Tootfinder

william burroughs's "a thanksgiving prayer" (1986), as rendered in mondo 2000 #3. https://archive.org/details/Mondo.2000.Issue.03.1991/page/n9/mode/2up

Chris Packham:
“Why are we unbelievably pulling back on rapidly and forthrightly addressing the greatest crisis to ever threaten our species, climate breakdown and biodiversity loss?
“Climate denialism has been a mainstream thing again, thanks to the well-oiled machines of the rich, powerful and influential lobbyists from the fossil fuel and other industries.
"We have declared war on our one and only home, we’ve set or house on fire."

The author, Rutger Bregman, said he had characterized Mr. Trump as the “most openly corrupt president in American history,” a line the BBC removed before the first of four in its annual Reith Lectures was broadcast on Tuesday. <-- go Rutger go !!
https://tomkahe.com/@GiftArticles/1156…

Today's adventure: the train departs, and a minute later I notice that the lamps outside are moving in the wrong direction. The following thoughts pass through my mind in express speed:
• Illusion? Nope, definitely going front from where I'm sitting.
• Did I confuse directions before taking the seat? Nope, we're definitely moving south.
• Did I really take the wrong train?! I think it departed at the right time, what's the likeliness…
Then I suddenly realize that it's apparently taking the roundabout route, through #Poznań Franowo rather than Poznań Wschód.
#rail

X-ray astronomers often look at
X-ray binaries,
which consist of a black hole or a neutron star that is gravitationally bound to a normal star.
Material from that star is accreted onto the black hole or neutron star, producing X-rays.
The companion star is quite often a massive star with very strong stellar winds, and X-ray astronomers looking at these winds tend to think:
“Oh my god, it’s so complicated: there’s all this additional absorption, it’s super annoyi…

Victoria Grinberg: the astrophysicist sharing her love for science – Physics World
X-ray astronomer Victoria Grinberg talks about spreading her passion for science

Multi-port programmable silicon photonics using low-loss phase change material Sb$_2$Se$_3$
Thomas W. Radford, Idris A Ajia, Latif Rozaqi, Priya Deoli, Xingzhao Yan, Mehdi Banakar, David J Thomson, Ioannis Zeimpekis, Alberto Politi, Otto L. Muskens
https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.18205 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.18205 https://arxiv.org/html/2511.18205
arXiv:2511.18205v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Reconfigurable photonic devices are rapidly emerging as a cornerstone of next generation optical technologies, with wide ranging applications in quantum simulation, neuromorphic computing, and large-scale photonic processors. A central challenge in this field is identifying an optimal platform to enable compact, efficient, and scalable reconfigurability. Optical phase-change materials (PCMs) offer a compelling solution by enabling non-volatile, reversible tuning of optical properties, compatible with a wide range of device platforms and current CMOS technologies. In particular, antimony tri-selenide ($\text{Sb}_{2}\text{Se}_{3}$) stands out for its ultra low-loss characteristics at telecommunication wavelengths and its reversible switching. In this work, we present an experimental platform capable of encoding multi-port operations onto the transmission matrix of a compact multimode interferometer architecture on standard 220~nm silicon photonics using \textit{in-silico} designed digital patterns. The multi-port devices are clad with a thin film of $\text{Sb}_{2}\text{Se}_{3}$, which can be optically addressed using direct laser writing to provide local perturbations to the refractive index. A range of multi-port geometries from 2$\times$2 up to 5$\times$5 couplers are demonstrated, achieving simultaneous control of up to 25 matrix elements with programming accuracy of 90% relative to simulated patterns. Patterned devices remain stable with consistent optical performance across the C-band wavelengths. Our work establishes a pathway towards the development of large scale PCM-based reconfigurable multi-port devices which will allow implementing matrix operations on three orders of magnitude smaller areas than interferometer meshes.
toXiv_bot_toot

Bezos thinks big donation makes it okay to poison a lagoon
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/8/2357067/-Bezos-thinks-big-donation-makes-it-okay-to-poison-a-lagoon

Taiwanese media: Asus Chair Jonney Shih says the company won't release any new smartphones in 2026, signaling the brand's exit from the Android market (James Peckham/PCMag)
https://www.pcmag.com/news/asus-confirms-it-wont-launch-pho…

Crab apples, same size and they look like cherries, but the only thing I’ve seen eating them is a big pigeon, swallowing them whole. #WeymouthUK #FlowersOfMastodon #Photography

Adding another post. This one is a bit less polished, but I want to get it out. As things get harder for everyone, I'm seeing a greater tendency to want to grasp onto revolutionary fiction such as #Andor. I think there's value in that, but it has to come with an informed critique.
> We are so thirsty for hope that we will drink it up, even when that hope comes from a fiction and the truth behind the hope is poison. In Andor, we see the worst elements sacrifice themselves for some of the best. The revolution goes through a process of purification, the complicated elements weeding themselves out to make room for the simplified good, as the rebellion unifies. In reality, this tends to be the opposite how things actually work.
> [...]
> [The Urban Guerilla movement of the 60's through the 80's] centered militant revolution. In doing so, they omitted or cut themselves off from the logistic support needed to sustain such revolutionary activity. The trauma of carrying out violence further isolated and radicalized them. Lacking infrastructure for trauma healing, their decay escalated and became unrecoverable. Ultimately, their revolutionary movements both emulated and reinforced the status quo they were trying to resist.
> There emerges a strange historical parallel that is difficult to see from within the dominant paradigm. The competitive politics of electoralism derives from heroic competition, where people (typically men) compete (often violently) for control over a territory or people. Thus the insurrectionary enters into the very same competition as a challenger, not against the system of domination but for control over it. The success of the revolution, then, does not abolish the system of violent domination but changes rather replaces its management.
> Many modern anarchists will be quick to point out the disconnect between ends and means. While authoritarian projects often assert that "the ends justify the means," and Andor implies the same, anti-authoritarian projects assert the ends and the means are not only united but are, in fact, the same.
This is still very much something I'm actively editing, but I'd still love feedback to help me refine it to it's final form. Typo catches and clarifying questions welcome.
#USPol