Nick @internic@social.cleverlibre.org
- 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
Nick
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Health #insurance companies have turned to algorithms to effectively deny claims in batches.
Has your claim been subject to one of these denials?
You can try finding out by submitting a request for your claim file:
Nick
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@pluralistic libro.fm seems great, I'm very much enjoying reading your book on it.
I wish it had more mainstream titles, but I do recognize THIS IS YOUR POINT because they're all being held hostage by Audible :\
Would it maybe help if people signposted other awesome titles available on libro.fm and similar venues?
I feel like it might help people who think this stuff is important enough to put our money where our mouth is can continue to support them and not lose interest because they can't find enough titles of interest.
Nick
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Black holes!
The plot below shows two observers in the Schwarzschild spacetime. One falls inward along a timelike radial geodesic (purple), another (green) remains at a fixed value of the radial coordinate r.
The infalling observer emits radial signals (red) at equal proper time intervals. These signals move outward along null geodesics, and the stationary observer receives them with decreasing frequency.
Nick
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We were very hesitant to use Alexa for our home, but ended up doing so mostly as a tool for ADHD management.
As Amazon aggressively kills off/degrades the "skills" and third party integrations I rely on to make my brain work, I'm thinking a lot about @pluralistic's theory of enshittification and what it means for those of us with disabilities that rely on tech to make our brains/bodies function acceptably under capitalism.
Nick
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Hey geeks, what are your thoughts on the use of math where we don't have good data? E.g. suppose you want to say "I think fusion reactors will be used at [rate] by [year] based on guesses from older tech adoption." Like, you can do a math model, but it doesn't seem obviously better to me than saying "it's path dependent." The math is a kind of ritual you can perform, but provides no new information.
Oh, *and* I just discovered that one of my favorite podcasts, Mindscape by @seanmcarroll, has an interview with Kelly and @ZachWeinersmith about their new book!
Nick
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Sweet jesus, Kelly's on a call-in show about space and a caller insisted that his analysis shows a Mars base can be self-sufficient without computer chips.
And actually now that copy of "A City on Mars" is going to have to compete for my time with the ebook of "The Lost Cause" by @pluralistic that I just got via his Kickstarter. I expect them both to be great books!
Nick
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This, from the Washington Post, is the correct headline and the right way to frame this story. I hope this is a sign that they're using a new playbook now. Trump is a fascist, and media outlets do their readers no favors by pretending otherwise.. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/12/trump-rally-vermin-political-opponents/
I got my copy of "A City on Mars" from @ZachWeinersmith this week, and so far I'm really enjoying it and would recommend it to anyone interested in #books on #space #SpaceExploration #SciencePolicy or #scifi . It sounds like today is the last day to order and be counted in the first week sales (which determines best seller status and potentially leads to more visibility).
Nick
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MY LATEST: Several thousand American Jews have mobilized across the U.S. to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Anti-Defamation League calls these Jewish organizations "hate groups." https://theintercept.com/2023/11/11/palestine-israel-protests-ceasefire-antisemitic/
ADL publishes a map of "Antisemitic Incidents and Anti-Israel Rallies in the U.S. Since Hamas’s Attack on Israel." 46% of the points are antisemitic vandalism, harassment, and assault, much of it from neo-Nazis. The other 54% are anti-war protests which ADL calls "anti-Israel rallies"
Here are some examples of "Anti-Israel Rallies" from ADL's map, all organized by Jews:
- Oct 16, blockading entrances to the White House
- Oct 19, marching on Capitol Hill, hundreds arrested at sit-in in Capitol
- Oct 27, Grand Central Station, largest sit-in in NYC in over two decades
"We’re seeing a genuine rise in antisemitic attacks and white nationalist, white supremacist, antisemitic hate and violence. When white nationalism is on the rise, to cheapen the accusation of antisemitism by applying it to Palestinian rights advocates, including Jews, is incredibly irresponsible and dangerous." - Eva Borgwardt, IfNotNow
Nick
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@pluralistic The reason this matters: with IPv4, the NAT in your home gateway is the pinch point where ad-hoc peer-to-peer networking can be prevented from functioning with quality that compares favorably with centralized platforms. In theory, with IPv6, where a NAT is unnecessary, that pinch point would not be a hindrance anymore. Which is why they needed someone to write RFC 6092— so that pinch point would still be there even after IPv4 and its NAT came to be replaced by IPv6.
And now you know why I cried all the way through LITTLE BROTHER.
Nick
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Mary Anning was born in 1799 in Great Britain. Her family lived in poverty, selling fossils to make ends meet.
Scientists of Anning’s day could not believe that a poor young woman could posses her knowledge & talent. She has been described as 'the greatest fossilist the world ever knew' yet many people are still unaware of her incredible contributions.
The majority of Anning’s discoveries ended up in museums & collections without credit. https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/anning.html #science #history
Nick
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@pluralistic As the main author and editor of https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6092, I have to tell you that it has all turned out just as I was predicting it would. I fought like hell to make sure there was something somewhere in there that would allow ad-hoc peer-to-peer networking between endpoints behind residential gateways, and I mostly failed. There is one tiny vestigial clause, like an Easter egg, hidden in there about BTNS that I hoped would eventually enable the evasion of the platform monopolies that I was fighting against. Buried treasure, and nobody seems to be digging it up.
Nick
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@ZachWeinersmith #ACityOnMars is must reading for any Hard #SciFi fans. Without it, you can't tell your friends and family during "#TheExpanse" reruns, "Nah, it wouldn't happen that way..."
Nick
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Hello! It's the last day to buy A City on Mars during launch week. Sales this week matter because they get you on bestseller lists, which get you sales and press. SO, if you were thinking about buying, we'd massively appreciate if you'd do so today. <3 https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/639449/a-city-on-mars-by-kelly-and-zach-weinersmith/
Nick
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Look, we can't make the E.T. game fun...or even playable...but we can appreciate the manual artwork from 1982, one of >3 million manuals in our collection: https://archive.org/details/E.T._The_Extra-Terrestrial_1982_Atari/mode/2up
@steptoeedwall @NorCal_Lynne Wait, you mean it's not really made out of mashed potatoes!?
@rdviii Like many (or most) physicists, I learned quantum mechanics from a background of understanding classical particle and wave mechanics and then quantum computation etc. from there. It always seemed like you didn't need all that baggage to understand quantum computing in the abstract (as you say, understanding the hardware or quantum information topics involving continuous variables is a different matter). My problem was always getting past how *I* learned it to see how else *one could* learn it.
To me, the biggest question was how to lead the students to develop an intuition for the physical meaning of quantum phase and superposition and non-commuting variables beyond the pure mathematics. I could never see a good way to do that except via at least a bit of wave mechanics, but I haven't had a chance to read your book closely enough to see how you skinned that particular (Schrödinger's) cat.
Nick
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If you're thinking about getting a printer of any kind, read this.
You were warned.
https://www.theverge.com/23648726/hp-officejet-printer-region-how-to-change-why
- 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
