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Alix Hui

@alixhui.bsky.social

4.4K followers 3.9K following 540 posts

Historian of science, environment, sound, and silence. Raising small kids through covid. Pie hobbyist. The Johnny Appleseed of googly-eyes.

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Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · 17d

Back on the Metro, eyes peeled for my Nutella colonel.

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · 18d

Am in DC for a few days for the GSA. Was ambivalent about seeing the city I used to adore so changed. Made and held eye-contact tonight with an USAF officer (LOTS of stripes/badges/flair?) that was riding in one of the sideways seats with the biggest container of Nutella I’ve ever seen next to him.

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · 18d

On the Metro! If that wasn’t clear.

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · 18d

Am in DC for a few days for the GSA. Was ambivalent about seeing the city I used to adore so changed. Made and held eye-contact tonight with an USAF officer (LOTS of stripes/badges/flair?) that was riding in one of the sideways seats with the biggest container of Nutella I’ve ever seen next to him.

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · 27d

Before I go dark on Bluesky for a bit (returning to MS), sharing some heartwarming tidbits I collected in LA this week: First, my Doktorvater’s goldfish survived the Palisades fire in his little pond, soot and all. Second, my niece’s school sings Felix Navidad in Mandarin at their holiday pageant.

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · 27d

Now you have a (bathroom) quest!

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · 27d

(That “like” was for agreeing that it’s dismaying, especially with the second, seemingly unconnected hanged body found that is being investigated)

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · 27d

It might be getting more coverage on other social media platforms (remember Mississippians are blocked from using Bluesky).

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · 27d

It’s hung too high. Have you tried taking it off the wall to see if it’s covering something even weirder up?

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · 27d

Mmm, I travel out of state enough that it’s probably healthier for me to just take breaks. Plus don’t need to be doing stuff that seems kinda sorta shady while folks are actively looking for reasons to harass academics.

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · 27d

Heading back to the severed floor/Mississippi today, so doomscrolling all the Bluesky I can for the next several hours.

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Sep 14

Drywall. If you lay the panels horizontal, the tiny seams that form from impatient mudding are at exactly my eye-height.

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Sep 14

(So I don’t feel any better)

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Sep 14

Already having a tough day so thought I’d cheer myself up by working on archive requests for my Monday visit. Searched “LA civilian defense” in the hopes of finding some information on the siren infrastructure but the first several hits are civilian exclusion orders targeting Japanese Americans.

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Sep 12

You’re amazing!

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Sep 12

Everything is terrible and terrifying so instead of finishing my guest lecture slides, I’m trying to write a limerick about it. Any suggestions on words that rhyme epistemology? Yellow-eyed vireo?

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Sep 11

Just touched down in ATL and popped open Bluesky for the first time in 12 days - been locked out because Mississippi. What’s been going on? Anything happen?

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Aug 30

I’m at a tucked away, very mediocre concourse restaurant where they serve the only chickenless salad (desirable) in the whole airport. They are blasting Boyz II Men and multiple people, servers and patrons, have stopped everything to sing along. ATL is amazing in unexpected ways.

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Aug 30

One of the more adorable language hiccups my son used to have was mishearing and misremembering cuttlefish so that he called them snugglefish.

Memento (Spooky) Morty 🌙 @mementomorty.bsky.social · Aug 30

who wants a danger hug

A comic with 6 panels

1 a cartoon god sits at a desk, reading a paper, an adorable green cuttlefish in a bowl in front of him
"You're a cuttlefish" -god
"Yay! I love hugs!" -cuttlefish

2 zoom in on green cuttlefish in bowl, looking sad
"that's not what I meant" - god
"oh"-cuttlefish

3 happy looking cuttlefish almost jumping out of bowl
"you have eight arms and two tentacles" -god
"for hugs?" -cuttlefish

4 sad cuttlefish again in bowl
"*sigh* no, not for hugs" -god
"oh" - cuttlefish

5 zoom in on god
"also, you're venomous" -god

6 happy cuttlefish, eyes big and full of tears
"danger hugs!"

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Aug 29

Congratulations! This is great!

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Aug 28

Attended the opening reception for the "IQ: Hva forteller testene?" exhibit at the Univ. of Oslo Historical Museum this evening. Lots of good material on the history of intelligence testing, my favorite being the cheerful diagnostic toys. The opening quotes were a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.

A photograph of a display of colorful wooden toys -- trees, cars, various animals -- that psychologists would ask children to arrange. These arrangements would then be analyzed to diagnose mental disorders

A photograph of a cheerful wooden panel of various people doing activities with squares missing. Children would place square tiles with images of objects on them where they thought appropriate. Their placement would be analyzed by psychologists to determine criminal potential.

A photograph of the first part of the opening panel of the exhibition. It is a collection of quotes by famous people about intelligence.
"I'm a very compassionate person (with a very high IQ). - Donald J. Trump, U.S. President, 2013.

A photograph of the second part of the opening panel of the exhibit. There is a description of the driving questions of the exhibit as well as more quotes by famous people about intelligence.
"People who boast about the IQ are losers." - Stephen Hawking, British physicist, 2017

Reposted by Alix Hui

Oren Samet @osamet.bsky.social · Aug 28

I know there's a lot happening today, but this is sneaking in under the radar. This proposed new rule would absolutely crush foreign PhD students, potentially making it impossible for them to enroll with any certainty of their ability to finish www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Aug 25

(It didn't actually trample me to death, in case that wasn't clear)

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Aug 25

5. Listening to Palestrina as I walk down the wood path & consider my host’s note that this is the season the moose come into gardens to eat apples. As I observe the many laden-down apple trees around me, (because “Kyrie”) I don’t hear the moose barreling through the trees & trampling me to death.

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Aug 25

4. Zoom meeting with an artist about sound & cetacean fossils & jaw-bone fat & reconstructing historical hydrophones & sharing sound recordings of Global South oceans as activism, made extra thrilling w/an audio connection in which his voice crackling & robotic, like he was calling from a submarine.

Alix Hui @alixhui.bsky.social · Aug 25

3. Looked up from staring too long at a smushed slug on the forest path to the market (yay, infrastructure!) to find an old man with a walker grinning at me. He nodded. I smiled back. I love the secret-international-way-too-curious-about-smooshed-bugs society!