katchwreck

tenderlove, 9 days ago to random

So many programmers say we shouldn't use C but then complain when we use Fahrenheit smh

andrewstroehlein, 9 days ago to random

The international mission to Haiti aims to help reverse the country’s slide into violent chaos. But can it avoid the failures and abuses of previous international interventions in #Haiti?

📰 English: https://www.hrw.org/the-day-in-human-rights/2024/05/30?story=paragraph-8425

📰 Français: https://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2024/05/30/mission-en-haiti

📰 Deutsch: https://www.hrw.org/de/news/2024/05/30/die-mission-nach-haiti

🔊 Listen: https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/audio/2024/05/30/mission-haiti

katchwreck, 1 month ago to random

"Because machine learning has been adopted across virtually every scientific discipline, with no universal standards safeguarding the integrity of those methods, Narayanan said the current crisis, which he calls the reproducibility crisis, could become far more serious than the replication crisis that emerged in social psychology more than a decade ago.

The good news is that a simple set of best practices can help resolve this newer crisis before it gets out of hand"

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1043154

gutenberg_org, 1 month ago to books

American mathematical physicist J. Willard Gibbs died #OTD in 1903.

Gibbs' most celebrated contributions were in the field of thermodynamics, particularly concerning the phase rule, chemical potential, and Gibbs free energy—a concept named after him. The Gibbs free energy is particularly critical in predicting the direction of chemical reactions and phase changes. His book, "Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics," laid the foundation for modern statistical mechanics.

#books #physics

Maxwell's sketch of the lines of constant temperature and pressure, made in preparation for his construction of a solid model based on Gibbs's definition of a thermodynamic surface for water (see Maxwell's thermodynamic surface) James Clerk Maxwell (1831 – 1879) - P. M. Harman (ed.), The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, vol. 3, 1874-1879, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 232, plate IV. J. C. Maxwell's sketch of the thermodynamic surface for a water-like substance, based on a theoretical construct proposed by J. W. Gibbs. The curves are "isothermals and isopiestics drawn by help of the Sun."

gutenberg_org, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to books

An Ancient Greek Philosopher Was Exiled for Claiming the Moon Was a Rock, Not a God

2,500 years ago, Anaxagoras correctly determined that the rocky moon reflects light from the sun, allowing him to explain lunar phases and eclipses

By David Warmflash via @SmithsonianMag

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-greek-philosopher-was-exiled-claiming-moon-was-rock-not-god-180972447/

#books #science #astronomy #philosophy

gutenberg_org, 1 month ago to science

English electrical engineer and physicist John Ambrose Fleming died #OTD in 1945.

He is best known for his invention of the vacuum tube diode, which he patented in 1904. The vacuum tube diode, also known as the Fleming valve, was the first practical vacuum tube and allowed for the detection & amplification of electrical signals. It was a crucial component in early radio receivers and telecommunications systems, laying the foundation for the development of modern electronics.

#science #physics

United States Patent 803,684; first sheet. Illustrations of the 'Fleming Valve', the first useful vacuum tube. John Ambrose Fleming, inventor. United States Patent Office (John Ambrose Fleming, inventor). - United States Patent Office.

jwz, 2 months ago to random

Let's check in on how Kickstarter's "pivot to blockchain" worked out.

David Gerard:

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform. You put up a planned creative work, get pledges, and Kickstarter takes a percentage. This is pretty simple. There are very few...
https://jwz.org/b/ykOv

dangillmor, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

One of my students has hit a wall trying to sign up for a Wikipedia account -- blocked (for no reason we can figure out) and then going in circles trying to get unblocked...

Update: After much difficulty, my student got her account signup to work. We're still not entirely clear why she was blocked, or why she was unblocked, but we're happy.

katchwreck, 2 months ago to Taiwan

#Taiwan’s strongest #earthquake in nearly 25 years damages buildings and causes a small #tsunami

https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-earthquake-tsunami-f086aac0c3082036d1ca77c01828fb28

thunderbird, 2 months ago to random

Thunderchat Alert! 🚨

Community Office Hours start in ONE hour at 17:00 UTC! Today's format is Open Forum and FAQs, so bring your questions and comments and we'll bring the team! Find out how to join in the blog post: https://blog.thunderbird.net/2024/03/march-2024-community-office-hours-open-forum-and-faq/

#Thunderbird #Community #OpenSource

jwz, 2 months ago to random

A couple of times in the last week, I've noticed that I was not following someone who I'm 100% sure I used to be following. I didn't unfollow them on purpose, they don't have me blocked, and they don't seem to have migrated servers any time recently. Weird.

gutenberg_org, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to books

French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace died #OTD in 1827. Between 1770-73, he submitted 13 papers to the French Academy of Sciences, on such subjects as integral calculus, mechanics, & physical astronomy. His in-depth study of the motions of the planets & the stability of the solar system formed the basis of the 5-volume Traité de Mécanique Céleste. He made important contributions to probability & statistics with the publication of Théorie Analytique des Probabilités.

#books #mathematics
1

gutenberg_org, 3 months ago to books

English diarist and naval administrator Samuel Pepys was born #OTD in 1633. The detailed private diary that Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War, and the Great Fire of London. via @wikipedia

Books by Samuel Pepys at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1181

#books #literature

Cover of The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

katchwreck, 3 months ago to random

i've been saying that consumer technology industries will have to be scaled back to create a sustainable society for many years now. it may seem draconian but there really is no reason to allow consumers to purchase non-biodegradable products of any kind, except for essentials and where no sustainability issues arise. the waves of issues facing us today with deepfakes, scams, malware, surveillance, etc largely stem from a consumer market that does not provide any real value to society.

Teri_Kanefield, 5 months ago to random

Okay, I did it:
https://terikanefield.com/section-3-and-the-spirit-of-liberty/

I offer the radical idea that the Colorado Trump-ballot case and the application of section 3 of the 14th Amendment isn’t easy or straightforward.

Do your thing Mastodon (I always post here first).

gutenberg_org, 5 months ago to science

French mathematician Camille Jordan was born #OTD in 1838. He is known both for his foundational work in group theory and for his influential Cours d'analyse.

Jordan's work did much to bring Évariste Galois theory into the mainstream. He also investigated the Mathieu groups, the first examples of sporadic groups. His Traité des substitutions, on permutation groups, was published in 1870; this treatise won for Jordan the 1870 prix Poncelet. via @wikipedia

#science #mathematics

cra1g, 5 months ago to maps

Saw this map posted on another network and it helped me realize some things I'd never appreciated before, which is just how whopping huge the agricultural part of California is, and, related, just how bowl-like the topography is. Really fascinating. #Maps #California

gutenberg_org, 5 months ago to books

English mathematician and barrister Brook Taylor died #OTD in 1731.

Taylor's most famous developments are Taylor's theorem and the Taylor series, essential in the infinitesimal approach of functions in specific points. Taylor's Methodus Incrementorum Directa et Inversa (1715) added a new branch to higher mathematics, called "calculus of finite differences". via @wikipedia

#books #science #mathematics

Methodus incrementorum directa & inversa. Auctore Brook Taylor .... - Londini : Typis Pearsonianis prostant apud Gul. Innys ad Insignia Principis in Coemeterio Paulino, 1715. - [6], 118, [2] p. : ill. ; 4º .

katchwreck, 5 months ago to random

Carl Sagan was instrumental in selecting material for the Golden Records, and he probably said it best: “The spacecraft will be encountered, and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space, but the launching of this ‘bottle’ into the cosmic ‘ocean’ says something very hopeful about life on this planet.”

https://www.universetoday.com/164656/what-would-a-modern-golden-record-include/#more-164656

bagder, 6 months ago to mastodon

According to this, I am currently ranked 213 among the most followed peeps on #Mastodon: https://most-followed-masotodon-accounts.stefanhayden.com/

Crazy!

dangillmor, 6 months ago to random

Microsoft just killed the AI company it owns -- in which it invested billions of dollars -- and is gambling that owning the founders will make up the difference.

Corporate melodrama doesn't get much more melodramatic than this.

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

Elon routinely interacted with and retweeted nazis on Twitter long before he bought it. After, he fired the content safety staff and courted nazis who had been banned and put them back on the site. Earlier this year he started PAYING THEM to keep posting.

It's nice that people are noticing his nazi shit now, but it's a journalistic malpractice that it's taken this long and most omit this history.

This WaPo story is the exception: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/19/antisemiticism-internet-elon-musk-israel-war/