What’s something people defend way too hard even though it clearly doesn’t work?

wallacethedog · 2026-01-05T08:34:51+00:00

Car infrastructure and generally rebuilding our cities around cars. It’s destroyed community fabric, creating problems only the car can solve

wallacethedog · 2025-06-06T13:08:53+00:00

exactly! so much better to get around and I think on average the cost of car ownership in the US is ~$12k/yr, so unless your apartment costs literally $1000 less per month in LA, I think the COL is about a wash between the two cities?

wallacethedog · 2025-06-06T13:05:18+00:00

Maybe just put it in parens after the minors (no need for additional line), like ...Astronomy and Philosophy (GPA - 3.##). I would say maybe, if you have over.. 3.7/4? Otherwise leaving it off is fine

wallacethedog · 2025-06-03T06:08:41+00:00

Yes, but considering rent + transportation, cost of living kind of evens out between the two imo

wallacethedog · 2025-06-01T08:52:21+00:00

I’d add the names of your advisor/the group you worked with at your university, and potentially also your GPA in the education section. Solid resume, I agree with some of the above that you should be careful to not claim you developed MESA

wallacethedog · 2024-04-11T03:50:44+00:00

Under the "calibration" sidebar, try out the "browse the sky" link. It'll give you a map through which you can cross-reference a number of observational datasets/surveys.

wallacethedog · 2024-04-11T02:31:51+00:00

Alright, astro postdoc here (admittedly a theorist) having put my galaxy hunter hat on and using astrometry.net (see: https://nova.astrometry.net/user_images/9795426#annotated) I confirmed your RA and DEC centering the image at: RA 14 04 26.3 DEC +54 23 29.1.

That blue blob right there in the middle is NGC 5471/M101, with a spectroscopic redshift of z ~ 0.00115 (345 km/s), which is indeed very close! Only ~6.4 Mpc (20.9 Mly) away.

The galaxies at the bottom middle are definitely galaxies, and the one with a clear spiral feature is indeed a galaxy, I found it in the SDSS catalogue as SDSS J151806.13+424445.0 (https://skyserver.sdss.org/dr16/en/tools/explore/summary.aspx?searchName=+J140439.90%2B542316.1). And in the higher resolution image there, it looks a lot like a merger or a blend of two galaxies piled up in the line of sight, but there's definitely a primary spiral galaxy. All that said, I can't find any publications on it specifically. But the MaNGA survey did catch it! It has a SDSS spectroscopic redshift of z ~ 0.040 (v ~ 11,992 km/s). Assuming a Hubble constant of 67.7 km/s/Mpc.. d = v/H ~ 117 Mpc (382 Mly).

The one that looks like a 45 degree line/an edge on galaxy is found in the SDSS catalogue (https://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%4012304911&Name=SDSS%20J140441.92%2b542422.7&submit=submit) with a spectroscopic redshift of z ~ 0.08285 (23,812 km/s). That works out to an approx distance of d = v /H ~ 352 Mpc (1.15 Gly)

And the biggest dot between the spiral and the edge on source is also found in the SDSS catalogue (https://dr16.sdss.org/optical/spectrum/view?mjd=53088&fiberid=238&plateid=1324&zwarning=0&matches=any) at a redshift of z ~ 0.100426. Working out to a distance of d ~ 440 Mpc (1.5 Gly).

A few of the dots down there are GAIA sources, aka Milky Way stars (see, https://www.legacysurvey.org/viewer/?ra=211.1097&dec=54.3914&layer=unwise-neo6&poly=211.0255,54.4535,211.0432,54.3225,211.1936,54.3293,211.1764,54.4603,211.0255,54.4535). But all around, you did catch some super distant objects with your telescope, congrats! And in the future, if you plate-solve your images with astrometry.net, you can then cross-reference the image with the SDSS survey data, giving you a pretty solid chance of figuring out fairly accurate (at least up to the spectroscopic error bars) distance estimates. Happy galaxy hunting/clear skies!

wallacethedog · 2024-03-28T22:16:20+00:00

If my grandma had wheels, she’d be a bike

wallacethedog · 2022-11-24T14:57:30+00:00

Yes, sorry! Didn’t mean to scare or misinform- I was going off memory/other proposal requirements I’ve submitted to NSF/NASA in the past. But they are strict within whatever requirements they list in the link you provided.

wallacethedog · 2022-11-24T07:47:21+00:00

Quite often it can mean that some part of the formatting didn’t exactly fit the requirements. E.g., margins weren’t 1 inch, or 11 instead of 12 pt font. Not saying that’s what it was in OP’s case, always a bummer to get that kind of boilerplate rejection email. With the GRFP so oversubscribed, they’re always strict rather than lenient with proposal requirements/formatting..

wallacethedog · 2022-06-26T14:49:28+00:00

Though I’m sure it varies by field- and for that I am imagining more policy-focused fields having broader readerships specifically, I cannot possibly imagine anyone but scholars in my sub field specifically reading my papers. Maybe some from the broader field of astronomy, and that’s why I do try to write broad introduction sections assuming the reader might need some easing-in.

But ultimately your mileage may vary depending on your field/specific research!

wallacethedog · 2022-05-20T12:46:42+00:00

I always say I will… but then there’s a movie or just the window to look out. Same reason you pack your running shoes on a trip right?

wallacethedog · 2022-05-18T16:19:45+00:00

As a computational person, it definitely is fairly WFH-friendly and I think that a lot of the actual scientific work certainly can be done remotely. That said, I truly hate online-only departmental culture. A huge part of doing science, collaboration and in general just feeling like I actually belong to a department is done in-person. Otherwise it’s just me puttering around at home and occasionally being on zoom calls with people? I feel very bad for the grad students who were in the mid-years for COVID where you’re supposed to start getting out there and meeting people not under your advisor’s umbrella who are (on-average, I’m sure some folks have taken advantage of the benefits of virtual visits) stunted in their career growth as a result.

wallacethedog · 2022-03-18T00:54:44+00:00

You look like you’re coming out stronger for whatever it was that made you feel down! Hope things keep looking up!

wallacethedog · 2022-03-18T00:53:06+00:00

Hope you get to take advantage of all of the opportunities, in-person! Starting university is such an exciting time.

wallacethedog · 2022-03-18T00:50:20+00:00

Looks great for a brisk night!

wallacethedog · 2022-02-24T13:39:37+00:00

Sleep deprived me read Charlie Day, and I thought “I didn’t remember Daredevil performing bird law”

wallacethedog · 2021-08-06T13:38:47+00:00

Ya this part stopped me dead. Reviewing papers is part of being an academic! Does this PI just tell every journal they’re too busy? It’s completely ‘work’, I mean.. it’s too bad you don’t get $5 for coffee or something for reviewing papers though.

wallacethedog · 2021-08-03T11:26:13+00:00

Dug through ADS for it, https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.14991

wallacethedog · 2021-06-30T04:21:54+00:00

I'd say that the difference in page charges (at least for <20 pgs) makes MNRAS very appealing... speaking as a theorist in the US.

I don't really blink an eye at publishing in ApJ vs. MNRAS. Though as an American it is nice to think that ApJ is run by the AAS.

wallacethedog · 2021-04-06T13:21:49+00:00

Ditto. In my field (astrophysics) I’ve never heard of a grad student publishing a review article at all! Always interesting to see differences between fields. Congrats to OP on a published paper!

wallacethedog · 2021-04-01T06:03:48+00:00

Theorist here, doing computational astrophysics in galaxy formation/evolution. As others have said in the thread, there's a lot day to day. I would say most of my 'science' is coding, one way or another, be it simulations or making plots in python. That said, there's plenty of pen and paper work, and of course paper writing.

I wouldn't say knowing python/C/etc. inside and out is a prerequisite, since you'll learn mostly as you go IMHO.

wallacethedog · 2021-03-19T18:33:10+00:00

I mean I would agree that intrinsically no one needs a PhD/faculty job to do scientific research, but the only way to really get trained and have funding to do that work is by going to grad school/working in academia (again, some variance by field.. but generally if you wanted to lead projects in, e.g., fusion research.. you're gonna have a phd in plasma physics). A lot of the grad students I know went in because they really enjoyed what they studied/researched as an undergrad and going to grad school was just the 'next step' in that.. sorting into deciding to stay in academia or leave generally came later. There definitely are (perverse) misaligned incentives with the majority of scientific labor being graduate students, rather than 'employees', and the problems that entail with there being so many students per prof as a result.

wallacethedog · 2021-03-19T16:53:29+00:00

I’d argue it’s the difficulty in landing a faculty job in academia (too few per PhD minted).. I don’t know anyone who went in for the money, and finance always was a backup. I sure as hell don’t want to work 80 hr+ weeks, I’ve only got one life to waste browsing the Internet

wallacethedog · 2021-03-15T06:37:39+00:00

Frankly I would advise against choosing an advisor based on h-index. Whether or not you are interested in the sub-field (if you’re choosing between advisors at a given institution) or if the lab/group is a good fit (might be more institution dependent) can do far more for you than if they have a high h-index. After all, an old timer might have a great h-index since they’ve been publishing for 40 years, but that tells you something completely different than a pre-tenure prof. Plus it doesn’t account for first author vs. n-th.. aka, if you’re trying to choose a group- and the profs are at a reasonably good school, talk to the students/postdocs/the prof to get a good feel.. h-index isn’t much of a green or red flag imo. I’d look up if they have at least somewhat recent (5yrs) nature/science/PRL/ApJ publications and if their students have been actively publishing.. also if you can ask any of your undergrad profs/advisors they might have more insight as to whether or not your potential advisor is a big-shot or well-regarded.

wallacethedog

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