Miguel @miguel31416@qoto.org

Working on a lecture on solarpunk / utopian futures and how utopian ideas seem utterly stupid and unachievable. Then after we DO achieve them, we forget they were ever utopian and consider them normal.

Like the concept of a weekend.

Once a preposterous idea and now the cadence by which we live our lives. Weekdays are workdays and weekends are not. As if their sunsets have different colours.

I think it's good to remind ourselves that we have made utopias happen.

#solarpunk

To the admins blocking huge number #fediverse instances:

Consider using forum software instead.

Here's the kind of thing you need to suffer through, to understand this "polarization flip" stuff. None of it gets close to the exciting physics - it's just preliminary junk.

People say the Earth's magnetic field points *up* in Antarctica. This is just an arbitrary convention. There's also an arbitrary right-hand rule we need to figure out how the magnetic field pushes on electrons and positrons as they shoot down through the air. But these two arbitrary conventions cancel out and give a non-arbitrary prediction about which way the electrons get pushed, and which way the positrons get pushed.

I'm used to that. But on top of that, people say stuff like this:

"A magnetic compass does not point to the geographic north pole. A magnetic compass points to the earth's magnetic poles, which are not the same as earth's geographic poles."

Okay, fine. But then:

"Furthermore, the magnetic pole near earth's geographic north pole is actually the south magnetic pole. When it comes to magnets, opposites attract. This fact means that the north end of a magnet in a compass is attracted to the south magnetic pole, which lies close to the geographic north pole."

Okay.... I was trying to learn about exciting new discoveries in particle physics, and I learned this.

Here's the new paper on the exciting stuff:

• Search for the anomalous events detected by ANITA using the Pierre Auger Observatory,
https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.04513

and here's the article I'm quoting about, explaining that the south magnetic poles is near the geographic north pole and vice versa:

• Christopher Baird, Why does a magnetic compass point to the Geographic North Pole?, https://www.wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2013/11/15/why-does-a-magnetic-compass-point-to-the-geographic-north-pole/

Balloons carrying radio antennas over Antarctica have detected mysterious radio pulses coming up from the ice! Physicists can't yet explain them.

These balloons detect radio pulses when extraordinarily energetic particles from outer space smash into the Earth's atmosphere and create showers of electrons and positrons. People aren't sure where these particles come from. Most are probably atomic nuclei shot out of supernovae or quasars. That's one reason we've got these balloons over the Antarctic - to learn more. But I'm talking about a different mystery.

Some of these radio pulses come from above. Others come from below! But that's not a mystery: radio waves are reflected by the ice. And we can tell that's what's happening, because when radio waves are reflected, their polarization flips.

But a few pulses coming from below DON'T have their polarization flipped. And nobody knows what makes those! That's the mystery. Enough explanations have been ruled out that people are starting to talk about "new physics".

This "polarization flip" business confuses me, so I read about it. This is what I understand so far:

When a shower of electrons and positrons comes down through the air, they get pushed in opposite directions by the Earth's magnetic field. So you get an electrical current, and this makes radio waves. You can tell from these radio waves which way the shower came from, because the current is always at right angles to both the velocity of the shower and the Earth's magnetic field.

When the radio waves bounce off the ice, they should look different. But we're seeing some radio waves coming from below that don't look like that!

(1/2)

https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/strange-radio-pulses-detected-coming-ice-antarctica

This is the post that Mastodon Social took down.

Can you see any harassment?

Can you see any violence or sexual imagery?

Can you see any hate speech?

No.

What you see is a very polite comment suggesting the lessons of history have not been learned.

Those disgraceful mastodon social admins have done this too often - undermining anti-genocide voices.

I have told them I will take formal action via the relevant German regulators.

Shame on them. Shame.

#mastodon #germany #gaza #genocide

I was asked by a 20 year younger friend how my internet was back then. I needed a moment but then I told her the story of an IRC channel and how we made the day for a young girl who happened to be on our IRC channel. Because this is what my internet was like back then and I wish sometimes it still was like this. Let me tell the story:

I was 25, the channel members were like 20 to 30 years old. Somehow this young girl found her way to us. She was 14 when she joined the channel. >>

De vegades se sentia forastera en la seua ciutat.

Xàtiva, País Valencià.
Minolta XD7
Ilford XP2 400 asa.

#photography #fotografia #35mm #analògic #analog #film #blackandwhite #monocrhome #biancoenero #bnw #filmphotography #classicmono #Xàtiva #ilfordphoto #ilford

Menga Dolmen, 5500 year old prehistoric monument in Antequera, Spain

Built way back in Neolithic or early Bronze Age, around 3700-3200 BC, this place is one of Europe’s biggest megalithic burial sites. What’s really amazing about it is the long corridor that leads to the burial chamber, all made from these gigantic stone slabs that can weigh up to 180 tons each.

#archaeohistories

Altea

Yo! My poetry book is finally listed on Amazon!
and wow, there is ALREADY a "Used" book available!
and i haven't even received my first print yet!
how do they do that?!?
https://www.amazon.com/Love-Trio-Amor-Alistair-Cockburn-ebook/dp/B0BPCCHZCG/

[This](https://engaging-data.com/how-rich-is-elon-musk/) visualization attempts to represent Elon Musk's extreme wealth, and it is frankly obscene.

#Inequality, #Musk, #Wealth

#songs #folk #music

Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah…

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/826058756626127988/

Those Tiny Bubbles When You Boil Eggs

https://shuttersparks.net/those-tiny-bubbles-when-you-boil-eggs/

Un guardia civil vigila los restos de los dos Boeing 747 que colisionaron en la pista de aterrizaje, matando a 583 personas, el peor accidente aéreo de la historia.

Aeropuerto de Los Rodeos, Tenerife, marzo de 1978 | Derek Ives