Tootfinder

Want to understand the geography of Gaza? Read this thread by Mohammed.
(And then try and help his fundraiser, if you can, as he’s currently being forced to endure genocide and famine.)
👇
#Gaza #geography

Mohammed Shobair from Gaza 🍉 (@mohshbair@mastodon.social)
Attached: 1 image Several of my friends here asked me if I’m in a safe place, but I struggle to explain the geography of Gaza and people from overseas struggle to understand it. So I’m writing a thread. 🧶⬇️⬇️⬇️ #Gaza #FreeGaza #Palestine #FreePalestine #StopGenocide #GazaMutualAid 1/14

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #Expansions
Monrroe:
🎵 Understand
#Monrroe
https://gutterfunkuk.bandcamp.com/track/monrroe-understand
https://open.spotify.com/track/6IniKqEMk9FzUNBe6rfCz0

Understanding traffic
I bike to work and to lots of other places because I don't like traffic (and the Boston area has traffic) and I don't like looking for parking.  Lots of other people choose to drive despite the traffic, but almost every single person in traffic complains about traffic.  I don't want to just go with the glib "you ARE traffic", but instead, maybe help people understand what causes traffic congestion and why, because if we don't understand t…

Understanding traffic
I bike to work and to lots of other places because I don’t like traffic (and the Boston area has traffic) and I don’t like looking for parking.  Lots of other people choose to drive des…

You have to understand with appeasement and “statements like everyone is just doing their best” (if there’s no indication they actually do so) you’re making it worse.
It doesn’t matter if that’s the government or a programming community.
You’re confusing being nice with being kind and you’re actively destructive.

How Well Do Vision--Language Models Understand Cities? A Comparative Study on Spatial Reasoning from Street-View Images
Juneyoung Ro, Namwoo Kim, Yoonjin Yoon
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21565

How Well Do Vision--Language Models Understand Cities? A Comparative Study on Spatial Reasoning from Street-View Images
Effectively understanding urban scenes requires fine-grained spatial reasoning about objects, layouts, and depth cues. However, how well current vision-language models (VLMs), pretrained on general scenes, transfer these abilities to urban domain remains underexplored. To address this gap, we conduct a comparative study of three off-the-shelf VLMs-BLIP-2, InstructBLIP, and LLaVA-1.5-evaluating both zero-shot performance and the effects of fine-tuning with a synthetic VQA dataset specific to urb…

One thing that I am struggling with, is this party of grays - there are so many grays, and I suspect a designer with proper training could immediately understand what is wrong with it.
The HIG only gets me so far, I lack both the taste and the education:

"We need to be very open about [the fact] that it probably is only the beginning,” she said. “We need all Europeans to understand what is at stake and what’s going on. When there are drones or cyber attacks, the idea is to divide us. ”
warns Danish PM - https://on.ft.com/4nXNe3h

"People notice that while AI can now write programs, design websites, etc, it still often makes mistakes or goes in a wrong direction, and then they somehow jump to the conclusion that AI will never be able to do these tasks at human levels, or will only have a minor impact. When just a few years ago, having AI do these things was complete science fiction!"

is there really no low-level mechanism to intercept boolean primitive coercion in JavaScript?
why can’t I extend `Boolean` to make `new MyBoolean(false)` be `falsy`? (I understand why it isn’t, but I want to make it so)
> Note: Unlike other type conversions like string coercion or number coercion, boolean coercion does not attempt to convert objects to primitives by calling user methods.

The RPI Zero-based OpenPrinter looks very promising (600dpi color inkjet):
https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer
Also instant throwback to BERG's cute Little Printer (from 2012, much smaller and very different use cases):

Open Printer
Finally, an open hardware printer you can actually understand, repair, and upgrade

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said he had outlined his concerns about the state of healthcare in the country to Trump, and said:
“He seemed to, for the first time, understand the magnitude of this crisis.
“We hope he’ll talk to the Republican leaders and tell them, we need bipartisan input on healthcare, on decisions into their bill. Their bill does not have these – they never talked to us.”
But there was little sign that Republicans had shifted from their demands tha…

The Lost Ending of “Gaslight” That You Didn’t Know You Needed - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/the-lost-ending-of-gaslight-that-you-didnt-know-you-needed/
'More than anything, what we need to take from Gaslight now i…

The Lost Ending of “Gaslight” That You Didn’t Know You Needed - Public Books
The only way to really understand the term is to sit down and watch the harrowing psychological film from which it got its name.

Not sure what he is smoking. But he should stop doing so.
Jeff Bezos Says He Doesn't Understand Why Anybody Alive Now Would Be 'Discouraged'—Because Soon, 'Millions Of People Will Be Living In Space' https://tech.yahoo.com/science/article

And for more info about me... This is a quick tour of my personality, strengths and values.
It's purpose is to help others better understand me and get the most from our interactions.
#personalusermanual #about

On the Impact of LiDAR Point Cloud Compression on Remote Semantic Segmentation
Tiago de S. Fernandes, Ricardo L. de Queiroz
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.23341 https://

On the Impact of LiDAR Point Cloud Compression on Remote Semantic Segmentation
Autonomous vehicles rely on LiDAR sensors to generate 3D point clouds for accurate segmentation and object detection. In a context of a smart city framework, we would like to understand the effect that transmission (compression) can have on remote (cloud) segmentation, instead of local processing. In this short paper, we try to understand the impact of point cloud compression on semantic segmentation performance and to estimate the necessary bandwidth requirements. We developed a new (suitable)…

I received my new national identity card today. The process of getting it was very easy. I went to the library last week, said I'd lost my id card, the librarian looked me up on the database, checked that my face matched the photo in the database, confirmed that my address hadn't changed. Then she ordered me a new card (no cost).
I really don't understand why the English think this is so threatening.

@… if I understand this correctly, your visitor experiment is simpler.
But if I see this right, then you didn't do a PR for it to Ameba, right? Or is it integrated in one of the others?

@… @… It’s the only way. People need to understand it’s rude AF to go “So I typed into the box on your behalf”.
Yeah thanks, I know how to work a keyboard.
You can’t kindly explain to someone that they’re being dicks…

Microsoft says its Gaming Copilot feature, which recently hit Windows 11 as a public beta, uses screenshots to understand in-game events, not to train AI models (Jowi Morales/Tom's Hardware)

Microsoft responds to Gaming Copilot controversy, says it uses screenshots to understand in-game events, not for training AI models — optional feature can be turned off, but not easily uninstalled
Microsoft says it isn't using your data to train its AI.

#ListeningClub Uploaded my picks rather hastily and late last night so if it didn’t make the cut I understand.

This sentence is my nemesis. I mis-translate it every time and I still don't understand the rules that make it work.
#Duolingo
#Nederlands

10 books to better understand Ukraine on its Independence Day: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/24/books-to-better-understand-ukraine.html

Very good take on this topic. I was about to say nuanced, but it's not really. It’s pretty plain, just not a POV you hear all that much.
Also, props to @… for the boost. I absolutely would not have seen this toot without the boost from Allison, and I’m so glad I did.

Look, Jeff Atwood, it is difficult to take you seriously when you write authoritatively on a subject you clearly don’t understand.
GDPR doesn’t mandate cookie notices.
Cookie notices are *malicious compliance* by the surveillance-driven adtech industry.
If you’re not tracking people, you do not need a cookie notice, period.
If you’re only using first-party cookies for functional reasons, you do not need a cookie notice, period.
If you’re using third-party co…

Physics-informed learning under mixing: How physical knowledge speeds up learning
Anna Scampicchio, Leonardo F. Toso, Rahel Rickenbach, James Anderson, Melanie N. Zeilinger
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24801

Physics-informed learning under mixing: How physical knowledge speeds up learning
A major challenge in physics-informed machine learning is to understand how the incorporation of prior domain knowledge affects learning rates when data are dependent. Focusing on empirical risk minimization with physics-informed regularization, we derive complexity-dependent bounds on the excess risk in probability and in expectation. We prove that, when the physical prior information is aligned, the learning rate improves from the (slow) Sobolev minimax rate to the (fast) optimal i.i.d. one w…

Anyon polarons as a window into the competing phases of the Kitaev-Gamma-Gamma' model
Chuan Chen, Inti Sodemann Villadiego
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21129 https://

Anyon polarons as a window into the competing phases of the Kitaev-Gamma-Gamma' model
We investigate the dispersions of anyon quasi-particles in the Kitaev honeycomb spin-liquid perturbed by $Γ$ and $Γ'$ couplings in order to understand phase transitions into competing states through anyon gap-closing instabilities. We demonstrate how anyon gap closings allow to understand phase transitions into a plethora of previously identified competing phases -- including zigzag, stripy, $120^\circ$, and incommensurate spiral phases -- and are in agreement with numerical studies not only …

I will never understand people who when they receive an email with three numbered questions in, only answer half of one of them.

Over the weekend, I tried to understand TikTok. And the only way to try to understand something is to try to do it.
So I made a short piece about something I thought ought to have got more urgent attention during the Presidential campaign- the deepfake video that surfaced.

From Code to Concept: Evaluating Multiple Coordinated Views in Introductory Programming
Naaz Sibia, Valeria Ramirez Osorio, Jessica Wen, Rutwa Engineer, Angela Zavaleta Bernuy, Andrew Petersen, Michael Liut, Carolina Nobre
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.26466

From Code to Concept: Evaluating Multiple Coordinated Views in Introductory Programming
Novice programmers often struggle to understand how code executes and to form the abstract mental models necessary for effective problem-solving, challenges that are amplified in large, diverse introductory courses where students' backgrounds, language proficiencies, and prior experiences vary widely. This study examines whether interactive, multi-representational visualizations, combining synchronized code views, memory diagrams, and conceptual analogies, can help manage cognitive load and fos…

Towards Verified Code Reasoning by LLMs
Meghana Sistla, Gogul Balakrishnan, Pat Rondon, Jos\'e Cambronero, Michele Tufano, Satish Chandra
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.26546 ht…

Towards Verified Code Reasoning by LLMs
While LLM-based agents are able to tackle a wide variety of code reasoning questions, the answers are not always correct. This prevents the agent from being useful in situations where high precision is desired: (1) helping a software engineer understand a new code base, (2) helping a software engineer during code review sessions, and (3) ensuring that the code generated by an automated code generation system meets certain requirements (e.g. fixes a bug, improves readability, implements a featur…

WingFest is this weekend in #Buffalo and I understand the Hidden Valley Ranch tent has no visitors. Because even visiting out-of-towners know — never ranch.

Meeting LISA
LISA: the Lightweight In Situ Analysis box is one of a kind, built by our friends at PICE in the Niels Bohr Institute. Later this year we're taking LISA to #Antarctica for the first time ever, to analyse shallow #snow and #firn cores directly in the field. We hope LISA will help us understand how much snow falls in Dronning Maud Land, how much it varies from year to year and what is the influence of sea ice and far field atmospheric processes on the rate…
http://sternaparadisaea.net/2025/09/30/meeting-lisa/

GPM: The Gaussian Pancake Mechanism for Planting Undetectable Backdoors in Differential Privacy
Haochen Sun, Xi He
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.23834 https://

GPM: The Gaussian Pancake Mechanism for Planting Undetectable Backdoors in Differential Privacy
Differential privacy (DP) has become the gold standard for preserving individual privacy in data analysis. However, an implicit yet fundamental assumption underlying these rigorous privacy guarantees is the correct implementation and execution of DP mechanisms. Several incidents of unintended privacy loss have occurred due to numerical issues and inappropriate configurations of DP software, which have been successfully exploited in privacy attacks. To better understand the seriousness of defect…

The Geodesic Restriction Problem for Arithmetic Spherical Harmonics
Maximiliano Sanchez Garza
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24874 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.2…

The Geodesic Restriction Problem for Arithmetic Spherical Harmonics
Given a Riemannian manifold $M$ and an $L^2$-normalized Laplacian eigenfunction $ψ$ on $M$ with eigenvalue $λ^2$, a general problem in analysis is to understand how the mass of $ψ$ distributes around $M$. There are different ways to attack this problem. One of them is to analyze the $L^p$-norm of $ψ$ restricted to a submanifold of $M$. Here, we concentrate on the case $M=S^2$, $p=2$, and we restrict to geodesics of the sphere. Burq, Gérard, and Tzvetkov showed, for $γ$ a geodesic of $S^2$…

(When) Should We Delegate AI Governance to AIs? Some Lessons from Administrative Law
Nicholas Caputo
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.22717 https://arxiv.org/pdf…

(When) Should We Delegate AI Governance to AIs? Some Lessons from Administrative Law
Advanced AI systems are now being used in AI governance. Practitioners will likely delegate an increasing number of tasks to them as they improve and governance becomes harder. However, using AI for governance risks serious harms because human practitioners may not be able to understand AI decisions or determine whether they are aligned to the user's interests. Delegation may also undermine governance's legitimacy. This paper begins to develop a principled framework for when to delegate AI gove…

Renormalization of Chern-Simons Wilson Loops via Flux Quantization in Cohomotopy
Hisham Sati, Urs Schreiber
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25336 https://arxiv.…

Renormalization of Chern-Simons Wilson Loops via Flux Quantization in Cohomotopy
In the practice of physics model building, the process of renormalization, resummation, and anomaly cancellation is to incrementally repair initially ill-defined Lagrangian quantum field theories. Impressive as this is, one would rather have concisely defined complete theories to begin with, and understand these choices as emergent from fundamental principles. As an instructive example, we recall renormalization choices for Wilson loop observables in abelian Chern-Simons theory. Then we show th…

"“I’m going back to the #Fediverse. Back to #Mastodon. To the nerds, the hobbyists, the idealists. The people who don’t talk about reach, but about relevance. To those who understand that decentralization isn’t nostalgic, it’s the future. That digital sovereignty isn’t a gimmick, it’s a survival…

A Mastodon Migration From Bluesky Would Be Different - Absolutely Maybe
The Mastodon migration from Twitter in 2022 was massive for the non-commercial community network: The number of accounts swelled with more than…

Moduli Stacks of $G$-Curves in Homotopy Theory at $h=p-1$
Rin Ray
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.23428 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.23428

Moduli Stacks of $G$-Curves in Homotopy Theory at $h=p-1$
We study the action on the deformation space of a formal group by the maximal finite subgroup $G$ of its automorphisms, at the first height where the group has nontrivial $p$-torsion for odd $p$. We show given this group $G$ there is a universal construction of a geometric model of the $G$-action via inverse Galois theory which generalizes the use of level structure to ramification data. We use configuration spaces to understand the model, and conclude that the Lubin-Tate action at $h=p-1$ is a…

I don't understand WHY #Affinity Publisher does this with grave and acute accents in Cyrillic. This behaviour persist in the all-new free Affinity app. Does anyone have any idea what's going on here?

#NonBinary

AGN hosting jets. I: A semi-analytical model for the evolution of radio galaxies
Pau Beltr\'an-Palau, Manel Perucho, Jos\'e Mar\'ia Mart\'i
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24939

AGN hosting jets. I: A semi-analytical model for the evolution of radio galaxies
Three-dimensional simulations of relativistic jets are a useful tool to understand the evolution of jets and radio galaxies in detail. However, computationally demanding as they are, their use is limited to a relatively small number of representative cases. When comparing to the distribution of large samples of objects in the luminosity-distance plane (P-D plane), the most efficient approach is to use analytical or semi-analytical models that reproduce the evolution of the main parameters gover…

A transiting hot Jupiter with two outer siblings orbiting an intermediate-mass post main-sequence star
Y. Reinarz, M. I. Jones, R. Brahm, N. Espinoza, M. Tala Pinto, T. Trifonov, A. Jord\'an, L. Acu\~na-Aguirre, T. Henning, F. Rojas, C. Ziegler, D. M. Conti, C. Brice\~no, N. Law, A. W. Mann, K. A. Collins, J. M. Irwin, D. Charbonneau
https://

A transiting hot Jupiter with two outer siblings orbiting an intermediate-mass post main-sequence star
Exoplanetary systems with multiple giant planets present an opportunity to understand planet formation, migration processes, and long-term system-wide dynamical interactions. In particular, they provide constraints to distinguish between smooth disk-driven migration or more dynamically excited system evolution pathways. We report the discovery and characterization of a unique multi-planet system hosting three gas giant planets orbiting the post-main sequence star TOI-375. The innermost planet, …

The cosmic-ray spectrum in the PeV to EeV energy range
Donghwa Kang, Andreas Haungs
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21692 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.21692

The cosmic-ray spectrum in the PeV to EeV energy range
Cosmic rays around the so-called knee in the spectrum at around PeV primary energy are generally galactic in origin. Observations on the form of their energy spectrum and their mass composition are fundamental tools to understand the origin, acceleration and propagation mechanism of high-energy cosmic rays. In addition, it is required to find signatures to clarify the transition from galactic to extragalactic sources, which are believed to be responsible for the highest-energy cosmic rays above…

The Mr. Scorsese documentary on Apple TV is amazing.
I have new found respect for him and his movies, some of which I haven’t enjoyed, but now I understand.
#movies #scorcese

Exploring the signature of two ferromagnetic states and goniopolarity in LaCrGe3 through Hall effect
Modhumita Sariket, Najrul Islam, Saquib Shamim, Nitesh Kumar
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21508

Exploring the signature of two ferromagnetic states and goniopolarity in LaCrGe3 through Hall effect
LaCrGe3 has become a playground to understand quantum critical phenomena in ferromagnetic (FM) materials. It has also garnered attention due to its peculiar two FM phases. Here, we demonstrate the presence of these phases using the Hall effect. Continuous temperature-dependent Hall resistivity measurements at fixed magnetic fields clearly demonstrate the presence of these phases, regardless of the direction of the applied magnetic field. The remanent Hall resistivity and Hall coefficient underg…

Experimental Investigation of Acoustically Forced Helium Jet in Crossflow Using Shadowgraphy and Modal Analysis
Ankur Kumar, Sita Ram Sahu, Narsing K Jha, Anubhav Sinha
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24035

Experimental Investigation of Acoustically Forced Helium Jet in Crossflow Using Shadowgraphy and Modal Analysis
This study presents an experimental investigation of helium jet in crossflow of air, with an objective to understand the influence of acoustic forcing on jet behavior and mixing. Unforced and sinusoidally forced jets are studied. High speed shadowgraphy is used to capture instantaneous jet images. These images are further processed using Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) algorithm to provide insights into the spatiotemporal behavior. Schlieren Imaging Velocimetry (SIV) is also used to under…

Series A, Episode 08 - Duel
BLAKE: Right, wake me when you're tired.
[Up a different tree: Travis and Mutoid]
TRAVIS: Tell me something, do you remember who you were?
MUTOID: I don't understand the question, Commander.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/108/375 B7B4

Passive polymers in active turbulence undergo a collapse-stretch transition
Zahra K. Valei, Davide Marenduzzo, Tyler N. Shendruk
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.23382 https://…

Passive polymers in active turbulence undergo a collapse-stretch transition
Active processes in living systems generate nonequilibrium forces that deform embedded passive macromolecules. To understand how such dynamics influence polymer conformation, we study a flexible passive chain in an active nematic fluid. Using hybrid simulations, we uncover a length-dependent transition in polymer behavior: long chains align with and stretch along defect-driven flows, while short chains bend and collapse due to localized stresses. These responses are controlled by a competition …

A Synthetic Theory of Socio-Epistemic Structuration: Capital, Ideology, and Agency in the Age of Digital Inequality
Ricardo Alonzo Fern\'andez Salguero
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25259

A Synthetic Theory of Socio-Epistemic Structuration: Capital, Ideology, and Agency in the Age of Digital Inequality
This article proposes a synthetic theory of socio-epistemic structuration to understand the reproduction of inequality in contemporary societies. I argue that social reality is not only determined by material structures and social networks but is fundamentally shaped by the epistemic frameworks -- ideologies, narratives, and attributions of agency -- that mediate actors' engagement with their environment. The theory integrates findings from critical race theory, network sociology, social capita…

I genuinely do not understand how small-minded these people are.
Honestly can't fathom this.

User-Centric Comparison of 5G NTN and DVB-S2/RCS2 Using OpenAirInterface and OpenSAND
Sumit Kumar, Juan Carlos Estrada-Jimenez, Ion Turcanu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.26013 http…

User-Centric Comparison of 5G NTN and DVB-S2/RCS2 Using OpenAirInterface and OpenSAND
The integration of satellite networks into next-generation mobile communication systems has gained considerable momentum with the advent of 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (5G-NTN). Since established technologies like DVB-S2/RCS2 are already widely used for satellite broadband, a detailed comparison with emerging 5G NTN solutions is necessary to understand their relative merits and guide deployment decisions. This paper presents a user-centric, end-to-end evaluation of these technologies under real…

Quantum queer superalgebra and its integral form
Jianmin Chen, Zhenhua Li, Hongying Zhu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24265 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.24265…

Quantum queer superalgebra and its integral form
In this paper, we introduce quantum root vectors for the quantum queer superalgebra ${\boldsymbol U}_{\!{v}}({\mathfrak q_n})$ via a braid-group action, compute their complete commutation relations, and construct a PBW-type basis for the Lusztig integral form ${{\boldsymbol U}_{v,\mathcal{ Z}}}$. This yields an explicit presentation of ${{\boldsymbol U}_{v,\mathcal{ Z}}}$ and provides a way to understand the structure of the quantum queer superalgebra at roots of unity.

#Willowdale tell your councillor Lily Cheng what you think of small retail stores in your neighborhood
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI

Interpreting deep learning-based stellar mass estimation via causal analysis and mutual information decomposition
Wei Zhang, Qiufan Lin, Yuan-Sen Ting, Shupei Chen, Hengxin Ruan, Song Li, Yifan Wang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.23901

Interpreting deep learning-based stellar mass estimation via causal analysis and mutual information decomposition
End-to-end deep learning models fed with multi-band galaxy images are powerful data-driven tools used to estimate galaxy physical properties in the absence of spectroscopy. However, due to a lack of interpretability and the associational nature of such models, it is difficult to understand how the information additional to integrated photometry (e.g., morphology) contributes to the estimation task. Improving our understanding in this field would enable further advances into unraveling the physi…

Dynamical model of Praesepe and its tidal tails
L. Weis, C. West, A. Just, P. Berczik, M. Ishchenko, S. R\"oser, E. Schilbach, B. Shukirgaliyev
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24584

Dynamical model of Praesepe and its tidal tails
Context. The dynamical evolution of open clusters in the tidal field of the Milky Way and the feeding of the disc field star population depend strongly on the initial conditions at the time of gas removal. Detailed dynamical models tailored to individual clusters help us understand the role of open clusters in the Galactic disc evolution. Aims. We present a detailed dynamical model of Praesepe, which reproduces the mass profile, the stellar mass function, and the mass segregation observed with …

This excellent piece by Ken White is long, but worth your time to read if you want to understand how and why public discourse in America is broken.
https://www.popehat.com/p/how-free-speech-culture-is-killing-free-speech-part-one

How "Free Speech Culture" Is Killing Free Speech: Part One
Blurring The Lines Between Official Censorship And Individual Criticism Built The Intellectual Foundation For Trump's Assault On Free Expression

Convergence of graph Dirichlet energies and graph Laplacians on intersecting manifolds of varying dimensions
Leon Bungert, Dejan Slep\v{c}ev
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24458 htt…

Convergence of graph Dirichlet energies and graph Laplacians on intersecting manifolds of varying dimensions
We study $Γ$-convergence of graph Dirichlet energies and spectral convergence of graph Laplacians on unions of intersecting manifolds of potentially different dimensions. Our investigation is motivated by problems of machine learning, as real-world data often consist of parts or classes with different intrinsic dimensions. An important challenge is to understand which machine learning methods adapt to such varied dimensionalities. We investigate the standard unnormalized and the normalized gra…

A General Theory of Emergent Linearity in Complex Dynamical Systems: The Role of Spatial Averaging and Vanishing Correlations
Sabbir Ahmed, Hafiz Fareed Ahmed, Erfan Nozari
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25589

A General Theory of Emergent Linearity in Complex Dynamical Systems: The Role of Spatial Averaging and Vanishing Correlations
Various natural and engineered systems, from urban traffic flow to the human brain, have been described by large-scale networked dynamical systems. Despite their vast differences, these systems are often similar in being comprised of numerous microscopic subsystems with complex nonlinear dynamics and interactions that give rise to diverse emergent macroscopic behaviors. As such, a long-standing question across various fields has been to understand why and how various forms of macroscopic behavi…

https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/29/afp_ai_commissioner_barrett_speech/
“Australia’s Federal Police (AFP) is working on an AI to interpret emojis and the slang used online by Generation Z and Generation Alpha, so it can understand them when they disc…

Australian police building AI to translate emoji used by ‘crimefluencers’
: Five Eyes intel alliance has created a team to target these scum who prey on kids

Tunneling spectroscopy of two-dimensional superconductors with the quantum twisting microscope
Nemin Wei, Felix von Oppen, Leonid I. Glazman
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.22902 htt…

Tunneling spectroscopy of two-dimensional superconductors with the quantum twisting microscope
The ongoing discoveries of graphene-based superconductors underscore the quest to understand the structure of new superconducting orders. We develop a theory that facilitates the use of the quantum twisting microscope (QTM) for that purpose. This work investigates momentum-conserving tunneling across a planar junction formed by a normal monolayer graphene tip and a superconducting graphene sample within the QTM setting. We show that the bias dependence of the zero-temperature tunneling conducta…

Evaluation of CZT Detector Performance in Alpha and Gamma Spectrometry
N. Kramarenko (Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki), M. V\"a\"an\"anen (Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki), M. Kalliokoski (Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki), M. Bezak (Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki), R. Turpeinen (Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki), A. Winkler (Detection Technology Plc)

Evaluation of CZT Detector Performance in Alpha and Gamma Spectrometry
The present work reports on the performance studies of Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) planar detector structures. To better understand the correlation between the physical properties and the electrical and spectroscopic behavior of the devices, we carried out current-voltage (IV) and capacitance-voltage (CV) measurements, in addition to gamma- and alpha-spectroscopy. For each tested sensor, spectroscopic responses were recorded under varying applied bias voltage. The described suite of measuremen…

TopoSPAM: Topology grounded Simulation Platform for morphogenesis and biological Active Matter
Abhinav Singh (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany, Center for Systems Biology Dresden, Dresden, Germany, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA), Abhijeet Krishna (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany, Center for Systems Biology Dresden, Dresden, Germany), Aboutaleb …

TopoSPAM: Topology grounded Simulation Platform for morphogenesis and biological Active Matter
We present a topology grounded, multiscale simulation platform for morphogenesis and biological active matter. Morphogenesis and biological active matter represent keystone problems in biology with additional, far-reaching implications across the biomedical sciences. Addressing these problems will require flexible, cross-scale models of tissue shape, development, and dysfunction that can be tuned to understand, model, and predict relevant individual cases. Current approaches to simulating anato…

@… @… Yes, I also understand that some people prefer a 9–5 job; and some may only find out after a while. This is completely legitimate, but it essentially means that they’ll have to look for another job: …

@… @… Yes, I also understand that some people prefer a 9–5 job; and some may only find out after a while. This is completely legitimate, but it essentially means that they’ll have to look for another job: …

Observation of non-Hermitian topology in cold Rydberg quantum gases
Jun Zhang, Ya-Jun Wang, Shi-Yao Shao, Bang Liu, Li-Hua Zhang, Zheng-Yuan Zhang, Xin Liu, Chao Yu, Qing Li, Han-Chao Chen, Yu Ma, Tian-Yu Han, Qi-Feng Wang, Jia-Dou Nan, Yi-Ming Yin, Dong-Yang Zhu, Qiao-Qiao Fang, Dong-Sheng Ding, Bao-Sen Shi
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.2625…

Observation of non-Hermitian topology in cold Rydberg quantum gases
The pursuit of topological phenomena in non-Hermitian systems has unveiled new physics beyond the conventional Hermitian paradigm, yet their realization in interacting many-body platforms remains a critical challenge. Exploring this interplay is essential to understand how strong interactions and dissipation collectively shape topological phases in open quantum systems. Here, we experimentally demonstrate non-Hermitian spectra topology in a dissipative Rydberg atomic gas and characterize parame…

Chimera: Diagnosing Shortcut Learning in Visual-Language Understanding
Ziheng Chi, Yifan Hou, Chenxi Pang, Shaobo Cui, Mubashara Akhtar, Mrinmaya Sachan
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.22437

Chimera: Diagnosing Shortcut Learning in Visual-Language Understanding
Diagrams convey symbolic information in a visual format rather than a linear stream of words, making them especially challenging for AI models to process. While recent evaluations suggest that vision-language models (VLMs) perform well on diagram-related benchmarks, their reliance on knowledge, reasoning, or modality shortcuts raises concerns about whether they genuinely understand and reason over diagrams. To address this gap, we introduce Chimera, a comprehensive test suite comprising 7,500 h…

From #LizOyer @lawyer_oyer@instagram.com
To understand how badly #Trump is damaging our #justice system, you must understand what he is doing with US

I grew up with a lot of male cousins who loved watching sports. I understand that some people enjoy gambling for emotions, but I don't.
That's why I like books. Instead of gambling for feelings, a book takes my emotions on a journey, rips them to shreds in the middle in an unpredictable way, then grinds my feelings into a fine paste that they feed to their goat, which is sacrificed in a bloody feral ceremony whose carnage further defiles said emotional residue
Or you can …

Effect of Gait Design on Proprioceptive Sensing of Terrain Properties in a Quadrupedal Robot
Ethan Fulcher, J. Diego Caporale, Yifeng Zhang, John Ruck, Feifei Qian
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.22065

Effect of Gait Design on Proprioceptive Sensing of Terrain Properties in a Quadrupedal Robot
In-situ robotic exploration is an important tool for advancing knowledge of geological processes that describe the Earth and other Planetary bodies. To inform and enhance operations for these roving laboratories, it is imperative to understand the terramechanical properties of their environments, especially for traversing on loose, deformable substrates. Recent research suggested that legged robots with direct-drive and low-gear ratio actuators can sensitively detect external forces, and theref…

Walk the Talk: Is Your Log-based Software Reliability Maintenance System Really Reliable?
Minghua He, Tong Jia, Chiming Duan, Pei Xiao, Lingzhe Zhang, Kangjin Wang, Yifan Wu, Ying Li, Gang Huang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24352

Walk the Talk: Is Your Log-based Software Reliability Maintenance System Really Reliable?
Log-based software reliability maintenance systems are crucial for sustaining stable customer experience. However, existing deep learning-based methods represent a black box for service providers, making it impossible for providers to understand how these methods detect anomalies, thereby hindering trust and deployment in real production environments. To address this issue, this paper defines a trustworthiness metric, diagnostic faithfulness, for models to gain service providers' trust, based o…

Atlas of Human-AI Interaction (v1): An Interactive Meta-Science Platform for Large-Scale Research Literature Sensemaking
Chayapatr Archiwaranguprok, Awu Chen, Sheer Karny, Hiroshi Ishii, Pattie Maes, Pat Pataranutaporn
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25499

Atlas of Human-AI Interaction (v1): An Interactive Meta-Science Platform for Large-Scale Research Literature Sensemaking
Human-AI interaction researchers face an overwhelming challenge: synthesizing insights from thousands of empirical studies to understand how AI impacts people and inform effective design. Existing approach for literature reviews cluster papers by similarities, keywords or citations, missing the crucial cause-and-effect relationships that reveal how design decisions impact user outcomes. We introduce the Atlas of Human-AI Interaction, an interactive web interface that provides the first systemat…

I think this is a really good post on the cost of AI from my friend.
I'm anti-AI but I do think I need to better understand how it works and how others use it or I can't really contribute to the conversation.
AI might be able to make you more "efficient" but if you don't care about the content you make no one else will either.

I really think some of you don’t understand the scale of the “AI” bubble vs real-world results from using it

Do you have the ability to write code for Apple platforms? Do you know what MDM / device management is? Do you understand what Compliance is? Do you care about being able to use a Mac or iPad or iPhone for work or school?
Does the idea of dealing with the bugs that can crop up from things like "this needs to be reliably managed like a server, but a human randomly sleeps it mid-process and when it wakes up it's in a different country!" sound interesting to you?
If so - come be my direct co-worker!
Need to be able to be based in/work within the US, but the team itself is fully remote. Multiple positions open.
Feel free to DM me with questions
https://jobs.apple.com/en-us/details/200628824-0836/software-engineer-test-infrastructure

I was asking Claude Sonnet 4.5 some questions about how to transfer some old Fortran 90 progs into R. It's the sort of simple rules based question that AI is supposed to be good at. It's helpful on the rules of R, but took a lot of prompting to get it right -it would not have worked for someone who didn't understand the maths.
But it sure knows how to be creepily sycophantic. It's a machine and shouldn't pretend to be human.

Hmmm, this would seem to run afoul of the Constitution's ArtI.S10.C1.6.1 Contract Clause - except that that part of our Constitution applies only to States.
Personally, I do not understand why any international body would schedule events - like the World Cup or the Olympics - in the US.
"Trump warns he’ll move World Cup soccer games out of ‘unsafe’ cities like … Santa Clara? "

Trump warns he’ll move World Cup soccer games out of ‘unsafe’ cities like … Santa Clara?
The president rips San Francisco’s ‘radical left lunatic’ leadership, but games are set for Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, 44 miles away.

«I do understand: you want permission. There’s a machine in the corner wrapped in human skin that makes things out of shit and blood to look like whatever you want (as long as you don’t look too closely). […] You want to know you can use it sometimes without me thinking less of you. You don’t need me to believe it’s useful, you just want me to be polite about it. But I am a hater, and I will not be polite. The machine is disgusting and we should break it.»
/cc @…
https://anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/haterdom/2025/08/26/i-am-an-ai-hater.html

"What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded..." - Learned Hand

AVISM: Algorithm for Void Identification in coSMology
\'Oscar Monllor-Berbegal, David Vall\'es-P\'erez, Susana Planelles, Vicent Quilis
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25329

AVISM: Algorithm for Void Identification in coSMology
Cosmic voids are key elements in our understanding of the large-scale structure of the Universe. They are crucial to constrain cosmological parameters, understand the structure formation and evolution of our Universe, and they could also be pristine laboratories for studying galaxy formation without all the hassle due to environmental effects. Thus, the ability to accurately and consistently identify voids, both in numerical simulations and in observations, becomes mandatory. We present Algorit…

How stellar mass and disc size shape the formation and migration of super-Earths
Jesper Nielsen, Anders Johansen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21627 https://a…

How stellar mass and disc size shape the formation and migration of super-Earths
The occurrence rate of close-in super-Earths is higher around M-dwarfs compared to stars of higher masses. In this work we aim to understand how the super-Earth population is affected by both the stellar mass, the size of the protoplanetary disc, and viscous heating. We utilise a standard protoplanetary disc model with both irradiated and viscous heating together with a pebble accretion model to simulate the formation and migration of planets. We find that if the disc is heated purely through s…

Computational study of Adhesion and Friction Behavior of Crosslinked Polymer Network
Ajay Kumar, Manoj Kumar Maurya, Manjesh K. Singh
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21360 https://…

Computational study of Adhesion and Friction Behavior of Crosslinked Polymer Network
In this study, we have utilized a molecular dynamics simulation approach to understand adhesion and friction behaviour of crosslinked polymer networks. We have used breakable quartic bond to model crosslinked polymers. We explored the structural characteristics and evaluated the coefficient of friction (CoF) as a function of crosslinked monomer fraction (cross-linking bond density) in four-fold cross-linked polymer networks. To estimate CoF, a rigid indenter was inserted to different depths of …

CHEMOUT: CHEMical complexity in star-forming regions of the OUTer Galaxy. V. Chemical composition gradients as a function of the Galactocentric radius
D. Gigli, F. Fontani, L. Colzi, G. Vermari\"en, S. Viti, V. M. Rivilla, A. S\'anchez-Monge
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.26556

CHEMOUT: CHEMical complexity in star-forming regions of the OUTer Galaxy. V. Chemical composition gradients as a function of the Galactocentric radius
The outer Galaxy is characterized by a lower metallicity than regions near the Sun, suggesting differences in the formation and survival of molecules in star-forming regions. To understand chemical evolution across the Milky Way, deriving molecular abundances in star-forming regions in the outer Galaxy is essential for refining models of sub-Solar metallicity environments. We analyzed IRAM 30m observations at 3 and 2 mm toward 35 sources at Galactocentric distances of 9$-$24 kpc, within the "CH…

DraftMarks: Enhancing Transparency in Human-AI Co-Writing Through Interactive Skeuomorphic Process Traces
Momin N. Siddiqui, Nikki Nasseri, Adam Coscia, Roy Pea, Hari Subramonyam
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.23505

DraftMarks: Enhancing Transparency in Human-AI Co-Writing Through Interactive Skeuomorphic Process Traces
As generative AI becomes part of everyday writing, questions of transparency and productive human effort are increasingly important. Educators, reviewers, and readers want to understand how AI shaped the process. Where was human effort focused? What role did AI play in the creation of the work? How did the interaction unfold? Existing approaches often reduce these dynamics to summary metrics or simplified provenance. We introduce DraftMarks, an augmented reading tool that surfaces the human-AI …

The crystalline properties of silica biomorphs vary within and between morphologies
Moritz P. K. Frewein, Britta Maier, Moritz L. Stammer, Isabella Silva-Barreto, Anastasiia Sadetskaia, Asma Medjahed, Remi Tucoulou, Manfred Burghammer, Henrik Birkedal, Tilman A. Gr\"unewald
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21149

The crystalline properties of silica biomorphs vary within and between morphologies
Silica-carbonate biomorphs are a class of emergent materials, i.e. composite microstructures made of nanometric carbonate crystallites surrounded by amorphous silica. They form via a co-precipitation process in an interplay between alkaline earth metal carbonate and siliceous species, and self-organize into a multitude of shapes with a distinct long-range order of the carbonate nanocrystals. Biomorphs are frequently studied to understand the formation of life-like structures emerging from geoch…

When an Alaska Native group asked state law enforcement officials in June for a list of murders investigated by state police
— one of the most fundamental pieces of data needed to understand the issue
— the state said no.
Charlene Aqpik Apok launched
"Data for Indigenous Justice"
in 2020 after trying to collect the names of missing and murdered Indigenous people to read at a rally,
only to discover no government agency had been keeping track.

Alaska Vowed to Resolve Murders of Indigenous People. Now It Refuses to Provide Their Names.
When the nonprofit Data for Indigenous Justice filed public records requests with the Alaska Department of Public Safety concerning cases it had investigated, the state rejected them.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Irma Thomas:
🎵 Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)
#IrmaThomas
https://thesleepdealers.bandcamp.com/track/irma-thomas-anyone-who-knows-what-love-is-will-understand
https://open.spotify.com/track/5GWCndQ8ykzf6rYRvwrFcj

What is Hasbara? Learn about Israel’s “Ministry of Truth.”
#hasbara

Hasbara: Why does the world fail to understand us? - +972 Magazine
A short discussion of the Israeli term used to describe the ongoing, ever-growing, national propaganda effort. I have used the word “Hasbara” pretty freely recently, and so do more and more people, without stopping to explain what it actually means. The use of this term has been widespread in Israeli Hebrew for many years now,…

Our inability to understand the exponential function is our biggest weakness - Prof Albert Bartlett
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bvwOrGn1Zs

Sources: Pinecone, which provides an AI-compatible vector database, is exploring a sale after receiving takeover interest; Pinecone was valued at $750M in 2023 (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/top-funded-ai-database-star…

Top-Funded AI Database Startup Pinecone Considers a Sale
When the artificial intelligence boom began a few years ago, investors flocked to startups that helped businesses transform and store proprietary data in a format AI could understand, known as a vector database. The technology allowed businesses to use a customized AI chatbot to search or ...

An Ontology for Unified Modeling of Tasks, Actions, Environments, and Capabilities in Personal Service Robotics
Margherita Martorana, Francesca Urgese, Ilaria Tiddi, Stefan Schlobach
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.22434

An Ontology for Unified Modeling of Tasks, Actions, Environments, and Capabilities in Personal Service Robotics
Personal service robots are increasingly used in domestic settings to assist older adults and people requiring support. Effective operation involves not only physical interaction but also the ability to interpret dynamic environments, understand tasks, and choose appropriate actions based on context. This requires integrating both hardware components (e.g. sensors, actuators) and software systems capable of reasoning about tasks, environments, and robot capabilities. Frameworks such as the Robo…

Backdoor Attribution: Elucidating and Controlling Backdoor in Language Models
Miao Yu, Zhenhong Zhou, Moayad Aloqaily, Kun Wang, Biwei Huang, Stephen Wang, Yueming Jin, Qingsong Wen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.21761

Backdoor Attribution: Elucidating and Controlling Backdoor in Language Models
Fine-tuned Large Language Models (LLMs) are vulnerable to backdoor attacks through data poisoning, yet the internal mechanisms governing these attacks remain a black box. Previous research on interpretability for LLM safety tends to focus on alignment, jailbreak, and hallucination, but overlooks backdoor mechanisms, making it difficult to understand and fully eliminate the backdoor threat. In this paper, aiming to bridge this gap, we explore the interpretable mechanisms of LLM backdoors through…

A fascinating @… podcast on peace.. Interview (in English) with veteran peace researcher Peter Wallensteen on what is Peace, gridlock at the UN and how we should understand the present moment.
Intro in Danish.
https://samtaleromusa.podbean.com/e/peter-wallensteen-vi-far-ikke-fred-uden-stærke-folkelige-bevægelser-der-taler-oprustning-ned-og-diplomatiske-alternativer-op/

AIPOM: Agent-aware Interactive Planning for Multi-Agent Systems
Hannah Kim, Kushan Mitra, Chen Shen, Dan Zhang, Estevam Hruschka
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24826 https://…

AIPOM: Agent-aware Interactive Planning for Multi-Agent Systems
Large language models (LLMs) are being increasingly used for planning in orchestrated multi-agent systems. However, existing LLM-based approaches often fall short of human expectations and, critically, lack effective mechanisms for users to inspect, understand, and control their behaviors. These limitations call for enhanced transparency, controllability, and human oversight. To address this, we introduce AIPOM, a system supporting human-in-the-loop planning through conversational and graph-bas…

HARPS-N Reveals a Well-aligned Orbit for the Highly Eccentric Warm Jupiter TOI-4127 b
Ismael Mireles, Felipe Murgas, Diana Dragomir, Enric Pall\'e, Jiayin Dong, Ilaria Carleo, Emma Esparza-Borges
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.22972

HARPS-N Reveals a Well-aligned Orbit for the Highly Eccentric Warm Jupiter TOI-4127 b
While many hot Jupiter systems have a measured obliquity, few warm Jupiter systems do. The longer orbital periods and transit durations of warm Jupiters make it more difficult to measure the obliquities of their host stars. However, the longer periods also mean any misalignments persist due to the longer tidal realignment timescales. As a result, measuring these obliquities is necessary to understand how these types of planets form and how their formation and evolution differ from that of hot J…

BiListing: Modality Alignment for Listings
Guillaume Guy, Mihajlo Grbovic, Chun How Tan, Han Zhao
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20396 https://arxiv.org/pdf/25…

BiListing: Modality Alignment for Listings
Airbnb is a leader in offering travel accommodations. Airbnb has historically relied on structured data to understand, rank, and recommend listings to guests due to the limited capabilities and associated complexity arising from extracting meaningful information from text and images. With the rise of representation learning, leveraging rich information from text and photos has become easier. A popular approach has been to create embeddings for text documents and images to enable use cases of co…

Things that I will never understand: going through life as a racist bigot asshole.
The sheer energy spent on thinking in every decision and in every human interaction whether you need to be hateful or not and how this hate should manifest.

Revisiting the Atmosphere of HD 149026b: The Role of Stellar Abundances and Choice of Opacities in Exoplanet Atmosphere Modeling
Priyanka Baghel, Jayesh Goyal, Gaurav Shukla
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25785

Revisiting the Atmosphere of HD 149026b: The Role of Stellar Abundances and Choice of Opacities in Exoplanet Atmosphere Modeling
Planet formation occurs within the same molecular cloud as the host star, suggesting a link between the elemental abundances of star and the planet. Exoplanet atmosphere studies often assume solar abundances for host stars, however, specific host star abundances might lead to more accurate constraints. In this work, we perform sensitivity studies for a metal rich stellar host HD 149026 and its exoplanet HD 149026b, to understand the effect of solar versus stellar abundance choice on the $P$-$T$…

Antifa = anti-fascist
Anti-antifa = fascist
People who can’t understand something that simple are either too stupid to argue with or clearly have a vested interest in not being able to understand it.

Can't wait to block the "this is sound engineering, you just don't understand it" bros