Tootfinder

I do not seek the ignorant; the ignorant seek me -- I will instruct them.
I ask nothing but sincerity. If they come out of habit, they become tiresome.
-- I Ching

🔊 #NowPlaying on #BBCRadio3:
#20thCenturyRadicals
- John Cage: rhythm over melody, and the I Ching
Kate Molleson and Gillian Moore shine new light on the 'modern' music of the 20th century. This week, Kate explores the music of a pivotal figure in 20th Century music: John Cage.
Relisten now 👇
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002jfz5

Matrix Random Walks and the Lima Bean Law
Bruce K. Driver, Brian C. Hall, Ching Wei Ho, Todd Kemp, Yuriy Nemish, Evangelos A. Nikitopoulos, Felix Parraud
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.10712

Matrix Random Walks and the Lima Bean Law
A matrix random walk is a stochastic process of the form $B_k = (I+A_1)\cdots(I+A_k)$ where $A_j$ are independent ``step'' matrices in $\mathrm{M}_N(\mathbb{C})$. With the right entry-covariance, a rescaled matrix random walk converges to Brownian motion $B(t)$ on a matrix Lie group. In this paper, we study the eigenvalues of such rescaled matrix random walks, as $N\to\infty$ and $k\to\infty$. The standard Brownian motion $W(t)$ on $\mathrm{M}_N(\mathbb{C})$ has independent Gaussian entries a…

Refugees, intergenerational trauma, child death, abusive family
Also just finished "The Best We Could Do" by Thi Bui, which is the second memoir I've stumbled upon recently that deals with the Vietnamese exodus after the end of the war (House Without Walls by Ching Yeung Russel is the other one, which is written in verse, not illustrated). Bui traces more of the political landscape and history of Vietnam through the stories of both of her parents, and also unpacks a lot of intergenerational trauma, but has less focus on the boat trip out and refugee camp experience, presumably because hers were easier than Russel's.
My thoughts after reading this return repeatedly to all of the impacts that patriarchy and toxic masculinity had on her father, from setting up his father and grandfather to be abusive towards him and the women in their lives, to pushing him deep into depression when he feels unable to fulfill the role of a protective husband, ironically leaving his wife to pick up the slack and ultimately ruining their relationship, to how it teaches him to despise and shirk the caregiver role he's left with, ultimately passing on some measure of trauma to his children. For sure war, abusive family, and child death can happen in the absence of patriarchy and those are in some ways perhaps bigger factors here, but at the same time, Bui's mom copes with most of the same factors in healthier ways.
#AmReading

Characterizing Temperatures of Flares on the M Dwarf Wolf 359 from Simultaneous Multiband Optical Observations
Chia-Lung Lin, Li-Ching Huang, Wei-Jie Hou, Hsiang-Yao Hsiao, Wing-Huen Ip
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.21505

Characterizing Temperatures of Flares on the M Dwarf Wolf 359 from Simultaneous Multiband Optical Observations
We present a flare temperature study of the highly active M~dwarf Wolf~359 using simultaneous multiband ($u$, $g$, $r$, $i$, and $z$) photometric observations from the Lulin 1-m and 41-cm telescopes. Twelve flares were detected over five nights, with significant brightness increases in the $u$, $g$, and $r$~bands; only three were seen in $i$, and none in $z$. From broadband SED fitting and $g$/$r$ color ratio, we derive an average flare temperature of $5500 \pm 1600$~K, significantly cooler tha…