I've been thinking a lot about design lately -- next spring I'm teaching a course in the ethics of software design -- and I realized that even something like an iPad cover / stand can be right-handed, in a way.
When the iPad is propped up using the cover in the photo, the home button has to be on the right. But I'm left-handed, so whenever I want to use the home button for the Touch ID, I have to reach across the tablet. It's not hard, but it's slightly awkward.
Ed Yong announces his next book: Life Beyond Measure, is coming out next July. I'm already jonesing. If I can score a pre-release version, I'll have read it twice by then. It's about ALL life from microscopic to blue whales.
This is one of three #books I acquired yesterday. The other two are still in the car, I'm in my nightie and it's raining, so they're staying put for now 😄
The Constant Gardener by le Carré, The Golden Hours by Louisa Young and Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett.
I'm particularly looking fwd to TGH, the next in The Cazalet Chronicles, written by EJH's niece. It…
@… Hello, for my #ThePlaylistSuggestion tracks this week on the theme of "skint", I'm unashamedly going back to a couple of 1980s "blue-eyed soul" Top Ten hits.
Of course they're both cover versions so you could also play the originals, but for my money these versions are the best.
#ThePlaylist
Oren Ambarchi - "Hubris" (2016)
#NowPlaying
New look!
I'm actually surprised this turned out as well as it did considering i couldn't see the shutter button on the phone camera lol, much less the screen.
This was an expensive mistake, I spray painted some stuff a while back and forgot to put a sacrificial cover over the respirator face shield. Had to replace it and the new one came with a protective covering to keep it from being scratched during installation so I thought I'd take a pic
Just depressing for amateur bassmen like me: B.B. Kings cover version of "Summer in the City". Focus on how bass and drums are interacting here - they're breathing groove while poor tiny mortals like me are just stumbling through the songs. Sigh.
htt…
Buckingham Nicks - s/t (1973)
I'm not a huge Fleetwood Mac fan, more of a dabbler.. but this is an excellent sounding lp.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m_vZLKxjdd40ijYVwEqpKJcobOTmRhziY
Near-total lunar eclipse expected Thursday night with the Americas in prime position
A near-total lunar eclipse Thursday night will see Earth’s shadow cover 96% of the moon,
casting a reddish-orange glow as the show peaks just after 9 p.m. Pacific time.
Skywatchers across North and South America, including nearly 1 billion people in the U.S., Canada and Latin America,
will have prime, hours-long views if clouds cooperate.
The deep partial eclipse comes after A…
Just arrived: The Nerd Reich, by @…. Not a fun weekend read, but important, I'm afraid.
On Silicon Valley fascism and the war on democracy, which doesn't stop at the borders of the US.
Per @…'s suggestion—following on from @…’s theme last week, and much more in keeping with my own wintry location—today’s #ThursdayFiveList
I want to give a better write up, but I'm a bit short on time so I'm gonna just braindump as fast as I can.
The designated reason for adding A/I to the FTO list is material support of the PKK. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization in the US. However flimsy, this worked.
We all know they targeted noblogs because it hosts antifascist content. They said as much. But they found a loophole that let them attack it. They didn't officially say "we're shutting down antifascist content." They officially said, "we're shutting down an organization that supports a known terrorist group." There's a huge difference.
We all know it's a scam, but the fact that they needed cover is critical. It shows us where we *actually* are right now....
Conditional Normalizing Flow for Gas-Surface Scattering from Thermal to Hypersonic Velocities
Miklas Sch\"utte, Stephen Hocker, Hansj\"org Lipp, Johannes Roth, Stefanos Fasoulas, Marcel Pfeiffer
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.31928 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.31928 https://arxiv.org/html/2606.31928
arXiv:2606.31928v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Accurate aerodynamic modeling of satellites in very low Earth orbit (VLEO) requires gas-surface interaction (GSI) models that capture the full velocity spectrum from thermal to orbital speeds. Atmospheric particles initially strike spacecraft surfaces at hypersonic velocities of 6 000 - 10 000 m/s. Due to surface roughness and complex geometries, especially within air-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP) intake systems, multiple collisions occur, progressively reducing the particle velocities. A recent machine learning framework for deriving scattering kernels from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations has shown promise, but remains limited to high-velocity single impacts and possibly violates fundamental equilibrium principles such as detailed balance. This work extends this machine learning based scattering kernel to cover the complete velocity range using conditional normalizing flows trained with physics-informed constraints, enabling accurate modeling of multi-bounce scenarios in realistic VLEO applications. We train a conditional Real-valued Non-Volume Preserving (cRealNVP) model on expanded molecular dynamics simulations covering velocities from thermal to hypersonic speeds, incorporating a detailed balance loss term. The resulting model demonstrates improved accuracy compared to previous approaches even in the original high-velocity regime, while successfully capturing thermal-velocity scattering. Quantitative assessment shows that thermalization is approximated within acceptable tolerances. This framework provides essential capabilities for accurate ABEP intake optimization and VLEO mission planning while offering a general methodology applicable to broader rarefied gas dynamics problems requiring thermodynamic consistency.
toXiv_bot_toot
MakerTube pulls a (probably inescapable) bait and switch:
"Hosting and storage costs have gone up a lot. To keep MakerTube running, we’re introducing clear storage plans so people who need more space can help cover the real cost of an ad-free, community-funded instance."
Plans start at 3€/m for 10GB, with the old 'unlimited' free plan now capped at 2GB
I don't fault them for needing to charge, it's an expensive thing, but it would feel better if they'd mentioned this up front, and 2G isn't a lot, especially for video.
Please share: Can someone with the print edition of the Financial Times in the US check to see if my piece is in it and save one for me?
so I have a new op/ed out where I am Big Mad about the have-nots in critical infra, and if it's in the paper version, I would love it if someone would get it for me? I'm in the UK and can't get it myself :/
https://www.ft.com/content/3f154376-fd8b-4255-ac5b-538c5e90fc40
(ain't no thrill like the thrill that'll gitcha when ya getchur picture on the cover of a Rolling Stone ROLLING STOOONNNE gonna buy five copies for my mother)
i think the reason I have enjoyed building and maintaining the ponds so much is because they are kind of like a computer system.
Most of the time they work fine, and when they have issues, which generally manifests as "I'm losing water", it is for a clear reason.
But like computers, getting to and identifying that reason, and fixing it, is the challenge.
Over the past few days, the #pandemicpond has been losing water at an accelerated rate. In the summer, it should be able to go at least 2 or 3 days before needing a top up due to evaporation.
But these past few days it has been very low after just a day.
There has to be a leak/escape of water somewhere.
I also recently (about 2 weeks ago) changed the inlet at the top of the bog barrel to shorten the pipe and make it not stick up as tall and ugly.
Like computers... "have you changed anything recently" is a top contender for the root of the issue.
Shortening and dropping the height of the pipe increased the flow without having to increase the pump power. But that could have also caused a minor overflow on the waterfall, or raised the level of the top pond to where it might be overtopping somewhere non-obvious.
I suspect this increased flow is the main issue.
However, like all IT issues, you should cover the easy stuff first. I checked all the piping from the barrels to the waterfall to make sure there were no joints leaking or drips down the pipes.
All seems fine there. I also did a check around the perimeter of the pond to look for overtopping. Nothing there at low levels, but I have to check again when the system is full.
I wanted to cut the hose down further anyway, so I have done that. Was able to remove over 4 feet of pipe. The height hasn't changed though so the impact on flow should not be large.
Then I checked the pump itself, cleaned out its filter bag, strained the skimmer box and put it all back. Nothing untoward there either. Basically just regular maintenance.
A thought occured to me though, the main overflow for the pond is behind the skimmer. If it rains a lot or I overfill the system, it overflows there into some rocks and drains out under the garden to the sidewalk.
I wonder if when the new posts and gate were installed, the level of the overflow dropped slightly. This would give less leeway (freeboard) for the pond before it gets too low. 🤔
Re-raising the overflow would be tricky. And best done after the rains return in fall. But it is something Ill have to consider if today's investigations don't fix the issue.
I just finished refilling the pond (overfull oops... typing too much)
Time to check for overflows and seeps around the edges.
#pandemicpond #pondlife #gardening #home #diy #IT #TroubleShooting
@ddrake@mathstodon.xyz
![screenshot of a post by @thecoreyrichardson:
I'm not that smart, but part of me thinks the whole "AI is going to end humanity if we don't slow down" narrative was a ruse to cover for the fact that AI isn't capable of what they've been promising and now they can pretend that the lack of further development is on purpose.
[quoted post by @watcher.guru]
JUST IN: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backs Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call for the AI industry to slow down development.](https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/117/270/730/232/897/794/original/e20080d7effd8758.png)
