Tootfinder

Graphene and thin graphite films for ultrafast optical Kerr gating at 1 GHz repetition rate under focused illumination
Amr Farrag, Assegid M. Flatae, Mario Agio
https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.17713 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.17713 https://arxiv.org/html/2511.17713
arXiv:2511.17713v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: The ability to address sub-picosecond events of weak optical signals is essential for progress in quantum science, nonlinear optics, and ultrafast spectroscopy. While up-conversion and optical Kerr gating (OKG) offer femtosecond resolution, they are generally limited to ensemble measurements, making ultrafast detection in nano-optics challenging. OKG, with its broadband response and high throughput without phase-matching, is especially promising when used at high repetition rates under focused illumination.
Here, we demonstrate an ultrafast detection scheme using the third-order nonlinearity of graphene and thin graphite films, operating at 1 GHz with sub-nanojoule pulses and achieving 141 fs temporal resolution. Their exceptionally large nonlinear refractive index, orders of magnitude higher than conventional Kerr media, enhances detection efficiency at smaller thicknesses, enables sub-picosecond response, and supports broadband operation. Their atomic-scale thickness minimizes dispersion and simplifies integration with microscopy platforms, optical fibers, and nanophotonic circuits, making them a compact, practical material platform for nano-optical and on-chip ultrafast Kerr gating.
toXiv_bot_toot

The #IWW #GDC as an antifascist organization was always kind of a hack. It was a beautiful hack and it worked well for what it did.
In 2016, as Trump was rising, I found info from the Twin Cities GDC. They were super organized, building an amazing community defense organization. When we (Seattle) went to set up our chapter, following their lead, they were extremely supportive. When I got shot, Twin Cities folks were at my house keeping my partner safe. They literally flew people out to support us. They very much remain in my mind when I think about what mutual aid looks like.
Unionism is an important strategy of a larger fight. But it's important to realize that it's not the other way around. The GDC was built to defend the union, because there wasn't something larger to do that work. It filled a gap.
When we organized against Trump, we tried to make the GDC the greater thing. We tried to make the GDC into the vehicle for social revolution against the fascist threat... And it sort of worked. We were able to do a lot.
But that was never what it was built to do. It was always built as an appendage of the IWW. This contains its own problem. If Unionism is the revolutionary movement, then it becomes impossible to build a truly revolutionary society. Unionism centers "workers" which implicitly decenters those who can't work in the traditional sense (the young, the elderly, those physically or mentally able to work). It also decenters care labor that hasn't yet been widely commodified. Sure, there are all types of hacks to patch the holes, but the fundamental construction starts from the wrong assumptions.
It felt, for a while, like things could go another way. Like that our ability to bring members in could shift things a bit, maybe set the GDC on more equal footing with the core focus of the IWW. But that was always an illusion, far less important to think about than the crushing terror of the regime we were fighting.
Now, I will absolutely trash talk the IWW on occasion but in the end I do think they're doing good and important work. Any criticism I have should be taken with a grain of salt... And I know I do have a lot of salt. Again, Unionism is an important strategy. It's useful both in improving immediate material conditions and as part of the most powerful weapon we have against the capitalist system: the general strike. It's important, I can't say that enough. But it's not sufficient.
I've been thinking about this a bit recently, and I wonder if there are any other GDC organizers or former organizers who might be feeling the same. Feel free to DM me. I'd like to get some more perspectives and see if my understanding from several years ago deviates significantly from what other folks are feeling right now.
I'd also like to bounce some ideas around that come from my own organizing experience.

Inspections by Taiwan's National Security Bureau (NSB) of five Chinese generative AI apps -- Deepseek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問), and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶) -- found violations of users' communication security across several indicators.
https://focustaiwan.tw/cross-strait/2025…

Taiwan warns of biases, data breach in Deepseek, other Chinese AI - Focus Taiwan
The National Security Bureau (NSB) has urged Taiwanese people to be on alert when using Chinese generative artificial intelligence (AI) language models due to potential security breaches and the spread of "disinformation" following recent inspections of five such apps.

Sky Sports shuts down its new female-focused TikTok channel Halo after three days, following online backlash for "sexist" posts, saying it "didn't get it right" (Emma Rossiter/BBC)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdrz8g7evyxo

Sky Sports axes 'sexist' TikTok channel Halo after three days
The female-focused TikTok channel was dubbed "patronising" and "sexist" by social media users.

60 years ago #OTD #comet #IkeyaSeki reached perihelion, -10 mag., was visible in daylight and showed a spectacular tail in the following weeks: https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/message/32770 and https://www.astronomy.com/today-in-the-history-of-astronomy/sept-18-1965-discovery-of-comet-ikeya-seki/ and https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noao-01854/

18 October is an auspicious day to strike against authoritarianism
#nokings #nofacists
@…
@…

«an ineffectual "open source revolution" that maintains the status quo of our modern day hellscape by facilitating an upwards transfer of wealth and power, amassed by the hyperscalers who are now entering their final, fascistic form. Open source "won" by aiding and abetting the already dominant owner-class.»
Quite a long read, but the core issue of where FLOSS is failing feels about right to me.
https://blog.muni.town/open-source-power/

#EroticMusings 25: Does your erotica ever explore chronic or terminal health?
I plan to write a short series focused on that topic - Namalenia is suffering from a progressing illness that picks up speed as she ages and Rhaise is suffering from a chronical condition after literally falling off an airship, almost drowning and barely surviving the ordeal. They meet on the island where …

1935 and the Frankfurt School of left intellectuals, having fled Nazism in Germany, like many others, re-established itself in New York, USA.
2025 and left intellectuals start fleeing from really existing fascism in the USA.
Ironically to Spain, in one high profile case, which in 1935 was in the process of succumbing to the fascist Falange, but which now has a democratic and centre left government.

George Pickens 'wouldn't mind' staying with Cowboys long-term https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/george-pickens-wouldn-t-mind-staying-with-cowboys-long-term