Tootfinder

A robust test of general relativity at the galactic scales by combining strong lensing systems and gravitational wave standard sirens
Tonghua Liu, Marek Biesiada, Shuxun Tian, Kai Liao
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.05907

A robust test of general relativity at the galactic scales by combining strong lensing systems and gravitational wave standard sirens
The measurement of the parametrized post-Newtonian parameter $γ_{\rm{PPN}}$ is a robust test of general relativity (GR). In some modified theories of gravity, $γ_{\rm{PPN}}$ may evolve with the redshift and deviate from one at high redshifts. This means that precise constraints on $γ_{\rm{PPN}}$ acquired in the solar system experiments could not be sufficient to test such theories and it is necessary to constrain $γ_{\rm{PPN}}$with high precision at high redshifts. However, in many approach…

Hmm… Just last week I was complaining about #Spring in #Oslo not really being Spring.
Anyway I just clicked on the #PennyFarthing hastag a moment ago and it seems this is something I…

Booked the BC Ferry trip. Added in my own (in green) little CO2 emissions counter with the hope that the Ferry Gods will see this and apply the same transparency to all receipts. :)
#BCFerry #BCPoli

"""
But now consider another accident. A report in the British Medical Journal describes the case of a construction worker who had jumped off some scaffolding. Beneath him, to his horror, was a 15 cm nail that pierced clean through his boot when he landed. The man […] was in agony, tortured by every small movement of his foot. He was given some even more powerful sedatives, fentanyl and midazolam. But when doctors removed the boot they discovered that the nail had not penetrated his foot at all. In fact, it had passed safely between his toes. There was no bodily injury causing the excruciating pain he felt, though it was completely genuine. In his case, however, the experience was produced entirely by his own powerful prediction machinery. Those searing pains were false perceptions created by his brain's predictions (based on the visual evidence) of serious injury and the kinds of feelings that might result.
"""
(Andy Clark, The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality)
Honestly, I think the biggest conceptual leap here is realizing that pain that is neither caused by an injury, nor neuropathic in nature, can be very real and people aren't just "making up" or "imagining" things. The wiring of their brain fires up as in any other instance of pain.

Implication of the velocity dispersion scalings on high-mass star formation in molecular clouds
An-Xu Luo, Hong-Li Liu, Sheng-Li Qin, Dong-Ting Yang, Sirong Pan
https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.05064

Implication of the velocity dispersion scalings on high-mass star formation in molecular clouds
This paper is aimed at exploring implications of velocity dispersion scalings on high-mass star formation in molecular clouds, including the scalings of Larson's linewidth--size ($σ$--$R$) and ratio--mass surface density ($\cal{L}$--$Σ$; here $\cal{L}$$=σ/R^{0.5}$). We have systematically analyzed the $σ$ parameter of well-selected 221 massive clumps, complemented with published samples of other hierarchical density structures of molecular clouds over spatial scales of 0.01--10 pc. Those ma…

Incredible example of lying with graphs from Caltrans. The bike lane pilot on the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge reduced collisions, but they made it look like collisions increased.
Specifically, they divided collisions by vehicle miles traveled. But California's goal is to reduce vehicle miles traveled. So they took two good things achieved by the pilot, and made them cancel out to look like a bad thing. #BikeTooter

Booked the BC Ferry trip. Added in my own (in green) little CO2 emissions counter with the hope that the Ferry Gods will see this and apply the same transparency to all receipts. :)
#BCFerry #BCPoli

TT for danish residents who do not speak Danish:
If you are in a situation where it is necessary for you to have a secret phone, remember to switch it off today, otherwise you risk them discovering it when sirens are tested at noon.
https://helvede.net/@Rei/112364031665422281
@… - Hvis du er i en livssituation hvor det er nŸdvendigt for dig at have en hemmelig telefon (skjult for partner, forældre osv) så husk at slukke den i dag, da du ellers risikerer de opdager den når sirenerne bliver testet ved middagstid.