Tootfinder

Slovakia hints it won't block 18th sanctions package following EU assurances: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/15/slovakia-hints-it-wont-block.html

Variety of wildlife in UK’s woodlands falling as habitats degrade, says report https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/10/variety-of-wildlife-in-uks-woodlands-falling-as-habitats-degrade-says-report

GENMANIP: LLM-driven Simulation for Generalizable Instruction-Following Manipulation
Ning Gao, Yilun Chen, Shuai Yang, Xinyi Chen, Yang Tian, Hao Li, Haifeng Huang, Hanqing Wang, Tai Wang, Jiangmiao Pang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.10966

GENMANIP: LLM-driven Simulation for Generalizable Instruction-Following Manipulation
Robotic manipulation in real-world settings remains challenging, especially regarding robust generalization. Existing simulation platforms lack sufficient support for exploring how policies adapt to varied instructions and scenarios. Thus, they lag behind the growing interest in instruction-following foundation models like LLMs, whose adaptability is crucial yet remains underexplored in fair comparisons. To bridge this gap, we introduce GenManip, a realistic tabletop simulation platform tailore…

USC professor Allison Marsh writes this delightful short article for IEEE Spectrum about Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert's British counterparts in Cambridge and how, in their case, a document (the Lighthill Report) precipitated cuts in British AI research funding in ways similar to how funding was temporarily cut in the U.S. following MIT's publishing of Minsky and Papert's "Perceptrons" in 1969.
"Freddy the Robot Was the Fall Guy for British AI"

Freddy the Robot Was the Fall Guy for British AI

Its creator lost a power struggle that led to an AI winter in the 1970s

“My dance with Covid makes my cancer look like a piece of cake.”
Sagt Jeff Bridges, der 2020 an Lymphdrüsenkrebs erkrankt ist und sich bei der Behandlung aber leider auch C19 eingefangen, hat nach nun bald 5 Jahren: “Covid kicked my ass pretty good.”
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05…

Jeff Bridges says he’s ‘feeling good’ nearly 5 years after cancer diagnosis, but dealing with ‘long-term’ Covid effects
Jeff Bridges is sharing some good news pertaining to his health.

Terry Bradshaw blames Steelers for Kenny Pickett's failure in Pittsburgh: 'They didn't even do anything to build around him' https://www.nfl.com/news/terry-bradshaw-blames-…

Edge-On Disk Study (EODS) II: Thermal Structure of the Flying Saucer Disk
S. Guilloteau (Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux), O. Denis-Alpizar (Departamento de F\'isica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Av. Las Palmeras 3425, Nu\~noa, Santiago, Chile), A. Dutrey (Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux), C. Foucher (Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux), S. Gavino (Dipartimento di Fisic…

Edge-On Disk Study (EODS) II: Thermal Structure of the Flying Saucer Disk
Context. The dust and gas temperature in proto-planetary disks play critical roles in determining their chemical evolution and influencing planet formation processes. Aims. We attempted an accurate measurement of the dust and CO temperature profile in the edge-on disk of the Flying Saucer. Methods. We used the unique properties of the Flying Saucer, its edge-on geometry and its fortunate position in front of CO clouds with different brightness temperatures to provide independent constraints on …

Allen’s Hummingbird flying up to Mexican Bush Sage. LA Arboretum, Arcadia, California, USA. July, 2025. #laarboretum #bird #birds

Historic Tokyo Bridge Liberated from Concrete Overpass Will Shine Again Thanks to Grassroots Campaign https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/historic-tokyo-bridge-pulled-out-from-under-highway-overpass-following-gra…

Historic Tokyo Bridge Liberated from Concrete Overpass Will Shine Again Thanks to Grassroots Campaign
The Nihonbashi Bridge was considered the first reference node of the entire Japanese national road network at the time. 

Here’s a mind-blowing experiment that you can try at home:
Gather some children’s blocks and place them on a table.
Take one block and slowly push it over the table’s edge, inch by inch, until it’s on the brink of falling.
If you possess patience and a steady hand, you should be able to balance it so that exactly half of it hangs off the edge.
Nudge it any farther, and gravity wins.
Now take two blocks and start over.
Stacking one on top of the other, how…

This Block-Stacking Math Problem Has a Preposterous Solution You Need to See to Believe — Scientific American
In principle, this impossible math allows for a glue-free bridge of stacked blocks that can stretch across the Grand Canyon—and into infinity Amanda Montañez Math Here’s a mind-blowing experiment that you can try at home: Gather some children’s blocks and place them on a table. Take one block and slowly push it over the table’s edge, inch by inch, until it’s on the brink of falling. If you possess patience and a steady hand, you should be able to balance it so that exactly half of it…