Prof. Joey "Barely a Footnote" Neilsen's Avatar

Prof. Joey "Barely a Footnote" Neilsen

@joeyneilsen

Black hole astrophysicist at Villanova. Formerly: MIT, Boston University, Harvard, Kenyon College | X-rays | husband | dad of 2 | cooking. He/him. Skeets are my own.

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Latest posts by Prof. Joey "Barely a Footnote" Neilsen @joeyneilsen

I find out tomorrow if I have to report on Thursday (having already postponed as long as I could).

10.03.2026 23:38 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
two cartoon characters are sitting next to each other and one of them is saying " uh no they 're saying " Alt: Smithers assures Mr Burns that the angry crowd is saying β€œboo-urns” not β€œboo Burns.”
10.03.2026 20:17 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
From @theoatmeal.bsky.social (https://theoatmeal.com/comics/email_monster), a laptop projectile-vomits dozens of email envelopes with a large THBBBBTT!!!, knocking over a person sitting in a chair. A tentacled email monster says LOLOLOLOLOL

From @theoatmeal.bsky.social (https://theoatmeal.com/comics/email_monster), a laptop projectile-vomits dozens of email envelopes with a large THBBBBTT!!!, knocking over a person sitting in a chair. A tentacled email monster says LOLOLOLOLOL

anyone else trying to take a sip from a firehose today?

10.03.2026 19:29 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Also the "eagle" scream is a red-tailed hawk, if I recall correctly.

10.03.2026 04:32 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Related: the kids these days have not seen Contact, so you don't have to bother referencing it 😢 πŸ¦—

10.03.2026 00:22 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

be an expert in your field or you'll be left behind

09.03.2026 17:02 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

In my #OTD threads I often try to draw attention to important scientists who historically haven't received the same recognition as their peers.

A science education involves a lot of lore: Stories and anecdotes meant to flesh out a narrative about the development of a field...

08.03.2026 20:37 πŸ‘ 57 πŸ” 18 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 3
Preview
The Edge of Space-Time by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein: 9780593701683 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A fresh, charming, socially conscious tour of the mysteries of space-time, from the award-winning author of The Disordered Cosmos In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle...

Hello! One month from today I’m releasing my new book about our majestic universe, which thinks with poetry, quantum physics, relativity, Zhou kingdom philosophy, galaxies, particles, Akan aphorisms, Black feminism, Star Trek, Alice in Wonderland. AND it’s for all readers. πŸ“šπŸ’™

Please preorder it! 🧡

07.03.2026 20:19 πŸ‘ 665 πŸ” 222 πŸ’¬ 20 πŸ“Œ 24

Imagine a spherical harmonic cow

05.03.2026 20:31 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I'm not sure how much more evidence school administrators and teachers need before they put a stop to socializing children into lifelong Google customers and users of Gemini, but I sure hope that day arrives sooner rather than later.

04.03.2026 14:37 πŸ‘ 89 πŸ” 28 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2

Technically true tho lol

03.03.2026 23:50 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The guy said the whole piece was written by Claude. So I think the value of it is zero.

03.03.2026 19:21 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Students are getting "you'll fall behind" messages from every direction, but I can only tell a finite number of them that knowing how to think for yourself isn't falling behind... it's a perfect example of the bullshit asymmetry principle.

03.03.2026 13:04 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Kid behavior level ♾️

Today: [first day of spring break for mom and dad]

Kid: 🀒 [stays home from school]

02.03.2026 13:15 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

TFW the diy fridge repair you’ve been putting off for weeks takes 4.5 hours and doesn’t appear to have helped until 3 days later.

01.03.2026 18:46 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

reminding me of the time that i opened the book and picked an intro physics problem for pre-med students to do in group work and the solution turned out to involve a quartic equation in cosΞΈ.

28.02.2026 03:15 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

i have so many more questions than i want

25.02.2026 20:52 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

0/10 so confusing

25.02.2026 16:42 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The night before I took the Physics GRE, I dreamt all night that my clock was wrong and that I had to figure out the formula to calculate the correct time so that I wouldn't miss the test. Every time I woke up in the night, I looked at the clock and wondered if that was the real time. πŸ˜΅β€πŸ’«

25.02.2026 16:41 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

in cleaning out my mom's house, i found a letter from my mom to her mom circa 1987 in which she described my dad going in for a follow-up cholesterol test (having eaten hamburgers for breakfast *and* lunch immediately before his previous test).

24.02.2026 04:06 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Maybe the real joke was the work we did along the way

24.02.2026 02:51 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

thin mints implies the existence of thick mints

24.02.2026 02:26 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Honey, I Shrunk the Jorts

24.02.2026 01:50 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2

can God create a question so bleak that it answers itself

23.02.2026 20:39 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Screenshot of snowfall amounts from a weather app. For the next 24, 36, and 48 hours, it predicts cumulative snowfall of 1 in, <1 in, and 1 in.

Screenshot of snowfall amounts from a weather app. For the next 24, 36, and 48 hours, it predicts cumulative snowfall of 1 in, <1 in, and 1 in.

Something’s gonna happen in the next 36 hours 😳

23.02.2026 13:59 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

one of the best parts of being a dad is eating the last (cold) chicken nugget

23.02.2026 03:53 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
After Lisa Simpson asks asked what's inside him, Nelson (dressed up for an evening picnic) says "guts and black stuff... and about 50 slim jims."

After Lisa Simpson asks asked what's inside him, Nelson (dressed up for an evening picnic) says "guts and black stuff... and about 50 slim jims."

22.02.2026 22:13 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

is there any soup liberals ARE excited about?

18.02.2026 18:09 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I am hard-pressed to know what this image would mean even without the abomination.

18.02.2026 00:39 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Gung RoulΓ© Mubarak

17.02.2026 04:51 πŸ‘ 166 πŸ” 54 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0