Tootfinder

from my link log —
“Twelfth Night Till Candlemas: the story of a forty-year book-quest and of its remarkable ending.
https://davidallengreen.com/2024/12/twelfth-night-till-candlemas-the-story…

“Twelfth Night Till Candlemas” – the story of a forty-year book-quest and of its remarkable ending
The day before the Winter Solstice, 2024 This post is about finally finding a book from one’s youth forty years later – and after nearly thirty years of searching. It is also a tale about gob…

As a security community we have to make sure that people know about this vulnerability. Right now it's pretty easy to thwart, _don't keep your keys near the front door_. It's a simple countermeasure, but people have to see footage like this to understand. The threat is real and the gear to do this is pretty cheap.
https://www.

Police issue warning after Breckland keyless car theft
Footage shows one thief in a balaclava approaching the house before the car engine starts.

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.12855 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@ar…

Linking emitted drops to collective bursting bubbles across a wide range of bubble size distributions
Bubbles entrained by breaking waves rise to the ocean surface, where they cluster before bursting and release droplets into the atmosphere. The ejected drops and dry aerosol particles, left behind after the liquid drop evaporates, affect the radiative balance of the atmosphere and can act as cloud condensation nuclei. The remaining uncertainties surrounding the sea spray emissions function motivate controlled laboratory experiments that directly measure and link collective bursting bubbles and …

Single-Trajectory Bayesian Modeling Reveals Multi-State Diffusion of the MSH Sliding Clamp
Seongyu Park, Inho Yang, Jinseob Lee, Sinwoo Kim, Juana Mart\'in-L\'opez, Richard Fishel, Jong-Bong Lee, Jae-Hyung Jeon
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.21943

Single-Trajectory Bayesian Modeling Reveals Multi-State Diffusion of the MSH Sliding Clamp
DNA mismatch repair (MMR) is the essential mechanism for preserving genomic integrity in various living organisms. In this process, MutS homologs (MSH) play crucial roles in identifying mismatched basepairs and recruiting downstream MMR proteins. The MSH protein exhibits distinct functions and diffusion dynamics before and after the recognition of mismatches while traversing along DNA. An ADP-bound MSH, known as the MSH searching clamp, scans DNA sequences via rotational diffusion along the DNA…

As a security community we have to make sure that people know about this vulnerability. Right now it's pretty easy to thwart, _don't keep your keys near the front door_. It's a simple countermeasure, but people have to see footage like this to understand. The threat is real and the gear to do this is pretty cheap.
https://www.

Police issue warning after Breckland keyless car theft
Footage shows one thief in a balaclava approaching the house before the car engine starts.

Random PR of the day https://github.com/pbzweihander/fediday.org/pull/16

Fix carousel scroll on small screens by cheeaun · Pull Request #16 · pbzweihander/fediday.org
Before: The first post is cropped and can't be scrolled to After: The first post appears and scrollable Solution is using safe https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/justify-content...

"World’s smallest snake rediscovered in Barbados after 20-year absence"
#Barbados #Snakes #Animals

World’s smallest snake rediscovered in Barbados after 20-year absence
“I was making a joke and in my head I said, ‘I smell a threadsnake,'” Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for the NGO Re:wild, recalled. “I just had a feeling, but I couldn’t be sure because we turned over a lot of rocks before that and we saw nothing.” Springer’s intuition proved correct when his […]

Slomads Rising: Stay Length Shifts in Digital Nomad Travel, United States 2019-2024
Harrison Katz, Erica Savage
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21298 https://ar…

Slomads Rising: Stay Length Shifts in Digital Nomad Travel, United States 2019-2024
Using every U.S. Airbnb reservation created from 1 January 2019 through 31 December 2024, weighted by nights booked, we document a lasting shift toward longer stays after the COVID 19 shock. Mean nights per booking rose from 3.7 before the pandemic to a stable 4.1 to 4.4 after 2021; the median increased from two to three nights and the weighted standard deviation nearly doubled to seven nights, indicating a heavier tail. Negative binomial regression shows that, relative to the restriction perio…

✊ Bangladesh struggles to balance reform efforts and calls for elections after the revolution
https://globalvoices.org/2025/06/29/bangladesh-struggles-to-balance-reform-efforts-and-calls-for-elections-after-the-…

Bangladesh struggles to balance reform efforts and calls for elections after the revolution
The narratives describe a tense and uncertain political transition, with the interim government aiming for reforms before elections in April 2026, while key political parties push for earlier polls by December 2025.

"Writing is one of the most disruptive technologies ever invented after agriculture. Before writing, people could pass information in the current moment, to those who were close enough to hear noises made by other people. Writing allows people to communicate across space, passing written information to readers without the physical presence of the author. And it allows them to communicate across time, leaving evidence of thoughts long after the thinker had died."

Why My Team Writes
Writing is one of the most disruptive technologies ever invented after agriculture. Before writing, people could pass information in the current moment, to those who were close enough to hear noises made by other people. Writing allows people to communicate across space, passing written information to readers without the physical presence of the author. And it allows them to communicate across time, leaving evidence of thoughts long after the thinker had died.

A U.S. Army veteran who was arrested during an immigration raid at a Southern California farm last week
said Wednesday he was sprayed with tear gas and pepper spray
before being dragged from his vehicle and pinned down by federal agents who arrested him.
George Retes, 25, who works as a security guard at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, said he was arriving at work on July 10
when several federal agents surrounded his car and
— despite him identifying himself as …

Army veteran detained by ICE in California farm raid speaks out
A U.S. Army veteran arrested during an immigration raid at a California marijuana farm says he was sprayed with tear gas and pepper spray before being dragged from his vehicle on his way to work. George Retes, a native of Ventura City, California, says he was pinned to the ground by ICE officials on his back and his neck after getting caught between protesters and authorities last week at Glass House Farms in Camarillo. Retes was held for three days before being release without charges and with…

Windsurf CEO Jeff Wang on what happened after co-founders Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen left for Google, and how Cognition's deal to acquire Windsurf unfolded (Jeff Wang/@jeffwsurf)
https://x.com/jeffwsurf/status/1946376139959841084

Jeff Wang (@jeffwsurf) on X
To put it mildly, the past week at Windsurf has been crazy. There have been a lot of different rumors and reports, so I want to share a transparent account of how it actually went down. Before I start, I just want to say that Varun and Douglas were great founders and this

Random PR of the day https://github.com/pbzweihander/fediday.org/pull/16

Fix carousel scroll on small screens by cheeaun · Pull Request #16 · pbzweihander/fediday.org
Before: The first post is cropped and can't be scrolled to After: The first post appears and scrollable Solution is using safe https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/justify-content...

Talking to...uh...um...Machines: The Impact of Disfluent Speech Agents on Partner Models and Perspective Taking
Rhys Jacka, Paola R. Pe\~na, Sophie Leonard, \'Eva Sz\'ekely, Benjamin R. Cowan
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.18315

Talking to...uh...um...Machines: The Impact of Disfluent Speech Agents on Partner Models and Perspective Taking
Speech disfluencies play a role in perspective-taking and audience design in human-human communication (HHC), but little is known about their impact in human-machine dialogue (HMD). In an online Namer-Matcher task, sixty-one participants interacted with a speech agent using either fluent or disfluent speech. Participants completed a partner-modelling questionnaire (PMQ) both before and after the task. Post-interaction evaluations indicated that participants perceived the disfluent agent as more…

Sources: CBS decided to end The Late Show on June 27, before the 60 Minutes settlement, but Colbert's agent only informed him after he taped the July 16 episode (Lesley Goldberg/The Ankler)
https://theankler.com/p/on-vacation-colbert-didnt-know-late

On Vacation, Colbert Didn’t Know ‘Late Show’ Was Dead. His Manager Did
SCOOP: James Dixon waited two weeks to tell his star and more new details about who knew what and when, and what comes next

Series B, Episode 08 - Hostage
BLAKE: Just about.
USHTON: Let's get them before they get us.
VILA: Ugh. Ugh.
BLAKE: Come on, Vila.
VILA: I don't think I can make it.
BLAKE: Inga, stay and look after him.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/208/646 B…

Blakes7Bot | Search
Companion site to the Blakes7Bot Twitter, Mastodon, and Bluesky accounts. Automated lines of Blakes 7 dialog. Includes a script search facility.

We are closing in on #Studioworks Beta launch (finally 😴; I’ve barely done anything but work on this (and under-sleep) all year).
During the month-long beta period, we’ll be letting Founding Members (people who sign up before the beta) use the product before paid subscriptions start—they also get lifetime discounts. We don’t intend to offer free trials after this.
If you’re interested i…

Studioworks: Join now
Reserve your studio handle and select your future plan to become a Founding Member. In return, you’ll get lifetime discounts and other perks.

Error recovery protocols within metastable Decoherence-Free Subspaces
Thomas Botzung, Eliana Fiorelli
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.19631 https://

Error recovery protocols within metastable Decoherence-Free Subspaces
Open quantum systems governed by quantum master equations can exhibit quantum metastability, where decoherence-free subspaces (DFS) remain approximately invariant for long transient times before relaxing to a unique steady state. In this work, we explore the use of such metastable DFS as code spaces for passive quantum error correction. We focus on two representative models: a two-qubit system under collective dissipation, and a nonlinear driven-dissipative Kerr resonator. After characterizing …

with the bar for safe bike infrastructure as low as it is, it's hard to strike the right balance after a project between "hooray! it's so much better!" and "this, that, and the other thing still suck."
Streetsblog SF often errs on the latter side... I'm happier than ever with #ValenciaStreet, but their critiques are not wrong.

SFMTA Leaves Valencia Bike Lanes Unfinished - Streetsblog San Francisco
The center-running lane is long gone and some finishing touches are coming to the parking-protected section from 15th to 23rd, but the lack of concrete infrastructure remains problematic. And then there's the last four blocks from 23rd to Cesar Chavez, which is still just a striped lane wedged between parked cars and moving traffic.

On the Penumbra-to-Umbra Ratio from 1660 to 1676
Nadezhda Zolotova, Mikhail Vokhmyanin
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.18361 https://arxiv…

On the Penumbra-to-Umbra Ratio from 1660 to 1676
Sunspot engravings made in the Maunder minimum are used to evaluate the fine structure of sunspots. Based on 78 images of the full solar disk and 77 images of individual sunspots, we have evaluated the ratio of penumbral-to-umbral area (P/U) to be 4.2 $\pm$ 2.5 and 3.8 $\pm$ 2.3, respectively. These results are consistent with previous estimates before, during, and after the Maunder minimum, as well as with the P/U ratio observed in the largest sunspot groups in solar cycle 24. This suggests th…

Not Even Nice Work If You Can Get It; A Longitudinal Study of Uber's Algorithmic Pay and Pricing
Reuben Binns, Jake Stein, Siddhartha Datta, Max Van Kleek, Nigel Shadbolt
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15278

Not Even Nice Work If You Can Get It; A Longitudinal Study of Uber's Algorithmic Pay and Pricing
Ride-sharing platforms like Uber market themselves as enabling `flexibility' for their workforce, meaning that drivers are expected to anticipate when and where the algorithm will allocate them jobs, and how well remunerated those jobs will be. In this work we describe our process of participatory action research with drivers and trade union organisers, culminating in a participatory audit of Uber's algorithmic pay and work allocation, before and after the introduction of dynamic pricing. Throu…

Obscure kernel bug use-after-free and then the VLAI severity told me "maybe important" before I read the drama #kernel

[CVE-2025-38001] Exploiting All Google kernelCTF Instances And Debian 12 With A 0-Day For $82k: A RBTree Family Drama (Part One: LTS & COS)
CVE-2025-38001 is a Use-After-Free vulnerability in the Linux network packet scheduler, specifically in the HFSC queuing discipline. When the HFSC qdisc is utilized with NETEM and NETEM packet duplication is enabled, using HFSC_RSC it is possible to cause a double class insertion in the HFSC eligible tree. Under normal conditions, this would lead to an infinite loop in hfsc_dequeue() due to an RBTree cycle. However, by adding TBF as root qdisc, it is possible to prevent packets from being deque…

Trump's political operation has reportedly launched a new political action committee (PAC) to oust Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican.
On Sunday, Axios reported that Trump's team had created the Kentucky MAGA super PAC after Massie slammed Saturday's strike on Iran.
Senior Trump advisers Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita were expected to run the organization.
According to the report, the PAC was in the works before Massie's criticism. LaCivita said the g…

Scoop: Trump launches MAGA PAC in effort to oust Rep. Massie from Congress
By going after Massie, Trump's team is looking to put wayward Republicans on notice that they're ready to play hardball.

The BBC says it will air a new MasterChef season filmed before presenters Gregg Wallace and John Torode were fired over Banijay's misconduct report (Max Goldbart/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2025/07/bbc-will-air-next-season-masterc…

BBC Will Air Next Season Of ‘MasterChef’ Featuring Gregg Wallace & John Torode
The BBC will air the 'MasterChef' season featuring Gregg Wallace & John Torode after they were fired following a Banijay review.

Sources: after Trump let Nvidia resume H20 chip sales to China, Nvidia told Chinese customers it has limited stocks and doesn't plan to restart production (Qianer Liu/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nvidias-china-restart-f…

Nvidia’s China Restart Faces Production Obstacles
President Donald Trump’s recent decision allowing Nvidia to resume sales of the H20 artificial intelligence chips to China sent its Chinese customers—mostly big tech firms like ByteDance and Alibaba—into a frenzy to snap up chips before the U.S. administration changes its mind again. Nvidia’s ...

Longitudinal review of portfolios with minimum variance approach before during and after the pandemic
Genjis A. Ossa, Luis H. Restrepo
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.15111

Longitudinal review of portfolios with minimum variance approach before during and after the pandemic
This study investigates the impact of the pandemic on the most traded stocks in the Colombian stock market for the date of January 17, 2024. Based on the daily data of the most traded companies in Colombia for said date and covering a period general from 2015 to 2023, in a summarized way our analysis reveals that in the period 2015-2019, the return reached 5.70%, with a relatively low risk of 18.45%. However, in the following period 2016 -2020, although the yield decreased to 5.40%, the risk ex…

This is me (playing bass) with my first band ever called Rapa Nui. This was officially our first gig, although the first one happened a few months before this one, in Sarajevo, in front of the then-demolished Youth House.
Back then, I hated melodic punk, feeling the buzz from bands like Motorhead and different extreme metal and grindcore artists.
However, in 2016, I rediscovered an old favorite.
This is a story of how Bad Religion made me start listening to punk rock, an…

How I Started Believing in Bad Religion
For almost a decade, after their song You, made me fall in love with punk rock, I hated the band called Bad Religion. And then they turned out to be one of my favorites ever.

Network Modelling of Asynchronous Change-Points in Multivariate Time Series
Carson McKee, Maria Kalli
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15801 https://

Network Modelling of Asynchronous Change-Points in Multivariate Time Series
This article introduces a novel Bayesian method for asynchronous change-point detection in multivariate time series. This method allows for change-points to occur earlier in some series (leading series) followed, after a short delay, by change-points in some other series (lagging series). Such dynamic dependence structure is common in fields such as seismology and neurology where a latent event such as an earthquake or seizure causes certain sensors to register change-points before others. We m…

Identification of Authoritative Nodes and Dismantling of Illicit Networks Using a Novel Metric for Measuring Strength of a Graph
Kartikeya Kansal, Arunabha Sen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12711

Identification of Authoritative Nodes and Dismantling of Illicit Networks Using a Novel Metric for Measuring Strength of a Graph
Dismantling criminal networks or containing epidemics or misinformation through node removal is a well-studied problem. To evaluate the effectiveness of such efforts, one must measure the strength of the network before and after node removal. Process P1 is considered more effective than P2 if the strength of the residual network after removing k nodes via P1 is smaller than that from P2. This leads to the central question: How should network strength be measured? Existing metrics rely solely …

This is sickening…
It’s ⭐️Jordan Wood,
Susan Collins’ only Democratic opponent.
When Susan Collins confirmed RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard
after expressing her *deepest concerns*
she left Mainers stunned.
But now, I’m learning that days before the votes:
…Susan Collins jetted down to Mar-a-Lago
…she DINED with Donald Trump 
…the MAGA establishment vowed 💥over $400 MILLION would be spent on her race
I won’t mince words:
👉 Susan Col…

Chip in now to elect Jordan Wood >>
Help Jordan defeat Susan Collins

AI-Augmented Visible Light Communication: A Framework for Noise Mitigation and Secure Data Transmission
A. A. Nutfaji, Moustafa Hassan Elmallah
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08145

AI-Augmented Visible Light Communication: A Framework for Noise Mitigation and Secure Data Transmission
This paper presents a proposed AI Deep Learning model that addresses common challenges encountered in Visible Light Communication (VLC) systems. In this work, we run a Python simulation that models a basic VLC system primarily affected by Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). A Deep Neural Network (DNN) is then trained to equalize the noisy signal received and improve signal integrity. The system evaluates and compares the Bit Error Rate (BER) before and after equalization to demonstrate the ef…

On the Impossibility of Separating Intelligence from Judgment: The Computational Intractability of Filtering for AI Alignment
Sarah Ball, Greg Gluch, Shafi Goldwasser, Frauke Kreuter, Omer Reingold, Guy N. Rothblum
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.07341

On the Impossibility of Separating Intelligence from Judgment: The Computational Intractability of Filtering for AI Alignment
With the increased deployment of large language models (LLMs), one concern is their potential misuse for generating harmful content. Our work studies the alignment challenge, with a focus on filters to prevent the generation of unsafe information. Two natural points of intervention are the filtering of the input prompt before it reaches the model, and filtering the output after generation. Our main results demonstrate computational challenges in filtering both prompts and outputs. First, we sho…

Nvidia's rise after ChatGPT's release is reminiscent of dot-com era titans like Cisco and Juniper; Cisco's share price grew over 1000x between 1990 and 2000 (Tripp Mickle/New York Times)
https://www.ny…

Nvidia Becomes First Public Company Worth $4 Trillion
The A.I. chip maker reached the landmark before Apple and Microsoft, as its value rose more than tenfold after ChatGPT’s release in late 2022.

Cosmic Strings in Multi-Step Symmetry Breaking
Akifumi Chitose, Masahiro Ibe, Satoshi Shirai, Yaxuan Wen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15194 https://

Cosmic Strings in Multi-Step Symmetry Breaking
We investigate cosmic strings arising from a hierarchical gauge symmetry breaking sequence, $\mathrm{SU}(2) \times \mathrm{U}(1) \rightarrow \mathrm{U}(1) \times \mathrm{U}(1) \rightarrow \mathrm{U}(1)' \rightarrow \text{Nothing}$. This pattern gives rise to two distinct classes of cosmic strings: light, stable strings formed at a later stage, and heavy, metastable strings originating from an earlier stage. Our focus is on the heavy strings, which may decay either before or after the final $\ma…

Original post: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:oumckr73jxr2fcxqf6l5xnrv/post/3lubun6g4cs27

Stevenof1 (@stevenof1.bsky.social)
In 1879, Mary Walton filtered train and factory smoke through water tanks—cutting pollution before it reached New York’s air. Then, after Edison failed to solve NYC’s railway noise problem, she invented a sand‑and‑cotton‑lined system that muffled the roar. Cleaner air, quieter streets...

A Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists arrived at an Israeli port Monday after Israeli forces stopped and detained them
Israel’s Foreign Ministry published a photo on social media of Thunberg after disembarking.
The 12 activists were expected to be held at a detention facility in Ramle before being deported, according to Adalah, a legal rights group representing them

Israeli forces detain Greta Thunberg after halting Freedom Flotilla aid boat
Israeli forces have seized a Gaza-bound aid boat and detained Greta Thunberg and other activists on board, enforcing a longstanding blockade of the Palestinian territory that has been tightened during the war with Hamas. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which had organized the voyage to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and protest Israel’s blockade and wartime conduct, said the activists had been “kidnapped by Israeli forces.” Israel said the passengers would return to their home…

Google says it has stopped charging Canadian advertisers a 2.5% surcharge after Canada rescinded the DST following President Trump's threats (Pippa Norman/Globe and Mail)
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/arti…

Google stops charging Canadian advertisers extra fee after digital services tax dropped
Amazon, which was also subject to tax, said it will wait until DST is officially rescinded before making any changes

In situ studies of a molten metal anode ablation in a nearly atmospheric pressure DC arc
Stanislav Musikhin, Valerian Nemchinsky, Hengfei Gu, Bruce E. Koel, Yevgeny Raitses
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.11308

In situ studies of a molten metal anode ablation in a nearly atmospheric pressure DC arc
A DC arc with a meltable metal anode in a near-atmospheric pressure hydrocarbon gas is an emerging method for producing single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). In these systems, evaporation of the molten metal anode determines the formation of catalyst seed particles needed for SWCNT growth, and therefore, should be monitored, controlled, and optimized. Evaluating the anode ablation rate by weighing the anode before and after a synthesis run is unfeasible due to anode carburization in the hydr…

A Detection of Helium in the Bright Superluminous Supernova SN 2024rmj
Harsh Kumar, Edo Berger, Peter K. Blanchard, Sebastian Gomez, Daichi Hiramatsu, Alex Gagliano, Moira Andrews, K. Azalee Bostroem, Joseph Farah, D. Andrew Howell, Curtis McCully
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.06417

A Detection of Helium in the Bright Superluminous Supernova SN 2024rmj
We present extensive ultraviolet (UV), optical, and near-infrared (NIR) photometric and spectroscopic observations of the nearby hydrogen-poor superluminous supernova (SLSN-I) SN2024rmj at z = 0.1189. SN 2024rmj reached a peak absolute magnitude of Mg $\approx$ -21.9, placing it at the luminous end of the SLSN-I distribution. The light curve exhibits a pronounced pre-peak bump ($\approx$ 60 d before the main peak) and a post-peak bump ($\approx$ 55 d after the main peak). The bulk of the light …

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.01907 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_mat…

Robust Cislunar Low-Thrust Trajectory Optimization under Uncertainties via Sequential Covariance Steering
Spacecraft operations are influenced by uncertainties such as dynamics modeling, navigation, and maneuver execution errors. Although mission design has traditionally incorporated heuristic safety margins to mitigate the effect of uncertainties, particularly before/after crucial events, it is yet unclear whether this practice will scale in the cislunar region, which features locally chaotic nonlinear dynamics and involves frequent lunar flybys. This paper applies chance-constrained covariance st…

Characterization of Hamamatsu R11410-23 Photomultiplier Tubes and Performance in the PandaX-4T Detector
Binbin Yan, Di Huang, Jianglai Liu, Xiaoying Lu, Anqing Wan, Mengjiao Xiao
https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.24220

Characterization of Hamamatsu R11410-23 Photomultiplier Tubes and Performance in the PandaX-4T Detector
The PandaX-4T liquid xenon detector uses Hamamatsu 3-inch R11410-23 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) as the light sensors for ultra-low radioactivity, high quantum efficiency, and long-term stability at cryogenic temperature. Each PMT was thoroughly tested in a dedicated chamber before being installed in the detector to ensure compliance with experimental requirements. Main PMT characteristics, including gain, dark count rate, and after-pulse probability, were measured and the distributions of thes…

Estimating treatment effects with a unified semi-parametric difference-in-differences approach
Julia C. Thome, Andrew J. Spieker, Peter F. Rebeiro, Chun Li, Tong Li, Bryan E. Shepherd
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.12207

Estimating treatment effects with a unified semi-parametric difference-in-differences approach
The difference-in-differences (DID) approach is widely used for estimating causal effects with observational data before and after an intervention. DID is traditionally used to assess an average treatment effect among the treated after making a parallel trends assumption on the means of the outcome. With skewed outcomes, a transformation is often needed; however, the transformation may be difficult to choose, results may be sensitive to the choice, and parallel trends assumptions are made on th…

After nuclear weapons testing began in 1945, atmospheric radiation contaminated new steel production worldwide.
For decades, scientists needing radiation-free metal for sensitive instruments had to salvage steel from pre-war shipwrecks.
Scientists called this steel
"low-background steel."
Graham-Cumming sees a parallel with today's web, where AI-generated content increasingly mingles with human-created material and contaminates it.
With the advent o…

Scientists once hoarded pre-nuclear steel; now we’re hoarding pre-AI content
Newly announced catalog collects pre-2022 sources untouched by ChatGPT and AI contamination.

Assessing the Impact of Vaccination on Rotavirus Transmission Dynamics Using Bayesian Inference
Conor Rosato, Joshua Murphy, Simon Maskell, John Harris
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14536

Assessing the Impact of Vaccination on Rotavirus Transmission Dynamics Using Bayesian Inference
The introduction of the rotavirus vaccine in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2013 led to a noticeable decline in laboratory reports in subsequent years. To assess the impact of vaccination on rotavirus transmissibility we calibrated a stochastic compartmental epidemiological model using Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods. Our analysis focuses on estimating the time-varying transmissibility parameter and documenting its evolution before and after vaccine rollout. We observe distinct periods of incr…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.13693 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_mat…

A microlocal Cauchy problem through a crossing point of Hamiltonian flows
In this paper, we consider $2\times 2$ matrix-valued pseudodifferential equations in which the two characteristic sets intersect with finite contact order. We show that the asymptotic behavior of its solution changes dramatically before and after the crossing point, and provide a precise asymptotic formula. This is a generalization of the previous results for matrix-valued Schrödinger operators and Landau-Zener models. The proof relies on a normal form reduction and a detailed analysis of a si…

Cavity-less Brillouin strong coupling in a solid-state continuous system
Laura Bl\'azquez Mart\'inez, Changlong Zhu, Birgit Stiller
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08673

Cavity-less Brillouin strong coupling in a solid-state continuous system
Strongly coupling two systems allows them to exchange coherent information before the systems decohere. This important regime in light-matter interactions has predominantly been reached in optical resonator configurations. In this work, we present the experimental realization of strong coupling between optical and acoustic fields within a continuum of modes in a cavity-less configuration after a single-pass through an optical waveguide. The underlying physical effect of anti-Stokes Brillouin-Ma…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.04108 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csIT_…

An Extension of the Adversarial Threat Model in Quantitative Information Flow
In this paper, we propose an extended framework for quantitative information flow (QIF), aligned with the previously proposed core-concave generalization of entropy measures, to include adversaries that use Kolmogorov-Nagumo $f$-mean to infer secrets in a private system. Specifically, in our setting, an adversary uses Kolmogorov-Nagumo $f$-mean to compute its best actions before and after observing the system's randomized outputs. This leads to generalized notions of prior and posterior vulnera…

Species-Dependent Electron Emission from Nanoparticles under Gamma Irradiation
Darukesha B H M
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11317 https://

Species-Dependent Electron Emission from Nanoparticles under Gamma Irradiation
In this study, various nanoparticle species-including Au and Gd$_2$O$_3$-were irradiated with low-energy gamma rays, such as 59.5 keV photons from $^{241}$Am. Pulse-height spectra were recorded using a liquid-scintillation counting system before and after dispersing the nanoparticles into the scintillator, and the differences between them were analyzed to infer the interaction outcomes. Gd$_2$O$_3$ nanoparticles emitted numerous electrons; however, under identical experimental conditions, no de…

Higher-Order Harmonics Reduction in Reset-Based Control Systems: Application to Precision Positioning Systems
S. Ali Hosseini, Nima Karbasizadeh, S. Hassan HosseiniNia
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.04707

Higher-Order Harmonics Reduction in Reset-Based Control Systems: Application to Precision Positioning Systems
To address the limitations imposed by Bode's gain-phase relationship in linear controllers, a reset-based filter called the Constant in gain- Lead in phase (CgLp) filter has been introduced. This filter consists of a reset element and a linear lead filter. However, the sequencing of these two components has been a topic of debate. Positioning the lead filter before the reset element in the loop leads to noise amplification in the reset signal, whereas placing the lead filter after the reset ele…

A look at Russian GRU Unit 29155's hacking department, which started out in 2012, and its involvement in cyber warfare and disinformation campaigns (The Insider)
https://theins.press/en/inv/281731

Hidden Bear: The GRU hackers of Russia’s most notorious kill squad
Russian GRU Unit 29155 is best known for its long list of murder and sabotage ops, which include the Salisbury poisonings in England, arms depot explosions in Czechia, and an attempted coup d’etat in Montenegro. But its activities in cyberspace remained in the shadows — until now. After reviewing a trove of hidden data, The Insider can report that the Kremlin’s most notorious black ops squad also fielded a team of hackers — one that attempted to destabilize Ukraine in the months before …

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.06197 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_qu…

Metainformation in Quantum Guessing Games
Quantum guessing games offer a structured approach to analyzing quantum information processing, where information is encoded in quantum states and extracted through measurement. An additional aspect of this framework is the influence of partial knowledge about the input on the optimal measurement strategies. This kind of side information can significantly influence the guessing strategy and earlier work has shown that the timing of such side information, whether revealed before or after the mea…

User Location Disclosure Fails to Deter Overseas Criticism but Amplifies Regional Divisions on Chinese Social Media
Leo Yang Yang, Yiqing Xu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.03238

User Location Disclosure Fails to Deter Overseas Criticism but Amplifies Regional Divisions on Chinese Social Media
We examine the behavioral impact of a user location disclosure policy implemented on Sina Weibo, China's largest microblogging platform, using a high-frequency, real-time dataset of uncensored user engagement with 165 leading government and media accounts. Leveraging a natural experiment result from the platform's sudden rollout of location tagging on April 28, 2022, we compare millions of time-stamped observations of user behavior in the comment sections of these accounts before and after the …

On the Intensity-based Inversion Method for Quantitative Quasi-Static Elastography
Ekaterina Sherina, Simon Hubmer
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01207 https:/…

On the Intensity-based Inversion Method for Quantitative Quasi-Static Elastography
In this paper, we consider the intensity-based inversion method (IIM) for quantitative material parameter estimation in quasi-static elastography. In particular, we consider the problem of estimating the material parameters of a given sample from two internal measurements, one obtained before and one after applying some form of deformation. These internal measurements can be obtained via any imaging modality of choice, for example ultrasound, optical coherence or photo-acoustic tomography. Comp…

Impostor Among $\nu$s: Dark Radiation Masquerading as Self-Interacting Neutrinos
Anirban Das, P. S. Bhupal Dev, Christina Gao, Subhajit Ghosh, Taegyun Kim
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08085

Impostor Among $ν$s: Dark Radiation Masquerading as Self-Interacting Neutrinos
Multiple cosmological observations hint at neutrino self-interactions beyond the Standard Model, yet such interactions face severe constraints from terrestrial experiments. We resolve this tension by introducing a model where active neutrinos resonantly convert to self-interacting dark radiation after BBN but before CMB epoch. This exploits the fact that cosmological observables cannot distinguish between neutrinos and dark radiation with the same abundance and free-streaming properties. Our me…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was quickly met with sharp questions and criticism Tuesday
by lawmakers who pressed him about his early moves to deploy troops to Los Angeles,
fire key military leaders
and purge diversity programs.
They expressed bipartisan frustration that Congress has not yet gotten a full defense budget from the Trump administration.
“Your tenure as secretary has been marked by endless chaos,”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told Hegseth.

Hegseth faces Democrats in Congress for first time since Signal leaks
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been met with sharp questions and criticism by lawmakers who demanded details on his moves to deploy troops to Los Angeles. Lawmakers also expressed bipartisan frustration Tuesday that Congress doesn't yet have a full defense budget from the Trump administration. The hearing before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee was the first time lawmakers have been able to challenge Trump’s defense chief directly. After persistent questioning about the cost …

Measurement of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum above 2.5 EeV using 19 years of operation of the Pierre Auger Observatory
Diego Ravignani (for the Pierre Auger Collaboration)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08573

Measurement of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum above 2.5 EeV using 19 years of operation of the Pierre Auger Observatory
We present the spectrum of cosmic rays with energies above 2.5 EeV measured at the Pierre Auger Observatory after 19 years of operation, covering the period before the AugerPrime upgrade. Two independent event sets from the surface array of 1500 m-spaced detectors are combined, yielding a total exposure of approximately 100,000 km$^2$ sr yr. The first set includes events with zenith angles less than 60$^\circ$, while the second consists of events between 60$^\circ$ and 80$^\circ$, for which azi…

Modeling the Deterioration of Pavement Skid Resistance and Surface Texture After Preventive Maintenance
Lu Gao, Zia Din, Kinam Kim, Ahmed Senouci
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01842 …

Modeling the Deterioration of Pavement Skid Resistance and Surface Texture After Preventive Maintenance
This study investigates the deterioration of skid resistance and surface macrotexture following preventive maintenance using micro-milling techniques. Field data were collected from 31 asphalt pavement sections located across four climatic zones in Texas, encompassing a variety of surface types, milling depths, operational speeds, and drum configurations. A standardized data collection protocol was followed, with measurements taken before milling, immediately after treatment, and at 3, 6, 12, a…

Metainformation in Quantum Guessing Games
Teiko Heinosaari, Hanwool Lee
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.06197 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.0…

Metainformation in Quantum Guessing Games
Quantum guessing games offer a structured approach to analyzing quantum information processing, where information is encoded in quantum states and extracted through measurement. An additional aspect of this framework is the influence of partial knowledge about the input on the optimal measurement strategies. This kind of side information can significantly influence the guessing strategy and earlier work has shown that the timing of such side information, whether revealed before or after the mea…

"For Glory's Sake - For Vengeance Sake - War"
The predicate is being laid.
There’s a very easy A to B if, after a day or two or three, you don’t see the violence stop,
you could imagine easily that Trump would use that as a pretext for a much more sweeping assertion of power.
So we are at a very, very dangerous time.
The rhetoric is maximal rhetoric. The deployment is relatively minimal, but I’m worried it’s only a matter of time before the depl…

Opinion | Three Opinion Writers on the L.A. Protests and Trump’s Spectacle of Control
Michelle Cottle, David French and Tressie McMillan Cottom dissect Trump’s reach for power.

The BBC says future music performances deemed high risk won't be aired or streamed live; Bob Vylan and six others had been labeled high risk before Glastonbury (Steven McIntosh/BBC)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czjkmlj1348o

BBC staff to 'step back' from duties over Glastonbury Bob Vylan row
No "high risk" music acts will be broadcast live in the future after Bob Vylan's Glastonbury set.

A Novel Intensity-Based Criterion for Determining Exceptional Point in PT-Symmetry Coupled Array of Optical Waveguides
Mahla Bahar, Mojtaba Golshani, Mostafa Motamedifar
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01200

A Novel Intensity-Based Criterion for Determining Exceptional Point in PT-Symmetry Coupled Array of Optical Waveguides
In this study, we investigated the propagation pattern and the site-to-site correlation function in a PT-symmetric waveguide array with different input quantum states. Recognizing the stark difference in propagation pattern before and after the PT symmetry-breaking point, we have developed a novel, straightforward intensity-based criterion to determine the exceptional point (EP). This new criterion shows excellent agreement with those obtained by directly computing the Hamiltonian's eigenvalues…

Welfare Reform: Consequences for the Children
Marianne Simonsen, Lars Skipper, Jeffrey A. Smith
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.03927 https://

Welfare Reform: Consequences for the Children
This paper uses register-based data to analyze the consequences of a recent major Danish welfare reform for children's academic performance and well-being. In addition to work requirements, the reform brought about considerable reductions in welfare transfers. We implement a comparative event study that contrasts outcomes for individuals on welfare at the time of reform announcement before and after the implementation of the reform with the parallel development in outcomes for an uncontaminated…

"Analysis: UK’s solar power surges 42% after sunniest spring on record"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Solar #SolarPower

Analysis: UK’s solar power surges 42% after sunniest spring on record - Carbon Brief
The UK’s solar farms and rooftops generated more electricity than ever before in the first five months of 2025.

Before states banned abortion,
one of the gravest outcomes of early miscarriage could easily be avoided:
👉Doctors could offer a dilation and curettage procedure, which quickly empties the uterus and allows it to close,
protecting against a life-threatening hemorrhage.
⚠️But because the procedures, known as D&Cs, are also used to end pregnancies, they have gotten tangled up in state legislation that restricts abortion.
🆘Reports now abound of doctors hesitat…

A “Striking” Trend: After Texas Banned Abortion, More Women Nearly Bled to Death During Miscarriage
A new ProPublica data analysis adds to the mounting evidence that abortion bans have made the common experience of first-trimester miscarriage far more dangerous.

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.07035 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_…

Inferring jet physics from neutron star - black hole mergers with gravitational waves
Neutron star - black hole (NSBH) mergers that undergo tidal disruption may launch jets that could power a gamma-ray burst. We use a population of simulated NSBH systems to measure jet parameters from the gravitational waves emitted by these systems. The conditions during the tidal disruption and merger phase required to power a gamma-ray burst are uncertain. It is likely that the system must achieve some minimum remnant baryonic mass after the merger before a jet can be launched to power a gamm…

Florida’s Everglades National Park is often referred to as the most endangered national park in the United States.
In 1968, developers tried to construct the largest airport in the world in the middle of the park,
which was already suffering from a multitude of environmental crises:
disrupted water flow, a drastic decline in the bird population, human development, invasion of exotic species, and the endangerment of the Florida panther.
After an upswell of public outcry…

DeSantis Races to Open Immigrant Detention Camp in Swamp Amid Hurricane Season
Even before “Alligator Alcatraz,” Ron DeSantis had defined his political legacy by gleeful cruelty against immigrants.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, is doubling down on his concerns about a bill that would make sweeping changes to taxes, Medicaid, food stamps and more
after it was passed last month in the Republican-led House at the urging of President Donald Trump.
It's completely unsustainable," Johnson said in an interview on Fox's "Sunday Morning Futures."
The bill is expected to add somewhere around $3 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years and swell the…

'It's completely unsustainable': Republican lawmaker doubles down, knocks Trump tax bill
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin says he supports the president but wants to see the price of his sweeping tax bill come down before he supports it.