vlk

vlk, 8 days ago to random

Spot Pond, Stoneham MA
#aurora

daringfireball, 9 days ago to random

Is the ‘Crush’ Backlash a Dead Canary in the Apple Brand Coal Mine?
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/05/09/dhh-crush

ZachWeinersmith, 12 days ago to random

Hey literature people--

So, I was reading HG Wells and I noticed something I hadn't thought about. He writes in a style that's very weird, and but for the Victorian/Edwardian language might even be considered experimental now? Like, in The War in the Air, it regularly alternates between goofy comedic scenes and scenes of horror and violence. And in between THAT there are digressions about economics and engineering technology. (1/n)

GottaLaff, 13 days ago to random

1/... The quote:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Did you meet Kim Jong Un?

#KristiNoem As soon as this was brought to my attention, I made some changes and looked at this passage

BRENNAN: So you did not meet with Kim Jong Un?

NOEM: I've met with many world leaders. I'm not going to talk about specifics.

vicgrinberg, 19 days ago to random

#10Authors5BooksEach - the ones I recommend who may not be known to all my followers:

Iain M. Banks
Heinrich Böll
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Jenny Erpenbeck
Ursula K. LeGuin
Marge Piercy
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Lyudmila Ulitskaya
Christa Wolf
Banana Yoshimoto

Post yours?

#bookstodon

vlk, 2 months ago to Astro

A letter to the astronomy community from the @ChandraScience Director.
#astrodon

https://cxc.harvard.edu/cdo/announcement.html

GottaLaff, 2 months ago to random

To clarify. Via Rupar:

Ian, you're wrong. I watched the speech. Eric unpacks the relevant context here. It's a very odd look to be spinning for #Trump like this.

Eric Columbus:

Wise conway thread below about Trump's "bloodbath" remarks. And per @metzgov transcription Trump said the effect on the car industry would be "the least of" the effects of the "bloodbath for the country." This is the opposite of just talking about cars.

Me: Here's the thread:

GottaLaff, 3 months ago to random

I haven’t watched yet, we DVR’d. Now I’m not so sure I want to.

Via Stephen Robinson:

Jon Stewart complaining that 2024 is “two old guys” again is like me complaining that it’s “two white guys” again. It misses the point and minimizes the stakes.

Via Aaron Rupar:

Some of Stewart’s jokes landed but I would argue the message of his monologue is actually the very last thing we need right now unless you want four more years of Trump. It certainly didn’t inspire anyone to vote.

vicgrinberg, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

Wheeeee! Ich habe ein Ticket für "Fremd" am Gorki Theater in Berlin ergattert! First time that getting on a waiting list for something actually worked out!

vlk, 4 months ago to Astro

Did you do a spectral fit, and it converged, but it left you unsatisfied with its quality? Think it could have done better, but you can't justify pushing the model any further because the χ² is apparently "good enough"? Then this recipe, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ad18b5, by @anshumanastro and me is what you are looking for. It lets you analyze trends in the residuals and control systematics, allowing you to access and use information that wasn't used in the χ² minimization.

#astro #xray

vicgrinberg, 4 months ago to random

I've got time on my hands, but am in a creative funk 🥺

Tell me about a telescope or satellite you want a drawing off and why? Then it may happen in the next days.

vlk, 6 months ago to random

@grammargirl Is the phrase "in <blank>'s stead" or "in good stead" a split infinitive? It seems like it should be, but the insertion is not an adverb, and stead is not a verb, so does it qualify?

vicgrinberg, 6 months ago to random

There is no (nice, succinct, well-defined ) English word for "Muskelkater" 😳

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

A grasshopper lands at a random point on a planar lawn of area one. It then jumps once, a fixed distance 𝑑, in a random direction. What shape should the lawn be to maximize the chance that the grasshopper lands on the lawn again?

Surprisingly, the lawn should never be shaped like a disk! Here's what it should look like for various choices of 𝑑. For larger values of 𝑑 it gets even weirder.

• Olga Goulko and Adrian Kent, The grasshopper problem, https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.07621.

Follow @esoterica to learn more surprising results in mathematics!

arstechnica, 6 months ago to random

Leonardo da Vinci used toxic pigments when he painted the Mona Lisa

Plumbonacrite has previously been found in later works by Rembrandt.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/10/leonardo-da-vinci-used-toxic-pigments-when-he-painted-the-mona-lisa/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

vlk, 7 months ago to random

I LOATHE this new trend of demanding recommendations via forms rather than pdf letters!

astro_jcm, 7 months ago to random

Dear restaurant owners.

Please.

I'm begging you.

The QR code for your menu should link to a website, not a pdf file.

siderea, 7 months ago to random

Huh. Google Maps on Android is no longer plotting walking paths when returning public transit directions.

It's doing the following instead.

(To generate this example, I requested public transit directions from Park Street Station to the Harvard Science Center.)

j_bertolotti, 7 months ago to random

Call me old-fashioned, but why should 5 y/o kids spend more time in school learning how to use a mouse than they spend learning how to use a pen?
They are going to learn how to use a mouse/touch-screen by themselves soon enough, don't worry.

vlk, 7 months ago to random

@grammargirl Help, please, to find examples of and to explain the "Y, but Y" rhetorical construction!

I had a sentence in a newsletter saying how someone was not getting enough credit for work when *** all, but all, *** of what we do now is based on their work. But it was unfamiliar to the editor, a native English speaker! I couldn't explain the reasoning behind it other than that I could swear it was widely used! I tried to search for examples, but it is hard to know what to search for.

vicgrinberg, 7 months ago to random

I've been asked an interesting question yesterday that stumbled me first and made me think: which #museums do I like most?

There are certain topics that draw me in: Asian art, ancient history (and art), everything art nouveau & symbolism, old Dutch masters, design, Jewish stories, etc.

But what I like most is to learn something interesting and fascinating about something I did not know I was interested in before. To get my eyes opened to something.

How would you answer the question?