@Mediagazer@mstdn.social2026-01-25 16:30:39
Foreign correspondents at WaPo send a letter to Jeff Bezos raising alarm over impending layoffs, which are expected to "land hard" on international coverage (@erikwemple)
https://x.com/erikwemple/status/2015432558851301380
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz2026-01-26 21:03:14
Wow, what are people thinking? https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/585063/pessimistic-voters-look-to-winston-peters-to-be-the-change-candidate-inside-the-coalition
@Techmeme@techhub.social2026-03-25 00:26:17
Source: SpaceX is aiming to file its IPO prospectus with regulators later this week or next week, and could try to raise more than $75B (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/spacex-aims-file-ipo-soon-week
@jswright61@ruby.social2026-01-25 20:17:07
Just got an email from one of my Senators, Jon Ossoff, GA with some welcomed news:
Good afternoon,
On Sunday, U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff demanded civil liberties protections before further funds are appropriated to ICE and announced he will oppose the measure scheduled for a vote this week.
(Full text of letter in the image alt-text)
#UsPol
@cdarwin@c.im2026-01-21 03:57:27
Trump’s IRS chief reorganizes tax agency days before filing season
The Internal Revenue Service will reorganize its senior ranks
days before this year’s tax filing season opens
and try to use technology to become more efficient,
the Trump administration’s IRS leader Frank Bisignano told The Washington Post on Tuesday.
Administration officials named Bisignano the IRS’s chief executive,
a role that does not formally exist in the agency’s governing structur…
@arXiv_physicsfludyn_bot@mastoxiv.page2026-02-26 09:23:30
A minimal wake-vortex model explains formation flight of flapping birds
Olivia Pomerenk, Kenneth S. Breuer
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.22043 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.22043 https://arxiv.org/html/2602.22043
arXiv:2602.22043v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Collective patterns of motion emerge across biological taxa: insects swarm, fish school, and birds flock. In particular, large migratory birds form strikingly ordered V-shaped formations, which experiments and direct numerical simulations have demonstrated provide substantial energetic benefits during long-distance flight. However, the precise aerodynamic and morphological mechanisms underlying these benefits remain unclear. In this work, we develop a reduced-order model of the wake-vortex interactions between two flapping birds flying in tandem. The model retains essential unsteady flapping dynamics while remaining computationally tractable. By optimizing over a six-dimensional state space, which comprises the follower's three-dimensional relative position and three independent flapping parameters, we identify the energetically optimal leader-follower configuration of northern bald ibises. The predicted optimum agrees quantitatively with live-bird measurements. Because of its simplicity, the model allows for direct interrogation of the physical mechanisms responsible for this optimum. In particular, it isolates precisely how the follower's wing kinematics interact with the leader's wake to enhance aerodynamic efficiency. The model predicts an 11% reduction in total mechanical power for a follower in formation flight -- consistent with experimental estimates -- and shows that this saving arises from reductions in both induced and profile power, dominated by decreased profile power enabled primarily through reduced flapping amplitude and, secondarily, reduced upstroke flexion. These results provide a mechanistic explanation for the structure of V-formations and offer new insight into the aerodynamic principles governing collective flight.
toXiv_bot_toot
@floheinstein@chaos.social2026-02-23 10:00:53
None of us have to be millennials anymore.
If you were born between LOTR (animated version, 1978) and LOTR The Fellowship (2001), you are the Hobbit Generation: Promised wealth and adventure - but only receiving war and ruin.
(Original source: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUO2zZlCLdG/ …
@inthehands@hachyderm.io2026-02-23 18:46:04
It’s worth noting that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, originator of the bad deductive rule in question, spent his later years falling for and vehemently defending a variety of hoaxes involving fairies and communicating with the dead:
https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-175-ghost-racket-crusade-10-22-2021/
@servelan@newsie.social2026-02-23 05:01:51
New in SpyWeek: Trump Weighs Murder of Iran Leader & Son, New Greenland Move as CIA Flunks Analysts
https://www.spytalk.co/p/new-in-spyweek-trump-weighs-murder
@brian_gettler@mas.to2026-03-18 18:47:04
Allow me to doubt the federal government's claim that "the planned reductions" at the Canadian Museum of History are really "intended to improve efficiency and provide greater long-term flexibility in fulfilling its mandate."
Response from Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages to Colin Coates, President of the Canadian Historical Association.
