George Budd @Gbudd@qoto.org

Turing test.

This photo of the sun might not look too impressive... until you realize it was taken at night – not looking up but looking down, through the entire Earth, using neutrinos rather than light. Amazing! https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap980605.html

My kid (10) has gotten really into watch and clock repair. His latest success was this German Bradley travel alarm clock from the 1950s. He did a full service cleaning on it.

Getting the main spring back in was a challenge because it wasn't in a barrel, but his makeshift solution with zip ties got him past that.

#ClockRepair #hobby

Randall Munroe is brilliant... https://xkcd.com/1732/

#xkcd #funny #true #science #GlobalWarming

Time to put a smile on your face! 😃

#dogsofmastodon #fun #pets #dogs #dog

Logarithm = banging on a fallen tree to a beat

HAHA! HA!

And yet the connection to music is quite real. Since I realized that recently, thanks to an xkcd comic, let me tell you all about it!

https://badastronomy.substack.com/p/xkcd-is-logfrequency-to-my-ears

Was banned from Nextdoor when someone posted looking for a local hand doctor and I replied to “Check on Phalanges List”

I have the best conversations with my mom. I try my best at a translation of the call I just had with her:

phone ringing
Me: Hello m...
Her: Eʟᴅᴇʀ Sᴘᴀᴡɴ.
Me: ...
Me: Yᴇs Gʀᴀɴᴅ Mᴀᴛʀɪᴀʀᴄʜ.
Her: I sʜᴀʟʟ sᴜᴍᴍᴏɴ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴏ ᴘᴀʀᴛᴀᴋᴇ ɪɴ ꜰᴇᴀsᴛɪɴɢ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴀᴄʀɪꜰɪᴄᴇs ʟᴀɪᴅ ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ᴜs ᴛʜɪs ᴅᴀʏ ᴏꜰ sᴜɴ. Wɪʟʟ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴇᴇᴅ ᴍʏ sᴜᴍᴍᴏɴs?
Me: checks calendar
Me: Tʜᴇ sᴛᴀʀs ᴀʟɪɢɴ, ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴍᴇ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ɢʀᴇᴀᴛ ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ. I sʜᴀʟʟ ᴍᴀɴɪꜰᴇsᴛ ɪɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄᴏᴜʀᴛ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ 12ᴛʜ ʜᴏᴜʀ ᴡʜᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴜɴ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇs ɪᴛsᴇʟꜰ ɪɴᴠɪɴᴄɪʙʟᴇ.
Her: Tʜᴜs ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀᴅs ᴀʀᴇ sᴘᴏᴋᴇɴ, ᴛʜᴜs ɪᴛ sʜᴀʟʟ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴ.
Me: Great, see you on sunday.
Her: Try to be punctual.

I always refer to her when people ask me "why are you like this?".

Six minutes well spent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evi_i7R0SFQ

IT in a nutshell 😂

The trick to drawing hands, is you just draw lots, and lots and lots of them. Ten a day for a year. Then you can just draw whatever hand you want.

Also:

#Art #artists #drawing #SomethingISuckAt

The tritone - the dissonant sound halfway between any sound and the one that vibrates twice as fast - is sometimes called "diabolus in musica". Yes: THE DEVIL IN MUSIC! 😈

Believe it or not, this devil also afflicts modern data storage. But first: there's a lot of misinformation about the tritone. Was it really banned in the Middle Ages? Adam Neely's great video here clears it up. It goes into a lot of detail. But not enough detail for me!

As I studied just intonation in Renaissance music - where frequency ratios should be simple fractions built by multiplying and dividing the numbers 2, 3, and 5 - I realized that the tritone is DEVILISHLY DIFFICULT for this system!

You see, the tritone vibrates with a frequency of √2 ≈ 1.414 times that of the sound it's sitting over. This number is not only irrational - making Pythagoras turn in his grave - there are also four competing ways to approximate it in just intonation:

25/18 ≈ 1.38888
45/32 ≈ 1.40625
64/45 ≈ 1.42222
36/25 = 1.44

And the ratios of these frequencies vexed early music theorists so much they all have their own individual names!

For example,

(36/25)/(45/32) = 128/125 = 2⁷/3³

is called the 'lesser diesis'. This number shows up automatically when you try to approximate powers of 5 by powers of 2. But notice:

128/125 = 1024/1000

also shows up when you try to approximate powers of 10 by powers of 2. For example, when we talk about a kilobyte, we usually don't mean 1000 bytes - we usually mean 1024. So we're a bit off! And our error is the "lesser diesis" - a number discovered in the Renaissance, or even earlier, by musicians fighting the devil in music.

(1/2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR5yzCH5CsM

Netanyahu reiterating today that no aid workers will enter Gaza until all hostages are released. Collective punishment of the civilian populace is a war crime. Period.

Once again, the sound of scientific discovery isn't "eureka!" it's "WTF?"

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/lucy/nasas-lucy-surprises-again-observes-1st-ever-contact-binary-orbiting-asteroid/

@vlrny @sentientmortal @melivia

I often really wonder if many of the people who shout about Jesus the most have really looked at what the story says.

You know, the main point of the whole thing.

They all seem so lost in minutiae. The idea of trying to be, even just a little, "Christ-like" is a big challenge. It's obviously beyond what most of us can do.

But, I guess I hold on to that idea-- to "love thy neighbor" isn't a trivial thing at all. Not if you really think about what that means

Get ready!

I blame Gene Wilder for people looking at me funny when I use words like abbysorbent and abbysolute and abbynormal.