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August (Gus) Muench

@augustfly

data editor in New Haven; tree/bird/sky watcher; former Bostonian/Floridian/IR Astronomer

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13.06.2023
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Latest posts by August (Gus) Muench @augustfly

RAS... RASCAL KING bc you needed a Mighty Mighty Bosstones afternoon break after all those meetings?

03.03.2026 22:54 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Build Your Peer Review Skills at #AAS248

If you’d like to feel more confident the next time you’re asked by an editor to peer review a paper, consider applying to attend the upcoming AAS Peer Review Training Workshop in Pasadena on 14 June 2026. aas.org/posts/news/2... πŸ”­

@publishing.aas.org

03.03.2026 19:44 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples’ Movements An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations. ICE has bought access to similar t...

SCOOP: An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations.

This surveillance can happen through all sorts of apps, such as video games, news apps, weather trackers, and dating apps.

03.03.2026 14:16 πŸ‘ 2144 πŸ” 1421 πŸ’¬ 59 πŸ“Œ 166
AAS Journal Author Series - 2026 Edition
AAS Journal Author Series - 2026 Edition YouTube video by AAS

πŸŽ₯ 2026 AAS Journals Author Series Update!

Frank Timmes, AAS Journals Scientific Editor, shares the β€œwhy” behind the series β€” why we create these videos, what the metrics show, how we reached 500+ videos, and how featured articles are selected. πŸ”­ youtu.be/1_U5WsSXzmU

@publishing.aas.org

27.02.2026 16:46 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Right? I've seen some rails in my day, but never _that_ close. Love the variation in grey cheeks among the different varieties.

27.02.2026 13:59 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I do realize it. It was wrong, and I apologize.

25.02.2026 21:04 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This whole LLzm debate is fraught with bomb throwers tossing around deterministic and polarizing language. I wish those of us, especially those of us in publishing, would refrain from it.

25.02.2026 17:04 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Using (or not) an LLM does not divide a study into bad or good outcomes. That’s just dualist thinking…

Wiki: Dualism is a family of views proposing a fundamental division into two separate principles or kinds. It typically emphasizes a sharp distinction between independent or antagonistic sides

25.02.2026 17:02 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Why would characterizing research papers through automatically assigned keywords be concerning? Or are we just engaging in a little LLM dualism for fun and kicks?

25.02.2026 15:19 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Participants in the AAS Publishing peer review workshop at the 246th AAS Meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, pose together holding certificates of completion.

Participants in the AAS Publishing peer review workshop at the 246th AAS Meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, pose together holding certificates of completion.

Build Your Peer Review Skills at #AAS248

If you’d like to feel more confident the next time you’re asked by an editor to peer review a paper, consider applying to attend the upcoming AAS Peer Review Training Workshop in Pasadena on 14 June 2026. aas.org/posts/news/2... πŸ”­

@publishing.aas.org

24.02.2026 16:23 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools

yeah, the wave.webaim.org checker is really good with spotting these, and its interface is very nice.

05.02.2026 14:59 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

That is super. FWIW color contrast issues are almost more pervasive than color blindness concerns, but not bc they affect a larger population. The coupling of the two makes for the worst color-blindness cases I find in journal figures: low contrast red/green shading == totes inaccessible.

05.02.2026 14:28 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

we have over 50 questions so far so let’s bother them more!!

join us live now:

04.02.2026 17:04 πŸ‘ 39 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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Editorial: On the Use of Chatbots in Writing Scientific Manuscripts Commentary from the AAS Journals

I can easily say that we have @ethan-vishniac.bsky.social 's March 2023 editorial (acknowledge+cite), and I think I can say there is a sincere ongoing effort to craft another tier up in terms of policy (how can there not be!!!). What that will look like I do not know.

doi.org/10.3847/25c2...

03.02.2026 15:19 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

These are instances where authors state their genAI/LLM usage (as is policy). In other cases, which are likely many/most, the reader has no idea. I personally don't see how knocking someone for stated usage is productive to a conversation that (a) must happen; (b) will have many many facets.

02.02.2026 16:24 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Screen shot of the SciX interface with the first result of a search for acknowledgements text mentioning ChatGPT/OpenAI/Anthropic.  A purple arrow points to the "marker" icon, which when pressed shows the full text mention of those terms extracted from the article. In this case the article text reads, "We used OpenAI's ChatGPT (Open AI 2025) during the preparation of this manuscript."

Screen shot of the SciX interface with the first result of a search for acknowledgements text mentioning ChatGPT/OpenAI/Anthropic. A purple arrow points to the "marker" icon, which when pressed shows the full text mention of those terms extracted from the article. In this case the article text reads, "We used OpenAI's ChatGPT (Open AI 2025) during the preparation of this manuscript."

For the SciX newbies click the ink/pen icon thingy

02.02.2026 15:41 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

(((ack:"ChatGPT" or ack:"OpenAI" or "Anthropic")) AND year:2023-)

(astronomy db only)

scixplorer.org/search?d=ast...

02.02.2026 15:37 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

One day the industry will recognize the drawbacks of AI agents and nondeterministic automation, and rediscover the UNIX philosophy of chaining together small purpose built tools in a low cost and predictable way, otherwise known as shell scripts.

09.10.2025 11:22 πŸ‘ 965 πŸ” 172 πŸ’¬ 29 πŸ“Œ 24
LaTeX Markup Best Practices for Successful HTML Papers - arXiv info | arXiv e-print repository

I love the "don't do this example" here -- omg the things people do in latex: info.arxiv.org/help/submit_...

30.01.2026 22:30 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Similarly, with LaTeXML, the dev cycles prob quickly attain a good level of HTML conversion, but the latex ecosystem is so ridiculously broad that expecting LaTeXML to eventually support your favorite deluxetable feature is prob unwise. Note, yes, we need to do more with AASTeX here. (3/3)

30.01.2026 22:29 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

From what I understand the core a11y updates for latex are being pushed out, but converting the entire ecosystem is prob impossible. So you have to be conscious about the choice of rando packages loaded into your ms. (2/3)

30.01.2026 22:27 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Yes! LaTeXML is getting much better! I actually went to comment on this thread earlier, so I appreciate the call out. In the end, I think that one has to be willing give up some of the infinite customization that latex offers to achieve accessible manuscripts. (1/3)

30.01.2026 22:26 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

which is a good thing btw

27.01.2026 17:37 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I'm sure _JOHN CAGE_ would protest that replacement if he could... Though thanks to this post I now know that Cage was an anarchist...

27.01.2026 17:35 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

This has to become a preflight check implemented by Journals (e.g., us) and applied to preprints. I agree with you that it is not a reviewer's job, and I'll add that waiting until the article has been accepted is way way too late. @ethan-vishniac.bsky.social

22.01.2026 02:03 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Including AAS Director of Scholarly Publishing @kerrykroffe.bsky.social , AAS Editorial Operations Manager Alex Andrews, and AAS Journals Data Editors Greg Schwarz and @augustfly.bsky.social! Check out our list of events in this AAS Nova pre- #AAS247 post!

02.01.2026 19:47 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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AAS Publishing at AAS 247 in Phoenix AAS Publishing will be attending the upcoming AAS meeting in Phoenix. Here's where you can find the publishing team during the conference.

AAS Publishing will be attending the upcoming AAS meeting in Phoenix. Here’s where you can find the publishing team during the conference. aasnova.org/2026/01/02/a... #AAS247 πŸ”­

02.01.2026 17:11 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Graphic advertising a American Astronomical Society meeting workshop, which states, "AAS 247 still time to register. Free 1 hour workshops Sunday. Pick your session (3 choices). Accelerate your science (infinite possibilities)" with the Science Explorer logo and SciXplorer.org website address below five vertical rectangles containing NASA photographs representing the disciplines of Earth science, planetary science, astrophysics, heliophysics, and biological and physical sciences.

Graphic advertising a American Astronomical Society meeting workshop, which states, "AAS 247 still time to register. Free 1 hour workshops Sunday. Pick your session (3 choices). Accelerate your science (infinite possibilities)" with the Science Explorer logo and SciXplorer.org website address below five vertical rectangles containing NASA photographs representing the disciplines of Earth science, planetary science, astrophysics, heliophysics, and biological and physical sciences.

#AAS247 #SciX curious?

Ready to commit to the new powerful #ADSabs interface?
Just want the ADS Classic secret sauce?

Join @scixcommunity.bsky.social Sun Jan 4 for a free 1-hour workshop (sessions at 1:15, 2:15, 3:15 PM)

#astrophysics β˜€οΈ #planetaryscience #NASAscience #openscience #earthscience

23.12.2025 20:21 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
AAS Responds to Reported Dismantling of NCAR | American Astronomical Society The AAS is deeply concerned by the recent announcement that the National Science Foundation (NSF) intends to β€œrestructure” the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) by narrowing the scop...

The AAS is deeply concerned by the recent announcement that the NSF intends to β€œrestructure” the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) by narrowing the scope of its scientific investigations and stripping it of key assets used in those investigations. aas.org/posts/news/2... πŸ”­

19.12.2025 20:28 πŸ‘ 30 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Release of UAT Version 6.0.0 – Unified Astronomy Thesaurus

Version 6 of the Unified Astronomy Thesaurus was released this week. This version primarily creates a new top level "heliophysics" concept and reorganizes subsidiary concepts between this top level and the Solar System top-level. More to come in 2026!

astrothesaurus.org/release-of-u...

18.12.2025 21:16 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0