BashStKid

Garwboy, 10 months ago to random

So many people lining up to see the new Margot Robbie movie. Which is fair enough. After all, summertime is...

[Lowers shades]

Barbie queue season

[Flees]

craiggrannell, 11 months ago to random

It’s starting to really get to me in the UK how many people are furiously angry about the prospect of more solar on fields when many actual farmers are enthusing about how great mixed-use fields can be. (Solar can shade animals and plants. In many cases, it can also be combined with rainfall capture. It’s about making better use of some land, not replacing one thing with another.)

cstross, 10 months ago to random

Sunak’s family firm signed a billion-dollar deal with BP before PM opened new North Sea licences

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/sunaks-family-firm-signed-a-billion-dollar-deal-with-bp-before-pm-opened-new-north-sea-licences-353690/

johncarlosbaez, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to random

On my trip to the Orkney Islands I visited Skara Brae, Europe’s most complete Neolithic village. It’s on the eastern shore of the Mainland - the largest of those islands, perhaps called that by Vikings before they found the much larger British Isles to the south.

A fascinating thing about the Orkneys is that they hold the earliest megaliths in the British Isles, older than Stonehenge. At first people thought Neolithic culture spread northward, but it seems that it spread southward.

What first attracted people to these chilly northern islands? I don't know. The Neolithic settlers even had to bring deer to hunt!

Skara Brae is one of the oldest Neolithic sites on the Orkneys, occupied from roughly 3180 BCE to about 2500 BCE. But it's remarkably sophisticated! It consists of ten clustered houses, made of flagstones. These houses included stone hearths, beds, cupboards — and even a sewer system, with drains in each house that carry water out to the ocean.

What led people to eventually abandon this site? I don't know that either. But apparently it became colder and windier in the Iron Age. Eventually it became buried under sand from the nearby beach --- and it remained hidden until uncovered by a storm in 1850.

As I explored the site on a chill and windy day, I was occasionally blasted by sand. If tourism ends and Skara Brae is left to its own devices, the wind and sand will take it back.

For more photos of Skara Brae, check out my blog:

https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2023/07/25/skara-brae/

GWillow, 11 months ago to random

Here from the Threads salt mines to tell you that everything you’ve heard is true: it sucks

jon, 11 months ago to random

Let's use hydrogen rather than diesel for the Zillertalbahn even though it's more expensive than regular electrification of the line

So as to be pioneers. Or something

Jeez

https://www.railwaygazette.com/hydrogen/tirol-endorses-zillertalbahn-hydrogen-project/64420.article

johncarlosbaez, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to random

People already knew that a changing magnetic field makes the electric field curl around. But in 1861, Maxwell proposed that also a changing electric field makes the magnetic field curl around. This means that electric and magnetic fields can form waves, with each one changing the other. Maxwell computed the speed of these waves and got an answer close to the speed of light! The rest is history...

... in a way. Maxwell reached his conclusions using a strange mechanical model involving "molecular vortices". In this model magnetic fields are spinning vortices - the black hexagons here - while electric fields are the displacement of little particles between these vortices - the green circles.

It took him a few years to drop this model and simply write equations governing fields. And it took longer for Heaviside and others to take Maxwell's 20 equations, throw some out, and boil the rest down to 4 vector equations - the ones we now learn in school.

I want to understand Maxwell's molecular vortices because they're the key to how he guessed that a changing electric field makes the magnetic field curl. People already knew a lot about the electric and magnetic fields from experiments. But Maxwell's extra effect completed our theory of electromagnetism!

There are modern ways to see that this extra effect is necessary. Few people go back and try to understand Maxwell's original thinking. Here's one great exception:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2014.0473#d3e647

I also want to read Daniel M. Siegel's book "Innovation in Maxwell’s Electromagnetic Theory: Molecular Vortices, Displacement Current, and Light."

By the way, Maxwell's model correctly says E is a vector field while B is a pseudovector field!

GWillow, 11 months ago to random

Techie people! I need an Egyptian virtual number in order to use local delivery apps. What’s the best option? Does the Burner app work outside North America?

jon, 11 months ago to random German

Genius. Twitter has just messed up the user experience for non paying users with the rate limits… and now it’s going to make Tweetdeck limited to paying users too https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/3/23783092/twitter-tweetdeck-new-preview-force-legacy-apis

If Musk’s unpleasant views didn’t break Twitter completely, then this rapidly worsening user experience damned well should

(Link via @craiggrannell )

GWillow, 11 months ago to random

Eid Mubarak to all mastodonians. x

jon, 11 months ago to random German

The most significant infrastructure investment in Yonne (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté) in a generation: fibre optic high speed internet is here! 💪

And I’m at an event starting shortly at Ancy Le Franc to find out about it

1000 MBit in the countryside is pretty good I think 😊

Altitude infra van
The event.

jon, 11 months ago to random German

I’m in the EU so can’t confirm this about Threads is true. But it’s very funny! https://jogblog.substack.com/p/facebooks-threads-is-so-depressing

craiggrannell, 11 months ago to c64

#DailyRetroGame 157: Crossroads II: Pandemonium (1988)

Type-in games were rubbish, right? Wrong. At least in this case, where Steve Harter ramped up Wizard of Wor by adding pace, wraparound shots, loads of dungeons, and chaotic gameplay that often has your enemies kick the tar out of each other. In recent times, it served as inspiration for fantastic mobile title Forget-Me-Not. The C64 original’s still worth playing today.

Play it on: #C64

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_VMgQ5NQqM

#retrogaming

llamasoft_ox, 11 months ago to random

dydy'r defaid ddim yn gwisgo gwlan!

llamasoft_ox, 11 months ago to random

Giles is skritching Skippy whilst the llama observes, her ears somewhat askance.

#Defaidodon #SheepOfMastodon

llamasoft_ox, 10 months ago to random

I saw a video on YT not long ago about how microwave tech has actually regressed in the last decade or two. Dude showed one from years ago which had a fancy display that could display and scale recipes for you from a database. Nothing like that available at all these days, it's just a clock and buttons, no advanced displays.

llamasoft_ox, 10 months ago to random

I have hoofprints on my crotch.

Lesson learned: don't make a Digestive biscuit packet crinkle when standing next to a large ram who really, really likes Digestive biscuits. 🐏

Garwboy, 11 months ago to random

Sat in the GP waiting room, because my knee seems to have... burst?

There's a vanishingly small number of things in or on the human body where its acceptable for them to burst. Knees are absolutely not on that list.

llamasoft_ox, 11 months ago to random

The only trouble with this time of year is that it inevitably leads to lanolin all over your e-reader.

mattgemmell, 11 months ago to random

Nineteen years and 2 days ago, I met this girl in the Department of Computing Science.

My wife and I today. I’m wearing my Department of Computing Science at Glasgow University t-shirt, which I still have from back then.