Michael Porter @MichaelPorter@qoto.org
- Pronouns
- he/him
- Size
- XLT
- Philosophy
- Humanist
- Politics
- Lefty-Antifa
Retired Chem/Physics/Earth Sciences teacher. I'm interested in everything.
I like a good debate that introduces me to other perspectives. I don't waste much time with people who devolve to name-calling or insults, aside to call them out on it.
I think society performs at its best when we take care of others, especially the weakest among us. That means a strong social safety net, with "free" healthcare, education, and public transit. It's a dream, I know.
30+ years of explaining stuff to teenagers has left me with some habits... I'm not a mansplainer, but I *do* like to find ways to 'splain stuff to receptive ears 😊
I like dogs, cats, and astronomy pictures with a bias towards the shorter wavelengths (kinda leaves out all those lovely Hα pics 😄).
The first thing I look at when shopping for cars is headroom/legroom. Saves a lot of time.
Joined Nov 2022
The 8-minute delay is because we’ll have to get Bob to move his car out of the way
Michael Porter
boosted
*Amazing* sunset tonight… My camera was having trouble with the dynamic range. This picture *almost* does it justice 😊
macOS Ventura help request
Having a good laugh listening to this. Do the IgNobels know about this reasearch yet?
Good communication is not about getting your ideas out or *your head*, it’s about getting them into *someone else’s*. You need to understand your audience, their biases, previous learning, and where they stand now. You need to present your ideas in a way that *they* understand, not necessarily in the way that makes most sense to you.
This may or may not be in reference to a math prof I just heard on the radio. He was complaining about what his students didn’t know, in a way that was opaque to most of the listeners to the show. 🙄
Michael Porter
boosted
Welcome To The Twitterdome
Elon Musk is a creative accountant who rebranded himself as an engineer.
Like any fintech grifter, he lives in perpetual fear of liquidity crises, like the one he now faces.
Most prognostications I see are either
1.) He reverses course & Twitter returns to something resembling what it looked like in Summer 2022.
or
2.) Infrastructure decay & active user flight spiral the company towards bankruptcy & obsolescence.
Unfortunately, I think there is a door #3.
Michael Porter
boosted
RT @brainpicker@twitter.com
“Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society.”
Carl Sagan, who would have been 88 today, on reading and democracy https://www.themarginalian.org/2017/11/08/carl-sagan-books-reading/
🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/brainpicker/status/1590472301962731521
Michael Porter
boosted
Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” TV series is now on YouTube!!! #astronomy #cosmology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG7GIfMq3DI
For those interested, I ended up having to refollow all my follows. I didn’t have any filters or blocks, etc. but I don’t think that gets carried over, either.
I figured it was better to jump sooner than later, before I was following too many people…
American politics
Just heard Ron DeSantis say “Florida is where ‘woke’ goes to die”
…He finally said something I can agree with 🙄
Michael Porter
boosted
Tuesday update on the #mastodon growth. 135k (!!) users join yesterday. Also, I'm zooming out the plot to see the evolution in the number of new users through the last year. I'm going to need a logarithm scale pretty soon 😎
Michael Porter
boosted
Michael Porter
boosted
#ITeachPhysics Here's a great "real-world" discussion of the forces involved in centripetal acceleration 😄 😱
(Looks like I'm going to have to add "qoto" to my spellcheck dictionary 🙄)
Okay, I think I've landed where I want to stay for a while. The generous character counts and the overall philosophy of qoto.org sold me 😊
I see I've managed to drag my followers with me... I *really* hope my follows make it over, too – that was my understanding but I'm not seeing it yet.
Anyway, 👋🏻
Proper introduction to follow.
Happy Carl Sagan Day!
Still in awe of this man, he's missed.
https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2022-ann-druyan-sagan-day
- Pronouns
- he/him
- Size
- XLT
- Philosophy
- Humanist
- Politics
- Lefty-Antifa
Retired Chem/Physics/Earth Sciences teacher. I'm interested in everything.
I like a good debate that introduces me to other perspectives. I don't waste much time with people who devolve to name-calling or insults, aside to call them out on it.
I think society performs at its best when we take care of others, especially the weakest among us. That means a strong social safety net, with "free" healthcare, education, and public transit. It's a dream, I know.
30+ years of explaining stuff to teenagers has left me with some habits... I'm not a mansplainer, but I *do* like to find ways to 'splain stuff to receptive ears 😊
I like dogs, cats, and astronomy pictures with a bias towards the shorter wavelengths (kinda leaves out all those lovely Hα pics 😄).
The first thing I look at when shopping for cars is headroom/legroom. Saves a lot of time.
Joined Nov 2022
