New blog post: My search for boardgames for seniors skullsinthestars.com/2025/09/28/m...

Tempted to play around with leaflet.pub and start a blog, but I'm pretty sure I don't have good-enough time management for that

Would be nice to have something like letterboxd, but for individual tv-show episodes, and on the AT protocol so it would be interoperable with bluesky

Putting my thoughts together. Why networks beat "hero" sensors and what birds can teach us. quantum-noise.ghost.io/quantum-sens...

The vociferousness with which Windows tries to override my browser preference and find ways to open Edge is impressive

In a kind-of similar vein, I miss looking up Roger Ebert's reviews after watching a new movie Still get that joy occasionally when watching movies from before 2013

I need a shortcut for copying links that automatically gets rid of all the tracking crap (like blah.com/page?utm_source= ...)

Nice post that basically sums up why I spend time here even though--for now--this is a small and kinda sleepy social network It is good to be in charge of your data, and to be able to move from one host to another in case of bad behavior by ownership, and to spend time on an open protocol

FYI re the NSF GRFP this year

New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Lab's got new swag

In MS Word, my text randomly changes to these symbols until I click on them and hit spacebar, and then it is temporarily fixed This behavior has survived a reboot and a reinstall of MS Office Any ideas?

Just eyeball numbers, but:

The total budget of *all of NIH over the last 30 years* across every field, disease, medicine, etc, is under $1T Less than a quarter of the market cap of NVIDIA, or about half the market cap of Meta (facebook)

Now that's progress Earlier this year I watching the first season of ER (1994), where HIV/AIDS is shown as devastating even with access to the very best care. 30 years later and there's a near-perfect preventative that costs $40 a year

Google's "AI mode" is really pretty good, in contrast to the "AI overviews" that show up at the top of regular google searches -- which hallucinate quite a bit Hard to understand why they haven't gotten rid of the overviews yet

Alien:Earth started out strong, but couldn't keep it up. Oh well

@filizyesilkoy.bsky.social conducts basic, applied and translational research at the cross-sections of photonics, nanotechnology and biomedical sciences. #WARF100 @uwchancellor.bsky.social https://www.warf.org/commercialize/uw-madison-inventor-profiles/yesilkoy/

Phase Changes xkcd.com/3144/

Seems like in many parts of the world universities are struggling Are there places where right now it's a golden age for universities + university research?

Well that's not great "In an anonymous survey of [UK physics] department heads by the Institute of Physics (IoP), 26% said they faced potential closure of their department within the next two years"

I wonder if anyone will ever use starter packs again

Saw HgCdTe (MCT) detectors referred to as Cd_xHg_(1-x)Te (CMT) in an old paper, and it's really weird to see it in that order

In Ec10 I survey students and the vast majority object to movie theaters that have a surcharge for people ages 12 to 59. But they're all OK with a discount for 11 and under and 60 and over. Your favorite examples of price discrimination and framing?

Important clarification from USCIS: "The proclamation does not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to or from the United States"

Leaked memo from Amazon that warns existing H1B holders to avoid travel back into the USA after the September 21st deadline - their lawyers evaluated the new executive order as not just affecting new applications https://www.businessinsider.com/read-memos-sent-big-tech-trump-h-1b-changes-2025-9

Merits aside, this ad hoc rule-making that immediately goes into effect (tariffs, h-1b, etc) is super destabilizing and no way to run a successful country Congress needs to take back its role in making rules

First, wtf is this madness Second, I assume the rules around requirements for the H-1B are in law somewhere. Can the president actually make such a change?

I mean, this is getting desperate

Pandemic-era teaching and learning was not great for many reasons, but my recordings from then are by far the best recordings of my teaching I have -- and I am glad I have them

My experience is that writing first drafts of things is low on the list of things generative AI is good at Though occasionally useful to break writers block: (1) stare at empty page, (2) have chatGPT generate something, (3) cringe at the output and start rewriting from scratch

We could use more people with firm commitments to free speech (both as it is in law, and the more-general principle), especially when political winds blow their way

We need very strong norms for people taking responsibility for what they generate + share, with or without AI tools It should be considered rude to ask for someone's attention or effort if you yourself outsourced your thinking to an AI tool and did not critically evaluate the output

Ahh, missed them tonight

Whiskey on the Rocks (Swedish miniseries, 2024) is pretty fun

Dan Ludois enhances power conversion systems through the creative application of new materials, mechanical integration and power electronics operating at high frequency or high voltage. #WARF100 @uwchancellor.bsky.social‬ https://www.warf.org/commercialize/uw-madison-inventor-profiles/ludois/

I'm kind of an AI optimist relative to my colleagues (+ certainly relative to the median opinion on bluesky), but receiving AI slop more than once from otherwise smart and successful people is a warning sign

This is cool

Natcast programs meet an unceremonious end Sad for my (no-longer) pending proposals that took a ton of time and effort

I have a talkative class this semester, where people ask a lot of questions, and it's great. 50% slower than planned, but likely a lot more learning

I've been waiting for bluesky bookmarks for like 2 years, to scroll while in line, walking, etc., and save posts for later, like I used to do on Twitter Now that bookmarks are here I am realizing that I lost the muscle memory to use them.. I saw a few posts I wanted to save but forgot to do it

and U of T Engineering is seeking an Assistant Professor in #Photonics #QuantumTechnologies (jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...) Send us your best, your brightest, your yearning to do #QuantumInCanada! Please reshare.

A nice thread on Weiss & the origins of LIGO 💡🧪

v1.108 is rolling out today 🚚 Now live, at long last: Bookmarks, aka Saved Posts. For all those posts you'll definitely plan to come back to! Update the app and give it a try. The button is right down there 👇

Can someone who has/uses ChatGPT pro (the $200/mo one) describe how different are the results vs GPT-5 Thinking? I don't mean metrics, I mean using it to do practical things

Hooray, bookmarks are now functional on Bluesky on the web! (if you log on via main.bsky.dev rather than via bsky.app) Sadly not yet on mobile for me, but I assume it's coming in a day or two

Crinoid fossil from the Devonian period, 360-400 million years ago

Gorgeous day for the Madison Iron Man Me, I'm on a leisurely walk on the prairie

Every research proposal takes so much time + effort to write. It's hard to keep doing it when you don't know if it will be considered for funding at all -- never mind the usual low odds I have four proposals pending (two full, two preliminary) that are at programs that have been suspended..

Anyone recording zoom whiteboard using an ipad + pencil: How can I minimize lag in the recording? I get instant response on my screen when I write, but it takes seconds to show up in the recording. The network connection is fine, and everything is up to date.