I'm once again joining my college's choir for their end-of-year Masterworks concert, and today was the first day of practice for that music. We're singing the Magnificat. Three very different versions of that same text (one by a faculty composer), all lovely. It's going to be a lot of fun!
Figurines of Brady Bunch and Partridge Family fighting each other
I have created a diorama of the Partridge family attacking the Brady Bunch family. My life is very boring.
A decent article about the #LostCanadian new option for people with Canadian ancestors.
There was someone approved recently 9 generations out from #Acadian displacement. If you can prove your Canadian ancestors, you can claim citizenship. It's not naturalization.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
What inspires someone to pursue physics for life?
From discovering general relativity to the encouragement of mentors, women in our community share the moments that shaped their journeys.
This #InternationalWomensDay we’re celebrating women advancing physics and inspiring the next generation. 🌟
Today I Will Look The Burrito Man In The Eye and other stories of manifesting success
I occasionally think about this sort of thing: how could we preserve shreds of who we are and what we love for future generations even if some global disaster strikes? This is pretty cool. (Put full copies of Wikipedia and Project Gutenburg on there, caches around the world…) Needs instructions tho!
I suspect the DMCA is broken for *everyone*. Folks from China copied my work to sell on Amazon. I filed a complaint and Amazon took it down, but after their counterclaim my only options were "give up" or "file a federal lawsuit". The lawyer I talked to said it would probably cost me at least $10k.
My hot take is that everyone says schools don't teach you how to do your taxes, but the way you do your taxes is to hang on to important paperwork and then follow the directions on a form while performing arithmetic, which actually is what they spend a fair amount of time teaching.
Both of my Senators are on this list, so I called them both today. But even if yours aren't here, let them know how important it is for them to stand up against this ill-conceived, illegal war any way they can. The very best support we can give our military is to bring them home right away.
There have been MULTIPLE early leaks of scientific discoveries via DECORATED CAKE. Scientists are good at many things, but shutting up is definitely not one of them.
Actually this is just sparkling global conflict. It’s not World War III unless there’s offensive military action in the Champagne region of France.
When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.
What it is Like to Accidentally be Trapped in a Country at War
By Zack Davisson
Hey! You seen on the news of evacuation orders for Americans whose vacation was suddenly disrupted by a little war as a treat? Well, it happened to me too.
Gather round for story time! Destination, EGYPT!!!
(1)
If anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.
The total lunar eclipse last night from Fairbanks, Alaska with a searing bright aurora right overhead. Insane combo.
If AI-generated art can’t be copyrighted, then AI-generated code... this could get interesting
Maybe so! But I'm not sure I had even heard of Highlander II before going to college in 1994, so I think there's still a chance that the idea may be prone to arising independently when someone doesn't like a sequel.
I've been pretending "Mostly Harmless" doesn't exist ever since it came out in 1992. I have no idea if I got the idea from other people, or if it's just a common instinctive reaction to sequels that don't work for you.
🌕➡️🔴 Lunar eclipse alert!
Depending on where you are (mostly: Central/Eastern Asia, Oceania, most of North/Central America), you may be able to see a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE ("blood moon") overnight!
You can find information about timing and viewing locations here: www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/luna...
The savings we're getting here by annihilating decades of American science will pay for whole minutes of the operation to create decades of death, immiseration, and chaos in Iran.
Sarah Vaci is a "gender critical" artist who set out 4 years ago this month to create 100 portraits of "female detransitioners." To date, worldwide, she hasn't even found 100 to take part in her project, and at her current rate, it will take her 10 to 15 years to finish.
Why is this important? 1/
really one of the strangest media cycles in history, where mainstream media actively hid the fact that the columbine killers were popular upper class preppy kids with full on neo-nazi ideologies and instead pretended they were victims of bullying
Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads: The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same... - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist
Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.
For people who still care about this sort of thing, here's James Madison writing from 1793 (6 years after the delegates in Philadelphia signed the Constitution) about why the power to make war was vested in the legislature.
press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/doc...
[I'm quite tempted by the idea of having this raft of legislation ready to go as soon as the next Democratic President is elected, and making it clear to Republicans that the new President will gladly sign those laws, but until then they will unilaterally reshape government just like Trump did.]
I hope that someone somewhere is already putting together detailed plans for what the replacements for all that should look like. This is a vast amount of work, and whenever there's finally a Congress prepared to act on it, they will need as much of a running start as we can give them.
It's also clear that SCOTUS has invalidated the core premise of a huge amount of 20th century legislation that established independent agencies to have nonpolitical experts shape policy: unless those decisions are reversed, that entire structure needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up.
I've been uneasy for years about the many "emergency" powers Congress has given to the executive. (A memorable grad school lunch conversation was "Could the President just wake up and nuke Cuba?") Between Trump and SCOTUS, I'm getting convinced Congress should revoke them *all*, despite the risks.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH
I wonder what strategy will actually work. I desperately want laws to prevent gerrymandering, but the GOP was dead set against them as long as they were the main ones doing it. My hope now is that if both sides see it as a danger, they might fix it.
Maybe executive power needs the same thing. Ugh.
