Nick @internic@qoto.org

Quantum effects might make it impossible to form black holes by immensely concentrating light, because photon collisions create particle-antiparticle pairs that the electromagnetic field accelerates to escape the collapse.

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/119

Just a reminder that Tuesday evening (my time) is my #SolsticeSchool talk for the Fediverse. Sign up here https://solsticeschool.scholar.social/2024/programme/ to hear the 15 minute version of the space junk falling on Saskatchewan saga, and what that has to do with 1960s international treaties, Starlink, and donuts, and then ask me questions for 45 minutes.

Spoilers (ha) in this thread https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/112412755270980994 and SciAm article https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spacex-dropped-space-junk-on-my-neighbors-farm-heres-what-happened-next/

France’s high-speed rail system sabotaged hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240726-france-s-high-speed-train-network-paralysed-by-malicious-acts

I finally got it!
The game-changer clue on what I was getting wrong came by reading this old post https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/puzzling-roll-x-dice-choose-y-highest-problem.418161/#post-2813034 but it took some time to reconstruct all the missing steps in that explanation.
Will probably write down a (hopefully easier to digest) explanation as soon as I have time.

Crazy-good story from @zackwhittaker:

"A little-known spyware maker based in Minnesota has been hacked, TechCrunch has learned, revealing thousands of devices around the world under its stealthy remote surveillance.

A person with knowledge of the breach provided TechCrunch with a cache of files taken from the company’s servers containing detailed device activity logs from the phones, tablets, and computers that Spytech monitors, with some of the files dated as recently as early June.

TechCrunch verified the data as authentic in part by analyzing some of the exfiltrated device activity logs that pertain to the company’s chief executive, who installed the spyware on one of his own devices. "

https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/25/spytech-data-breach-windows-mac-android-chromebook-spyware/

The flickering glow of summer's fireflies: too important to lose, too small to notice them gone

The Bethany Beach firefly is so rare that it's likely to become the first of America’s fireflies to be put on the Endangered Species List later this year

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/changing-climate/the-flickering-glow-of-summers-fireflies-too-important-to-lose-too-small-to-notice-them-gone/3673134/

#GlobalBurning #ClimateDestruction #ClimateSuicide #MassExtinction #pollution #ecology #environment #climate

"Hey, this BIOS key says "DO NOT TRUST."
"Ship it!"

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/07/secure-boot-is-completely-compromised-on-200-models-from-5-big-device-makers/

This sums so much of my science life:

Can I program in perl? No.
Can I hack a perl data extraction script so does it do what I want it to? Yes.

Put so many other programming languages in there instead of perl (yes, also python) and whatever other task I need instead of data extraction ...

And now I need to get back to hack from scripts from 2000 or so.

#astrodon

Wow. Scientific American blasts SCOTUS rulings:

"Science is dismissed and disdained in this war on reality."

"technically incompetent, in some cases corrupt, politicos in robes with power over matters that hinge on vital facts about pollution, medicine, employment and much else."

"In rejecting facts to please their political party—and their patrons—the justices of the Court’s majority have broken their oath, made to both the Constitution and the American people."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-supreme-courts-contempt-for-facts-is-a-betrayal-of-justice/

ATTENTION BAJORAN WORKERS: I have nothing to do with, and know nothing about, Project Occupation 2425. The fact that I do is merely disinformation put out by the Radical Bajoran Thugs. Do not believe them!

IT'S IN THE AIR!!!

But hey, let's put out more hand sanitizer.

At the freaking Olympics.

"Face masks are not required inside the Olympic Village, but hand sanitizer is available in its clinics and restaurants.

Public health officials in France admit an outbreak is possible and they've said athletes, support teams and tourists should be prudent, but not worried."

#Covid
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/2024-paris-olympics-covid-cases-organizers-seem-unfazed-outbreak-risk/

The Picard Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a Disruptor for Democracy. IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!

MAKE ALPHA QUADRANT GREAT AGAIN!!

After AI, the next big thing in #tech will be quantum computers that break currently used email #encryption. Fortunately, Tuta Mail is already quantum-safe. 🔒 💪

At Tuta we're not wasting our time on #AI, for a number of ethical reasons 🧵👇

Heard of Project 2025, yet? The presidential transition plan with nearly 900 pages of conservative policy suggestions includes calling for the sacking of thousands of civil servants, expanding the power of the president, eliminating #DEI programs, dismantling the Department of Education and more.
Behind it all: The Heritage Foundation – which has been pushing Republicans toward more conservative policies for more than 50 years.
https://theconversation.com/heritage-foundations-project-2025-234542
#USPolitics #RNC #Election #Trump #News

"It is...undecidable whether a TeX program has a parse tree."

https://latex.js.org/limitations.html#when-parsing-tex-as-a-context-free-grammar

#xkcd https://xkcd.com/2962/