futurebird

futurebird, 6 months ago to random

Get ready!

futurebird, 10 months ago to random

And Then Satan Said:

We are going to separate into breakout groups of five people, after 8 min. each group will present what they discussed in the main group.

futurebird, 9 months ago to random

Trump gets a lot of millage complaining about:

• electric stoves
• meat alternatives
• low flow toilets and showers
• CFC free hair spray (he's still mad we fixed the ozone hole)
• LED light bulbs (which are objectively better than incandescent)
• masks
  etc.

But it's not just one old man's weird fixation, he's people really relate to these complaints.

Some know-it-all do-gooder wants to lecture you, make you do something a little differently. It chafes. I almost understand-- 1/

futurebird, 1 year ago to random

Something came in the mail today. I can only draw one conclusion.

it is very sharp
pica

futurebird, 4 months ago to random

Just got a card from a student who has been having a rough year. She was having a great deal of trouble until I started showing her how to really USE a calculator. (It's algebra and geometry not arithmetic, and she knows the algorithms just makes SO MANY little mistakes)

Since then she's really taken off. I find very few people who could benefit from calculators know how to use them effectively, and there is a lot of snootiness and stigma in the way of this happening.

1/

futurebird, 7 months ago to random

Do you ever think about abandoned tech trees? Like how no one is working to design better drafting compasses or vellum? No one is perfecting vacuum tubes. No one is laser focused on methods to speed paint and accurate portrait by hand to send out for marriage proposals.

Technological leaps make entire areas of research pointless— but

What if just a bit further down the line on the old tech tree there was some bigger breakthrough we’ll never see? I think about this A LOT.

futurebird, 11 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to random

Do you think "mind uploading" will ever be possible?

This is some scenario where a human mind is copied and modeled digitally.

This isn't a ship of Theseus situation where a brain is slowly replaced over time.

futurebird, 6 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to random

Mathematics has many daughters. Nearly all are beautiful. Physics & Chemistry are dutiful & visit home often. Life science is always away on some exotic research trip, hardly has time to write. Three of the girls live at home: Statistics, Computer Science ... & The Other One.

Statistics spent some time in a sanitarium, no one talks about it. She's doing better now, dotes on mother. Computer Science puts on a suit each day for her Big Important Job. But she still never moved out. 1/ #ideas

futurebird, 11 months ago to random

"cis is a slur" is some next level, roided-up ultra-erasure.

It's also very Newspeak. Double plus Newspeak. Delete the language that describes the concept to delete the concept.

It's funny, but it's also very very bad. Pure eliminationism.

futurebird, 8 months ago to math

I don't understand how lace is made, but looking at the #bobbins and pins and patterns ... listen buddy I know math when I see it. This is A #Math Thing. Obviously.

Right away I want to know: Can I encode information in lace?

How much of an expert must one be to make your own patterns?

What about the creation of surfaces?

#Knitting is more accessible, and people have been exploring math with knitting forever.

But what possibilities does lace offer?

What is the theory of lace?

tatted lace spheres, the threads are starched, these delicate baubles have been used as Christmas ornaments.
More lace ribbons, a simple pattern that contains periodic distortions to the regular grid.
An excerpt from Mathematics Magazine Vol. 91, No. 4 (October 2018), pp. 307-309 Shows I'm hardly the first person to muse about this. Need to get my hands on the rest of this article, obviously. Q: When did it first occur to you that there might be some interesting math behind the lace-making process? VI: It really started when I discovered bobbin lace in my mid-20s. Bobbin lace is complicated, but very logical. It is kind of like doing a Sudoku puzzle. Here, the puzzle is to figure out what threads to braid together and in what order, to find a successful path through the pattern. Q: What does success mean in this context? Does it mean producing a piece that’s aesthetically pleasing or something else? VI: Unlike a pattern for knitting or crochet, a bobbin lace pattern is not expressed as a linear sequence of written steps. A bobbin lace pattern is typically a diagram. There are many possible ways different threads can come together and most of those are not successful, meaning you could end up with too many threads in one area and not Math. Mag. 91 (2018) 307-309. doi : 10. 1080/0025570X . 2018. 1503465 © Mathematical Association of America MSC: Primary 01A70 Allison Henrich (MR Author ID: 900050) Color versionsof one ormore of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/umma.

futurebird, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

If the idea of violent protests don't make you at least little scared I wonder how well you know history. At the same time, real change almost never happens without people putting their bodies on the line.

The right understands this far better than your average liberal/moderate. To be a moderate is to trust that existing systems will (mostly) work.

If those systems fail? What then? To even consider this is moderate treason.

(Cartoons by Mattie Lubchansky https://thenib.com/author/mattie-lubchansky/ )

futurebird, 7 months ago to random

Elon’s tweet disparaging the need to support the Wikipedia has stuck with me. How could anyone, even a creepy libertarian who hates government find fault with wikipedia? The wikipedia is an independent not for profit corporation. It’s the way the libertarians always assure us public goods can still exist even in their fantasy futures. And in this limited area the wikipedia largely works. A backbone for the web of human knowledge. But somehow even this is still objectionable.

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

How long will USB-C be the most common & standard connector for consumer electronics? (there can be updates to voltage and protocols, but it must be backwards compatible to what we have now)

futurebird, 7 months ago to random

For me, right to to repair isn't just about ewaste, and preventing corporate gouging.

It's about mental health. Being able to fix your gadgets is therapeutic. Empowering. Good for the soul.

In a world full of complex technology it's easy to feel small and helpless. And maybe I'm too much of an idealist, but I think that if everyone could experience the joy of fixing or modifying a gadget now and then we'd all be a little more open minded, a little more daring. A little harder to push around.

futurebird, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to random

Release most domestic animals in a forest and they will be gone within the year. Cows? Eaten. Chickens? Extra Eaten. But not pigs. Pigs revert — they survive and each generation is more close to some lost wild boar ideal form than the next. Why are pigs different? Are they less domesticated? Is it the omnivory? Is it their intelligence?

In a few decades people say they need power weapons to protect their families from the pigs. What the heck?

(edit: some cows, chickens survive? see replies)

futurebird, 6 months ago to random

It can be frustrating to read the way that people who are unaware of all of the things that “police presence” will do to a neighborhood write about police abolition— even when they are making an effort to understand they still regard police as something that, if removed, would need to be replaced. After all? who will stop the criminals? Who will keep the neighborhood from descending into chaos?

What they fail to understand is that the police are the chaos. 1/

futurebird, 7 months ago to random

The Case for Domesticated Ants:

Domesticated bees are useful. They pollinate crops & produce honey. But, what could domesticated ants do?

Ants are stronger than bees & come in a wide range of sizes. They can be kept healthy on an inexpensive a diet of feeder insects & plant sugars. Ants are fastidious & pay attention to details. 1/

futurebird, 8 months ago to random

Americans are supposed to be the leaders in frivolous kitchen gadgets but these hilarious (tempting?) single egg poachers are only sold in the UK& Germany. (there are multi-egg devices sold for the US but they don’t even have temperature regulation or automatic power off and that defeats the whole purpose of the device, if you have to monitor it might as well boil)

Just generally most US appliances are designed to make way too much food.

What is your strangest useful kitchen gadget?

futurebird, 11 months ago to random

I hate advertisements so much.
This is the main reason I don't have cable. I couldn't wrap my brain around the concept of paying for content full of ads.

I paid for youTube premium but I'm about to give up on that too since you may skip the inserted ads there are still all of the sponsors. And I can't be mad at creators for wanting to make some money but I really need to escape these ads.

Because ads work -- most people assume they don't but they do. They change you.

futurebird, 9 months ago to random

The police shot a 63 year old man while trying to evict him from his home. The elderly man had been taken in by "sovereign citizen" conspiracy theories much to his son's frustration.

These theories made him more vulnerable to police violence. He also may not have been mentally well.

The house he was evicted from used to belong to his brother, but a corporation recently bought it for $25,000, then evicted him.

This story is a nexus of senselessness.

https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/pittsburgh-active-shooter-what-we-know-about-suspect-william-hardison-sr/YBYESACWBJAZDNWKC5RRHSSGY4/

futurebird, 9 months ago to random

Here is a fun animation that will help you to understand the relative rpms of the planets.

(via. https://www.tumblr.com/bandit-jay/698182172743434240/comparing-the-rotations-of-objects-in-the-solar?source=share)

7 Planets a moon and Pluto all shown to be about the same size with goggly eyes. Mercury hardly moves at all. Venus is literally still. Jupiter is going so fast it's eyes are shut tight.

futurebird, 11 months ago to random

For someone who likes sci-fi I don't spend enough time thinking about long distance space travel.

I admire the stories that avoid "warp drives" or "worm holes" -- though such a thing isn't a dealbreaker. I just think it's admirable to deal with the upsetting immensity of space on its own terms.

But if you want to avoid hand-waving you need to really think about how people deal with time, delayed communication, etc.

What is your favorite way that a sci-fi story did "long distance" ?

futurebird, 4 months ago to random

When you first start teaching math you quickly learn that some things that seemed simple or inconsequential to you are massive stumbling blocks for large numbers of students.

Factoring quadratics is one of these things.

Most people I encountered while majoring in math did not have a "method" to factor quadratics. You look at the thing, see if you can think of some factors, if you can't use the quadratic formula.

Students HATE this "process" it took me a long time to understand why. 1/

futurebird, 7 months ago to random

Ants are the strange members of the hymenopterans. What defines a "bee" or a "wasp" ?

Flying! Stinging! Ovipositing! Bright warning colors!

Ants looked at the main advantages of being hymenopteran and said... nah. I guess stinging is OK... (Though most ants don't sting.) ... but most of this is nothing compared to going eusocial.

Personally I think eusociality is such a huge advantage this makes sense.

But then why aren't the bees who do both more successful? Are they too specialized?

futurebird, 6 months ago to random

"Going anywhere for the holidays?"
"Yes, upstate."
"Plane or car?"
"Oh Jesus no! Train."
"How long will that take?"
"9 hours. But my vacation starts when I get on the train, not when I get off the plane. It's much less stressful."
"You know... I can see that..."

Folks, I may have a made a convert today. Let's be real. Driving is work, and flying is torture. A train ride, might seem "long" but did you count all the time you spend getting to the airport, the security checks? The silly rules?