ksoltys

ksoltys, 12 days ago to climate

This week's Featured Links post has links to articles about how an update to the Drake equation suggests we may be alone in the galaxy, how Hispanics in South Florida are fighting disinformation, will Musk's Starlink satellites lead to Kessler syndrome, and more.

https://coredump3.blogspot.com/2024/06/featured-links-june-3-2024.html

#ClimateChange, #Disinformation, #Environment, #History, #Internet, #Places, #Science, #Space, #SpaceX, #Volcanoes

Flux, 1 month ago to Canada

Raising capital gains taxes on the portion over 250k: A very nice move in the new budget. It's unreasonable that large incomes from capital gains have been taxed at half of the income from the sweat of the brow.
#canada

ksoltys, 2 months ago to mathematics

This is remarkable. It's the mathematics equivalent of Einstein's theory of relativity in terms of significance. If the math holds up (I've skimmed their paper and there's no way I can judge, but the examples look convincing) they are guaranteed a Fields Medal (the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize). There's a link to the paper at the end of the article if you want to have a look at what really advanced number theory looks like.

https://phys.org/news/2024-04-breakthrough-prime-theory-primes.html

@gregeganSF

#mathematics

ksoltys, 2 months ago to random

I'm (too) slowly working my way through Ian McDonald's Hopeland. Slow partly because I'm not spending enough time reading but also because I keep stopping to savour the prose. This is from page 196 describing two musicians playing together.

"Nothing about this music should work but it is joyful and glorious and spiked with shards of eternity."

That sentence, wow. It stopped me in my tracks.

It's also a perfect description of the Grateful Dead at their best.

@stevesilberman #GratefulDead

ksoltys, 2 months ago to london

If you follow British politics at all, you'll be familiar with Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, who is up for re-election in May. His campaign and the politics surrounding his current term are providing a glimpse of the craziness that is likely to come in the next six months before November's US elections.

https://www.wired.com/story/mayor-of-london-sadiq-khan-ulez-conspiracy/

https://coredump3.blogspot.com/2024/03/londons-mayoral-race-is-harbinger-of.html

#LondonMayor #London #disinformation #politics

ksoltys, 2 months ago to random

The finalists for the 2023 Nebula Awards for the best science fiction and fantasy have been announced. I see that The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz is on the list. I liked it a lot and would be quite happy to see it win.

My short review here: https://coredump3.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-terraformers-by-annalee-newitz.html

Updated to include the link to the Locus article.

https://coredump3.blogspot.com/2024/03/2023-nebula-awards-finalists-announced.html

@annaleen

ksoltys, 4 months ago to random

I had a recipe that I wanted to share with the family, but the original was a scanned PDF of a rather smudgy page that I didn't want to share. I was able to convert it text and edit it in Word, then save it as a much cleaner and smaller PDF.

Details are too long to post here so I put them on my blog.

https://coredump3.blogspot.com/2024/01/converting-image-of-text-into-editable.html

You could probably do this directly in Acrobat Pro or other tools but these are what I had on hand.

#TechComm #MicrosoftWord #PDF

ksoltys, 5 months ago to random

On Christmas we watched the Doctor Who Christmas special, which was very good an bodes well for the new season. Last night we watched the Death in Paradise Christmas special, the first episode of season 13 with the rest to come in January.

Tonight we plan to watch the Christmas special for Ghosts), which is also the series finale and the Christmas special of Beyond Paradise, the first episode of season 2 with the rest following in February.

That will be the last of the Christmas viewing.

feditips, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to random

People on mastodon.social, are you seeing the multicolumn ("advanced") interface by default, even if you didn't activate it?

Have had a couple of reports now of this happening, has mastodon.social made it the default by accident?

It used to be the default years ago, but since then the simpler single column interface was made the default. Multicolumn shouldn't be appearing by default.

If it happens to you, instructions for switching back to normal at https://fedi.tips/how-to-activate-mastodons-tweetdeck-style-advanced-web-interface/

#MastodonSocial

ksoltys, 6 months ago to Funny

Here's some classic Thanksgiving humour for those who are younger than I am and may not have seen it. Believe me, if you haven't seen "Turkeys Away" you are missing one of the funniest scenes in the history of television. I've also thrown in an interesting history of the scene and how it may have saved WKRP in Cincinnati from cancellation.

https://coredump3.blogspot.com/2023/11/a-thanksgiving-comedy-classic.html

#WKRP #Thanksgiving #Comedy #funny

brianklaas, 7 months ago to random

It’s crazy that, of the two leading US presidential candidates, the guy found liable for rape who is facing 91 criminal indictments after he incited an insurrection isn’t the one who is facing vocal calls to step aside for someone else to run. People have lost their minds.

cstross, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

DO NOT BOOST THIS I DON'T NEED MORE ANSWERS

So ... our 42" Panasonic TV (mostly used by @feorag) turns out to be over 12 years old and only does 1080p. We probably want a 4K screen in our near future, as a dumb display for the 4K Apple TV box. Can go to 55", maybe larger (we need to measure the niche). Won't touch Samsung, Sony, or anything that refuses to work without an internet connection. How are LG these days?

Green_Footballs, 7 months ago to random

If something terrible happens to both the president and vice president of the US, the next person in the line of succession is a far right religious fanatic who thinks we need to return to those good old 18th century values.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/27/mike-johnson-value-moral-conservative-republican

johnshirley2024, 8 months ago to scifi

Science fiction/ fantasy legend Terry Bisson is now written up in The New Yorker. Why, after Big Ink ignored him all these years? Because of his "This Month in History" series in Locus. Terry Bisson is a friend of mine, an editor of mine, and a mentor of mine. Avoiding any paywall, you can read the article here: https://archive.ph/k0RRI

Terry now has colon cancer...

#scifi #fantasy

annaleen, 8 months ago to random

Today the paperback edition of #TheTerraformers drops! It looks gorgeous, and the maps are still big and legible. I've been so happy to see this book bringing people joy, and infusing their brains with weirdness, and reminding them that the fight against capitalism will be waged on many fronts, for many centuries, with many furry and metal-clad allies. Get your paperback edition today! https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250228024/theterraformers

Two black kittens are holding open a copy of The Terraformers, showing a map of the planet Sask-E, which is still legible despite being in paperback format. (In point of fact, these two kittens generally prefer to eat the edges of books rather than read them.)

georgetakei, 9 months ago to random

Trump met with pharma lobbyists and nixed his promise to have Medicare negotiate drug prices.

Biden just announced Medicare would negotiate drug prices on ten popular drugs used by millions of seniors.

The first is empty talk. The second is bold action.

stevesilberman, 9 months ago to random

Nice article about the long-awaited tribute to David Crosby on Sunday, organized by Croz's son James Raymond and others. It was sublime and SO HEALING for his bandmates, crew, friends and fans. One correction: Croz's peeps did not open with a Sam Cooke song. They opened with Croz's "Long Time Gone." https://www.independent.com/2023/08/23/review-david-crosbys-final-band-does-him-proud-in-santa-barbara/

ksoltys, 9 months ago to random

It's time to post links to more news about COVID-19. No, the pandemic is not over, the virus keeps mutating in new and unpleasant ways, and cases are increasing after a lull. In my region, cases have tripled in about four weeks.

https://coredump3.blogspot.com/2023/08/more-covid-19-news.html

#COVID19

@erictopol @EricCarroll

stevesilberman, 10 months ago to random

Finally saw #AcrossTheSpiderVerse, now streaming, and was blown away. It has more fresh, eye-popping, uncannily beautiful visual ideas packed into every 20 seconds than whole franchises, and is so exuberant, it's naturally subversive. WOW. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-comic-book-aesthetic-comes-of-age-in-across-the-spider-verse

timbray, 10 months ago to random

Feeling emotionally bruised - trying to figure out why the loss of Lahaina has hit me so hard: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/living-through-mauis-unimaginable-wildfires

I realized it’s the first place where I have direct lived experience that has been demolished as a consequence of our poor environmental stewardship.

Lots more well-loved places are going to go, lots more people are going to be feeling these feelings.

At what point do we wake up and say stop?

reginasbread, 10 months ago to random

just watched a video about the lack of bicycles in hollywood productions. e.g. there are post apocalypse shows where there's no fuel or they can't use engines for other reasons, and the characters are shown walking or riding a horse. they never try bikes even though it's the most popular mode of transportation on the planet. Daryl from TWD on a bicycle? uncool. if a protagonist is doing it, it's a comedy. riding a bicycle is seen as a ridiculous thing to do unless you're a child. I am stunned.

annaleen, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to random

I'm finishing the revision on my next nonfiction book, which is a heavily-researched exploration of how the weapons of psychological war show up in culture wars. It's a popular book, not academic. I have a zillion footnotes. Should I:

jeffjarvis, 10 months ago to random

No, no, no, NYT. Seriously, do not put text in dark mode without giving the reader the ability to switch. It is hard for many of us to read. And irritating. Good reporting. Bad design.

timbray, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to random

Dropped by Bluesky for the first time in a while. I'm a Fediperson but still have sympathy with what they're trying to do, and the tone seems to have stabilized for the moment.

Anyhow, I have 30 invites that I haven't thought about in a while, so, giving them away. Reply to this post if you want one. In case that's more than 30 people I will invent totally arbitrary and questionably fair criteria for handing them out.

Maybe stop if there are already a huge number of replies.