mcnees

mcnees, 1 year ago to random

This is probably the best thing I ever posted on Twitter. The memory is pretty dear to me; I'm sharing it here so it still exists somewhere if that place collapses.

mcnees, 1 year ago to random

The free speech absolutist has logged on.

Shot and chaser:

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mcnees, 10 months ago to random

If anyone is wondering how google is doing, it is giving incorrect answers to the query “How old is the Universe?”

Instead of serving up scientific consensus (just shy of 14 billion years) it is latching onto recent media coverage of a questionable study (tired light, time-dependent coupling constants) claiming a much larger figure.

Notably, it gives me the right answer from an incognito window. But elevating popularity metrics over scientific consensus is a real problem!

mcnees, 6 months ago to random

Mathematician Karl Weierstrass was born #OTD, Halloween, in 1815.

The fools at The Academy all said he was mad, but in 1872 he announced that he had succeeded in creating a monster.

Image: Smithsonian Institution Libraries

mcnees, 1 year ago to random

If someone comes at you on here with “actually, Nazis were socialists,” just block them and don’t look back. Do yourself this little kindness.

mcnees, 10 months ago to random

Astronomer Vera Rubin was born #OTD in 1928.

Her work on galactic rotation curves became one of the main pieces of evidence for the existence of dark matter, and she deserved a Nobel Prize for it.

Image: Vassar College / Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

mcnees, 8 months ago to random

Happy 118th birthday to special relativity!

Albert Einstein introduced special relativity in the paper "On The Electrodynamics Of Moving Bodies," published #OTD in 1905 in the journal Annalen der Physik.

Manuscript: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/andp.19053221004
English Translation: https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/

The first paragraph of the paper, in German. Translated to English is reads: It is known that Maxwell's electrodynamics—as usually understood at the present time—when applied to moving bodies, leads to asymmetries which do not appear to be inherent in the phenomena. Take, for example, the reciprocal electrodynamic action of a magnet and a conductor. The observable phenomenon here depends only on the relative motion of the conductor and the magnet, whereas the customary view draws a sharp distinction between the two cases in which either the one or the other of these bodies is in motion. For if the magnet is in motion and the conductor at rest, there arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet an electric field with a certain definite energy, producing a current at the places where parts of the conductor are situated. But if the magnet is stationary and the conductor in motion, no electric field arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet...

mcnees, 9 months ago to random

Depending on your time zone, Voyager 2's closest approach to Neptune was either yesterday (the 24th) or #OTD in 1989. It took place around 4am UTC.

Here's a short thread with some great images captured by the probe, and some proposed cargo for a future mission. #ReturnToNeptune

(Definitely read this one to the end.)

A color photo of Neptune’s moon Triton, captured by Voyager 2. It is pinkish-tan in color, with shadows from mountainous terrain near the bottom of the disk and a white spray of lighter material across the equator.

mcnees, 1 year ago to random

Physicist Steven Weinberg was born #OTD in 1933. His 1967 paper "A Model of Leptons" presented a unified theory of the electromagnetic and weak nuclear interactions, and is the most cited paper in particle physics.

Besides his groundbreaking work in particle physics, Weinberg is known for contributions to cosmology and astrophysics, as well as numerous textbooks and popular works.

Image: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

mcnees, 9 months ago to random

The Voyager 2 spacecraft launched #OTD in 1977.

It is currently 12.4 billion miles from Earth, hurtling through interstellar space at about 34,400 mph with respect to the sun.

Voyager 2 is so far from Earth that round trip for signals is 36.5 hours.

Only its twin Voyager 1 (which launched a few weeks later, but took a more direct route out of the solar system) is further.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Titan-Centaur rocket launch that carrier Voyager 2 into space.
A photo of the completed probe against a black background. The central mass is dominated by a white radio antenna. Gantries extend from each side, with small devices attached to them. The "golden record" is visible on the side of the probe.
The golden record attached to Voyager 2, which carried information about its origin and life on our planet.

mcnees, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to random

Mathematician, computer scientist, and WWII code breaker Alan Turing, who established the theoretical foundation for just about every modern computing device, was born #OTD in 1912. His work helped make it possible for you to read this.

The British government prosecuted him for being gay, a monstrous act that eventually led to Turing’s death by suicide. Then they waited over 60 years before issuing a pardon.

Image: The Guardian

mcnees, 8 months ago to random

Happy 115th birthday, spacetime!

Hermann Minkowski addressed the 80th Assembly of German Natural Scientists and Physicians #OTD in 1908, offering a radical four-dimensional reformulation of Einstein's theory of special relativity.

His opening lines:

mcnees, 5 months ago to random

Happy #QuantumDay to all who celebrate!

Max Planck presented work on blackbody radiation to the German Physical Society #OTD in 1900. His novel “quantum hypothesis” suggested that matter emits and absorbs light with frequency f only in discrete chunks of energy E=hf.

Image: AIP

mcnees, 10 months ago to random

Physicist John Archibald Wheeler was born #OTD in 1911.

A titan of 20th century science, Wheeler introduced the S-Matrix; developed the first general theory of fission with Neils Bohr; coined many terms (”worm hole” and “it from bit”) and popularized others (“black hole”); and trained Feynman, Everett, Thorne, and a host of others.

An older wheeler standing in front of a chalkboard. His hands are clasped. The diagram behind him shows a direct path from point A to point B labeled “classical,” and a wave emanating from A and passing to B labeled “quantum.”
Black and white photo of Albert Einstein, Hideki Yukawa, John Wheeler, and Homi Bhabha walking through the woods near the Institute for Advanced Study. The last three men are wearing suits, but Einstein has on khakis and a frumpy cardigan – king move by the goat.

mcnees, 10 months ago to random

Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell was born #OTD in 1943. As a grad student at Cambridge in 1967, she discovered an entirely new type of celestial object: Pulsars!

Photo: National Science & Media Museum / Science & Society Picture Library

mcnees, 9 months ago to random

For all his scientific accomplishments, Erwin Schrödinger was a sexual predator who wrote in his journal about infatuations with girls as young as 12. He groomed a 14 year old; when she was 17 he got her pregnant then abandoned her.

He argued that his genius gave him the right to pursue young girls.

Part of a tweet from the account “Physics in History.” It reads: Schrödinger was a remarkable scientist who advanced our understanding of the physical world and inspired many other researchers and thinkers. He was also a complex and controversial person who had unconventional views on politics, morality, and spirituality. He died in 1961 in Vienna, his birthplace.

mcnees, 9 months ago to random

Getting an earthquake during a hurricane is the sort of story you get when your writers are all on strike.

mcnees, 11 months ago to random

President Carter added water-heating solar panels to the White House #OTD in 1979, to demonstrate an ambitious long term commitment to renewable energy.

President Reagan, who was vehemently opposed to renewable energy, would later order their removal.

The panels weren't removed until 1986, though some of the sources I've seen claim that he ordered the removal as early as 1981. Whatever the timeline, Reagan proposed a budget that reduced Federal funding for renewable energy research by 85%.

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

Friends who use Macs!

I’m replacing my wife's old (Intel, 2020) MBA with the newer M2 model. For work, she usually has Microsoft Word, Excel, and Teams open; Chrome with lots of tabs; and either Zoom or Webex. All of these are running simultaneously. She is also using an external 4k monitor.

Given the poor resource management of this particular set of apps (all of which she must use, this isn't by choice) this is one of those non-pro cases where 16 GB is actually called for, right?

mcnees, 10 months ago to random

[Elon’s voice over the Mars habitat intercom]
I have some important news about our oxygen supply.

mcnees, 11 months ago to random

Calls for “debate” on subjects like vaccines aren’t really invitations to communicate with a large audience. Many reasons for this, one of which is Brandolini’s Law:

The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.

The whole thing is a set-up.

mcnees, 8 months ago to random

The Voyager 1 space probe was launched from Cape Canaveral #OTD in 1977, a few weeks after Voyager 2.

Now it's the most distant human-made object – about 14.96 billion miles from Earth, racing away from us at 38,000 miles per hour with respect to the Sun.

Images: NASA/KSC/JPL

A color rendering of the Voyager 1 probe against a star field. Two prominent antenna gantries emerge from the main body of the probe, positioned underneath a large radio dish.
Color plot of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 trajectories. While Voyager two visited all four outer planets, Voyager 1 took a quicker route to Jupiter and Saturn that sent it careening out of the solar system.

mcnees, 11 months ago to random

Physicist Ken Wilson was born OTD in 1936. He invented lattice gauge theory and pioneered the modern view of the renormalization group. This latter contribution informs everything from the physics of phase transitions to how we interpret quantum field theories.

Image: Cornell U.

mcnees, 2 months ago to random

Physicist and chemist Richard Chace Tolman was born #OTD in 1881. He showed that electricity in metal is the flow of electrons, developed relativistic applications of thermodynamics, and served as science advisor to General Leslie Groves during WWII.

Image: Caltech / Oregon State

mcnees, 7 months ago to random

My daughter couldn’t finish her math homework tonight, because the assignment includes a question about how much soil you can put in a certain “pot,” and the school Chromebook has a filter installed that keeps getting triggered by an unsafe word.