Mike Boylan-Kolchin
@mbkplus.bsky.social
Dad, husband, astrophysicist, dog herder. Samuel T. and Fern Yanagisawa Regents Professor in Astronomy at UT Austin. This is a personal account and the views expressed in my posts here are mine. https://mrbk.github.io
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Mike Boylan-Kolchin
@mbkplus.bsky.social
· Sep 13
Mike Boylan-Kolchin
mrbk.github.io
New (academic) year, new me — well, new title, anyway. I promise to uphold the standards you’ve come to expect from the Samuel T. and Fern Yanagisawa Regents Professor in Astronomy.
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
Something I find really frustrating about extremely popular media people “just asking questions” or whatever is that sometimes they’re helping speak things into existence. Not this specific scenario necessarily, but it really does lay the groundwork for bad outcomes by normalizing it.
Joe Rogan and Shane Gillis on Nick Fuentes running for president one day.
Rogan: “He could probably win in a few years. Listen, he couldn’t have existed before, right? Ten, twenty years ago, couldn’t have existed. Now, super popular. What’s twenty years from now look like?”
Rogan: “He could probably win in a few years. Listen, he couldn’t have existed before, right? Ten, twenty years ago, couldn’t have existed. Now, super popular. What’s twenty years from now look like?”
December 26, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Something I find really frustrating about extremely popular media people “just asking questions” or whatever is that sometimes they’re helping speak things into existence. Not this specific scenario necessarily, but it really does lay the groundwork for bad outcomes by normalizing it.
Bookmarking to read later, the claims are pretty interesting: “While LLMs offer immediate convenience, our findings highlight potential cognitive costs. Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.”
December 26, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Bookmarking to read later, the claims are pretty interesting: “While LLMs offer immediate convenience, our findings highlight potential cognitive costs. Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.”
It gives me a little solace that the luckiest jerk on the planet can’t even take one day to enjoy a life and freedoms he doesn’t deserve. He’s completely consumed by hatred, he makes cartoon villains look 3 dimensional
Trump Posts Nearly 150 Times in Unhinged Christmas Day Spree
The president amplified conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and called for a member of Congress to be deported.
www.thedailybeast.com
December 26, 2025 at 12:03 PM
It gives me a little solace that the luckiest jerk on the planet can’t even take one day to enjoy a life and freedoms he doesn’t deserve. He’s completely consumed by hatred, he makes cartoon villains look 3 dimensional
Something I find really frustrating about extremely popular media people “just asking questions” or whatever is that sometimes they’re helping speak things into existence. Not this specific scenario necessarily, but it really does lay the groundwork for bad outcomes by normalizing it.
Joe Rogan and Shane Gillis on Nick Fuentes running for president one day.
Rogan: “He could probably win in a few years. Listen, he couldn’t have existed before, right? Ten, twenty years ago, couldn’t have existed. Now, super popular. What’s twenty years from now look like?”
Rogan: “He could probably win in a few years. Listen, he couldn’t have existed before, right? Ten, twenty years ago, couldn’t have existed. Now, super popular. What’s twenty years from now look like?”
December 26, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Something I find really frustrating about extremely popular media people “just asking questions” or whatever is that sometimes they’re helping speak things into existence. Not this specific scenario necessarily, but it really does lay the groundwork for bad outcomes by normalizing it.
Once again, my extensive body of work on topics that no one cares about goes unrecognized, smh
These are the 25 highest-cited papers published this century, and why they are breaking records
go.nature.com/4qc9pnH
go.nature.com/4qc9pnH
Exclusive: the most-cited papers of the twenty-first century
A Nature analysis reveals the 25 highest-cited papers published this century and explores why they are breaking records.
go.nature.com
December 26, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Once again, my extensive body of work on topics that no one cares about goes unrecognized, smh
These Detroiters know how to incentivize a fellow
December 25, 2025 at 8:44 PM
These Detroiters know how to incentivize a fellow
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
Interesting article, featuring Bluesky's own @mbkplus.bsky.social
The Size of Our Galaxy Stretches Tens of Thousands of Light Years Across, But Its Height Is Rather Small | Discover Magazine share.google/y3WSd6HdvTRF...
The Size of Our Galaxy Stretches Tens of Thousands of Light Years Across, But Its Height Is Rather Small | Discover Magazine share.google/y3WSd6HdvTRF...
The Size of Our Galaxy Stretches Tens of Thousands of Light Years Across, But Its Height Is Rather Small
What's the size of the Milky Way galaxy? Learn how, depending on your definition, the size can change.
share.google
December 25, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Interesting article, featuring Bluesky's own @mbkplus.bsky.social
The Size of Our Galaxy Stretches Tens of Thousands of Light Years Across, But Its Height Is Rather Small | Discover Magazine share.google/y3WSd6HdvTRF...
The Size of Our Galaxy Stretches Tens of Thousands of Light Years Across, But Its Height Is Rather Small | Discover Magazine share.google/y3WSd6HdvTRF...
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
You can’t trick me into arguing with Mark Cuban on Christmas Eve, I’m too old for that nonsense
December 25, 2025 at 3:24 AM
You can’t trick me into arguing with Mark Cuban on Christmas Eve, I’m too old for that nonsense
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, now has a machine gun. Ho. Ho. Ho.
And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, where the shadows lie, One Tim to rule them all, One Tim to find them, One Tim to bring them all, and in the darkness, bind them.
And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, blew up the Death Star.
December 25, 2025 at 8:13 AM
And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, now has a machine gun. Ho. Ho. Ho.
And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, now has a machine gun. Ho. Ho. Ho.
And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, where the shadows lie, One Tim to rule them all, One Tim to find them, One Tim to bring them all, and in the darkness, bind them.
And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, blew up the Death Star.
December 25, 2025 at 8:13 AM
And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, now has a machine gun. Ho. Ho. Ho.
You can’t trick me into arguing with Mark Cuban on Christmas Eve, I’m too old for that nonsense
December 25, 2025 at 3:24 AM
You can’t trick me into arguing with Mark Cuban on Christmas Eve, I’m too old for that nonsense
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
Riley Gaines, director of the Riley Gaines Center 💀
Anti-trans demagogue and fifth place swimmer Riley Gaines earned $470,000+ last year from a conservative non-profit.
Notably, $420k was incentive-based.
A neat little window into the way the transphobic grift is being compensated.
I wonder what the per-post rate is?
Notably, $420k was incentive-based.
A neat little window into the way the transphobic grift is being compensated.
I wonder what the per-post rate is?
December 24, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Riley Gaines, director of the Riley Gaines Center 💀
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
A write-up about our cosmic home, with some quotes from the 83rd most popular astrophysicist on Bluesky:
The Size of Our Galaxy Stretches Tens of Thousands of Light Years Across, But It's Height Is Rather Small
What's the size of the Milky Way galaxy? Learn how, depending on your definition, the size can change.
www.discovermagazine.com
December 25, 2025 at 1:59 AM
A write-up about our cosmic home, with some quotes from the 83rd most popular astrophysicist on Bluesky:
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
She’s off to a hell of a start in “restoring the integrity of the news”
Bari Weiss just sent this Christmas Eve email to the CBS News staff about "building trust," which includes her tripling down on spiking the CECOT piece "to make sure it's comprehensive and fair."
One CBS staffer tells me: "She really has no idea how insulting she comes across."
One CBS staffer tells me: "She really has no idea how insulting she comes across."
December 24, 2025 at 7:08 PM
She’s off to a hell of a start in “restoring the integrity of the news”
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
People have shied away a lot from both giving and receiving honest and direct feedback and it’s led to an unfortunate state of affairs where getting any honest and direct feedback is now both difficult to give and uncomfortable to receive (and I’ve been on both sides)
December 24, 2025 at 7:11 PM
People have shied away a lot from both giving and receiving honest and direct feedback and it’s led to an unfortunate state of affairs where getting any honest and direct feedback is now both difficult to give and uncomfortable to receive (and I’ve been on both sides)
Trying out some left bank tonight, then it’s back to $12 CdR
December 24, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Trying out some left bank tonight, then it’s back to $12 CdR
He’s not tied to false measures of quality, and his FIFA Nobel Prize for Kennedy Center Honors Hosting is proof of his greatness.
JUST IN: CBS’s Kennedy Center Honors just hit an all-time ratings low. Preliminary Nielsen data shows only ~2.65M viewers tuned in to the Trump-hosted show, down from 4.1M in 2024. A stunning 35% year-over-year collapse.
December 24, 2025 at 8:54 PM
He’s not tied to false measures of quality, and his FIFA Nobel Prize for Kennedy Center Honors Hosting is proof of his greatness.
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
The people who profited most from the cancel culture/free speech panic were less interested in actual freedom of speech than establishing their own control over public discourse. You don't even have to take my word for it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
December 23, 2025 at 6:17 PM
The people who profited most from the cancel culture/free speech panic were less interested in actual freedom of speech than establishing their own control over public discourse. You don't even have to take my word for it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
I’m sure there are no failure modes here
Investors Warn of ‘Rot in Private Equity’ as Funds Strike Circular Deals
www.nytimes.com
December 24, 2025 at 5:40 PM
I’m sure there are no failure modes here
People have shied away a lot from both giving and receiving honest and direct feedback and it’s led to an unfortunate state of affairs where getting any honest and direct feedback is now both difficult to give and uncomfortable to receive (and I’ve been on both sides)
December 24, 2025 at 7:11 PM
People have shied away a lot from both giving and receiving honest and direct feedback and it’s led to an unfortunate state of affairs where getting any honest and direct feedback is now both difficult to give and uncomfortable to receive (and I’ve been on both sides)
She’s off to a hell of a start in “restoring the integrity of the news”
Bari Weiss just sent this Christmas Eve email to the CBS News staff about "building trust," which includes her tripling down on spiking the CECOT piece "to make sure it's comprehensive and fair."
One CBS staffer tells me: "She really has no idea how insulting she comes across."
One CBS staffer tells me: "She really has no idea how insulting she comes across."
December 24, 2025 at 7:08 PM
She’s off to a hell of a start in “restoring the integrity of the news”
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
Cancel culture is out of control
Stephen Miller wants everyone at 60 Minutes who “engaged in this revolt” (aka told the truth) fired
December 24, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Cancel culture is out of control
I’m sure there are no failure modes here
Investors Warn of ‘Rot in Private Equity’ as Funds Strike Circular Deals
www.nytimes.com
December 24, 2025 at 5:40 PM
I’m sure there are no failure modes here