Michael Paolucci

@Slooh received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Foundation (NSF) for our proposal "Curriculum Driven Gamification of Space Exploration". Thank you, NSF for your support and recognition of our progress. I am pleased to announce the fruition of that grant. In March Slooh responded to @LASchools RFP for Digital Instructional Tools which was awarded in May, and we just completed UDIPP compliance which means starting next year students at LAUSD will have access to Slooh's global telescope network and integrated curriculum!! Slooh is poised to become an important pathway to careers in space/STEM and there is no better place for it than Los Angeles, a center of the aerospace industry in which my father worked and home to @SpaceX @TransAstra_Corp, @NASAJPL and so many more future workplaces for students. Thank you to Superintendent Alberto Carvalho @LAUSDSup for helping put the stars within reach of every student.

Michael Pollan on consciousness, psychedelics, and his new book A World Appears | The Standard standard.co.uk/brave-new-worl…

@adcock_brett Not a good look for Figure. Who wants a robot in their home if a video like this could end up on your servers?

We gave them the footage for robot POV in this one - it’s coming from the robot head cameras

It’s interesting to read critiques of the Moon base proposal, which seems like the smart path forward and could fit within NASA’s budget. The gist I’m hearing from critics is that this Isaacman priority is happy talk, will all fade away, and not happen. Then you realize these were the same people who: - Said Isaacman wouldn’t be renominated - Said he would was a political amateur - Said he couldn’t build a coalition to cancel EUS and put SLS on a path toward sunset -Said he was an Elon puppet (who has subsequently prioritized getting Blue Origin moving on HLS due to Starship delays) - Said he would never get Congress, which called it a “national priority,” to go along with canceling Gateway - Said he would never actually cancel Gateway These people are now saying Isaacman can’t get NASA and its contractors to execute on a plan that has administration and Congressional support. The reality is, from a policy and political standpoint, NASA is in a better place now than it has been for years. If the Moon Base fails that’s on NASA and private industry, not stupid policy. And believe me, I’ve seen a lot of terrible, pie-in-the-sky space policy over the decades. #JourneyToMars It’s a new era. I’m not sure everyone realizes this, but Isaacman and his team have eyes wide open to a lot of the major challenges facing NASA and they’re trying to fix them. They’re working long days. Weekends. It’s inspiring to see our government work like this, especially in an era when so much seems broken. I don’t know what will happen. Maybe this Moon base all will fade away. But I do know that NASA’s chance for success in the next couple of decades is a lot higher today than it has been for a long, long time. What we were doing was decidedly not working. This has a chance.

Sad and embarrassing for America 🇺🇸

🌌 University Spotlight: Columbia University One of our most exciting adoptions this Spring is Columbia University! With some of our team right here in Manhattan, this one feels close to home! See you for an on-campus visit real soon...Go Lions!

The science funding system is BROKEN. PhDs and professors are spending their days writing grant proposals rather than conducting research that could transform millions of lives. And the worst part? The system REWARDS predictable, safe, incremental science. It PUNISHES radical ideas and moonshots.

Bloomberg: “Blackrock Inc. slashed the value of a private loan to zero just three months after assessing it at 100 cents on the dollar, marking the second sudden wipeout to recently hit its private-credit division.” Maybe it’s a trend.

@shanaka86 Closed by order of the Circumlocution Office

BREAKING: China is pressuring Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. There is one problem. Iran did not close it. Seven insurance companies in London did. China buys 80% of Iran’s shipped oil. Beijing has a $400 billion, 25-year cooperation agreement with Tehran. China is Iran’s economic lifeline. If any country on earth has leverage over Iran, it is China. And China is now using that leverage to demand the Strait reopens. But the Strait was not closed by a sovereign decision. It was closed by the withdrawal of reinsurance capacity from five to ten firms, mostly in London, backstopping twelve P&I clubs that cover 90% of global tonnage. Iran did not order those firms to withdraw. Iran cannot order them to reinstate. Neither can China. Even if Tehran capitulates entirely tonight and the IRGC stands down, not a single reinsurer reinstates Gulf war risk coverage on a phone call from Beijing. Reinstatement requires rebuilt risk models, voyage-by-voyage re-underwriting, repriced treaty capacity, and a threat environment that actuaries can quantify. None of that exists while 440.9 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium remains unaccounted for and the IRGC is still launching drones at Oman. China has leverage over Iran. China has zero leverage over Lloyd’s of London. This is the part nobody is modelling. The country with the most to lose and the most leverage over the belligerent cannot fix the mechanism that actually closed the Strait. Because the mechanism is not geopolitical. It is actuarial. And actuaries do not take calls from the Politburo. open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

Happy March, Slooh Community! 🪐 Get ready for a month of rare planetary pairings, new Quests, a Gravity Guild spotlight, and featured Slooh 1000: 40 Eridani—the real star behind Project Hail Mary 🚀⭐ slooh.com/post/eclipse-e…

Podium callout: February's Top Explorers 🏆 From late-night missions to Gravity Point streaks, these community members made the most of every observing opportunity this month. 🥇 Gold. 🥈 Silver. 🥉 Bronze. The podium is set...congratulations to our leaderboard leaders!

🌕 Don’t miss our Total Lunar Eclipse Star Party on March 3rd! We’re opening up FREE Slooh observer access for all attendees, plus we’ve got some very special guests joining us live. Be part of the countdown and watch the eclipse unfold with us ⬇️ youtube.com/watch?v=UbJCDc…

New $DUOL VP of AI. Ex Google Director of Engineering, Workspace AI.

🇮🇹 The great Italian tenor, Andrea Bocelli, performs Puccini's classic "Nessun Dorma" at the opening of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. Italy is back, with class and style, and while cherishing her past, she has a renewed hope for the future. #Olympics2026

Congratulations @barn_swallows!! We’re going to space!!

Here’s an example of @CNBC and @ScottNations not just making fun of my gold prediction, but also taking me to task for recommending gold over stocks. You can clearly see from the prices that while the S&P 500 is up about 250% since this interview, gold is up about 300%.

@PeterSchiff @CNBC @ScottNations Love it

Three years ago, a million tokens of AI inference cost $60. Today? Six cents. A 99.9% cost collapse. When something this powerful becomes this cheap, it doesn’t stay confined to research labs, It is able to flood the economy. AI is now diffusing faster than any technology in history — into every industry, every workflow, every device; 800 million people use ChatGPT weekly. And we’re still nowhere near the high-water mark of what’s possible. The real story is diffusion and ubiquity. Can intelligence become a utility — cheap, improving, self-learning, and embedded everywhere? Because in a geopolitical contest defined by capability and speed, the nation that diffuses intelligence the fastest, across government, industry, and society, will gain an extraordinary advantage.

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.