2025-12-02 02:42:35
Just found out that #astrobiology has a fitting anthem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB6Xq-jjzeE - can be heard several times in the 2008 SF actioner / satire "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder".
Just found out that #astrobiology has a fitting anthem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB6Xq-jjzeE - can be heard several times in the 2008 SF actioner / satire "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder".
Brutal but seemingly fitting review of #Melania #film in #theatlantic :
"After a while, “Melania” starts to feel like an OnlyFans account crossed with that meme of Kim Jong Un visiting factorie…
Researching DIY solutions for preparing digital negatives for my salt/kallitype printing experiments. Working on a little curve fitting tool/library (of course using https://thi.ng/umbrella) for computing tone mapping curves derived from sample swatches (here 5% steps of gray/density). The screenshot shows 2nd - 5th d…
It's fitting that Dak Prescott could break another Cowboys' record against NFC East rival https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/dallas-cowboys/news/its-fitting-dak-prescott-cou…
We close out 2025 this week with another early pick, a fitting track from 90s rock act Semisonic.
Give it a listen and bring in the new year with us, as we run through why we feel this is the perfect track for the occasion.
Thanks again to all our readers for another fun year of music blogging, we'll be back in the new year to showcase more hand picked tracks from across the epic world of #rock
NFL betting wrapped: Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl fitting end to 'off-the-charts' season https://www.espn.com/espn/betting/story/_/id/47516244/nfl-2025-betting-wrapped-most-bet-teams-players-2026-outlook
It's February, Chicago, 1916, second-string kids from New Orleans, like The Stones at the Marquee, get there to fill a spot, it's fricken freezing, promoter gets overcoats from Sally Ann, all oversized. March lands a gig at Schiller's Cafe. Nick says to ramp it up, invents a new dance fitting the bustle. Gig is white band, lower East Side, what's chances that drunk in the back is Irish? Jazz it up boys, he shouts! Wtf? sez Nick, but he liked the sound of it…
By spring, every teen in Chicago was wearing an oversized overcoat. Louis told Papa Joe in '22 he couldn't play that stuff. Papa Joe said get your ass on that stage and blow.
#GodspeedBrewery may have a Schiller's Moment Wed Jan 28th 6-9 😊
It’s fitting RFK is maliciously conforming to a promise he made to a Republican senator / doctor in order to get his confirmation vote.
https://archive.is/aEILc#selection-589.0-595.236:~:text=The updated,website,-.
Liar’s gonna lie and t…
When we built my new desktop PC last year in early January I kept the old monitor because it was working fine. Son picked up a new cable to connect it to the PC because the old one had the wrong fitting for the new build. It was a bit short but I rearranged my desk and moved the monitor over to the right side of my corner desk. I finally succumbed and bought a longer cable yesterday. And it's so much better having the monitor in the centre of the desk again. It only took me a year! 🤦♀️<…
Series C, Episode 11 - Moloch
TARRANT: [O.O.V.] Get it! [Before anyone can do so, an energy blast flares up around the bracelet.]
VILA: Who did that?
DORAN: [Staring at the bracelet] Um....
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/311/542 B7B5
Q&A with Demis Hassabis on Gemini 3, spending most of his research time on world models, fitting the entire Google search index into Gemini, AI bubble, and more (Alex Heath/Sources)
Any sufficiently advanced disaster preparedness is indistinguishable from revolutionary dual power. This essay is a bit of a transition between the theory I've written earlier, and more concrete plans.
Even though I only touched on my life on the commune, it was hard not to write more. These are such weird spaces, with so much invisible opportunity. But they're also just so unique and special. For all the stress and uncertainty of making sure you stayed on Lorean's (the head priestess), there were also those long summer nights with the whole community (except the old lady) gathered around a fire, talking and drinking. There was almost a child-like play to the whole time.
There were so Fridays I'd come home with a couple of gallons of beer from the real world, folks would bring things from the garden, someone would grill a steak, everyone who didn't cook would clean up, and we'd just hang out and have fun. So many evenings I'd go over to Miles place with a guitar, or with his guitar, and we'd pass it around over a few beers, talking about philosophy, Star Wars, or some book or other. It's hard not to write about the strange magic of that space.
My partner and I bonded over similar experiences, mine on a weird little religious commune in California and theirs as a temporary worker at Omega Institute. Both had exploitation, people on weird power trips, frustrating dynamics, but also a strange magic and freedom. Both were sort of fantasy worlds, but places that let us see through this one, let us imagine something that something else is possible behind the veil.
There are many such veils.
Perhaps it's fitting that this is more meandering, as a good wander can help the transition between lots of hard thinking and lots of hard working.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/evaluating-options
Editing feedback (especially typos, spelling, grammar) is always welcome, as are questions and even wider structural advice. I've been adding the handles of folks who provide feedback to the intro in a "thank you" section. If you do help and wouldn't like to be added, please let me know.
Ever so fitting for our trying times, and a growing conflict for quite a few people (incl. myself), I imagine...
"Absurdism is the philosophical theory that the universe is irrational and meaningless. It states that trying to find meaning leads people into conflict with a seemingly meaningless world. This conflict can be between rational humanity and an irrational universe, between intention and outcome, or between subjective assessment and objective worth..."
Just finished "Class Act" by Jerry Craft. An excellent follow-up to "New Kid", and it deepens the exploration of racism in "New Kid" in a lot of different directions. I think the aspect I liked most was the handling of class/race dynamics but also the different explorations of fitting back into neighborhood communities.
#AmReading #ReadingNow
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBCRadio3's #JazzRecordRequests
John Surman:
🎵 Part IX A Fitting Epitaph
#JohnSurman
Fuc*ing lawnmower timing belt shredded itself again, mere minutes after fitting the replacement, suggesting buggered pulleys or similar 🤬 All this on what I hoped would be the last grass-cut of the year, long delayed as a result of all the damn rain.
Considering one of:
* sheep
* a robot mower with a direct motor-to-blade design
* paving the entire bloody garden
I missed this one:
#12886 [css-fonts-5] Text Fitting: Default scaling limit
https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/12886
Essentially a discussion how responsive text can satisfy 1.4.4, especially in this fit-to-container pitch from Google.
I added a comment …
Series D, Episode 09 - Sand
TARRANT: If he's still inside the ship then he's probably safe. Oh you're very clever Servalan; why can't you work it out? Sand slides. Sand higher than the windows.
SERVALAN: Are you serious?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/409/245 B7B3
Sellers' Group Captain Lionel Mandrake being stuck in a room with General Jack D. Ripper while the world is about to go BOOM! is a very fitting image for the world trying to cope with the US government under Trump.
High-precision luminescence cryothermometry strategy by using hyperfine structure
Marina N. Popova, Mosab Diab, Boris Z. Malkin
https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.19088 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.19088 https://arxiv.org/html/2511.19088
arXiv:2511.19088v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: A novel, to the best of our knowledge, ultralow-temperature luminescence thermometry strategy is proposed, based on a measurement of relative intensities of hyperfine components in the spectra of Ho$^{3 }$ ions doped into a crystal. A $^{7}$LiYF$_4$:Ho$^{3 }$ crystal is chosen as an example. First, we show that temperatures in the range 10-35 K can be measured using the Boltzmann behavior of the populations of crystal-field levels separated by an energy interval of 23 cm$^{-1}$. Then we select the 6089 cm$^{-1}$ line of the holmium $^5I_5 \rightarrow ^5I_7$ transition, which has a well-resolved hyperfine structure and falls within the transparency window of optical fibers (telecommunication S band), to demonstrate the possibility of measuring temperatures below 3 K. The temperature $T$ is determined by a least-squares fit to the measured intensities of all eight hyperfine components using the dependence $I(\nu) = I_1 \exp(-b\nu)$, where $I_1$ and $b = a\nu \frac{\nu}{kT}$ are fitting parameters and a accounts for intensity variations due to mixing of wave functions of different crystal-field levels by the hyperfine interaction. In this method, the absolute and relative thermal sensitivities grow at $T$ approaching zero as $\frac{1}{T^2}$.and $\frac{1}{T}$, respectively. We theoretically considered the intensity distributions within hyperfine manifolds and compared the results with experimental data. Application of the method to experimentally measured relative intensities of hyperfine components of the 6089 cm$^{-1}$ PL line yielded $T = 3.7 \pm 0.2$ K. For a temperature of 1 K, an order of magnitude better accuracy is expected.
toXiv_bot_toot
Okay, Lando Norris is now officially the coolest name ever. 100% fitting that he's a F1 champion.
#LandoNorris
https://www.espn.com/f1/story/…
RE: https://mstdn.social/@stux/115867195061819774
Most fitting YouTube comment:
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Some very nice mixing from @… this week
Fitting everybody’s #listeningclub favourites in takes some doing
The Eagles want to bury their rivals, and the Cowboys are fighting to save their season https://insidethestar.com/the-eagles-want-to-bury-their-rivals-and-the-cowboys-are-fighting-to-save-their-season
RE: https://mastodon.social/@kottke/115668347913360024
I love short videos about obscure music history and all of that channel's videos have incredibly simple yet perfectly fitting motion graphics 👇
(An overdue) super chill Friday night #Music4Coding night... Next up Scottish artist Petrichor with my fave track from their Cloud Chamber EP (2017), just all-round beautiful and very fitting to what "petrichor" describes... the smell/feeling after a summer rain...
Koh-Rah
Just finished "Fitting Indian" by Jyoti Chand and Tara Anand.
Indirect CW: alcohol, self-harm, and suicide.
A graphic novel about mental health issues, being a second-generation Indian immigrant in America, international trauma, and both peer and family bullying. Beautifully illustrated and of course gripping given the subjects.
#AmReading #ReadingNow
Series C, Episode 05 - The Harvest of Kairos
DASTOR: The Liberator, madam. Tele-sentry stations report an approach course for Lypterion. Tarrant is coming here.
SERVALAN: I know that. When will he arrive?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/305/173 B7B3
Manifolds and Modules: How Function Develops in a Neural Foundation Model
Johannes Bertram, Luciano Dyballa, T. Anderson Keller, Savik Kinger, Steven W. Zucker
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.07869 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.07869 https://arxiv.org/html/2512.07869
arXiv:2512.07869v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Foundation models have shown remarkable success in fitting biological visual systems; however, their black-box nature inherently limits their utility for under- standing brain function. Here, we peek inside a SOTA foundation model of neural activity (Wang et al., 2025) as a physiologist might, characterizing each 'neuron' based on its temporal response properties to parametric stimuli. We analyze how different stimuli are represented in neural activity space by building decoding man- ifolds, and we analyze how different neurons are represented in stimulus-response space by building neural encoding manifolds. We find that the different processing stages of the model (i.e., the feedforward encoder, recurrent, and readout modules) each exhibit qualitatively different representational structures in these manifolds. The recurrent module shows a jump in capabilities over the encoder module by 'pushing apart' the representations of different temporal stimulus patterns; while the readout module achieves biological fidelity by using numerous specialized feature maps rather than biologically plausible mechanisms. Overall, we present this work as a study of the inner workings of a prominent neural foundation model, gaining insights into the biological relevance of its internals through the novel analysis of its neurons' joint temporal response patterns.
toXiv_bot_toot
#Blakes7 Series B, Episode 09 - Countdown
AVON: I doubt it. [Turns and leaves]
[Blake smiles]
[End of episode. Roll credits.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/209/537 B7B1
Series A, Episode 04 - Time Squad
VILA: A limiter?
GAN: Something that stops him from helping us too much. Or maybe it's someone who stops him.
VILA: Gan, if you're trying to scare me, you're succeeding.
[Exterior. Liberator approaches the alien craft.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/104/91
Revised comment on the paper titled "The Origin of Quantum Mechanical Statistics: Insights from Research on Human Language
Miko{\l}aj Sienicki, Krzysztof Sienicki
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.07881 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.07881 https://arxiv.org/html/2512.07881
arXiv:2512.07881v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: This short note comments on \citet{Aerts2024Origin}, which proposes that ranked word frequencies in texts should be read through the lens of Bose--Einstein (BE) statistics and even used to illuminate the origin of quantum statistics in physics. The core message here is modest: the paper offers an interesting analogy and an eye-catching fit, but several key steps mix physical claims with definitions and curve-fitting choices. We highlight three such points: (i) a normalization issue that is presented as "bosonic enhancement", (ii) an identification of rank with energy that makes the BE fit only weakly diagnostic of an underlying mechanism, and (iii) a baseline comparison that is too weak to support an ontological conclusion. We also briefly flag a few additional concerns (interpretation drift, parameter semantics, and reproducibility).
toXiv_bot_toot
Series D, Episode 03 - Traitor
SOOLIN: Teleport operating. [Teleport sound. Dayna and Tarrant arrive]
VILA: What are you smirking about? Do you realize we've got half the Federation battle fleet looking for us?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/403/495 B7B3
Good Morning #Canada
On the eve of #RemembranceDay, it's fitting that we wish a ##HappyBirthday to Charles Cecil Ingersoll Merritt, who was born on this day in 1908. Merritt was the first Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross in #WWII, the highest award for bravery among troops of the British Empire. He was also the son of Captain Cecil Mack Merritt, who was killed in the Second Battle of Ypres on April 23rd, 1915. Merritt commanded The South Saskatchewan Regiment, Canadian Army, (Canadian Infantry Corps), and led his regiment at the failed Dieppe Raid on August 19th, 1942. He led multiple charges against fortified positions, was wounded twice, and stayed on the beach to defend his troops as they were withdrawn. He was captured by the Germans and remained a prisoner until the end of the war.
#CanadaIsAwesome #CanadianHeroes
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/charles-cecil-merritt-vc
Series A, Episode 12 - Deliverance
VILA: [Aside, to Gan] I told you she was mad.
GAN: [To Meegat] How long have you been waiting?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/112/314 B7B4
Series D, Episode 10 - Gold
TARRANT: Have we got a choice? [A small explosion goes off nearby.]
DAYNA: Looks as though we have.
TARRANT: Let's get up there.
[At the top of the ladder.]
DAYNA: Avon! Soolin!
TARRANT: [*inaudible*]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/410/127