@_thegeoff@mastodon.social
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_thegeoff

@_thegeoff@mastodon.social

Geek: Photography, physics, comedy, computers, science fiction, astronomy, aviation, books, maths, cosmology, human survival mechanisms, rock/bass, whimsy.

~ School science technician
~ Science/Art collaboration
~ Cats: Cassie & Tia
~ Found first 3 books in π
~ Hacker: The good kind.

Personal account

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_thegeoff, to random
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One of those things that folk who do physics "know", but is counterintuitive: light is mostly invisible.
Not just the fact that most of the EM spectrum is invisible...most of the visible (in theory) stuff, red, green, blue and all that, is invisible.

We only detect light when it hits our eyes. I hope that's fairly intuitive. So a lot of light scattering off whatever...in fact almost all of it...never reaches your eye, or any human eye. So it's invisible.

Wait, there's more....

_thegeoff,
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Laser beams - yeah, red ones. They're invisible until they bounce off a wall or something (see also, our puffer thing full of laser beam detection powder...or talc). You can't see laser beams other than the wall/lens or whatever they hit, unless you're in a dangerously contaminated atmosphere...or one full of laser detection powder/smoke.

But wait, there's more....

MLE_online, to random
@MLE_online@social.afront.org avatar

Mmmm, breakfast.

Our director at work raises ducks and the ducks have been making way more eggs than her family can eat, so she's bringing them into the office for us.

Only two other people in the office actually like duck eggs besides me, so I am on the receiving end of lots and lots of duck eggs. They're really tasty

_thegeoff,
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@MLE_online There's a roadside honesty box on the way to work that has duck eggs from time to time, lovely stuff. My favourite is poached on a crumpet.

_thegeoff,
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@MLE_online I've never managed to nail the timing for boiled. May have to try the thing where you hold it at the temp where the white sets but the yolk doesn't, but it's a narrow range, a couple of degrees C.

_thegeoff,
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@MLE_online Ditto. On the other hand, I mastered using the particularly pointy soldier (UK - toast strip thing) from the edge of the bread to pierce the yolk without spilling any down the outside of the shell.
Do you have the "break the shells after to stop witches using them as boats to drown sailors" myth?

_thegeoff,
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@MLE_online Geologically part of the same range as the Scottish Highlands, so that makes sense 😂

_thegeoff, to random
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Funeral for my neighbour that used to play with mega-amps and related tech today. Hell of a life, well lived, I'd be terrified by much of what he did. A long life well lived. I'll be keeping the oscilloscope he built as a teenager warm, literally.

_thegeoff, to Cosmology
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folk: the universe as-is exists because the very early stages had density variations, stuff clumped. That's fairly obvious, the odds of the universe being perfectly evenly distributed are basically impossible, only one way to do it (and, quantum, not even allowed?)
So what's the thinking on how unlikely our "unclumpiness" is? Compared to...I don't know, perfect homogeneity versus weirdly clumpy?

_thegeoff,
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@ottaross Yup, pretty good summary of what I'm trying to ask.

_thegeoff, to random
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New Time Bandits TV series, based on the original, sort of, with Lisa Kudrow. Knowing nothing about it, I'm not jumping to conclusions, but my money is on either absolutely brilliant or absolutely dreadful. (Via @ianRobinson )

https://mstdn.social/@tvPlusNews/112473921847565678

iangriffin, to NewZealand
@iangriffin@mastodon.nz avatar

This is quite interesting. (no... really!) I recently persuaded a colleague to take my pet Geiger counter from Dunedin to Apia via Auckland. The latitude dependency of the radiation exposure is fascinating!

_thegeoff,
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@iangriffin Altitude/latitude typo? The graph suggests either lots of trips with returns to "home background", or (I suspect) multiple flights?

_thegeoff,
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@iangriffin What's the x scale, minutes? Could time of day be a factor? That's roughly 12 hours between peaks?

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

The harpsichord.

The affordable piano alternative for the baroque musician.

_thegeoff,
@_thegeoff@mastodon.social avatar

@dgar @HighlandLawyer
"Your friend Mr. Tulip would perhaps like part of your payment to be the harpsichord?" said the chair.
"It's not a --ing harpsichord, it's a --ing virginal," growled Mr. Tulip. "One --ing string to a note instead of two! So called because it was an instrument for --ing young ladies!"
"My word, was it?" said one of the chairs. "I thought it was just of sort of early piano!

~Pratchett (Mr Tulip & Mr Pin being quite Pulp Fictional)

markmccaughrean, to Astro
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

Just received this piece of #JWST memorabilia through the post from an ESA colleague (thanks, kainoeske@x.com 🙇‍♂️).

It has a Northrop Grumman logo, is tightly packed, & says “XL” on the side, so I’m hoping it might be a flight spare sunshield 🤞

I’m afraid to open it though, as my living room isn’t quite as big as a tennis court 🤪

#SpaceScience #SpaceExploration #Astrodon #SpaceDadJoke #Photography

_thegeoff,
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@markmccaughrean That'd be so cool...
T-shirts?

_thegeoff,
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@markmccaughrean So if we fold it in half, say, 20 times...

(EDIT: did the sums...our package would be 52 metres tall.)

ianRobinson, (edited ) to random
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Well. ChatGPT-4o is a bit good. Initial use makes me think it might be what we thought we’d get when Siri launched.

Obviously we didn’t.

I can’t wait to see (hear?) how it develops. It’ll be good when it has access to calendars etc and can be a real digital assistant.

_thegeoff,
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@ianRobinson Will you ever trust it as much as a good colleague? Or as much as a voice generation of data you entered yourself?

_thegeoff,
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@ianRobinson That's the argument a couple of my students have used, essays are easier with AI writing them. Turns out the essay was nonsense, and not even in their style.
LLMs are just a language model, what true AGI will use as a speech centre, but without the other bits of the brain. I think making the jump from "useful optimisation algorithms" to "AI" based on a faulty language module is premature and dangerous. And popular.

_thegeoff,
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@ianRobinson But how many people understand the subtleties of that, compared to the number of people recommending the use of "AI" in real world contexts?

_thegeoff, to random
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In case you missed it this morning, this is the school's all sky camera footage of the on Friday night / Saturday morning. https://youtu.be/W3HUAv-pxlo

_thegeoff, to random
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First proper go at naan in the tandoor. Nope, fell off! This is going to take work. But in the meantime, the dough makes a lovely soft loaf just bunged in a loaf tin.

A browned loaf in a tin, torn open at one end, open bubbly interior with black sesame seeds.

_thegeoff,
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@ottaross Yup, exactly, stretch it out then take two or three tea towels, wrap a third around them to make a cushion, lay the dough over it and smoosh the whole thing into the wall of the tandoor. Worked...at first! Think I need to burn off some soot and maybe rub some yoghurt in to season the clay a bit.

_thegeoff,
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@ottaross I went with a floury side to the dough, but yeah, damping it did cross my mind too. Ditto damping down the side that hits the wall? I think I need to make a bunch of dough and experiment purely with naan, accepting I'll lose most of it.

_thegeoff,
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@ottaross I suspect that would be like learning an instrument by hanging around backstage at a stadium, just cos you see them do it doesn't mean you can! The chicken is a doddle. The naan, that's art!

_thegeoff,
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@ottaross I've tried naan in the kitchen oven, just nah. I need that stretchy, charred, crunchy bubbly thing. So...built a tandoor. This is starting to feel like a side-quest, now you mention it.

_thegeoff,
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@ottaross Do it. Go on, go on, go on, go on. My life is easily better for the £.

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