#AI, made in our own image:

Anthropic researchers find leading AI models used in corporate applications may resort to malicious behavior when threatened, including blackmail and leaking sensitive documents.

https://www.anthropic.com/research/agentic-misalignment?utm_placement=newsletter&user_id=67f3e3d44061ea13b507a136

So did you take the pledge? If you did (or even if you didn't), you can follow up with real action by assessing your outdoor lighting:
https://darksky.org/get-involved/home-lighting-assessment/

“Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He's weak and he's ineffective. So the only way he figures that he's going to get reelected, and as sure as you're sitting there, is to start a war with Iran.”

— Donald Trump on Barack Obama in 2011

Here's a great in-depth article about the environmental threats to the night by @NebulousNikki: https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/loss-of-the-night-sky

Yes, I'm late to the party. But maybe you are too!

Take the DarkSky pledge to protect dark skies:
https://idsw.darksky.org/?recruiter_id=12338

Navigation by the stars is not just for humans.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09135-3?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=6fe00bd973-nature-briefing-daily-20250619&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-33f35e09ea-50173876

Why yes, as a 3D data visualization tool, a digital planetarium can indeed become a unique scientific instrument of discovery.
#astronomy #3Dvis #SciComm

https://apnews.com/article/museum-planetarium-oort-cloud-b0050c65ebff830812b505cdd8c476ec

Liquid sodium batteries.. What could possibly go wrong?
https://news.mit.edu/2025/new-fuel-cell-could-enable-electric-aviation-0527?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter&user_id=67f3e3d44061ea13b507a136

Fantastic set of #MilkyWay pics from the 2025 Milky Way photographer of the year contest:
https://capturetheatlas.com/milky-way-photographer-of-the-year/

@arstechnica Gosh, I wonder what politically motivated individual could have had such unfettered access to the Grok's programming to push his biased agenda.

Grok’s “white genocide” obsession came from “unauthorized” prompt edit, xAI says
Meanwhile, Grok's authorized prompt asks it to "provide truthful and based insights."
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/05/groks-white-genocide-obsession-came-from-unauthorized-prompt-edit-xai-says/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Apparently for #NASA the "right stuff" is, still, white and male. Amazing how quickly decades of cultural progress can be erased in a few weeks.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/nasa-celebrated-this-employees-story-of-resilience-then-tried-to-scrub-it-from-the-internet-then-fired-her

Please no.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-rival-ast-spacemobile-launch-243-giant-satellites-by-2028

Now these are worth looking at:

images from the 2025 GDT Nature Photographer of the Year awards

https://www.popsci.com/environment/2025-gdt-nature-photographer-of-the-year-awards/?utm_placement=newsletter&user_id=67f3e3d44061ea13b507a136

As the saying goes, "You can't make this stuff up." Well, actually someone did.

RT @arstechnica
SpaceX pushed “sniper” theory with the feds far more than is publicly known
"It came out of nowhere, and it was really violent."
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/05/spacex-pushed-sniper-theory-with-the-feds-far-more-than-is-publicly-known/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

@brunthal @History_of_Geology
"Gauss chose the first names of his children in honour of Giuseppe Piazzi, Wilhelm Olbers, and Karl Ludwig Harding, the discoverers of the first asteroids."
Sounds like an astronomer to me.

@History_of_Geology @brunthal
He was also the guy who developed a very practical method to determine orbits from only three observations. I guess that means he was also an astronomer?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauss%27s_method

@elizabethtasker What about the crows? 😉

@sundogplanets Q: How do you bring down a Kardashev II civilization?
A: Throw a rock at it.