Tootfinder

Proton: an incredible feat of software engineering; a Rube Goldberg machine that brought Windows gaming to Linux seemingly overnight after decades of Windows domination.
Copilot: a black box inflationary doodad riding the Nvidia wings after the crypto bubble; airplanes not falling from sky only because traffic control probably doesn't have it installed on critical hardware.

🍆 A Hermetic, Transparent Soft Growing Vine Robot System for Pipe Inspection
#robots #machine

A Hermetic, Transparent Soft Growing Vine Robot System for Pipe Inspection
Rehabilitation of aging pipes requires accurate condition assessment and mapping far into the pipe interiors. Soft growing vine robot systems are particularly promising for navigating confined, sinuous paths such as in pipes, but are currently limited by complex subsystems and a lack of validation in real-world industrial settings. In this paper, we introduce the concept and implementation of a hermetic and transparent vine robot system for visual condition assessment and mapping within non-bra…

SN 2021lwz: Another Exotic Luminous and Fast Evolving Optical Type Ic Broad-Lined Supernova ?
F. Poidevin, S. L. West, C. M. B. Omand, R. K\"onyves-T\'oth, S. Schulze, L. Yan, T. Kangas, I. P\'erez-Fournon, S. Geier, J. Sollerman, P. J. Pessi, C. M. Guti\'errez, T. -W. Chen, K-Ryan Hinds, R. Marques-Chaves, R. Shirley, C. Jimenez Angel, R. Lunnan, D. A. Perley, N. Sarin, Y. Yao, R. Dekany, J. Purdum, A. Wold, R. R. Laher, M. J. Graham, M. M. Kasliwal, T. Jegou Du Laz

SN 2021lwz: Another Exotic Luminous and Fast Evolving Optical Type Ic Broad-Lined Supernova ?
Context. Current large-scale, high-cadence surveys, such as the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), provide detections of new and rare types of transients and supernovae whose physical origins are not well understood. Aims. We investigate the nature of SN 2021lwz at a redshift z=0.065, an overluminous supernova (SN) of absolute magnitude, $M_{g} \sim -20.1$ AB, falling in the lower range of superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) luminosities, and discovered in a faint dwarf galaxy with an absolute magni…

❝Arduino will retain its independent brand, tools, and mission, while continuing to support a wide range of microcontrollers and microprocessors from multiple semiconductor providers as it enters this next chapter within the Qualcomm family.❞ https://ar…

Qualcomm is buying Arduino, releases new Raspberry Pi-esque Arduino board
Qualcomm claims Arduino will keep its own branding and “open source ethos.”…

Flowing architecture by Frank Gehry #RIP #architecture

Finished "Lobizona" by Romina Garber. I have extremely mixed feelings about this book. It's a powerful depiction of the fear of living as an undocumented child/teen and it has interesting things to say about rejection, belonging, and the choice between seeking to be recognized for who you are and wanting you blend in enough to be accepted as normal. However, it's also an explicit homage to Harry Potter, and while it doesn't include antisemitic tropes or glorify slavery or even have any anti-trans sentiments I can detect, to me the magical school setup felt forced and I thought it would have been a better book had it not tried to fit that mould. Also, it would have been a super interesting situation to explore trans issues, and while it's definitely fine for it not to do that, the author's praise of Rowling's work has me wondering...
There's a sequel that I think could in theory be amazing, but given the execution of the first book, I think I'll wait a bit before checking it out. By putting her main character in opposition to both ICE in the human world and the magical authorities in the other world, Garber explicitly sets the stage for a revolution standing between her protagonist and any kind of lasting peace. But I'm not confident she's capable of writing that story without relying on some kind of supernatural deus ex machina, which would be disappointing to me, since "a better world if only possible through divine intervention" is an inherently regressive message.
Overall, #OwnVoices fantasy centering an undocumented immigrant is an excellent thing, and I've certainly got a lot of privilege that surely influences my criticism. However, #OwnVoices stuff has a range of levels of craft and political stances, and it can be excellent for some reasons and mediocre for others.
On that point, if anyone reading this has suggestions for fiction books grappling with borders and the carceral state, Is be happy to hear them.
#AmReading