Curmudgeon @Curmudgeon@qoto.org

Why I've been absent from this site the last three weeks.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/03/04/jonathan-salant-last-jersey-reporter-capitol/

Reminder that Twitter has no system for removing badges at scale and will basically just have to use the list of accounts followed by @verified and start removing them manually. Have fun gang

Wow!! What a breathe of fresh air this paper is in the midst of suffocating levels of "AI solves everything" hype cycle.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10798

They have found at long last, a single tile, an "einstein", which they call a "hat"/polykite that tiles the entire plane aperiodically.

Previously the best known aperiodic tiling of the plane required at the least two different tiles, the most famous ones being the Penrose tiles, and those that adorn Alhambra.

It is all the more wonderful that the first two authors don't have any academic/research affiliations. They write somewhere in the paper, how it all started, so wonderful:

"One of the authors (Smith) began investigating the hat polykite as part of his open-ended visual exploration of shapes and their tiling properties. Working largely by hand, with the
assistance of Scherphuis’s PolyForm Puzzle Solver software (www.jaapsch.net/puzzles/
polysolver.htm), he could find no obvious barriers to the construction of large patches, and yet no clear cluster of tiles that filled the plane periodically."

Why is the study of tilings such a big deal? Well, it hints at and tries to formalize various physics concepts that are of immense interest to many of us (and dare I say, even neuroscientists): quasi crystals!, possible new states of matter, emergent structures from simple units, how symmetries and asymmetries arise, stability of heterogenous media, soft matter physics, order without periodicity, criticality etc., etc.,

On quasi-crystals and their search, applications, uses etc., I recommend the wonderful Paul Steinhardt's book: "The Second Kind of Impossible: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter"

#Physics #Maths #Combinatorics #AperiodicTiling #PenroseTiles #Einstein #Emergence #condensedmatter

TikTok: Look! I discovered hot water melts frozen food faster!

Twitter: Look at this TikTok video showing how to defrost your food faster!

Yahoo news: Millions of Twitter users view TikTok video showing new life hack for melting frozen food!

Mastodon: Please read my academic white paper describing the impacts of public school system underfunding

Random first trial post: today, March 14th, is the 29th anniversary of the Linux 1.0 announcement.

Of course, there are other arguably more important dates in Linux history, but this is one of them.

Though our inability to search Mastodon for words is occasionally momentarily vexing, I concede my inability to seek out things to anger me is better for my well-being.

DeSantis could seize the newspapers and broadcast stations, send university professors and librarians to relocation camps, and restrict voting to white Christian men, and Patricia Mazzei and the New York Times would continue to laud his political smarts. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/us/ron-desantis-florida-legislature.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

So my husband taught his parents’ dog how to walk their other dog and I thought you needed to know.

AUDIO of the F-16 pilots that shot down the UFO over Lake Huron:

“In the targeting pod, I can’t tell if it’s metallic or what, but I can see like lines coming down below it, but I can’t see anything below it,” one pilot says.

“You can definitely see strings below but don’t see anything hanging below.”

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/listen-to-f-16-pilots-intercept-the-octagon-object-over-lake-huron

I was wondering how things were going over at twitter after Musk's tantrum about his low engagement numbers.

I went over there to take a look today.

Three of the first five posts were from his account. The other two were ads.

The thing is, gentle readers, I DON'T FOLLOW HIM.

The Washington Post now flags journalists' profiles as verified on Mastodon.

It's not about trusting AI but trusting humans that use AI.

"How to Practice 'Productive Procrastination'"

An essay in which I meditate on the idea of inventor Saul Griffith ...

... which is:

Pick some side "learning projects" -- little things you want to do that require you to pick up a new skill

Then when you can't face work ...

... do one of your side projects for a bit

It's -- worked for me? My essay on it: https://clivethompson.medium.com/how-to-practice-productive-procrastination-e2522247bd07

(If you're not a Medium subscriber, here's a "friend" link: https://clivethompson.medium.com/how-to-practice-productive-procrastination-e2522247bd07?sk=c43f6ca1b4b098052e77175cb834a758)

One for all, all for one.. 😊

This is from Florida’s education commissioner, depressingly. Reflect for a moment on the incredible degree of intellectual insecurity it reveals.

Hello everyone, it's time we start officially posting on Mastodon, so here is our #Introduction -- we are the #Chandra Director's Office, responsible for updating you on all of the goings-on at the #ChandraXray Center operating NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. From newsletters and workshops to proposals and peer review, we are here to keep you in the loop with what is going on in Cambridge and in orbit. #Astrodon #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Space #Science #Satellite #NASA #XRaysAreTheBestRays

I'm now ChatGPT-pilled.