Tootfinder

Four ways (of many) recursively subdividing/tessellating a pentagon (made with #TilingTuesday

Challenges and Opportunities for Participatory Design of Conversational Agents for Young People's Wellbeing
Natalia Kucirkova, Alexis Hiniker, Megumi Ishikawa, Sho Tsuji, Aayushi Dangol, Robert Wolfe
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.14787

Challenges and Opportunities for Participatory Design of Conversational Agents for Young People's Wellbeing
This paper outlines the challenges and opportunities of research on conversational agents with children and young people across four countries, exploring the ways AI technologies can support children's well-being across social and cultural contexts.

«The fundamental problem is this: that most of the means of communication are owned or influenced by the very rich. If democracy is the problem capital is always trying to solve, propaganda is part of the solution.»
On the epistemic crisis we're all in, thanks to most ways of knowing and disseminating knowledge being in the hands of a couple of billionaires.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/14/climate-crisis-communication-super-rich

If you set limits for a scale (e.g. x-axis) in ggplot, how would you like data outside of that range be handled? There is the oob parameter for that and a set of functions to use with it: https://scales.r-lib.org/reference/oob.html

Just finished "The Word for World is Forest" by Ursula K. Le Guin. Can't believe I didn't read this one earlier, and this strengthens my resolve to finish off the rest of her stuff I have yet to read sooner. I think it benefits somewhat from having read it after "Four Ways to Forgiveness" which gives more of the Hainish context. Certainly none of the blurbs I had read about it did it any measure of justice, which is one reason I hadn't prioritized it. More than being about colonization, it's about a solution to the paradox of tolerance, and both the price and imperfections of that solution. As usual with Le Guin's science fiction, it's a rich companion to anarchist thought.
I think the typical objection to seeing it as an answer to the warlord question would be that it serendipitously positions the indigenous population with more power and a less ruthless opponent than in the imagined scenario, and it uses the League of Worlds as a sort of deus ex machina to foreclose further retribution. Ultimately that's why I think it's more about the paradox of tolerance than anything else, but I also think in regards to the warlord problem that we are too quick to underestimate just how numerous and enthusiastic the opponents of a warlord might be, and to overestimate the strength of technological weapons wielded by frail (and psychologically unarmored) humans.
In any case, Le Guin gives this book's alien humans yet another fascinatingly credible capability, and getting to see the introduction of ansible technology with all its implications is pretty cool too. Maybe not

New examples of words for which the binomial complexities and the subword complexity coincide
L\'eo Vivion
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.11172 https://arx…

New examples of words for which the binomial complexities and the subword complexity coincide
The complexity of an infinite word can be measured in several ways, the two most common measures being the subword complexity and the abelian complexity. In 2015, Rigo and Salimov introduced a family of intermediate complexities indexed by $k\in\mathbb{N}_{>0}$: the $k$-binomial complexities. These complexities scale up from the abelian complexity, with which the $1$-binomial complexity coincides, to the subword complexity, to which they converge pointwise as $k$ tends to $\infty$. In this arti…

Very glad to finally see this issue being addressed in a major publication. The headline is a little confusing. It’s not about engineering, it’s about all disciplines.
Even as we have made gains getting women into post secondary now young men are not coming, aside from a few specific traditional areas. Especially in Arts and Humanities, there is a huge gap. I see it every day at my university.
We need to reverse this. We need men and women in every field and discipline. We need men and women learning critical thinking, learning history, learning biology, learning engineering, together, collaboratively, in ways that speak to all genders.
I blame a large part of the gap on a notion that is still perpetuated by both regular people and government, that “trades gets u a job” with implicit and explicit bias toward those trades being male dominated. The manosphere often degrades traditional “thinking” degrees as not masculine enough.. or have been “woke” and a threat to stereotypical male roles. Plus there remain biases against teaching and healthcare as “women’s” work in those influential spheres, and not helped by general society either.
TLDR: we just need to stop devaluing post-secondary every other moment of the day and make it free and easy for absolutely anyone to walk in and expand their minds!
#viu #university #postsecondary #canada #education #gendergap #men #manosphere
https://archive.ph/NhuKo

Day 16: Mayra Cuevas & Marie Marquardt
Okay so this is cheating, but they're co-authors of multiple books together, and there's no way for me to separate their contributions... I've already got too many authors I'd like to list, so why not?
I read their book "Does My Body Offend You?" and absolutely loved it; it's a celebration of teen activism while also being a deep exploration of feminist issues through practical situations that bring out the complicated side of things, which the authors refuse to reduce back to a simple formulaic answer. It has a supporting cast of appropriately-complex male characters that help in exploring the nuances of issues like the line between female empowerment & male gratification, and it brings race and macho culture into the conversion as well.
CW for sexual harassment & deep discussion of the resultant trauma.
I'll cheat again here to sneak in mention of two male authors whose work resonates with theirs: Mark Oshiro's "Anger is a Gift" has a more pessimistic/complex take on teen activism along with a gay romance (CW for racist cop murder), while Jeremy Whitley's graphic novel "Navigating With You" deals with queer romance & disability, while having a main character pairing that echoes those from "Does My Body Offend You?" in a lot of ways. Another connection (to non-men authors this time) is with "Go With the Flow" by Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann. Their graphic novel about teen activism and periods is a bit more didactic and has a much lighter tone, but it does necessarily have some overlapping themes.
To bring it back to Cuevas & Marquhardt, their writing is great and their ability to discuss such complex topics with such nuance, all wrapped up in a story that feels completely natural, is amazing to me, and makes their book feel like one of the most valuable to recommend to others.
In writing this I've realized a grave oversight in the list so far that I'll have to correct tomorrow, but I'm quickly running out of days. The didn't-quite-make-it list is going to be full of more excellent authors, and I'm honestly starting to wonder whether it might actually be harder to name 20 male authors I respect now that I've found the sense to be mostly somewhere between disgusted and disappointed with so many of the male authors I enjoyed as a teen.
#20AuthorsNoMen (cheating a bit)

In March, Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker that he was “not joking” about considering a third term.
There are “methods” by which he could do so, he claimed,
one being if Vice President JD Vance was to win the presidency, then pass the baton to Trump.
In May, however, Trump declared to Welker that he will be “a two-term president”
—though he seemingly couldn’t help but add,
“There are ways of doing it.”
In August, he said he would “like to run” again but “pro…

Amy Coney Barrett Gives Least Reassuring Answer on Trump Third Term
This Supreme Court is failing us.

What's especially interesting, and dangerous to capitalism, is that there are a lot of opportunities that come out of this.
Corporations are destroying everything. We actually don't need them. We can build mutual aid networks, guerilla gardening, library socialism... When we stop with consumerism, we can find the joy in actually living, creating, being a creative human rather than simply a consumer. With a bit of momentum we can bend the system to our will. With enough momentum we can shatter it completely and free ourselves from this trap.
Things can go a lot of different ways. I'm excited to see how things go.
Edit:
I'm specifically excited about this...
https://www.blackoutthesystem.com/about-mutual-aid
This is cool. This is really fucking cool.

"A key principle of PKM is that no one has the right answer, but together we can create better ways of understanding complex systems. We each need to find others who are sharing their knowledge flow and in turn contribute our own. It’s not about being a better digital librarian, it’s about becoming a participating member of a networked organization, economy and society."
@…

These forces that make people narrow themselves, avoid humanities, avoid mathematics, avoid whole ways of thinking and seeing…these forces aren’t only people being assholes to each other (though they are that). They’re hierarchy-making and pernicious social engineering. Fight back.

It's really not my habit to intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning won't be lost or misconstrued
But I'll repeat myself at the risk of being crude
There must be 50 ways to kill your dictator

House Republicans exploring ways to prevent Mamdani from being sworn in as NYC mayor if he wins on Election Day (Geoff Earle/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2025/11/01/us-news/house-republicans-latest-push-to-keep-mandani-out-of-office/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251102/p82#a251102p82

Tidal disruption of a magnetized star
Pavel Abolmasov, Omer Bromberg, Amir Levinson, Ehud Nakar
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.23894 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509…

Tidal disruption of a magnetized star
Tidal disruptions of stars by supermassive black holes in galactic centers (TDEs) are now being actively studied both theoretically and observationally. They are observed throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to gamma-rays. It is still unclear how the emission is produced and, in particular, what is the role of the magnetic field of the disrupted star. There are many ways how magnetic fields might affect the dynamics of a TDE. They are likely responsible for the angular momentum t…

Republican control of state legislatures is systematically associated with the rich being (and becoming) richer.
In short, American plutocracy seems to be a quintessentially Republican affair.
And that’s not all.
As we journey into the depths of US state politics, the plot will thicken.
We’ll find striking partisan differences in the language used in state bills.
We’ll see the many ways that Republicans help the rich and hurt workers.
We’ll see the impact pa…

Partisan Politics and the Road to Plutocracy – Economics from the Top Down
In this essay, I take a deep dive into the history of American plutocracy and its conspicuously Republican roots.

Learning Progression-Guided AI Evaluation of Scientific Models To Support Diverse Multi-Modal Understanding in NGSS Classroom
Leonora Kaldaras, Tingting Li, Prudence Djagba, Kevin Haudek, Joseph Krajcik
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.18157

Learning Progression-Guided AI Evaluation of Scientific Models To Support Diverse Multi-Modal Understanding in NGSS Classroom
Learning Progressions (LPs) can help adjust instruction to individual learners needs if the LPs reflect diverse ways of thinking about a construct being measured, and if the LP-aligned assessments meaningfully measure this diversity. The process of doing science is inherently multi-modal with scientists utilizing drawings, writing and other modalities to explain phenomena. Thus, fostering deep science understanding requires supporting students in using multiple modalities when explaining phenom…

Some ways white people could learn to be a little !@#!@# less racist, without vague shit like ‘mind your privilege’:
- Seek out Black and native artists
- Remember their !@#!@# names, accurately
- Share your appreciation of their work
- Learn to have a good day when you spot folks having a good time and keep moving
- Learn another language, enough to be bad in it, then try to get by in it once in a while.
- Train your expectations so that people who aren't white being good at stuff isn't surprising.
- Train your expectations so people being good at stuff _they_ consider good is something you can appreciate, even if you don't like it for yourself.
- Stop trying to fix everything yourself

can I please also get a masters degree in Being A Fan of Football #fedifc

Day 9: Eniko Fox
Edit: added a store link for Kitsune Tails.
We're back to videogames, and with another author who's on the fediverse: @…
Fox has developed a few games, but the one that I've played and love is Kitsune Tails. It's a sapphic romance take on Super Mario Bros. 3, and (critically for a platformer) it's got very crisp controls and runs smoothly. I think one thing a lot of indie platforms devs struggle with is getting those fundamentals right, because on the technical side they require very challenging things like optimization of your code and extremely careful input handling that go beyond the basic skills necessary to put together a game. From following her on Twitter and now the Fediverse, it's clear that Fox is a deeply competent programmer, and her games reflect that. Beyond the fundamentals, Kitsune Tails has a very sweet plot with a very cool twist in the middle, and without spoilers, that twist made both the levels and gameplay very difficult to design, but Fox rose to that challenge and put together a wonderful game. Particularly past the plot twist (but in subtle ways before it) Fox is able to build beyond SMB3 mechanics in ways that gracefully complement the original, and the movement in the game ends up being difficult but extremely satisfying, with an excellent skill/speed response allowing for both slower, easier approaches that work for a range of players and high-skill extremely-fast options for those who want to push themselves.
There have been plenty of people I follow with indie game projects that are kinda meh in the end, and I'll still boost them without much comment if they're decent. Fox' work is actually amazing, which is why if you've followed me for a while you'll know I tend to mention it periodically, and which is why she makes this list of authors I respect.
You can buy Kitsune Tails here: #20AuthorsNoMen

Locability: An Ability-Based Ranking Model for Virtual Reality Locomotion Techniques
Rachel L. Franz, Jacob O. Wobbrock
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.05679 https://

Locability: An Ability-Based Ranking Model for Virtual Reality Locomotion Techniques
There are over a hundred virtual reality (VR) locomotion techniques that exist today, with new ones being designed as VR technology evolves. The different ways of controlling locomotion techniques (e.g., gestures, button inputs, body movements), along with the diversity of upper-body motor impairments, can make it difficult for a user to know which locomotion technique is best suited to their particular abilities. Moreover, trial-and-error can be difficult, time-consuming, and costly. Using mac…

Two things are worth noticing right now:
1. The military brass *did not* respond well to Trump and Hegseth.
2. The deployment to #Portland keeps getting delayed.
The military will never say "no" to the president (unless he's literally ordering them to open fire on unarmed civilians or something equally obviously illegal). But there are ways to not comply that don't necessarily involve refusal. Brass showing that they aren't aligned with Trump may weaken his billionaire backers, who might be realizing now that weak dictators who can't lead their militaries tend to get toppled... and their oligarch-backers tend to end up against walls.
If folks being ordered to send troops to #PDX don't want to comply, delaying until the there's an initial response from the lawsuit would be basically impossible to detect. The deployment to LA went far too fast, running into logistical challenges like troops sleeping on the floor. The delays we've already seen could indicate either a more careful approach or quiet resistance.
Trump will continue to escalate at every chance he gets. I would be surprised if PDX didn't give him a fight. I doubt the troops will become more interested in serving a guy who's stabbed them in the back and wasted their time at every opportunity.
It is still possible troops just won't deploy. Trump will make something up about how just the threat of an intervention was enough to make things safe or something like that. If we see that, it's 100% the military telling him to kick rocks because he's not competent enough to know when to back down.
Honestly, I think Trump wants revenge for the resistance PDX put up at the end of his last term. Any backing down from that is absolutely a big loss for him.

Probing Light Dark Matter with Cosmic Gravitational Focusing
Shao-Feng Ge, Liang Tan
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.21213 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.21213

Probing Light Dark Matter with Cosmic Gravitational Focusing
We investigate the possibility of using the cosmic gravitational focusing (CGF) to probe the minor light dark matter (DM) component whose mass is in the range of $(0.1 \sim 100)$\,eV. Being a purely gravitational effect, the CGF offers a mode-independent probe that is complementary to the existing ways such as Lyman-$α$ and $ΔN_{\rm eff}$. Such effect finally leads to a dipole density distribution that would affect the galaxy formation and hence can be reconstructed with galaxy surveys such a…

Addiction (Speculatve)
Kind of a fucked-up metaphor, but I was thinking yesterday that parenting is a lot like addiction. If you separate me from my child, I'll take completely irrational and desperate actions to get them back, driven by a deep instinct that goes well beyond "love." I'll also make self-disadvantageous long-term decisions like forgoing sleep, working an extra job, or quitting a job to do some combination of providing for and/or being present with my child.
Even in parenting situations where love is absent, and beyond, I think, the possessiveness that sometimes festers in those situations, there's often (although not always) a craving for simple presence of the child.
In a healthy relationship, there's a whole lot more than this, but it's interesting to me that the same obsessive craving and absolute priority that we think of as diseased and/or monstrous in someone addicted to a hard drug can be healthy in the right context (that is, when it doesn't contribute to abusive or twisted parental relationships but instead exists alongside a healthy amount of love and respect).
Makes me wonder if there are ways to have a truly healthy drug addiction, although I recognize the answer might well be "no" and that even if it's "technically/theoretically yes" it might still be harmful to hype up or even merely discuss that possibility since it might help addicted people in harmful addictions more easily justify inaction. At minimum I think any "yes" answer here involves assuming utopian-level differences from our current society.
#Parenting #Addiction

Day 29: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
I've been sitting on Simpson for a while because there's some overlap in her writing with Robin Wall Kimmerer, and I've had a lot of different genres/styles/subjects/media I've wanted to post at least one author from. But I've now hit repeats on at least YA romance and manga, and Simpson's writing is actually quite different from Kimmerer's in a lot of ways. While Kimmerer is a biologist by training and literally braids that knowledge together with her knowledge of Potawatomi cosmology and ethics, Simpson is an Anishinaabe philosopher and anarchist, and her position as a scholar of Indigenous philosophy adds a different depth to her work: she talks in more depth about knowledge relationships and her connections with specific elders, and she has more citations to other Indigenous theorists, which is the one criticism I've ever seen of Kimmerer's work. Rather than being Indigenous and a scientist, she's Indigenous and a scholar of indigenous studies.
I've only read "Theory of Water" by Simpson, but it was excellent, and especially inspiring to read as an anarchist. Simpson's explicit politics are another difference from Kimmerer's work, which is more implicitly than explicitly political. This allows Simpson to draw extremely interesting connections to other anarchist theorists and movements. "Theory of Water" is probably a bit less accessible than "Braiding Sweetgrass," but it's richer from a theory perspective as a result.
In any case, Simpson is a magnificent writer, sharing personal insights and stories along with (and inseparable from) her theoretical ideas.
#30AuthorsNoMen

I am so sick of the universe being so fucking cruel to people I care about in ways I can't do anything about