Michael Murphy

Tell me your sports club isn't really about sports, without telling me …

You almost certainly have, and that was almost certainly true when you'd signed up to half the things you're signed up to.

Run.

It gradually begins to dawn that replacing web sites with apps distributed through easily-controlled chokepoints was a terrible idea

Good! That's comforting. I'm just surprised that that level or coordination and dedication to a public good still exists in university IT departments and amongst the bean counters. May it long continue!

An Xkcd comic showing how dependency works, with an illustration where a small block is holding up a ton of other blocks, with the note that the one small block represents (in the sense of the comic) a passion project of a random coder in Nebraska upon which all modern technology depends to operate.

Given how on-campus IT “services” have evolved in the last 15 years, I constantly find it astonishing that eduroam works. Anywhere. I haven’t looked into why or how it works, but I am guessing it’s one of these:

Why is ex-British PM Tony Blair involved in Trump's Gaza recovery plan? US President Donald Trump has unveiled his proposed peace plan for Gaza — pitching the return of a former British prime minister as its coordinator.

The answer may be simpler than you think!

ADS has given astronomy THE BEST literature tools available anywhere. I almost never have to use the garbage that other academics have to suffer through (GoogleScholar, JSTOR, LexisNexis, WoS, PubMed...)

Literally anytime I have to interface with those tools I weep

Of course they will. Awful. I just wondered if there was simple way to make the data absolutely useless etc. Sorry that this is happening. I do not imagine it will be long before it arrives here (Australia), if it hasn’t already.

Is there a simple way to make it think you went into your office but didn’t leave? You know, so the data are useless? If many people do that …

A SmartViz monitoring device installed at a university.

Very much enjoying the culture of trust and respect implicit in the installation of room usage monitoring devices on academics' office doors today. Imagine my shock on discovering that managers' doors remain unsullied…

She basically invented astrophysics.
She proved the laws of chemistry, quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics, not just gravity, applied universally.
She determined the composition of the sun and primacy of hydrogen in the universe.
She advised the PhDs of Frank Drake and Frank Kameny.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪

Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students.

I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:

Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need - scoop.me In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Why? The country applies the "Housing First" concept agains homelessness.

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”

It costs a lot less to house people.

It's busy out there. We live in a shooting gallery, just lucky we are a small moving target. 🔭

Me: i’m Autistic

Them: Oh you take things literally

Me: No that’s kleptomania

Make fossil fuel exporters pay for the damage they are causing, not ordinary Australians Climate change is making natural disasters like fires, floods, heatwaves and drought worse, costing Australians billions every year. Make fossil fuel producers pay a climate disaster levy to help pay...

We’re calling on the government to introduce a National Climate Disaster Levy. A Levy like this would force the fossil fuel exporters, the companies that are causing this damage, to pay their fair share – not everyday Australians.

Sign the petition.

nb.australiainstitute.org.au/climatedisas...

Another "climate wake-up call". Government says it's bad. Real bad.

That's funny, I remember reading something about the same people approving the expansion of Woodside's North West Shelf gas export project out to 2070.

A portrait of Einstein and Hawking with a binary black hole in between. It is rather dramatic, and shows cool light-bending effects.

"Ten years ago, scientists heard the universe rumble for the first time. That first discovery of gravitational waves began a new era of astronomy."

@simon-stevenson.bsky.social writes about gravitational-wave astronomy today

theconversation.com/10-years-ago...

#GW10Years 🔭🧪⚛️

🖼️: C Knox

Researchers want to shift funds away from low-quality ministers

Not Zero.

Australia news live: Labor approves extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas export project until 2070 Follow live

Disgraceful.

No govt that actually cares about climate change would do this.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

ANU vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell resigns amid crisis of confidence in leadership Resignation follows tumultuous period marked by redundancies, proposed course closures and allegations of a toxic work culture * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The vice-chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU) has tendered her resignation after a tumultuous two years at the institution, marked by redundancies, proposed course closures, and allegations of a toxic work culture. Multiple sources confirmed Prof Genevieve Bell had advised the council of her decision on Wednesday evening, with Provost Rebekah Brown to be interim vice chancellor until a replacement is found. Continue reading...

ANU vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell resigns amid crisis of confidence in leadership

arviv > physics > arXiv:2508.09167 Physics > Popular Physics [Submitted on 6 Aug 2025] The Loeb Scale: Astronomical Classification of Interstellar Objects Omer Eldadi, Gershon Tenenbaum, Abraham Loeb The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is expected to increase interstellar object (ISO) detections from a few over the past decade to potentially one per few months, demanding a systematic classification scheme. We present the Loeb Scale, formally the Interstellar Object Significance Scale (IOSS), a 0-10 classification system extending the proven Torino Scale framework, to address ISOs' unique anomalies, including potential technosignatures. The scale provides quantitative thresholds for natural phenomena (Levels 0-3) and graduated protocols for increasingly anomalous characteristics (Levels 4-7), with Levels 8-10 reserved for confirmed artificial origin. Each level specifies observable criteria and response protocols. We demonstrate the scale's application using 1l/'Oumuamua (Level 4), 21/Borisov (Level 0), and 3I/ATLAS (Level 4) as test cases. The Loeb Scale provides the astronomical community with a standardized framework for consistent, evidence-based and dynamic evaluation while maintaining scientific rigor across the full spectrum of possibilities as we enter an era of routine ISO encounters. Comments: 19 pages, 1 table Subjects: Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

Search... Help | Advanc arxiv> astro-ph > arxiv:2509.06253 Astrophysics > Earth and Planetary Astrophysics /Submitted on 8 Sep 2025] Quantitative Mapping of the Loeb Scale Oem Trivedi, Abraham Loeb he recent discovery of a third interstellar object (ISO) 31/ATLAS, following Il/*Oumuamua and 2l/Borisov, has raised questions about the nature and origin of these enigmatic objects. With the Vera C. Rubin Observatory expected to discover dozens of new ISOs over the next decade, it is timely to use a classification scheme for their nature in the context of the recently proposed Loeb scale. Here, we provide a formalism for ranking ISOs quantitatively on the Loeb Scale in analogy to Sagan's formalism for mapping the Kardashev scale based on the energy output of technological civilizations. Comments: 11 pages with no figures, comments are welcome Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

omg how did I miss this (by Eldadi, Tenenbaum, and Loeb) and its follow-up today? 🧪
arxiv.org/abs/2508.09167
arxiv.org/abs/2509.06253

e-petitions e-petitions

Protecting darkness and minimising light pollution is important for human and wildlife health. Please consider signing and sharing this petition.

Petition EN7346 - National Legislation for Light Pollution Regulation and Dark Sky Preservation www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/...

Closes 19 September.

If you need "drop-in sessions" to help your intelligent-but-time-poor staff understand how to use even the most basic functions of the software you bought (for millions!), you've been had. Absolutely had.

As an activist who helped lead the campaign against Robodebt, I can only think back to the days when legal scholars told us we had no chance of winning in court, and how I thought, fuck it, we’ll keep fighting anyway

The Robodebt class action payout is now the largest *ever* in Australian history

Just remember: No-one has been jailed for Robodebt. Or even held vaguely responsible.

Looks like someone became aware of the cost of something, but not its value.

(Unfortunately, I think this statement applies to the way universities are managed more broadly)

I hope it was – looks more like a PhD student dungeon!

There's even instructions for running the telescope left on the whiteboard :)