Greg Spradlin @spradlig@qoto.org

I have stumbled upon a surprising conjecture: The sequence defined by a(n) = n^2 - (n^2 XOR n) is injective, where XOR is bitwise exclusive OR. Can anyone prove or disprove this?

This is an outstanding reply to, and analysis of that Pamela Paul column in the New York Times that began this way:

"A paper that says science should be impartial was rejected by major journals. You can’t make this up."

Dave Karpf, an academic, takes it apart. He also testifies as a particiant in the peer review system. Worth your time.

https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/pamela-paul-cancel-culture-grifters?utm_medium=ios

#nytimes #journalism #peerreview #science

Today, #Berlioz's 'La Damnation de Faust' with Spyres, Leonard, Relyea and @slso from St. Louis https://www.worldconcerthall.com/en/schedule/berliozs_la_damnation_de_faust_with_spyres_leonard_and_relyea_from_st_louis/75530/ #wch

jerry springer’s only been in heaven a few days and he already told jesus i’m not the father

Prior to 1982, stock buybacks were considered stock manipulation. It was Reagan's SEC that opened the floodgates to their abuse.

Stock buybacks don’t create more jobs. They don't increase wages. They don’t grow the economy.

They make corporate execs richer. Hello?

The Clarence Thomas bribery scandal widens:

—Leonard Leo and his organization had business before the Supreme Court.
—They sent large sums of money to Clarence Thomas’s wife.
—They deliberately removed her name from the paperwork.

It’s time for the US Attorney to open a bribery investigation. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/05/04/leonard-leo-clarence-ginni-thomas-conway/

Peter Woit exposed the problems with string theory. Then Sabine Hossenfelder brought the news to a bigger audience. Now, in this hilarious video, Angela Collier is bringing it to the Gen Z gamer crowd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kya_LXa_y1E

Yes, she shreds the repeated grandiose claims of string theorists while gaming!

I agree with her main points. Some pedants (like me) will notice mistakes. I think they arose because she has a PhD in astrophysics, not particle physics. Also, she said she didn't want to talk about the physics, just the sociology. None of these mistakes affect her actual point, but just to keep up my nerd cred:

1. The pion was not one of the particles whose existence was predicted by the Standard Model. Yukawa predicted it way back in 1935, and it was found in 1947.

2. The cost of the never-finished Superconducting Supercollider would have been $11 billion, not $200 billion. I think she was just being flip here. By the way, the US spent $2 billion building it before giving up.

3. There are 5 superstring theories, not 10.

4. Bosonic superstring works best in 26 dimensions, not the numbers she haphazardly guessed.

A bit more importantly, I think she said the Superconducting Supercollider was cancelled much later than it actually was: October 1993. So this gums up her chronology a bit.

Still, I enjoyed this a lot!

Mastodon fixes “confusing” sign-up process to attract users fleeing Twitter

Mastodon forms a plan to make decentralized social networks go mainstream.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/05/mastodon-fixes-confusing-sign-up-process-to-attract-users-fleeing-twitter/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

NPR is the only major journalism org to have shown a spine in dealing with Musk. So he's threatened to give the NPR username to someone else.

Yet even now -- despite Musk's growing contempt for and acts against journalism -- most media organizations and their employees STILL pour their work and some of their advertising money in to his rancid site.

What will it take for journalists to wake the hell up?

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/02/1173422311/elon-musk-npr-twitter-reassign

OK, you Model UN and 3-D political chess types. You’ve been preparing for something like this for a long time, so here is your moment. The Democrats just deployed a parliamentary stealth weapon on the debt ceiling that could be a game changer. Here’s why. https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/the-democrats-unveil-a-secret-weapon?sd=pf

Techdirt leaving #Twitter. https://www.techdirt.com/2023/05/03/goodbye-twitter-techdirt-will-soon-end-our-automated-posting/

You asked for it, and it’s coming. Quote posts, search, and groups are on their way. In the meantime, check out the new onboarding experience launching today. https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/05/a-new-onboarding-experience-on-mastodon/

CNN has decided to promote a presidential candidate who, when he was president, tried to prevent his elected successor from taking office. It was an attempted coup d'etat.

CNN to democracy: Up yours.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/01/politics/donald-trump-town-hall/index.html

Big Journalism is deliberately repeating the worst of its past performance. Let's stop pretending otherwise.

The Republicans' corruption of the judicial system includes funding a law school that lavishes expensive gifts on -- you guessed it -- Supreme Court justices. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/supreme-court-scalia-law-school.html