trans, she/her #BiinSci #WomenInSTEM #UglyDogs
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Hi there #Newskies! I'm Abbie, a museum person and former astronomer. I skeet about #altAc, science literacy, #sciComm, astro/physics, #academicMom / #Momademia, #AcademicMentalHealth, Michigan #MIpol, science shitposting (shitskeeting?), gardening, knitting, and whatever the fuck else I want!
Omfg inject this article right into my veins!!! The advertising panopticon is aware that I recently turned 36, and is trying to make me feel bad-but-don't-worry-it's-fixable-buy-this-do-this... FUCK THAT.

"The Anti-Cosmetic Surgery Essay Every Woman Should Read"
open.substack.com/pub/fatherka...
The Anti-Cosmetic Surgery Essay Every Woman Should Read
Long Live the Old Flesh
open.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
Me trying to act normal after 3 beers
Joke of the day from Moscow: Russia tried to unveil its first humanoid AI robot, Aidol. Key word: tried. The robot collapsed during its debut, forcing organizers to cut the presentation short. Their rushed attempt to lift the prop only made things worse.
November 12, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
Have I sailed as close as you are legally allowed to do to have a nose at the SS Montgomery?

Of course.

Moment I knew she existed, I was out there faster than Jay Hulme when he spots a rickety ladder in a church.

Here she is:
November 11, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
Deep in this article is a hint at the strategy here. They are going to places where crime is dropping drastically, then terrorizing the community & claiming responsibility for the drop in crime that was the result of efforts by local officials for years before they started abductions.
Border Patrol boss Greg Bovino and other federal immigration agents could be leaving Chicago this week, reports say. blockclubchi.co/4qT41qx
November 11, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Whichever consultants have the ear of fed-level Dems need to fuck all the way off with this spineless bullshit.
November 12, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
This is my best alt text performance
January 8, 2025 at 1:21 AM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
the internet turned that first Microsoft chatbot into a nazi in less than a day and they've all spent the next decade saying "that'll buff out. we just need to make it more powerful"
November 7, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
Hey, astronomers. Can you imagine astronomy research without ADS?!?!? No? So, have you filled out the ADS survey yet?

Help archives help you!

(Help archives keep funding!)

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Astrophysics Data System (ADS) User Feedback Survey
Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on the Astrophysics Data System (ADS) digital library. Your insights will help us improve the platform and better serve the scientific community. All ...
docs.google.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
There are more of us than there are of them.
November 5, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
Been saying it for the last year & I'll say it again: It is never foolish to be hopeful.
November 5, 2025 at 3:20 AM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
if you didn't follow the VA governor race you didn't know that Earle-Sears ran like a billion anti-trans campaign ads and Spanberger didn't flinch or pull a Newsom.

going all-in against trans people is a losing move, especially when the federal government has made harming and killing us a priority.
Every single county in Virginia shifted Blue.
November 5, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
TRANS RIGHTS WINS ELECTIONS
if you didn't follow the VA governor race you didn't know that Earle-Sears ran like a billion anti-trans campaign ads and Spanberger didn't flinch or pull a Newsom.

going all-in against trans people is a losing move, especially when the federal government has made harming and killing us a priority.
Every single county in Virginia shifted Blue.
November 5, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
Taxing commercial flight to reflect its true environmental costs presents genuine policy & economic tradeoffs, but taxing private air travel does not, and the latter should be taxed at ludicrously punitive rates to address the deficit created by the former.
Impact of flights on global warming severely underestimated by many carbon calculators & offset schemes that don’t properly account for taxiing, sub-optimal routing or non-CO2 climate effects which are larger component:
www.newscientist.com/article/2502...

Research paper:
doi.org/10.1038/s432...
Your flight emissions are way higher than carbon calculators suggest
Existing tools that work out the carbon footprint of flights greatly underestimate their warming impact, say the makers of a new calculator
www.newscientist.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
why is it always "i created a new social media site to mine your data" or "here's a new AI bot we're training based on your work to put you out of a job" and never "we invented an affordable replicator from Star Trek so Preeti doesn't have to cook anymore"
July 6, 2023 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
So so much of all of these “moves” seem aimed at nationwide union busting. Even a glance at the industries impacted most by tariffs—auto/hospitality/Amazon—reflects an alignment with either a strong union or a burgeoning union.
“Humans can just go get manual labor jobs if desk jobs are repaired with AI” is both not going to suffice to provide enough jobs and is also going to result in massive societal anger because manual labor jobs often *are terrible*, which is why people have worked hard to avoid them for generations.
Even if society provided the food/shelter level needs for everyone, humans also need to perform useful work just for basic fulfillment. The vast majority of people cannot sit around all day letting AI and robots do everything.

(The definition of “useful work” here is malleable but still essential)
November 2, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
I tend to agree with this. If AI works like its cheerleaders claim/hope it will - replacing whole swathes of human labour - then they need a real economic plan for dealing with the consequences of that. This can only mean heavily redistributing the profits.
you either need universal basic income for humans or you must limit the use of Gen AI in such a way that humans aren’t radically impoverished as a result.

you cannot have both, both for morality reasons and also because this is the kind of thing that can result in globally-nightmarish conflict.
This seems more like an argument for universal basic income than for limiting technology. (I think both are probably futile in the current political environment, but I’d prefer the latter.)
November 2, 2025 at 5:13 PM
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Between grants getting politically targeted and my lab’s building getting literally fucking bombed, 2025 is going great thanks
November 1, 2025 at 10:41 PM
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If you're wondering how things have been going since the CDC shooting, someone bombed a friend's workplace at Harvard yesterday and, if you were going off the discourse on Bluesky, you would honestly never know it happened www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/u...
‘Intentional’ Explosion Took Place at Harvard Medical School, Officials Say
www.nytimes.com
November 2, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
Did you happen to leave your @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk purchases on the Metropolitan line yesterday?

Did one of your friends do this and send an anguished message to the group chat?

If so, Darren has just done you a very good turn. 👇
If anyone lost a bag of books from LRB Bookshop on the Metropolitan Line between Baker St- Watford, I handed it to a cleaner when the train terminated at Watford tube station. And if you have far more followers than me, please share this status. LRB bookshop is not cheap!
November 2, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
amazing how the Silicon Valley sales pitch suddenly became “we’re bringing about a bright future where everyone but the ultra-rich will be forced to return to the fields”

and they genuinely don’t seem to believe this could eventually end poorly for them
My ancestors worked in factories so my parents could go to law school.
“Humans can just go get manual labor jobs if desk jobs are repaired with AI” is both not going to suffice to provide enough jobs and is also going to result in massive societal anger because manual labor jobs often *are terrible*, which is why people have worked hard to avoid them for generations.
November 2, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
On the other site, an 18-year-old Zohran canvasser described the legendary Wallace Shawn as "the actor who plays Dr. Sturgis on Young Sheldon" which is honestly adorable
November 2, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
You gotta understand that when it comes to Christian Nationalism, the BELIEF ITSELF is about power and wealth, and who deserves it (the "believer").

The nationalism is not incidental to Christian Nationalism.
Can I ask a *very* naive (not raised in religion at all) question?

Are the political leaders who support/align with Christian Nationalist orgs actually true believers in this regard? Or is this just a convenient way for them to get power/wealth?
October 31, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Reposted by Abbabadook 🎃
Happy Halloween!!

Come join my campaign Halloween bash in the back lot of 7016 N Clark Street!

We’ve got blood donation, bone marrow donor registration, candy, Chicago dogs, and ICE whistles! Come hang from 12-6!
October 31, 2025 at 5:33 PM