🍁 Prof. Roasty Toasty Neilsen 🍗
@joeyneilsen.bsky.social
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.
Pinned
Wow hi new followers! I’m a physics professor and I study black holes. I’m here to talk about teaching, science, marriage, parenting, cooking, dogs, politics, my crumbling old house. I heart dad jokes. Trans rights are human rights, Black Lives Matter, and I abhor violence.
Wake up babe new trolley problem just dropped!
The scene: an 8 y/o and 11 y/o ostensibly going to bed
11 y/o: Ok 8, the person you love most in all the world is going to get hit by a train. You can flip a switch and save them, but if you do, your Amazon package will get run over. What do you do?
The scene: an 8 y/o and 11 y/o ostensibly going to bed
11 y/o: Ok 8, the person you love most in all the world is going to get hit by a train. You can flip a switch and save them, but if you do, your Amazon package will get run over. What do you do?
November 13, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Wake up babe new trolley problem just dropped!
The scene: an 8 y/o and 11 y/o ostensibly going to bed
11 y/o: Ok 8, the person you love most in all the world is going to get hit by a train. You can flip a switch and save them, but if you do, your Amazon package will get run over. What do you do?
The scene: an 8 y/o and 11 y/o ostensibly going to bed
11 y/o: Ok 8, the person you love most in all the world is going to get hit by a train. You can flip a switch and save them, but if you do, your Amazon package will get run over. What do you do?
Update: yaaaaaayyyyy!
November 12, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Update: yaaaaaayyyyy!
Social/emotional skills also come in handy outside of normal business hours! Even more than math!!
In my experience (physics PhD, etc.), it’s kind of the opposite: people who excel at math can often end up struggling badly without some social/emotional skills, in large part because (1) there’s always someone better at math than you and (2) most useful work involves using math creatively.
Tech brains broken part 1000000000 (this lady is a partner at Andreessen apparently)
November 12, 2025 at 2:11 AM
Social/emotional skills also come in handy outside of normal business hours! Even more than math!!
Anyone have an airship or a hot air balloon or a catapult? Asking for a friend who needs to get above the clouds.
PA FRIENDS GO SEE THE AURORA
Holy shit Pennsylvania go touch sky www.gi.alaska.edu/monitors/aur...
November 12, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Anyone have an airship or a hot air balloon or a catapult? Asking for a friend who needs to get above the clouds.
I once got bill for a 24-hour urine test that indicated that the cost to me without insurance would be $1,725.
"A development that appeared to break the logjam: Republicans proposed that healthcare funding be provided directly to households rather than used to pay for a 1-year extension of ACA subsidies. That involves sending federal money into FSAs instead of insurance companies" www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Republicans Pitch Alternative to ACA Extension to End Government Shutdown
A proposal by GOP senators to send money directly to consumers’ health accounts rather than to insurance companies showed signs of breaking a stalemate on negotiations.
www.wsj.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:57 PM
I once got bill for a 24-hour urine test that indicated that the cost to me without insurance would be $1,725.
RIP descartes you would have loved the bassoon solo in hotel california
This is now my platonic ideal of "a suggested post on IG" and also my sign to close the app
November 7, 2025 at 4:33 PM
RIP descartes you would have loved the bassoon solo in hotel california
“None of my positions are correct and I can be convinced of this. Debate me!”
ever more increasingly convinced that the basic definition of a “debate” is dead and a certain kind of guy is 100% responsible for killing it
November 6, 2025 at 11:23 PM
“None of my positions are correct and I can be convinced of this. Debate me!”
This is a win no matter how you slice it
November 6, 2025 at 8:05 PM
This is a win no matter how you slice it
I don't want to start a gold rush but I think it's about time to head to the nearest Safeway.
@discontinuedfoods.bsky.social Saw this at Safeway today and thought of you, as it has that “soon to be discontinued” look
November 6, 2025 at 5:24 PM
I don't want to start a gold rush but I think it's about time to head to the nearest Safeway.
Reposted by 🍁 Prof. Roasty Toasty Neilsen 🍗
if you can move... WITH NO LOSS OF GENERALITY... from sexual harassment in the workplace to the...
THREE POINT LINE in basketball... as foundational examples to how feminism has hurt the work place... i am terrified at your cognition
THREE POINT LINE in basketball... as foundational examples to how feminism has hurt the work place... i am terrified at your cognition
November 6, 2025 at 2:44 PM
if you can move... WITH NO LOSS OF GENERALITY... from sexual harassment in the workplace to the...
THREE POINT LINE in basketball... as foundational examples to how feminism has hurt the work place... i am terrified at your cognition
THREE POINT LINE in basketball... as foundational examples to how feminism has hurt the work place... i am terrified at your cognition
Reposted by 🍁 Prof. Roasty Toasty Neilsen 🍗
i dunno, it entered my head and now everyone else has to see it
November 2, 2025 at 3:50 AM
i dunno, it entered my head and now everyone else has to see it
Reposted by 🍁 Prof. Roasty Toasty Neilsen 🍗
Halloween vibe was a little off in my neighborhood this year. Decorations a little tamer than last year, felt like fewer houses giving candy and fewer kids out.
Everyone said "Happy Halloween," but deep down I think they just meant "Halloween."
Everyone said "Happy Halloween," but deep down I think they just meant "Halloween."
November 1, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Halloween vibe was a little off in my neighborhood this year. Decorations a little tamer than last year, felt like fewer houses giving candy and fewer kids out.
Everyone said "Happy Halloween," but deep down I think they just meant "Halloween."
Everyone said "Happy Halloween," but deep down I think they just meant "Halloween."
Halloween vibe was a little off in my neighborhood this year. Decorations a little tamer than last year, felt like fewer houses giving candy and fewer kids out.
Everyone said "Happy Halloween," but deep down I think they just meant "Halloween."
Everyone said "Happy Halloween," but deep down I think they just meant "Halloween."
November 1, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Halloween vibe was a little off in my neighborhood this year. Decorations a little tamer than last year, felt like fewer houses giving candy and fewer kids out.
Everyone said "Happy Halloween," but deep down I think they just meant "Halloween."
Everyone said "Happy Halloween," but deep down I think they just meant "Halloween."
So THAT's what they mean by "contingency plan."
Writing a whole movie about a failed Bayesian bank heist so I can give my detective the line “well, that’s one way to update your priors.”
October 27, 2025 at 3:44 PM
So THAT's what they mean by "contingency plan."
This should be the last time we do it
we're a week from that tomfoolery with the clocks again
October 25, 2025 at 10:55 PM
This should be the last time we do it
Just saw an ad for Claude where they say “find your problem.”
First time I’ve seen AI advertise itself as a solution in search of a problem.
First time I’ve seen AI advertise itself as a solution in search of a problem.
October 10, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Just saw an ad for Claude where they say “find your problem.”
First time I’ve seen AI advertise itself as a solution in search of a problem.
First time I’ve seen AI advertise itself as a solution in search of a problem.
Reposted by 🍁 Prof. Roasty Toasty Neilsen 🍗
A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.
October 9, 2025 at 11:49 AM
A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.
I think scientists are sometimes dismissive of creative work. It's sad for a lot of reasons, one of which is certainly that creative work makes the world a richer place to live. Another one is that scientists are extremely dependent on the idea machine and ought to celebrate all its many dispensers.
questions which are stupid because they're asking for magic shortcuts. They want to know how to do a thing without work.
Which is why also creatives are often treated like what we do isn't work
NOT REALLY.
When skull sweat is labor and laborous.
Anyway when all else fails, sleep on it.
Which is why also creatives are often treated like what we do isn't work
NOT REALLY.
When skull sweat is labor and laborous.
Anyway when all else fails, sleep on it.
October 8, 2025 at 11:14 PM
I think scientists are sometimes dismissive of creative work. It's sad for a lot of reasons, one of which is certainly that creative work makes the world a richer place to live. Another one is that scientists are extremely dependent on the idea machine and ought to celebrate all its many dispensers.
When my wife was a teenager, she was trying to get a horse back into its stall after riding, and it stepped on her foot. Not on accident, not in passing. It put its hoof on top of her foot and pressed down so she couldn't move. Why? Just because.
horses can SERIOUSLY injure you with their jaws - do not ever antagonize enormous animals with opinions
My grandfather was missing a finger and a half from his right hand due to it being bitten off by a horse.
October 8, 2025 at 3:33 PM
When my wife was a teenager, she was trying to get a horse back into its stall after riding, and it stepped on her foot. Not on accident, not in passing. It put its hoof on top of her foot and pressed down so she couldn't move. Why? Just because.
I had to do chores instead of the work I needed to do and now I’m too mad to work
October 7, 2025 at 9:40 PM
I had to do chores instead of the work I needed to do and now I’m too mad to work
Rats 😭
Last year, I was racing to finish a proposal for time on a shiny new space telescope. But mom had been sick, and there hadn't been time to work on it. 30 min before the deadline, I got a call to come home, and I dropped everything. Today, that proposal is submitted. I think Mom would be proud. I am.
October 7, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Rats 😭
Me, Friday night: you guys gotta clean your room before you can play video games tomorrow
Later:
Kid 1: dad can you think of a system that keeps our room cleaner?
Me: what about putting stuff away when you’re done with it?
Later:
Kid 2: we’re going to clean our room every Saturday
Later:
Kid 1: dad can you think of a system that keeps our room cleaner?
Me: what about putting stuff away when you’re done with it?
Later:
Kid 2: we’re going to clean our room every Saturday
October 2, 2025 at 5:16 AM
Me, Friday night: you guys gotta clean your room before you can play video games tomorrow
Later:
Kid 1: dad can you think of a system that keeps our room cleaner?
Me: what about putting stuff away when you’re done with it?
Later:
Kid 2: we’re going to clean our room every Saturday
Later:
Kid 1: dad can you think of a system that keeps our room cleaner?
Me: what about putting stuff away when you’re done with it?
Later:
Kid 2: we’re going to clean our room every Saturday
Reposted by 🍁 Prof. Roasty Toasty Neilsen 🍗
If there is one physics formula everyone knows, it's E=mc².
Einstein proposed the famous equivalence between energy and mass in his second special relativity manuscript. It was received by Annalen der Physik #OTD in 1905, the day after they published his first special relativity paper. 🧪 ⚛️
Einstein proposed the famous equivalence between energy and mass in his second special relativity manuscript. It was received by Annalen der Physik #OTD in 1905, the day after they published his first special relativity paper. 🧪 ⚛️
September 27, 2025 at 9:50 PM
If there is one physics formula everyone knows, it's E=mc².
Einstein proposed the famous equivalence between energy and mass in his second special relativity manuscript. It was received by Annalen der Physik #OTD in 1905, the day after they published his first special relativity paper. 🧪 ⚛️
Einstein proposed the famous equivalence between energy and mass in his second special relativity manuscript. It was received by Annalen der Physik #OTD in 1905, the day after they published his first special relativity paper. 🧪 ⚛️
Once I (on a bike) was waiting for a left arrow at a "left only on left arrow" intersection where people mostly didn't wait for the left arrow. A car behind me honked and honked but I wouldn't go. So they pulled around me and made an illegal left turn.
Promptly got pulled over. LOL.
Promptly got pulled over. LOL.
no one who doesn’t ride in traffic regularly understands the barrage of hate cyclists get. like being honked and screamed at (as i just was) for waiting to make a left when the light turned green. +
September 27, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Once I (on a bike) was waiting for a left arrow at a "left only on left arrow" intersection where people mostly didn't wait for the left arrow. A car behind me honked and honked but I wouldn't go. So they pulled around me and made an illegal left turn.
Promptly got pulled over. LOL.
Promptly got pulled over. LOL.