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
Pinned
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.
If we don’t get The mighty mighty bosstones for Super Bowl LXI, the terrorists have already won
I feel this in my bones but also I think next year’s SB artist will tell us a lot about how much pressure the WH can still bring to bear
Genuinely gives me a lot of hope that the NFL is a cynical, cash-motivated organization and they're betting on this being the future
February 10, 2026 at 2:21 AM
If we don’t get The mighty mighty bosstones for Super Bowl LXI, the terrorists have already won
Boy, in addition to football, American culture, and countless other items of value, Megyn Kelly also lost her mind in the national divorce
Megyn Kelly just shouting “FOOTBALL IS OURS” at Piers Morgan about Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show is the perfect example of this moment in time. Put it in a time capsule and send it out into space.
February 10, 2026 at 1:39 AM
Boy, in addition to football, American culture, and countless other items of value, Megyn Kelly also lost her mind in the national divorce
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
I'm going to ignore everything in the article and assume the newsworthy part is Carney is doing an impression of Dana Carvey doing an impression of GHW Bush
I blame Doug Ford who wants the Feds to pull what he did in 2025 (and I believe the PMO when they say they do not want a snap election)
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
February 9, 2026 at 8:39 PM
I'm going to ignore everything in the article and assume the newsworthy part is Carney is doing an impression of Dana Carvey doing an impression of GHW Bush
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
I take it all back, Drafts really has my creative juices flowing
February 9, 2026 at 11:22 PM
I take it all back, Drafts really has my creative juices flowing
“Eye-opening commentary” 👀😳🙄
Bari Weiss bravely invites us to focus on the real fascism in Minneapolis
www.thefp.com/p/mob-rule-c...
www.thefp.com/p/mob-rule-c...
February 9, 2026 at 11:54 PM
“Eye-opening commentary” 👀😳🙄
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
Okay, so aside from my jacked-on-cold-medicine-coughing collapse there at the end...what a rich conversation w the generous @jamellebouie.net that I wish could have been twice as long.
Three immediate takeaways:
1) "Follow the footnotes." Essential to his process as a writer and thinker. 🤩
Three immediate takeaways:
1) "Follow the footnotes." Essential to his process as a writer and thinker. 🤩
TODAY!
Join us at 5 p.m. EST for a conversation between JCB Library Director Karin Wulf and NYTimes columnist Jamelle Bouie.
For 2026, the JCB is hosting the series Journalism and History When History Is News. More details at jcblibrary.org!
Register here: brown.zoom.us/webinar/regi....
Join us at 5 p.m. EST for a conversation between JCB Library Director Karin Wulf and NYTimes columnist Jamelle Bouie.
For 2026, the JCB is hosting the series Journalism and History When History Is News. More details at jcblibrary.org!
Register here: brown.zoom.us/webinar/regi....
February 9, 2026 at 11:43 PM
Okay, so aside from my jacked-on-cold-medicine-coughing collapse there at the end...what a rich conversation w the generous @jamellebouie.net that I wish could have been twice as long.
Three immediate takeaways:
1) "Follow the footnotes." Essential to his process as a writer and thinker. 🤩
Three immediate takeaways:
1) "Follow the footnotes." Essential to his process as a writer and thinker. 🤩
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
NEW: An immigration court has terminated removal proceedings against Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, finding that DHS did not meet its burden of establishing that she was removable, her lawyers tell the Second Circuit. live-awp-vermont.pantheonsite.io/app/uploads/...
February 9, 2026 at 11:38 PM
NEW: An immigration court has terminated removal proceedings against Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, finding that DHS did not meet its burden of establishing that she was removable, her lawyers tell the Second Circuit. live-awp-vermont.pantheonsite.io/app/uploads/...
Bluesky, the app for Kid Rock appreciators
February 9, 2026 at 11:38 PM
Bluesky, the app for Kid Rock appreciators
I take it all back, Drafts really has my creative juices flowing
February 9, 2026 at 11:22 PM
I take it all back, Drafts really has my creative juices flowing
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
Listening to this week's Normal Men podcast, on differences between the academic systems in the US and in Europe, and it strikes me that we've put any bottleneck much further downstream. In a lot of European countries, whether you go to a top university is set by teachers' evals of 10-year-old you.
Episode 44 - Coffee, Cigarette, Croissant ft. skelly
Podcast Episode · Normal Men · 02/06/2026 · 1h 45m
podcasts.apple.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Listening to this week's Normal Men podcast, on differences between the academic systems in the US and in Europe, and it strikes me that we've put any bottleneck much further downstream. In a lot of European countries, whether you go to a top university is set by teachers' evals of 10-year-old you.
The story of my writing career:
February 9, 2026 at 8:50 PM
The story of my writing career:
Seems this has become relevant again
Drafts?!?
February 9, 2026 at 8:40 PM
Seems this has become relevant again
I'm going to ignore everything in the article and assume the newsworthy part is Carney is doing an impression of Dana Carvey doing an impression of GHW Bush
I blame Doug Ford who wants the Feds to pull what he did in 2025 (and I believe the PMO when they say they do not want a snap election)
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
February 9, 2026 at 8:39 PM
I'm going to ignore everything in the article and assume the newsworthy part is Carney is doing an impression of Dana Carvey doing an impression of GHW Bush
Was the bunny giant or was President Trump miniaturized? I must know so that I can grapple with the full implications here.
oh so now the "bunny" is "bad" to you, mister president?? we the people brought receipts 😤
February 9, 2026 at 7:01 PM
Was the bunny giant or was President Trump miniaturized? I must know so that I can grapple with the full implications here.
We're going to have an entire class of people who try to map Elon Musk's obviously incorrect timelines into truth in the same way that there are people who really try to map time intervals in the Bible to time intervals as humans understand them, aren't we?
February 9, 2026 at 5:56 PM
We're going to have an entire class of people who try to map Elon Musk's obviously incorrect timelines into truth in the same way that there are people who really try to map time intervals in the Bible to time intervals as humans understand them, aren't we?
Listening to this week's Normal Men podcast, on differences between the academic systems in the US and in Europe, and it strikes me that we've put any bottleneck much further downstream. In a lot of European countries, whether you go to a top university is set by teachers' evals of 10-year-old you.
Episode 44 - Coffee, Cigarette, Croissant ft. skelly
Podcast Episode · Normal Men · 02/06/2026 · 1h 45m
podcasts.apple.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Listening to this week's Normal Men podcast, on differences between the academic systems in the US and in Europe, and it strikes me that we've put any bottleneck much further downstream. In a lot of European countries, whether you go to a top university is set by teachers' evals of 10-year-old you.
"don't panic" is classically what people say when things are going very well
🇺🇸HASSETT: SHOULD EXPECT SLIGHTLY LOWER JOBS NUMBERS. LOWER JOBS NUMBERS SHOULDN'T TRIGGER PANIC
February 9, 2026 at 3:55 PM
"don't panic" is classically what people say when things are going very well
Seems like Americans have formed a pretty good assessment of Joel and even Joel sort of recognizes that
i desperately need these dipshits to read a history book
February 9, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Seems like Americans have formed a pretty good assessment of Joel and even Joel sort of recognizes that
(in three months) Elon Musk aims to establish a self-sufficient settlement outside of Silicon Valley within 10-20 years
Musk clips his Mars settlement ambition, aims for the moon instead | CNN
Elon Musk’s ambition to one day settle Mars appears to have taken a back seat for a rather nearer and more achievable goal – sending humans to live on the Moon.
www.cnn.com
February 9, 2026 at 3:04 PM
(in three months) Elon Musk aims to establish a self-sufficient settlement outside of Silicon Valley within 10-20 years
Not only is the Reason crowd not a good one to hold up as being prescient about Trump, plenty of other groups were actually vocal about this. Huge swaths of the left were very much sounding the alarm in 2016, to say nothing of 2024; even a bunch of right-wingers feared (emphasis on past tense) Trump
I feel like I'm losing my goddamnned mind.
This op-ed was written by Kathrine Mangu-Ward. Katherine is editor-in-chief of Reason magazine.
Reason fired @shikhadalmia.bsky.social for being too anti-Trump.
This op-ed was written by Kathrine Mangu-Ward. Katherine is editor-in-chief of Reason magazine.
Reason fired @shikhadalmia.bsky.social for being too anti-Trump.
Opinion | Libertarians Tried to Warn You About Trump
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 2:50 PM
Not only is the Reason crowd not a good one to hold up as being prescient about Trump, plenty of other groups were actually vocal about this. Huge swaths of the left were very much sounding the alarm in 2016, to say nothing of 2024; even a bunch of right-wingers feared (emphasis on past tense) Trump
How many low-mass galaxies live nearby the Milky Way (where "nearby" = within ~80 million light years)? We have no idea! And that's pretty weird. In a paper on today's arXiv, arxiv.org/abs/2602.06224, E. Shread (Caltech) shows that observations are uncertain at more than the factor of 10 level. 🧪
February 9, 2026 at 2:41 PM
How many low-mass galaxies live nearby the Milky Way (where "nearby" = within ~80 million light years)? We have no idea! And that's pretty weird. In a paper on today's arXiv, arxiv.org/abs/2602.06224, E. Shread (Caltech) shows that observations are uncertain at more than the factor of 10 level. 🧪
Oh, so 14,000 is a small number now but 5,300 was a big number when it comes to how many Epstein documents mention Trump? Make up your minds, liberals.
Yikes: the alternative TPUSA “All-American” Halftime Show had fewer than 14,000 views.
February 9, 2026 at 1:51 PM
Oh, so 14,000 is a small number now but 5,300 was a big number when it comes to how many Epstein documents mention Trump? Make up your minds, liberals.
Reposted by Mike Boylan-Kolchin
Well, if anyone can do it, it’s not Elon
February 9, 2026 at 3:18 AM
Well, if anyone can do it, it’s not Elon
The nerve of this Bunny fellow talking about love over hate. Whatever happened to family values?!?
February 9, 2026 at 3:38 AM
The nerve of this Bunny fellow talking about love over hate. Whatever happened to family values?!?