purplejacket

The paper on which the article is based,

https://watermark02.silverchair.com/stag328.pdf?token=AQECAH...

mentions 3 three alternative interpretations for GRB 250702B:

1. Ultralong Collapsars: These stellar-engine models can explain long durations but struggle to account for the specific timing of this event. Specifically, they cannot easily produce a 12-hour gradual rise in X-rays followed by a multi-hour peak, as the jet would have to fight through a massive progenitor star while its power is still very low.

2. White Dwarf (WD) Tidal Disruptions: While an Intermediate Mass Black Hole (IMBH) disrupting a White Dwarf could theoretically provide the necessary gravity, the numbers do not add up for this specific burst. The timing between flares is too long for a WD scenario, and the total energy required would demand an unrealistically narrow jet. When physical constraints like detonation are factored in, this model is considered highly unlikely.

3. Micro-TDEs (Main Sequence star by a stellar-mass BH/NS): This is considered a competitive alternative that can explain the burst's sub-second variability and long duration. However, it faces two main issues: current afterglow data suggests the surrounding gas density matches an IMBH environment better than a micro-TDE environment, and the burst’s extreme energy would require very high jet efficiency or a very narrow beam.

Sorry, but can someone explain to me why Flash failed? Was it because Apple killed it, or other reasons? Because not open source? Too heavy? I never really got the story, or only got bits and pieces. I know a lot of people liked Flash.

I had my handyman build one of these in front of our house. Also, I make a hobby of biking around to circulate books between different little free libraries in my extended neighborhood. I've found some amazing books over the years, things that were very different from my typical prior experience of books. I like this aspect, that it can be eye opening. Each little free library has it's own style of books. Some are better at handling magazines. Some see a lot of book movement, some much less. These factors influence how I move books around from one to another.

Suggestions on building a little free library: 1) By far the number one priority: Waterproof. If it's not waterproof, in my opinion you're actually doing a disservice to the community, rather than a service. And have an angled roof for proper drainage. 2) Don't make it too deep. Definitely not more than 18 inches. Probably 15 inches is a good depth. 3) If you can, make two levels: One level for tall books, another level for short books. 4) Don't make it too tiny, because then it's hard to get books in and out of. 5) A good solid stand so it doesn't fall over. 6) A good latch that will resist wind. Magnetic is good. I also like to have a magnet plus a hook that can be used for backup. Also with time it's nice to have the second option in case the shape changes a little and the magnet doesn't work. 7) You might try making a mockup out of cardboard so you can see the physical size and get a sense of how many books will fit. 8) Not a building tip, but: Try to arrange the books to look nice. If you have few books you can face some of them to attract attention.

Magnus is just so tenacious. From a lost position he snatched a victory. Take a look at the five hour mark (plus or minus) for the crucial moments of the key game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6ey5Up4S7w

Does this mean that now I can watch Bugs Bunny on Netflix?

This paper is delightfully readable.

Maybe Anonymous has some ideas on how to handle this one.

Cops don't become psychopaths rather: Psychopaths become cops.

A read-it-later app. Pocket, you had one job. Just one job. And for a while that was my killer app on mobile. But, as we see, the enshitification of the web continues.

"What began as a read-it-later app evolved into something much bigger. After Mozilla acquired Pocket in 2017, we invested in building our content curation and recommendation capabilities so people everywhere can discover and access high quality web content. While Pocket is shutting down, we will continue to invest in this promise—through the New Tab experience, our email newsletter, and more."

Here's an idea: Compensate any on-call work received during off hours at 10X the normal hourly rate. E.g., if my salary is $150K per year, then my hourly pay rate is about $75 per hour, so compensate my on call work at a rate of $750 per hour. Thus if I get a call at 10pm, log in to my laptop and work for 30 minutes to resolve the issue to a satisfactory level, then I pocket $375. That puts a financial incentive on companies to structure their on call protocols so that only the most important calls are handled. And I can envision variations on this theme. Different sorts of on-call disasters could offer bids for how much they're worth to fix based on some automated rubrick, and anyone on the ENG team could pick these up on a first-come, first-serve basis. Or various combinations of the above for a guaranteed backup person. But the companies should offer enough incentive to make it worthwhile. And this is in the companies' own best interest. To maintain a workforce that can think clearly during the normal work, to have a good reputation in the industry, to get good reviews on Glassdoor, etc.

Here's a FEN of the famous position from the Spassky-Fischer world championship match where Fischer weirdly played Bxh2 on move 29 and Spassky went on to win the game:

5k2/pp4pp/4pp2/1P6/8/P2KP3/5PPb/2B5 w - - 0 30

Full PGN here:

[Event "Spassky - Fischer World Championship Match"] [Site "Reykjavik ISL"] [Date "1972.07.11"] [EventDate "?"] [Round "1"] [Result "1-0"] [White "Boris Spassky"] [Black "Robert James Fischer"] [ECO "E56"] [WhiteElo "?"] [BlackElo "?"] [PlyCount "111"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. e3 O-O 6. Bd3 c5 7. O-O Nc6 8. a3 Ba5 9. Ne2 dxc4 10. Bxc4 Bb6 11. dxc5 Qxd1 12. Rxd1 Bxc5 13. b4 Be7 14. Bb2 Bd7 15. Rac1 Rfd8 16. Ned4 Nxd4 17. Nxd4 Ba4 18. Bb3 Bxb3 19. Nxb3 Rxd1+ 20. Rxd1 Rc8 21. Kf1 Kf8 22. Ke2 Ne4 23. Rc1 Rxc1 24. Bxc1 f6 25. Na5 Nd6 26. Kd3 Bd8 27. Nc4 Bc7 28. Nxd6 Bxd6 29. b5 Bxh2 30. g3 h5 31. Ke2 h4 32. Kf3 Ke7 33. Kg2 hxg3 34. fxg3 Bxg3 35. Kxg3 Kd6 36. a4 Kd5 37. Ba3 Ke4 38. Bc5 a6 39. b6 f5 40. Kh4 f4 41. exf4 Kxf4 42. Kh5 Kf5 43. Be3 Ke4 44. Bf2 Kf5 45. Bh4 e5 46. Bg5 e4 47. Be3 Kf6 48. Kg4 Ke5 49. Kg5 Kd5 50. Kf5 a5 51. Bf2 g5 52. Kxg5 Kc4 53. Kf5 Kb4 54. Kxe4 Kxa4 55. Kd5 Kb5 56. Kd6 1-0

See? This is _exactly_ why Facebook banned Linux.

Umm ... the site stopped working?

Ummm ... 2024 - 2007 = 17

So this letter ℘ is distinct from another unicode symbol (that I can't copy-paste here?), which we often use for "power set" in math; it's given by U+1D4AB.

Thanks

Just do a search for "The Lock Picking Lawyer," you'll have loads of fun seeing what he can do, sometimes with the most minimal of tools (like a thin strip of metal cut from a soda can).

Hm. Does Apple dare produce something that is actually gritty, ala Bladerunner, a world in which technology is not seen by the author as being sexy the way Apple likes, rather the backdrop to a story that still reflects the human condition in all the venality of our current day and age?

Lol! Nice one.

Double plus agree.

My off leash dog will not bite you, he is well behaved. My dog at home cannot bite you, he is too far away.

Again: Metadata. WhatsApp records a timestamp of every message you send/receive, and who the other party is. Signal only records two pieces of metadata: timestamp of when you signed up, timestamp of the last time you sent a message.

Thanks for that link! There's another old story from a collection I read circa 1992 that I'm trying to chase down ;)

I also note that _The Logic Pool_ is also available in a short story collection of Stephen Baxter's called _Vacuum Diagrams_

http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/baxter/index.htm

Quoting from the beginning of the story:

This time he would reach the Sky. This time, before the Culling cut him away... The tree of axiomatic systems beneath him was broad, deep, strong. He looked around him, at sibling-twins who had branched at choice-points, most of them thin, insipid structures. They spread into the distance, infiltrating the Pool with their webs of logic. He almost pitied their attenuated forms as he reached upwards, his own rich growth path assured... Almost pitied. But when the Sky was so close there was no time for pity, no time for awareness of anything but growth, extension. Little consciousness persisted between Cullings. But he could remember a little of his last birthing; and surely he had never risen so high, never felt the logical richness of the tree beneath him surge upwards through him like this, empowering him. Now there was something ahead of him: a new postulate, hanging above him like some immense fruit. He approached it warily, savoring its compact, elegant form. The fibers of his being pulsed as the few, strong axioms at the core of his structure sought to envelop this new statement. But they could not. They could not. The new statement was undecidable, not deducible from the set within him. His excitement grew. The new hypothesis was simple of expression, yet ....

YES! That's the one :-) Thanks for identifying it. And it was in that anthology "Nanotech" having editors Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. I found this interesting article about the story, with links to other similar stories:

https://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFICT/mfview.php?callnumb...

And this quote:

"Marsden's data stores contain a fragmented catalogue of mathematical variants. All founded on the postulates of arithmetic, but differing in their resolution of undecidable hypothesis." "Undecidability. You're talking about the incompleteness theorems," "Right. No logical system rich enough to contain the axioms of simple arithmetic can ever be made complete. It is always possible to construct statements that can be neither disproved nor proved by deduction from the axioms; instead the logical system must be enriched by incorporating the truth or falsehood of such statements as additional axioms..." The Continuum Hypothesis was an example. There were several orders of infinity. There were 'more' real numbers, scattered like dust in the interval between zero and one, that there were integers. Was there an order of infinity between the reals and the integers. This was undecidable, within logically simpler systems like set theory; additional assumptions had to be made. "So one can generate many versions of mathematics, by adding these true-false axioms." "And then searching on, seeking out statements which are undecidable in the new system. Yes. Because of incompleteness, there is an infinite number of such mathematical variants, spreading like the branches of a tree...."

I remember in the early 2000s reading a short story collection, a sci-fi book in the nanotech subgenre. One of the stories had something to do with organisms that would search for newer axiom systems in which they could thrive, somehow the more interesting, or rich, axiom systems being the ones that would give better survival odds. Does anyone remember the particulars of this story? I've been wanting to reread it for some time, but haven't been able to locate it.

I've always heard it called a "California stop."

Just teleport all the cars into the sun and be done with it. It's the only way to be sure.

Nice :-) I might make the King round though. Set it apart more.

XY-Write anyone?