Tootfinder

Coach: What would you say to a beer, Normie?
Norm: Daddy wuvs you.
-- Cheers, The Mail Goes to Jail
Sam: What'd you like, Normie?
Norm: A reason to live. Gimme another beer.
-- Cheers, Behind Every Great Man
Sam: What will you have, Norm?
Norm: Well, I'm in a gambling mood, Sammy. I'll take a glass of whatever
comes out of that tap.
Sam: Oh, looks like beer, Norm.
Norm: Call me Mister Lucky.
-- Cheers, The…

A Riemannian AdaGrad-Norm Method
Glaydston de C. Bento, Geovani N. Grapiglia, Mauricio S. Louzeiro, Daoping Zhang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.19682 https://…

A Riemannian AdaGrad-Norm Method
We propose a manifold AdaGrad-Norm method (\textsc{MAdaGrad}), which extends the norm version of AdaGrad (AdaGrad-Norm) to Riemannian optimization. In contrast to line-search schemes, which may require several exponential map computations per iteration, \textsc{MAdaGrad} requires only one. Assuming the objective function $f$ has Lipschitz continuous Riemannian gradient, we show that the method requires at most $\mathcal{O}(\varepsilon^{-2})$ iterations to compute a point $x$ such that $\|\…

Norm of the no-boundary state
Jordan Cotler, Kristan Jensen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.20547 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.20547

Norm of the no-boundary state
We consider Einstein gravity with positive cosmological constant coupled to matter in an asymptotically de Sitter universe with sphere boundary at timelike infinity. In this setting we show that, to one-loop order and at late time, the norm of the no-boundary state vanishes, going as $ e^{S_0} \frac{Z S_0^{-d(d+1)/4}}{\text{vol}(SO(d,1))}$ with $S_0$ the tree-level entropy of the static patch, $d$ the spacetime dimension, and $Z$ non-negative. While we expect a non-zero norm to arise at two loo…

How AI tools from ElevenLabs and others were used to recreate a woman's voice, lost to motor neuron disease, from just eight seconds of audio on a VHS tape (Beth Rose/BBC)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1ejvxne7elo

How eight seconds of scratchy audio from a VHS tape gave a mum back her voice
Sarah Ezekiel was 34 with two children when motor neurone disease took away her ability to speak.

We are in a crisis.
Texas Republicans have thrown out every political norm and launched a mid-year redistricting scheme
—something we’ve never seen before,
all to carve out more seats for Mike Johnson and protect Donald Trump.
At the same time, ICE is carrying out masked raids in neighborhoods across America,
and Trump has already deployed the military to two U.S. cities.
If you think he’ll stop there, you haven’t been paying attention.
The signs of …

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the late great danny thompson playing double bass on norma waterson's gorgeous 1996 version of "black muddy river" also featuring richard thompson & martin carthy. https://youtu.be/svpcW1s7JV4

Quantum optical model of an artificial neuron
Vivek Mehta, Utpal Roy
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.17349 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.17349

Quantum optical model of an artificial neuron
Magnini \emph{et al.} [\emph{Mach. Learn.: Sci. Technol. 1 (2020) 045008}] recently introduced a qubit-based model of an artificial neuron, along with its applications. The design of its quantum circuit is pivotal for effective implementation. In this context, we present two quantum circuit synthesis algorithms tailored for the realisation of the quantum neuron. Comprehensive circuit simulations are conducted, and the resulting performance is assessed using the circuit cost metric. Additionally…

The Impact of Structural Changes on Learning Capacity in the Fly Olfactory Neural Circuit
Katherine Xie, Gabriel Koch Ocker
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.19351 https://

The Impact of Structural Changes on Learning Capacity in the Fly Olfactory Neural Circuit
The Drosophila mushroom body (MB) is known to be involved in olfactory learning and memory; the synaptic plasticity of the Kenyon cell (KC) to mushroom body output neuron (MBON) synapses plays a key role in the learning process. Previous research has focused on projection neuron (PN) to Kenyon cell (KC) connectivity within the MB; we examine how perturbations to the mushroom body circuit structure and changes in connectivity, specifically within the KC to mushroom body output neuron (MBON) neur…

A model-based approach to density estimation in sup-norm
Guillaume Maillard (uni.lu, ENSAI)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.20239 https://…

A model-based approach to density estimation in sup-norm
We define a general method for finding a quasi-best approximant in sup-norm to a target density belonging to a given model, based on independent samples drawn from distributions which average to the target (which does not necessarily belong to the model). We also provide a general method for selecting among a countable family of such models. These estimators satisfy oracle inequalities in the general setting. The quality of the bounds depends on the volume of sets on which $|p-q|$ is …

Allt annat än ett frikännande av Joakim Medin vore horribelt, och ett akut hot mot den sorts verksamhet som vi utrikesjournalister ägnar oss åt: att vara på plats, berätta om relevanta ämnen, vara sanningsenliga och noggranna och, inte minst, granska hur maktmissbruk drabbar invånarna i de länder vi bevakar. Det vill säga inte enbart i Turkiet.