@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

colinrosenthal

@colinrosenthal@babka.social

#Software engineer in the #Library / #DigitalHeritage sector From #Glasgow, living and working in #Denmark.

Interested in #Astronomy #Space, #Tolkien, #Cricket and all sorts of other stuff.

Politically left-leaning #Liberal with a visceral distrust of all forms of populism from Corbynism to Brexit.

#Scottish #Danish #Dansk #Jewish #Zionist #Atheist #ClassicalMusic #IndianClassicalMusic #HeavyMetal

Trying to curb my tendency to sweary rants, or at least remember to CW them.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

colinrosenthal, to random
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

Odd. The early reports said the plane dropped 6000 feet. Incidentally free-fall for 4.6 seconds would drop you 103m.

Singapore Airlines plane dropped 178ft in five seconds - report https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9xx5pj095jo

shekinahcancook, (edited ) to random
@shekinahcancook@babka.social avatar

If I were to buy a new laptop with some version of newbie friendly linux preloaded, intending to use it for music and graphics arts (not gaming), social media, and regular LibreOffice type stuff (and affinity, audacity, etc), what laptop would I buy with what version of linux?

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@serge @shekinahcancook @ryuslash @hundertsieben Ubuntu yes. But not Mint as it's run by "antizionists".

shekinahcancook, to Tolkien
@shekinahcancook@babka.social avatar

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Little-Known Original Drawings for the First Edition of “The Hobbit” By Maria Popova

"...People have celebrated Tolkien as a writer for years — you haven’t been able to get away from him since all the books of the century polls. But The Lord of the Rings has always been the focus since it was published in 1954 — it’s a much more grown-up, significant book. It has overshadowed The Hobbit as a more old-fashioned, children’s book, which has become known in the context of The Lord of the Rings. The anniversary allows us to move the spotlight back on to the book which started it all.

A rare piece of cross-disciplinary creativity from the mind of one of modern history’s greatest creators, The Art of the Hobbit is equal parts literary treasure and treat of art, exploring the notion of the author as designer — a particularly timely concept in the age of self-publishing and disciplinary cross-pollination in the making of books..."

https://www.themarginalian.org/2011/11/01/art-of-the-hobbit/

#Tolkien #Hobbit #LOTR

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@shekinahcancook imo, Tolkien’s dust-jacket design for The Hobbit is the best piece of artwork he ever produced, although there are a few others that run it close.

colinrosenthal, to random
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

This is the most interesting discussion on Masto today!
https://mathstodon.xyz/@tao/112254548031749423

mrundkvist, to languagelearning
@mrundkvist@archaeo.social avatar

I wonder why the Moon lander is named Odysseus and not Ulysses, the bizarre but traditional English version of this Greek name.

#language

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@mrundkvist "Ulysses" is really a bizarre but traditional Roman form of his name, so its usage in English probably reflected a much wider knowledge of Latin than Greek culture. If anything that's now largely reversed - people are more aware of the Greek pantheon and heroes than the Roman. It must be a very long time since anyone has unironically used Ulysses as the name in English. In fact I think it's probably a side-effect of James Joyce that "Ulysses" is now so completely associated with the novel that it is almost never used for the Ithacan king. (But Heracles is still mostly Hercules, while Poseidon and Neptune are probably 50:50. It's complicated.)

mrundkvist, to Jewish
@mrundkvist@archaeo.social avatar

It's difficult to follow how the fascists think about #Jewish people. On the one hand, they're international bankers who control everything behind the scenes. On the other hand they're also Commie revolutionary intellectuals who want to overthrow the international bankers who control everything behind the scenes.

#fascism

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@mrundkvist It just goes to show how devious we are.

rabbiariel, to random

Shabbat Mishpatim: From Egypt to…Purim?

מִמִּצְרָ֑יִם וְלֹא־יֵרָא֥וּ פָנַ֖י רֵיקָֽם From Egypt none shall appear before Me empty-handed (Ex 23.15) The initial letters of Mimitzrayim Velo Yera’u Panai Rekam, “from Egypt none shall appear before Me empty-handed” spell פורים - Purim. Today is Rosh Hodesh Adar I, the first day of Adar I, so called because this is a leap year, in which the calendar which our ancestors devised adds an extra month (yes!) to our lunar- counted year.

http://rabbiariel.net/2024/02/09/shabbat-mishpatim-from-egypt-to-purim/

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@shekinahcancook @rabbiariel Naively it ought to be the product of the probability of a Jewish leap year (7/19) and a goyish leap year, approximately (1/4). So roughly a 1/11 probability that any given year is both.

samlitzinger, to random
@samlitzinger@journa.host avatar

“Trump’s Tariffs Hurt U.S. Jobs but Swayed American Voters, Study Says
New research finds that former President Donald J. Trump’s tariffs did not bring back U.S. jobs, but voters appeared to reward him for the levies anyway.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/us/politics/trump-tariffs-jobs-voters.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@terryb @Slyence @samlitzinger I’m no economist, but isn’t the assumption that people are motivated to maximize their utilty, not their wealth? I don’t really see where the Calvinism comes in.

gutenberg_org, to science
@gutenberg_org@mastodon.social avatar

Irving Langmuir American physical chemist who was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was born #OTD in 1881.

Besides surface chemistry, his scientific research, spanning more than 50 years, included chemical reactions, thermal effects, and electrical discharges in gases; atomic structure; surface phenomena in a vacuum; and atmospheric science.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Langmuir

#science #chemistry #physics

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@gutenberg_org Gosh. I'm sure like a lot of people I think "Langmuir -> Langmuir Waves -> Plasma Physics" and then you find out he actually got a Nobel Prize for Surface Chemistry!

mrundkvist, to random
@mrundkvist@archaeo.social avatar

The humpback whale was de-listed as threatened in 2018. After bottoming out at 700 individuals, the North Atlantic population is now at around 13,000! Worldwide there are about 135,000 humpbacks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpback_whale#Conservation_status

#whales

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@mrundkvist There’s evidently been a lot of whale humping among the humpback whales

sickmatter, to random

I had a question about something, search queries were exchanged, and this tangentially related thing popped up https://religionnews.com/2015/12/10/menorah-bong-makes-hanukkah-high-holiday/

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@shekinahcancook @sickmatter Rastafarians?

colinrosenthal, to random
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

I must be a bad person, because #Kissinger is dead and all I can think of is that joke we should to tell at school of which the punchline was "Kissinger? No he was f***ing her."

colinrosenthal, to random
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

It's only Artificial Intelligence if it comes from the Intélligence region of France. Otherwise it's just Spicy Autocomplete.

(With an appropriate nod to @pluralistic of course.)

Coffeechai, to Israel

One of #Hamas tunnels under #Shifa Hospital.

There are phone lines, electricity, rest rooms and more inside these tunnels

#IDF found personal belongings of Israeli #hostages who were clearly in hospital.

#Israel

video/mp4

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@Coffeechai At this point the question must be whether there’s any evidence that the Al Shifa terrorist base was also being used as a hospital.

colinrosenthal, to random
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

What we know: that #Hamas used #alShifaHospital as a base, that they brought some of the hostages there, and that they murdered at least one hostage there. Every casualty at Al-shifa is the responsibility of Hamas.

kevinrothrock, to random

I am really enjoying this:

Spotify Launches Audiobooks for Premium Subscribers in the U.S.

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/spotify-premium-audiobooks-subscribers-us-1235784076/

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@kevinrothrock I’m not. Because I’m a paying premium subscriber, but not in the US or any of the other countries where this is currently being rolled out. I feel rather hard done by.

BootsChantilly, to random
@BootsChantilly@mstdn.social avatar

Ppl looove to say how selfless adoptive parents are, but imo, if you're not willing to care for a child in need unless you get to own him, you're selfISH, not selfLESS. The feds allow a $13.5k per #adoptee tax credit to adopters, but a literal FRACTION of that amount given to an expectant mother in crisis could prevent most relinquishments from happening in the 1st place. Pls think about that the next time someone starts speaking of adopters as saviors. #adoption #NAAM #AdopteeVoices

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@shekinahcancook @BootsChantilly I think you’d definitely be doing the fetus a favour having it aborted rather than letting it be adopted by these freaks.

gwensnyder, to random

We were very hesitant to use Alexa for our home, but ended up doing so mostly as a tool for ADHD management.

As Amazon aggressively kills off/degrades the "skills" and third party integrations I rely on to make my brain work, I'm thinking a lot about @pluralistic's theory of enshittification and what it means for those of us with disabilities that rely on tech to make our disabled brains and/or bodies function acceptably under capitalism.

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@root42 @gwensnyder @pluralistic e.g. A ten year old Pioneer soundbar for which the Android App will no longer open on any current version of Android. A minor inconvenience, to be sure, but still an inconvenience. And the irritating thing is that it's quite clearly just an http REST API. If they just published the damn API I could program a client myself if I really wanted to.

colinrosenthal, to random
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

If you’re calling for a ceasefire in Gaza but not calling for release of the hostages then you can just fuck right off.

Teri_Kanefield, to random

My son was born at 1:30 a.m. on November 5.

We set the clocks back last night at 2:00 a.m.

That means we went through the hour of 1:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m. twice.

That means we had his exact birth time twice today.

So he has a double birthday today, right?

🤔

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@Teri_Kanefield Spare a thought for me please. My birthday is in late March so about once every seven years or so I get a 23 hour birthday.

gutenberg_org, (edited ) to books
@gutenberg_org@mastodon.social avatar

Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell died #OTD in 1879.

He was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism & light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon. Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism have been called the "second great unification in physics" where the first one had been realised by Isaac Newton. via @wikipedia

Books by Maxwell at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1586

#books #science #physics

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@gutenberg_org @wikipedia I think he’s best remembered now for his deduction of the existence of the ionised Heaviside Layer in the Earth’s atmosphere.

mrundkvist, to music
@mrundkvist@archaeo.social avatar

Through streaming music I keep discovering artists that went through their primes in recent decades without registering with me, and now I'm like "Ariel Pink is amazing" ten years after everybody stopped caring about Ariel Pink. This is a new way of having an outdated taste in #music, not identical to hanging on to artists you liked as a teen. At 50 I'm discovering artists who were cool when I was 35.

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@mrundkvist This is like that time my wife congratulated me "for listening to something modern for a change" and I had to tell her that I was listening to Tupac and he'd been dead for 20 years 🙂

colinrosenthal, to random
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

That's unfortunate truncation. The word after #Hamas is "hostages".

taylorlorenz, to random
@taylorlorenz@mastodon.social avatar

Ok grandpa let’s get you to bed

Musk saying cis is a slur

colinrosenthal,
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

@taylorlorenz Ah Musk, cistematically stupid.

colinrosenthal, to random
@colinrosenthal@babka.social avatar

Today I found myself vaguely wondering if flight borne geophysical surveying (a la https://skytem.com/) could detect #Hamas tunnels from the air. But I'm sure the #Israelis must have thought of that before me.

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