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Benne W. Holwerda

@benneholwerda

Dad, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Louisville. He/Him/hey you. Opinions are my own. As are the typos. Astronomy, datascience, ethics & occasional US/EU politics.

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Latest posts by Benne W. Holwerda @benneholwerda

β€œI could give a pretty long list," Caroline Herschel wrote,
"of accidents of which my brother as well as myself narrowly escaped of proving fatal; for observing with such large machineries, where all round is in darkness, is not unattended with danger."

Astronomers. Always violating OSHA.

07.03.2026 22:52 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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a man in a red costume with a crown on his head is sitting on a stool ALT: a man in a red costume with a crown on his head is sitting on a stool

Reading about the Herschel’s and lo…who appears…

07.03.2026 21:35 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Justice for Data and data

07.03.2026 17:24 πŸ‘ 351 πŸ” 40 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Perun will have an interesting view on it from a logistics standpoint. The consensus I’m seeing is that the β€œease” of the maduro raid left the whole administration overconfident.

07.03.2026 15:36 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Wow that was pretty minimal to begin with.

07.03.2026 15:33 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Someone is throwing a party in Moscow.

07.03.2026 14:54 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Did you lose your shovel?

07.03.2026 02:41 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

We might offer an astrobiology class.

07.03.2026 02:20 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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a penguin holding a red white and blue flag with the word pengu on the bottom right ALT: a penguin holding a red white and blue flag with the word pengu on the bottom right

So… median height.

07.03.2026 02:12 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

That is EXCELLENT

07.03.2026 01:42 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

2+ hour faculty meeting. Yes.

07.03.2026 00:27 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Oh that looks like an interesting stack of books.

07.03.2026 00:12 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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a black and white dog is sitting on a couch with its tongue out and says `` wait ! what ?? '' . ALT: a black and white dog is sitting on a couch with its tongue out and says `` wait ! what ?? '' .
06.03.2026 20:15 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Opened a PowerPoint file that was emailed to me to scan a QR code in to go to a website πŸ™„πŸ™„πŸ™„

06.03.2026 18:26 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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a cartoon monkey in a pirate hat is playing drums and a guitar . ALT: a cartoon monkey in a pirate hat is playing drums and a guitar .
06.03.2026 14:38 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Hey ChatGPT, write me a fictional paper: these LLMs are willing to commit academic fraud Mainstream chatbots presented varying levels of resistance to deliberate requests for fabrication, study finds.

Why tenured academics and administrators insist that using this technology is unproblematic and just how the future should work with none of our input is baffling to me. Feels like a modern cargo cult.

05.03.2026 11:54 πŸ‘ 430 πŸ” 92 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 0
06.03.2026 12:51 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The book is fantastic. Yes it’s fun and a welcoming space.

06.03.2026 12:49 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Suggested this book for the UofL book club and everyone loved it.

Think a room of humanities women geeking out over the construction and clever writing on display + yours truly.

Now I have a super high bar for my next suggestion.

06.03.2026 12:40 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

ENJOY!

06.03.2026 00:43 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

*puts on episode 187 of the rise and fall of sanctuary moon.*

05.03.2026 20:21 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Historian here history first time as tragedy the second time as farce.

05.03.2026 14:11 πŸ‘ 6033 πŸ” 2136 πŸ’¬ 114 πŸ“Œ 123

This is very neat. Makes sense when you think about the importance of the night sky to navigation.

05.03.2026 15:48 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The change to daylight savings time is announced with cannon blasts and sirens.

Feels that way anyway so why not?

05.03.2026 12:33 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This was the shock to Europe. Having deep magazines costs a lot.

Expending said magazines…

Anyway big cuts coming to EU health care and education…

05.03.2026 00:00 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
04.03.2026 02:55 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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a close up of a jet engine with flames on it Alt: a close up of a jet engine with flames on it

And we take a look at our system.

04.03.2026 00:35 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Yup. Of course the military originally set a range of options for interceptors that were more budget friendly but we ended up with only the gold-plated one that costs that much.

(I have sympathy for those in uniform wanting something to shoot down incoming drones/missles etc.)

04.03.2026 00:19 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This is a national embarrassment.

04.03.2026 00:07 πŸ‘ 177 πŸ” 19 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Welcome to march. Your clever todo manager/system/thing is either smoking or actively on fire. There are still two months in the semester.

03.03.2026 23:23 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0