Tootfinder

Defense tech startup Shield AI raised $2B at a $12.7B valuation, up from $5.3B after raising $240M in March 2025; half of its business is autonomous software (Michael J. de la Merced/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/business/…

Shield AI, a Start-Up Making Military Drones, Raises $2 Billion
The company, which develops autonomous military technology, also plans to buy a maker of simulation software as interest in next-generation defense soars.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBCRadio3's #ThroughTheNight
Mogens Dahl, Zoltšn Kodšly & Jutland Chamber Choir:
🎵 4 Italian madrigals for female chorus
#MogensDahl #ZoltánKodály #JutlandChamberChoir

If you've noticed that I've been baking a lot the past few months, part of the reason has been control. I want to be more in control of my food.
I want to make my own food rather than buy food from corporations.
Of course I still have to buy the raw ingredients, and I try to be aware of that.
I use King Arthur flour, which comes from an employee-owned company, which is also a B corp.
I've said it before "Baking is Making" and I'm trying to l…

“The failure by both the European Commission and the EU member states to act appropriately according to international law, human rights and its own values and beliefs is making Europe complicit in the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israel,”
@…

Rarefaction-induced inflation and similarity breakdown of hypersonic bow shocks over a circular cylinder
Ehsan Roohi, Ahmad Shoja-Sani
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.17099 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2605.17099 https://arxiv.org/html/2605.17099
arXiv:2605.17099v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Rarefied hypersonic bow shocks over blunt bodies inflate as the Knudsen number increases, but it remains unclear whether this inflation is a simple shift and broadening of one common shock layer or a multi-scale change of the macroscopic and internal-energy fields. We address this question using direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) data for Mach-10 flow over a circular cylinder in argon and nitrogen over \(Kn_\infty \approx 0.01\)--\(1\), together with a Mach-number sweep at \(Kn_\infty=0.01\). At low rarefaction, a ray-based density-gradient ridge gives a reproducible bow-shock location and agrees with an independent schlieren-based shock-wave-detection method. As \(Kn_\infty\) increases, this ridge is replaced by a broad kinetic compression layer, so the high-Knudsen cases are analysed using profile-based standoff and thickness metrics rather than by imposing a visual shock line. The Knudsen- and Mach-number sweeps separate two mechanisms. At fixed \(M_\infty\), the continuum normal-shock density ratio provides a useful low-rarefaction reference compression scale, whereas the measured standoff growth is governed primarily by the kinetic mean free path; the effective density thickness shows an intermediate minimum before increasing in the diffuse regime. At fixed low \(Kn_\infty\), changing \(M_\infty\) mainly changes compression strength and curvature, preserving a coherent attached-layer structure. Density-registered profiles and shock-attached proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) show that, within the present maximum-density-gradient registration, density becomes nearly rank one, whereas Mach number and thermal variables retain independent modal content. Rarefied bow-shock inflation is therefore a coupled compression--relaxation process, not a single-scale rescaling of a continuum-like shock.
toXiv_bot_toot

Sources and documents detail Satya Nadella's effort to revamp Microsoft's senior leadership, creating a startup-style operating model to compete in the AI race (Ashley Stewart/Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/satya-nadella-microsoft…

Satya Nadella is reorganizing Microsoft around AI — and changing who holds power
Microsoft is reshaping its leadership for the AI era as CEO Satya Nadella pushes flatter teams, faster decision-making, and AI-focused executives.

Measuring the Computational Power of Finite Patches of Cellular Automata
Attila Egri-Nagy, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv
https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.14966 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.14966 https://arxiv.org/html/2604.14966
arXiv:2604.14966v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Computational power can be measured by assigning an algebraic structure to a computational device. Here, we convert a small patch of Conway's Game of Life into a transformation semigroup. The conversion captures not only time evolution but also interactive operations. In this way, the cellular automaton becomes directly programmable. Once this measurement is made, we apply hierarchical decompositions to the resulting algebraic object as a way of understanding it. These decompositions are based on a macro/micro-state division inspired by statistical mechanics. However, cellular automata have a large number of global states. Therefore, we focus on partitioning the state space and creating morphic images approximations that can serve as macro-level descriptions. The methods developed here are not limited to cellular automata; they apply more generally to discrete dynamical systems.
toXiv_bot_toot

What does wealth inequality matter?
Here are three key takeaways from the afternoon’s panels.
⚠️When wealth buys political influence and legal immunity, democracy is threatened
⭐️Hélène Landemore of Yale University argued that wealth inequality isn’t inherently problematic, but becomes dangerous when wealth offers disproportionate influence in other spheres, including political power.
⭐️Wojciech Kopczuk of Columbia University echoed this, emphasizing that wealth is a c…

Why does wealth inequality matter?
A symposium organized by the Stone Center at MIT examined the origins, mechanisms, and political consequences of wealth inequality, and delivers key insights on wealth and political power, authoritarianism, democracy, and the racial wealth gap.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBCRadio3's #Breakfast
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Christian Zacharias, Jerzy Maksymiuk & Polish Chamber Orchestra:
🎵 Piano Concerto No. 8 in C Major, K. 246 "Lützow": III. Rondeau. Tempo di menuett
https://open.spotify.com/track/322mqeTFlUonyNLllDbw1l

Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen, viewed as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, will unveil a plan that he says would ensure roughly half of all U.S. workers pay no federal income taxes.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is expected to release the measure next week as Democratic lawmakers search for a sharp economic message to counter last year’s Republican tax law.

Under Van Hollen’s proposal, workers making at or below a “living wage”
— $46,000 for taxpayers filin…

Democrat’s plan would eliminate federal income taxes for half of U.S. workers
Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s tax relief plan could benefit tens of millions of middle-class workers, with a focus on those making at or below a living wage.