Matt Reece
@mreece.bsky.social
physicist, obsessed with axions. Boston resident. never had a twitter or a mastodon, but here I am, inexplicably.
The DOE's new "Genesis Mission"? Every time I see it mentioned I can't help but think "rich, Corinthian leather."
November 25, 2025 at 10:21 PM
The DOE's new "Genesis Mission"? Every time I see it mentioned I can't help but think "rich, Corinthian leather."
As I keep telling people, no, large gauge transformations aren't physical.
FFS 😡
FINLAND IS NOT RE-GAUGING ITS RAILWAYS
Just because an urbanist influencer has posted a 6 months old piece (that was anyway inaccurate) about it does not mean it is happening!
Finland *might* lay some additional standard gauge track from Sweden to Oulu
FINLAND IS NOT RE-GAUGING ITS RAILWAYS
Just because an urbanist influencer has posted a 6 months old piece (that was anyway inaccurate) about it does not mean it is happening!
Finland *might* lay some additional standard gauge track from Sweden to Oulu
November 25, 2025 at 3:50 AM
As I keep telling people, no, large gauge transformations aren't physical.
Reposted by Matt Reece
![Comic. [Person with ponytail pointing at diagram while speaking to three other people] PERSON: If the emergency stop is activated, any riders on the waterslide will be diverted into the beam dump, a large graphite block which will safely absorb their momentum. [caption] We regretted hiring an accelerator physicist to design our water park.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreicnzdnpjdz4clfa2uhx6isbdwgu72oku5pee4av7paavbjmqpyoiu@jpeg)
November 18, 2025 at 3:40 AM
Kind of charmed by all the people on here who think Harvard would fire a famous, senior professor for being a terrible person who is wrong all the time, or even for serial misconduct. That’s not the Harvard I know, unfortunately.
November 16, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Kind of charmed by all the people on here who think Harvard would fire a famous, senior professor for being a terrible person who is wrong all the time, or even for serial misconduct. That’s not the Harvard I know, unfortunately.
Remembering this for some reason
Apropos of nothing: Last year, one day I found my path through Harvard Yard blocked by a slow-moving group of a dozen or so students and two econ profs, one of whom was Larry Summers. He was holding forth about how other people's inflation expectations were wrong. 1/
November 14, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Remembering this for some reason
Reposted by Matt Reece
The American people aren't interested in boring process stories like "was the world's most notorious sex trafficker providing underage girls to the President?", they wanted to know more about whether Claudine Gay followed best citation practices for her dissertation.
The emails that you’re seeing now are news in themselves, but that’s because of how they’re coming out—a congressional committee released them—& the context in which they’re being viewed. A guy emailing a reporter talking about old girlfriends or saying someone is “dirty” is not a whole news story.
November 13, 2025 at 4:56 PM
The American people aren't interested in boring process stories like "was the world's most notorious sex trafficker providing underage girls to the President?", they wanted to know more about whether Claudine Gay followed best citation practices for her dissertation.
Reposted by Matt Reece
Oo! Interesting #GravitationalWave candidate #S251112cm potentially from a *subsolar* mass source
If real, the source is probably has chirp mass ~0.1–0.87 solar masses
False alarm rate 1 in 6.2 yr
GraceDB gracedb.ligo.org/superevents/...
GCN gcn.nasa.gov/circulars/42...
Rating 📏🍬
[🧪🔭⚛️]
If real, the source is probably has chirp mass ~0.1–0.87 solar masses
False alarm rate 1 in 6.2 yr
GraceDB gracedb.ligo.org/superevents/...
GCN gcn.nasa.gov/circulars/42...
Rating 📏🍬
[🧪🔭⚛️]
November 12, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Oo! Interesting #GravitationalWave candidate #S251112cm potentially from a *subsolar* mass source
If real, the source is probably has chirp mass ~0.1–0.87 solar masses
False alarm rate 1 in 6.2 yr
GraceDB gracedb.ligo.org/superevents/...
GCN gcn.nasa.gov/circulars/42...
Rating 📏🍬
[🧪🔭⚛️]
If real, the source is probably has chirp mass ~0.1–0.87 solar masses
False alarm rate 1 in 6.2 yr
GraceDB gracedb.ligo.org/superevents/...
GCN gcn.nasa.gov/circulars/42...
Rating 📏🍬
[🧪🔭⚛️]
Somehow simultaneously thinking "Larry Summers sent this email in *2017*? incredible" and "this isn't surprising at all."
November 12, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Somehow simultaneously thinking "Larry Summers sent this email in *2017*? incredible" and "this isn't surprising at all."
Reading this Harvard Gazette article about how our new Dean of Science is co-teaching a class partly premised on how deep expertise doesn't matter now because students can talk to ChatGPT instead of to professors. Thanks, I hate it.
No one knows the answer, and that’s the point — Harvard Gazette
“Genuinely Hard Problems” pilots novel approach to scientific education.
news.harvard.edu
November 12, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reading this Harvard Gazette article about how our new Dean of Science is co-teaching a class partly premised on how deep expertise doesn't matter now because students can talk to ChatGPT instead of to professors. Thanks, I hate it.
Reposted by Matt Reece
Whenever some sanctimonious Dem announces that America needs a functioning Republican Party, I always think “I’d settle for a functioning Democratic Party.”
November 10, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Whenever some sanctimonious Dem announces that America needs a functioning Republican Party, I always think “I’d settle for a functioning Democratic Party.”
Reposted by Matt Reece
This. MA's senators are generally among the best but I will vote for Ayanna Pressley @pressley.house.gov in a primary without any hesitation.
Since the Democrats worked extra hard to hide who actually supported this, I think the No Kings/Resistance position should be to primary every Democrat unless they publicly call for Schumer's ouster this week
Either they go into total rebellion mode, which they won't, or the people will
Either they go into total rebellion mode, which they won't, or the people will
November 10, 2025 at 3:00 AM
This. MA's senators are generally among the best but I will vote for Ayanna Pressley @pressley.house.gov in a primary without any hesitation.
A shameful choice from Cornell.
BREAKING: Cornell University reaches a deal with the Trump administration to restore withheld federal funding.
Cornell University announces deal with Trump administration to restore withheld federal funding
Cornell University has agreed to pay $60 million and accept the Trump administration’s interpretation of civil rights laws in order to restore federal funding and end investigations into the Ivy League school.
bit.ly
November 7, 2025 at 9:14 PM
A shameful choice from Cornell.
Reposted by Matt Reece
Judge McConnell basically walked them through the math, called all their arguments bullshit, and entered the order that the gov't stop playing games with the money while kids go hungry.
Didn't even give the gov't the chance to respond.
Didn't even give the gov't the chance to respond.
November 6, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Judge McConnell basically walked them through the math, called all their arguments bullshit, and entered the order that the gov't stop playing games with the money while kids go hungry.
Didn't even give the gov't the chance to respond.
Didn't even give the gov't the chance to respond.
Reposted by Matt Reece
Reposted by Matt Reece
I'm happy that Mamdani won. But I won't let that get in the way of my celebrating Cuomo losing.
November 5, 2025 at 2:37 AM
I'm happy that Mamdani won. But I won't let that get in the way of my celebrating Cuomo losing.
Reposted by Matt Reece
Residents, businesses, food pantries to try to ensure nobody starves because of President Golden Ballroom (tried to list some resources; if you know of others, let me know)
www.universalhub.com/2025/residen...
#Boston #SNAP
www.universalhub.com/2025/residen...
#Boston #SNAP
October 30, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Residents, businesses, food pantries to try to ensure nobody starves because of President Golden Ballroom (tried to list some resources; if you know of others, let me know)
www.universalhub.com/2025/residen...
#Boston #SNAP
www.universalhub.com/2025/residen...
#Boston #SNAP
Reposted by Matt Reece
No child should go to bed hungry and no family should have to choose between paying for medicine or putting food on the table.
But under this Republican government shutdown, that’s becoming a reality for many.
Here are two food bank resources for folks in the MA-7th:
But under this Republican government shutdown, that’s becoming a reality for many.
Here are two food bank resources for folks in the MA-7th:
October 23, 2025 at 1:49 AM
No child should go to bed hungry and no family should have to choose between paying for medicine or putting food on the table.
But under this Republican government shutdown, that’s becoming a reality for many.
Here are two food bank resources for folks in the MA-7th:
But under this Republican government shutdown, that’s becoming a reality for many.
Here are two food bank resources for folks in the MA-7th:
Reposted by Matt Reece
Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.
October 23, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.
Readers of Richard Scarry know how the Louvre thief will be caught.
October 20, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Readers of Richard Scarry know how the Louvre thief will be caught.
Wondering when people who talk about “theta vacua” will realize it’s equally well-motivated to make any parameter into a space of “vacua.” Electron mass vacua! Top Yukawa vacua! Higgs mass vacua! Go wild, folks. Can’t wait to see what wacky insights you come up with.
October 16, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Wondering when people who talk about “theta vacua” will realize it’s equally well-motivated to make any parameter into a space of “vacua.” Electron mass vacua! Top Yukawa vacua! Higgs mass vacua! Go wild, folks. Can’t wait to see what wacky insights you come up with.
Hoping this planned "Zhu Restaurant" is actually named 猪.
News -- Zhu restaurant plans to open in the former Lir space in Boston's Back Bay. bostonrestaurants.blogspot.com/2025/10/zhu-...
#restaurant #boston #backbay
#restaurant #boston #backbay
Zhu Restaurant Plans to Open in the Former Lir Space in Boston's Back Bay
It looks like an Asian restaurant could be opening in the Back Bay of Boston, moving into the space where an Irish pub had been. According t...
bostonrestaurants.blogspot.com
October 11, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Hoping this planned "Zhu Restaurant" is actually named 猪.
The rules have tightened, but it's true: students would tell me they were taking another class meeting at the same time as mine, or that they would be in Europe for months training for an athletic competition, and when I objected, would tell me it wasn't up to me. Deans let them do it.
This sentence was a bit of a record scratch moment for me. “Harvard may be partly to blame for encouraging student absences, with a policy that allows students to enroll in two classes that meet at the same time.”
Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say
www.nytimes.com
October 7, 2025 at 2:53 AM
The rules have tightened, but it's true: students would tell me they were taking another class meeting at the same time as mine, or that they would be in Europe for months training for an athletic competition, and when I objected, would tell me it wasn't up to me. Deans let them do it.
It just keeps going. As if Harvard hadn’t already betrayed its principles over and over to placate them.
Federal government formally recommends barring Harvard from receiving federal funds - The Boston Globe
The university has 20 days to notify the HHS civil rights office of whether it will contest the move.
www.bostonglobe.com
September 29, 2025 at 10:56 PM
It just keeps going. As if Harvard hadn’t already betrayed its principles over and over to placate them.
Something I’ve heard that isn’t in the Crimson article: some grants received reinstatement notices after the court decision, but then received new termination notices giving different reasons for termination than the original notices. They are not planning to pay Harvard what they legally owe.
Two Weeks After Court Ruling, Harvard’s Researchers Are Still Waiting for Grants | News | The Harvard Crimson
Nearly two weeks after a federal judge ruled the Trump administration’s freeze on Harvard’s federal funding was unconstitutional, Harvard’s researchers are still waiting to get their money back.
www.thecrimson.com
September 17, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Something I’ve heard that isn’t in the Crimson article: some grants received reinstatement notices after the court decision, but then received new termination notices giving different reasons for termination than the original notices. They are not planning to pay Harvard what they legally owe.