John F Wu

New job opportunity at @stsci.edu: Senior Astronomical Data Scientist for data analysis tools, working closely with my team and me.

This role is very similar to mine. If you have questions, I'm happy to answer them. 🧪🔭

AISLE Discovered 12 out of 12 OpenSSL Vulnerabilities AISLE's autonomous analyzer found all 12 CVEs in the January 2026 coordinated release of OpenSSL, the open-source cryptographic library that underp...

AI discovered 12 securities in OpenSSL(!) which were confirmed and patched by the devs.

Article is obviously a bit self-promotey, but imo deservingly so.

aisle.com/blog/aisle-d...

The Astrosky Ecosystem: An independent online platform for science communication and social networking While almost everything that astronomers study occurs in the vacuum of space, astronomy itself does not `happen in a vacuum'. Interactions between scientists, as well as outreach to members of the pub...

"While almost everything that astronomers study occurs in the vacuum of space, astronomy itself does not 'happen in a vacuum'.

Interactions between scientists, as well as outreach to members of the public, improve extensively from access to good communication tools."

Paper day! ⤵️

~2 minutes of sleet just now in Baltimore. Knocked over all the little pipes of snow on leaves and such

DHS funding bill faces new Senate hurdles after another person killed in Minneapolis Some Democrats who voted for recent funding bills said they'll vote against any DHS bill without restrictions on enforcement operations. The deadline to avert a shutdown is Friday.

YOUR PHONE CALLS TO THE SENATE ARE WORKING. KEEP CALLING.

202–224-3121

Three Democrats who previously broke with the party and voted with the GOP are now saying they will not vote for the bill. That’s enough for the bill to be unpassable right now.

Flurries scattered around Baltimore when the relative humidity is just 31%.

Dew point expected to rise from -23C this afternoon to -3C tomorrow!

Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA. We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse- I lover working with him. He was a good kind person who lived to help and these fuckers executed him.

White. Hot. Rage.

Deservedly so!

(Also felt surprisingly seen, as an Asian American who spent part of his childhood in rural Louisiana)

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

This was the Euro AIFS initialized yesterday; obviously an outlier as I was saying to @astromarc.bsky.social

Oh yeah, this one was certainly an outlier.

Some models (Euro) had as much as 50" in Washington DC! 🤪

Hard to say if this storm -- arriving probably late Saturday -- will impact the Philly area or stay farther south. Regardless, Baltimore hasn't managed to get (or keep) much snow this season!

GFS showing major snow/ice precipitation event this weekend (early Sunday morning); with snow ranging from Texas/New Mexico all the way through Delmarva region.

Yes.... Ha ha ha... Yes!

Well that was a good game

This is stupid stuff, and I'm absolutely not defending the goons, but I think this page specifies that the $10,000 limit applies to a family/household, even if no one person exceeds it

www.help.cbp.gov/s/article/Ar...

Today I was staring at some museum art piece, thinking that it looked kind of AI generated, when a nearby docent came over and mistook my interest for genuine admiration and then proceeded to explain the artist's life history and motivations and unappreciated genius

The most informative thread I've read on auroras!

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Theory and practice The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Theory and practice, Wright, Jason T

My textbook on SETI is published!

I hope you like it!

Please see if your libraries offer a free download—mine does!

iopscience.iop.org/book/mono/97...

🧪🔭

Didn't see many salt trucks earlier today... Not sure if they had already treated the roads but the rain washed it out?

It's good that they plan these things ahead

2027 is the year of the locust
2028 is the year of alpha radiation

Erdos problems, a set of famous difficult math challenges, are a clear example of AI models breaching a threshold. The idea that an AI could solve one, let alone many, would have been insane a year ago (o1 was brand new). Now we have multiple Erdos problems solved by GPT-5.2 in the last couple weeks

I'm unreasonably excited for the Bad Bunny super bowl halftime show

Another telling of this piece of history by local young filmmakers:
vimeo.com/1127642117

Jones Falls Gateway About this ProjectThe Jones Falls Gateway Project seeks to transform a narrow, discontinuous sidewalk along the south side of Falls Road and Lanvale Street — between the CSX Bridge underpass (next to ...

For my fellow Baltimorons: Jones Falls Gateway public meeting tomorrow.

streetsofbaltimore.com/jonesfallsga...

At the center of the frame are two interacting galaxies against the black background of space. They look like a faded lowercase q. The brightest region is at the bottom of the loop of the q, forming a large orb with a bright white center. The rest of the shape is in much lighter blues. Throughout the background, there are a few stars with four bright diffraction spikes at the edges, a larger spiral galaxy seen edge-on at top left, and many more teeny stars and galaxies throughout.

At the center, two galaxies known as NGC 3921 are in the late stages of merging. Their collision started about 700 million years ago. Their clash, captured by Hubble, caused a rush of star formation.

Credit: ESA, NASA; Judy Schmidt.

Congratulations Kailash! He has led some truly creative and inspiring work!

Not sure why the fans are booing... did anyone really think the Steelers would advance?

ICE "legal refresher"

From ICE legal refresher slide deck What is NOT a violation of 18 USC §111? - Passive resistance alone is NOT conduct under 18 USC §111 - Examples: - Noncompliance/refusal to cooperate with officer's commands - Disobeying commands without fighting back - Taking photographs or videotaping an officer or operation in public

Also Bovino: can somebody around these parts send us a refresher on the first amendment?

www.kenklippenstein.com/p/immigratio...