owning stuff is fun because it’s like “great news, today you get to spend two hours pointing this hair dryer at ice that isn’t supposed to be in your freezer”

I understand what grad schools are looking for when they ask for a statement of purpose or a personal statement. But what do they want when they ask for both? How do you think about the difference between these? 🧪🔭

People say cooking is easier than baking because you don’t have to be as precise. But e.g., if you have anxiety, you can be just as fussy about cooking as baking. They can’t stop you.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the turkey lovers out there

tech bro: i have made Artificial General Intelligence programmer: you fucked up a perfectly good calculator is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety

What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss, Charlie Brown

I have eaten some really excellent turkey. I have cooked a couple turkeys that I wish I had cooked better. It's like eating a piece of stale bread and saying "Ugh bread is awful." no it isnt. that isn't true.

How do you like them apples, Charlie Brown?

He’s doing it again (smoking salmon)

Home Alone makes changes to the Die Hard formula that render it hard for me to enjoy. The McClain character should feel overawed. And in theory having Kevin be a child versus adults achieves that. But the thing is: Kevin is a god. It's not just Tom & Jerry. This is some random punks versus Anansi.

This isn't funny. Bald eagles only do this when they're extremely distressed.

My wife teaches college writing and her explanation to her students is that the purpose of a writing assignment is to create *new* knowledge. LLMs, which generate text based entirely on existing sentences, are incapable of doing this in a meaningful way.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 should have been called Ten Nights at Freddy’s. Missed opportunity tbqh

Neither undergrad nor graduate physics degrees are job-training programs, and that’s part of what makes them so valuable on the job market.

they say if you take 17 benadryl you start seeing his posts

Not even Joyce Carol Oates could burn this man as badly as he has burned himself here.

Change one letter and ruin a candy Slickers

If you get them talking about cheese too, you’ll end up in a wurst-käse scenario.

we can have a little bubble, as a treat

Not enough wizards to defend your castle from an onslaught of evil sorcerers? Problematic mage gap.

I wondered aloud about this in college and everybody stared at me like I was being weird.

Black hole secrets, won't you come From the black hole Cygnus X-1 🎶 Black hole secrets, won't you come won't you come 🎶 I'm gonna keep making this joke until somebody writes about my science news. #PhysicsSky #SpaceSky 🧪🔭🌌 source.washu.edu/2025/11/a-ne...

"Microsoft warns that Windows 11's agentic AI could install malware on your PC: 'Only enable this feature if you understand the security implications.'" bro what-- what are we doing here, exactly, how can you--anyone be okay with this?

What if chatGPT was down EVERY day? Just saying…

Draft "discard" button getting a serious workout tonight.

Unfortunately for them I am available exclusively outside Target stores.

"will be sold" TO WHOM

"No, I don't think there will be any more crusades after this."

Bsky hasn’t heard the story about the time that I was giving a virtual colloquium to the Aspen Center for Physics in September 2020 and Lawrence Krauss, Geoff Marcy, Christian Ott all attended as a group ACP now has a policy that would prevent this from happening, because of that incident 🔭

There's a lot of research indicating that the "leaky pipeline" is actually related to discrimination and harassment. And... yep.

Wake up babe new trolley problem just dropped! The scene: an 8 y/o and 11 y/o ostensibly going to bed 11 y/o: Ok 8, the person you love most in all the world is going to get hit by a train. You can flip a switch and save them, but if you do, your Amazon package will get run over. What do you do?

Made my wife a chocolate mousse cake for her birthday 🍽️

Wake up babe new trolley problem just dropped! The scene: an 8 y/o and 11 y/o ostensibly going to bed 11 y/o: Ok 8, the person you love most in all the world is going to get hit by a train. You can flip a switch and save them, but if you do, your Amazon package will get run over. What do you do?

Update: yaaaaaayyyyy!

Social/emotional skills also come in handy outside of normal business hours! Even more than math!!

Anyone have an airship or a hot air balloon or a catapult? Asking for a friend who needs to get above the clouds.

I once got bill for a 24-hour urine test that indicated that the cost to me without insurance would be $1,725.

RIP descartes you would have loved the bassoon solo in hotel california

“None of my positions are correct and I can be convinced of this. Debate me!”

This is a win no matter how you slice it

I don't want to start a gold rush but I think it's about time to head to the nearest Safeway.

if you can move... WITH NO LOSS OF GENERALITY... from sexual harassment in the workplace to the... THREE POINT LINE in basketball... as foundational examples to how feminism has hurt the work place... i am terrified at your cognition

i dunno, it entered my head and now everyone else has to see it

Halloween vibe was a little off in my neighborhood this year. Decorations a little tamer than last year, felt like fewer houses giving candy and fewer kids out. Everyone said "Happy Halloween," but deep down I think they just meant "Halloween."

Halloween vibe was a little off in my neighborhood this year. Decorations a little tamer than last year, felt like fewer houses giving candy and fewer kids out. Everyone said "Happy Halloween," but deep down I think they just meant "Halloween."

So THAT's what they mean by "contingency plan."

This should be the last time we do it

Just saw an ad for Claude where they say “find your problem.” First time I’ve seen AI advertise itself as a solution in search of a problem.

A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.