Tootfinder

The Grand Canyon Lodge,
the only lodging inside the park at the North Rim,
was consumed by the flames,
park Superintendent Ed Keable told park residents, staff and others in a meeting Sunday morning.
https://bsky.app/profile/pbsnews.org/post/3lturjh5k2a2h…

📉 Fears that falling birth rates in the US could lead to population collapse are based on faulty assumptions
https://phys.org/news/2025-07-falling-birth-population-collapse-based.html

Fears that falling birth rates in the US could lead to population collapse are based on faulty assumptions
Pronatalism—the belief that low birth rates are a problem that must be reversed—is having a moment in the U.S.

The “Neural Data” Goldilocks Problem: Defining “Neural Data” in U.S. State Privacy Laws
https://fpf.org/blog/the-neural-data-goldilocks-problem-defining-neural-data-in-u-s-state-privacy-laws/
@…

In his op ed in the WaPo,
Jay Bhattacharya has shown that he should not be taken seriously. He’s DEFINITELY not a real scientist.
If people don’t like science should we ignore the potential it has?
That’s not how it works.
Science doesn’t care about your feelings.
https://

Active Learning and Explainable AI for Multi-Objective Optimization of Spin Coated Polymers
Brendan Young, Brendan Alvey, Andreas Werbrouck, Will Murphy, James Keller, Mattias J. Young, Matthew Maschmann
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08988

Active Learning and Explainable AI for Multi-Objective Optimization of Spin Coated Polymers
Spin coating polymer thin films to achieve specific mechanical properties is inherently a multi-objective optimization problem. We present a framework that integrates an active Pareto front learning algorithm (PyePAL) with visualization and explainable AI techniques to optimize processing parameters. PyePAL uses Gaussian process models to predict objective values (hardness and elasticity) from the design variables (spin speed, dilution, and polymer mixture), guiding the adaptive selection of sa…

I have complicated feelings that are not entirely dissimilar to Popehat’s thread here, but are…well…more complicated.
1/ https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:s6j27rxb3ic2rxw73ixgqv2p/post/3lyiwvin3g22n

Constraining Dark Photon Dark Matter with Radio Silence from Soliton Mergers around Supermassive Black Holes
Dorian W. P. Amaral, Enrico D. Schiappacasse, Hong-Yi Zhang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08932

Constraining Dark Photon Dark Matter with Radio Silence from Soliton Mergers around Supermassive Black Holes
We place the first constraints on the dark matter fraction contained within dark photon solitons using the absence of their predicted radio-frequency signatures, or radio silence, following mergers around supermassive black holes. In these dense environments, spiky dark matter density profiles can form that enhance the soliton merger rate. We present a novel estimate of this rate by incorporating both the steepened dark matter profile and the soliton velocity dispersion via the Jeans equation. …

Additive Approximation Schemes for Low-Dimensional Embeddings
Prashanti Anderson, Ainesh Bakshi, Samuel B. Hopkins
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.09652 https://

Additive Approximation Schemes for Low-Dimensional Embeddings
We consider the task of fitting low-dimensional embeddings to high-dimensional data. In particular, we study the $k$-Euclidean Metric Violation problem ($\textsf{$k$-EMV}$), where the input is $D \in \mathbb{R}^{\binom{n}{2}}_{\geq 0}$ and the goal is to find the closest vector $X \in \mathbb{M}_{k}$, where $\mathbb{M}_k \subset \mathbb{R}^{\binom{n}{2}}_{\geq 0}$ is the set of all $k$-dimensional Euclidean metrics on $n$ points, and closeness is formulated as the following optimization problem…

Universality in the velocity jump in the crack propagation observed for food-wrapping films for daily use
Aoi Nohara, Ko Okumura
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.09347 https://…

Universality in the velocity jump in the crack propagation observed for food-wrapping films for daily use
The velocity jump found in the crack propagation for rubbers has been a powerful tool for developing tough rubber materials. Although it is suggested by a theory that the jump could be observed widely for viscoelastic materials, the report on a clear jump is very limited and, even in such a case, reproducibility is low, except for elastomers. Here, we use a mundane food-wrapping film as a sample and observe the crack propagation velocity with pulling the sample at a constant speed in the direct…

AgriVLN: Vision-and-Language Navigation for Agricultural Robots
Xiaobei Zhao, Xingqi Lyu, Xiang Li
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.07406 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2…

AgriVLN: Vision-and-Language Navigation for Agricultural Robots
Agricultural robots have emerged as powerful members in agricultural tasks, nevertheless, still heavily rely on manual operation or untransportable railway for movement, resulting in limited mobility and poor adaptability. Vision-and-Language Navigation (VLN) enables robots to navigate to the target destinations following natural language instructions, demonstrating strong performance on several domains. However, none of the existing benchmarks or methods is specifically designed for agricultur…