Tootfinder

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…

«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

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…

"Weary of being captive to geopolitics, car companies are looking for ways to replace powerful rare-earth magnets in electric motors." The Ultimate Driving Machine has already done so. "Back in the '80s, GM developed magnets [not reliant on rare-earths…but] sold the technology to Chinese companies"

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

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…

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

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.

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…

"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."
@…

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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