Nick @internic@social.cleverlibre.org
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- he/him/his
Theoretical physicist by training (PhD in quantum open systems/quantum information), University lecturer for a bit, and currently paying the bills as an engineer working in optical communication (implementation) and quantum communication (concepts), though still pursuing a little science on the side. I'm interested in physics and math, of course, but I enjoy learning about really any area of science, philosophy, and many other academic areas as well. My biggest other interest is hiking and generally being out in nature.
Joined Nov 2022
Nick
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Nick
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I'm reminded a bit of a 2011 paper from CERN regarding the potential detection of superluminal neutrinos. However, they did take a more cautious approach:
"Despite the large significance of the measurement reported here and the stability of the analysis, the potentially great impact of the result motivates the continuation of our studies in order to investigate possible still unknown systematic effects that could explain the observed anomaly."
(1/2)
@BigEatie @_thegeoff I was about to quote the same passage in response to this discussion (I just dug up the preprint).
I was actually teaching a physics course on data analysis at the time and used this as an example to motivate the importance of error analysis and how to assess significance. But I agree that the OPERA folks approached it with a more reasonable "this is probably wrong" approach (another teachable moment for my class). On the other hand, finding superluminal particles would be a *much* bigger deal (in terms of the impact on our understanding of physics) than finding a room-termperature superconductor, so even more skepticism was warranted in that case.
Even as someone who hasn't studied superconductivity much, it seemed that this group had not really done the sort of exhaustive analysis that's warranted before making such a bold claim. It seemed like they announced prematurely, possibly motivated by Nobel FOMO.
#LK99
Nick
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The first issue of my new
📫NEWSLETTER🎉
is coming out tomorrow morning! Sign up here and it will magically appear in your inbox!
➡️ mackkatie.activehosted.com/f/1
Nick
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An Iowa school district is using ChatGPT to decide which books to ban
Official: "It is simply not feasible to read every book" for depictions of sex.
Nick
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Marion County, #Kansas Attorney Joel Ensey says his review of police seizures from the offices of the local newspaper, the Marion County Record, found “insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized. As a result, I have submitted a proposed order asking the court to release the evidence seized. I have asked local law enforcement to return the material seized to the owners of the property."
@thoughtpunks Oh, and just to add, we are *not* over 65. @luckytran
@thoughtpunks Don't underestimate the fractured, opaque, and chaotic nature of American healthcare. My wife and I had to pay 60-some dollars for flu vaccines out of pocket a few months ago. The pharmacy claimed that insurance refused to cover them. That seemed odd, but we had a reason that we needed them ASAP and had had problems finding them out of season, so we just paid the money. A month or two later we got paperwork from the insurance showing the pharmacy did bill the insurance, and the insurance *also* paid. My point: don't confuse how it's supposed to work with what people actually experience in practice. @luckytran
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Mary Edwards Walker worked as a surgeon for the Union Army during the Civil War. She was captured by Confederates after crossing enemy lines to treat wounded civilians & arrested as a spy. She's the only woman to ever receive the Medal of Honor - pictured here, wearing it.
#DYK #histodon #histodons #civilwar #americanhistory #history #histmed #histsci #womensrights #womenshistory
Nick
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This isn’t just happening in LA.
In lots of places cases are rising as college students move into their dorms. Granted, seeing as many colleges have stopped tracking cases, it’ll be hard to tell how bad it is.
https://deadline.com/2023/08/covid-los-angeles-increasing-cases-1235520334/
Nick
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This AP story demonstrates how eager some political reporters are to say Trump’s crimes don’t matter. It says the electorate is divided. It says “about half” approve of the indictments. It quotes three of the people polled: all Republicans.
In fact, only a dwindling minority are still able to defend Trump. If you skip the prose and look at the ACTUAL POLL RESULTS, you learn that only 15% of those polled said Trump did “nothing wrong” in Georgia and 21% at the Capital.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-poll-georgia-elections-b6140eed88b3153e41dbf9e008d5a21b
Nick
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Just came across this preprint this morning and this is exactly why we built our Developer Thriving framework the way we did. Traditional organizational measures, and even *more* in software specifically, neither cared nor engaged with the deep research on wellbeing and its centrality to human problem-solving and sustainable performance. For too long we have centered shallow outcomes with cheap performance metrics and not focused on what we actually impact for people.
Nick
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Scientists are moving from X-itter. Almost half have opened accounts with Mastodon, the highest of all the other social networking sites according to a Nature survey.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02554-0
Nick
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Thousands of scientists are cutting back on Twitter, seeding angst & uncertainty https://nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02554-0
Me: If experts leave, "are we just making room for a massive echo chamber that can spread misinformation in a way that is very harmful to society?"
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Alt-headline: By 53-30 margin, most Americans approve of the DOJ indicting #Trump. #media
https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-poll-georgia-elections-b6140eed88b3153e41dbf9e008d5a21b
Nick
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Nick
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Q: Is #LK99 really a room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
A: Probably not, but the reasons are interesting.
https://physicsworld.com/a/room-temperature-superconductor-lk-99-fails-replication-tests/
Nick
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This is real. I just took this screenshot.
- Pronouns
- he/him/his
Theoretical physicist by training (PhD in quantum open systems/quantum information), University lecturer for a bit, and currently paying the bills as an engineer working in optical communication (implementation) and quantum communication (concepts), though still pursuing a little science on the side. I'm interested in physics and math, of course, but I enjoy learning about really any area of science, philosophy, and many other academic areas as well. My biggest other interest is hiking and generally being out in nature.
Joined Nov 2022
