Got to enjoy a fantastic conversation between @chanda.blacksky.app and @dnlee5.bsky.social in STL @stlcountylibrary.bsky.social!

Oh cool, we're already to AI slop overtaking real images in search results. Second Google Images result for "op amp configurations" is nonsense. (Forgive me, I needed to remember how to do a differential amplifier. Apparently I just tape a resistor to the case or something) #electronics

They’re going to make me wait three days to read @chanda.blacksky.app’s book??? It’s 90 miles away 🥲

We are hiring a tenure-track organic chemist! Truman State is the #1 public regional in the midwest...29 years running. Our Chemistry and Biochem/MolecularBio programs are @acs.org accredited. Apply by 4/7! #chemsky #chemjobs #chemistry #iteachchem 🧪 trumansu.peopleadmin.com/postings/1532

I preordered it now that I have proof you actually wrote it 👀

i wrote this paper. i hope you like it. #physics #darkmatter #axions #iteachphysics arxiv.org/abs/2603.13451

It's not too late to apply, but review starts soon! We are pretty cool to work with, tbh #physicsjobs #astrojobs #physics #iteachphysics

Astronomers are celebrating the end of error bar jokes at their expense

come work with me! #physics #astro #iteachphysics

We're hiring a physicist/astronomer for a sabbatical replacement position. This is a great chance for a newly minted PhD or postdoctoral researcher to build up a teaching portfolio as an instructor at a primarily undergraduate institution! apply.interfolio.com/181520 #physicsjobs #astrojobs

We are hiring TWO TENURE-TRACK CHEMISTS (organic+inorganic) here at Truman State University (the #1 public regional university in the midwest...29 years running). Our Chemistry and Biochem/MolecularBio programs are @acs.org accredited. #chemsky #chemjobs #chemistry #iteachchem

I refuse to give em dashes to the AI

Hey @duetosymmetry.com did you see this? Oh I guess not huh

WHAT A LEDE

How can it be bad it has “tech” right in the….oh there’s the rest of the word oops

I in fact turned down a job at a top private school to come to the University of New Hampshire. Twice. Because public universities matter, and they especially matter in rural communities where they are major economic engines. $100 million being stolen from Maine is catastrophic. PAY ATTENTION.

HOT TAKE: Magnetic fields aren’t vectors. 🧲🧪🧲

Some timing 👀

The Universe, just as inflation ended:

First trip to Costco in a few years. My spirit of holiday commercialism is totally restored 💸

ope I guess they did

"Am orca, have retro hat" is the only kind of news I intend to consume from now on

When my students complain about a homework problem I wrote:

Four women, zero men targeted www.cnn.com/2024/11/27/b...

Recording and reporting on every single thing someone says in public would, at one time, have been considered stalking and required being a creep…now that it’s technically trivial to do, that must make it okay!

A reminder to 🔭 and ⚛️ sky, esp #cosmology and #particle #physics folks: I'm hiring a postdoc! In principle the application deadline is on Monday night, but if I know you're planning to apply, we can discuss a late application! Our dept is 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ populated & friendly! jobs.usnh.edu/postings/63459

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Physicist in literally any subfield: I will model the cup as a collection of simple harmonic oscillators

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Theoretical physicist: The cup’s contents are an O(1) fraction of the cup

the face of someone unbothered by the cosmological constant problem

Novel Application of Neutrinos to Evaluate U.S. Nuclear Weapons Performance arxiv.org/abs/2411.11804

To be clear, I want all these things for EVERYONE, including trans folks, and I will vote against people who throw them under the bus.

Folks on the assembly lines want the same things professors do—they want good jobs, to be healthy, the right to access basic things like healthcare and affordable food. They want a nice life. They want freedom. That’s the identity.

Bluesky would be Purplesky if not for our eye’s limited sensitivity to short wavelengths

BlueSky is short for blueberry skyrmion

I guess I don’t see why they can’t make the block list computationally difficult to access without making it theoretically private. E.g. replace user A’s plaintext blocklist entry B with hash(A+B). Still computationally easy to check if A blocks B as required for federated blocks…

Evergreen post

As chilling as this is, it is also stupid. Everyone teaching “non-woke” (🤢) courses ought to clog up the censors. Call out the set inclusion relation, non-binary number systems, trans-isomers, marginalized probability distributions, Allies in WWII, privilege escalation attacks…

something important I learned today: structurally, bluesky isn't really "a website where people post things" Instead, each *user* is effectively a website. Bluesky is an app for posting to your site and managing/following your web ring. Which is cool and clever! but can also be *very dangerous*

Great work, Thirtha! #trumanstate #physics newsletter.truman.edu/article.asp?...

“Reading is dead,” they declared in writing, to an audience of potentially millions.

Me, a professor: I want people to know how things work, at a minimum. Random posters: I refuse to read. I don’t believe anyone else reads. I’m reading your posts, and I’m reading them incorrectly but also want you to know no one reads ever. Me:

What I imagine I look like when I tell my stat mech students that the Ising model phase transition is universal and describes all kinds of other transitions also:

Lilly makes $2+ billion a year selling the drug I need. Can’t believe I’m saying this but…maybe late-stage capitalism will save me hahahahahasob

First-gen academic here, and honestly, how tf did I do that

To state the obvious it is ridiculous that you have to start planning at age 12 to have a decent shot at a life in academia

Academia in a nutshell

fields R_ab - 1/2 R g_ab = 8 pi G T_ab

particles r fields

My research computer’s hostname is axion and I frequently teach E&M but my name is suboptimal apparently