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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey

@beamjockey.bsky.social

910 followers 260 following 5.3K posts

Physicist at large. Speaker. Writer. Mono-instrumentalist. orcid.org/0000-0003-4608-8397 Avatar: Bill Heterodyne, smiling & tipping his boater, by Phil Foglio. Banner: Me, infinitely reflected in mirrors.

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 6h

I can't help but wonder uncomfortably if I am one of those people.

However, Bluesky tells me that you are followed by 72 people I follow in turn, including 11 I have met in person. So in my case, it's probably not much of a mystery.

Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 6h

It's possible that reading my thread about quench testing Tevatron magnets, written a few months ago, would entertain you.

Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · Dec 10

I have taken a ride in a hospital MRI machine a few times. One leaves all metal objects outside the MRI room. One fills out a lengthy questionnaire.

e.g. Any surgical implants?
Any body piercings?
Any pins, rods, screws, nails, plates, wires?

But there's a question they don't ask.

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 7h

Yes, the 1000 Tevatron magnets were designed to survive quenching—when something goes wrong and a portion becomes non-superconducting—on a regular basis.

Trouble is, it took hours of time for the refrigeration system to cool 'em back down again, so a major quench meant a long wait to resume beam.

Reposted by Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey

Kip Williams sort of @kipwilliams.bsky.social · 15h

Yippi-io-kiyay!

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 12h

You are Rochester, New York's most prominent interpreter of Hoyt Curtin's music.

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 15h

The very same. (Geneva outpost.)

Reposted by Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey

Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 16h

So many spectacular, kind, brave people who I've worked with for years being let go from JPL today. We will all be poorer for their absence from the forefront of human knowledge.

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 16h

I've seen a lot of news recently about how American Science Is Under Attack!—but even so, I wasn't expecting this:

#AmericanScienceAndSurplus

Car crashes into American Science & Surplus store in Geneva, Illinois

A car crashed into the American Science & Surplus store Monday afternoon in Geneva in Chicago's far western suburbs.

www.cbsnews.com

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Reposted by Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey

Patrick McCray @patrickmccray.bsky.social · 21h

I managed to get to my LoC office despite the shutdown. The vibe inside the library is quite weird - 50% post-rapture and 50% snow day.

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 1d

“Lesung,“ meaning “reading.”

Der Lesungsuchtpausestehtpunkt, according to Sherwood Smith, who coined the word for me.

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 1d

I particularly like this one.

Any guess as to the artist?

Reposted by Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey

Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 2d

Combining direct lighting - as Mark the Evangelist is demonstrating by using the illuminating dove - is great for targeted tasks and emphasizing details at your desk, while indirect lighting - see the open window - creates a warm and inviting environment. Bonus: your cat will like it. #catcontent

Mark the Evangelist working at a desk, and his lion is present. The lightning dove is flying above him. This image is also part of the 1530 bible print: https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0011/bsb00113027/images/index.html?fip=193.174.98.30&seite=89&pdfseitex=

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 1d

She had a busy appointment calendar that day.

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 2d

Can they get Dr Demento next week?

Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 2d

PRINCE VALIANT IN THE DAYS OF KING ARTHUR has been going since 1937 and is claimed to be running in 300 newspapers. (An up-to-date figure resists hasty googling.)

How old is King Arthur now? How old is Val?

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 2d

Is there still time?

Photo of an outsize statue of square-jawed comic strip detective Dick Tracy, feet wide apart, his yellow overcoat whipped by the wind. He holds his left wrist before his face, speaking into his famous 2-Way Wrist Radio. He wears a coat and tie, and a yellow fedora hat. The statue is about 3 meters tall. Beside it stands a human man, about 1.7 meters tall, wearing a similar green fedora. He has pale skin, dark hair, and a gray beard. He wears a green polo shirt, black trousers, and glasses. The statue of Dick Tracy, in Naperville, Illinois, commemorates his creator comics artist, Chester Gould. The human is me, Bill Higgins. Photo copyright 2017 by William S. Higgins.

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 2d

New Bic 4-Color pens!

You know how the company's logo includes a little person with a big pen and a ballpoint head?

In this latest variation, a tiny silhouette of the character is molded into the handle.

Reminds me of that Dustin Hoffman movie from the Seventies.
You remember—Little Bic Man?

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 2d

Ah, Trump may own the Libs, but the question we’re all wondering about is:
Will Trump be clever enough to sell before the bottom drops out of the Libs market?

Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 2d

Great! Now do Prince Valiant.

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Reposted by Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey

70s Sci-Fi Art @70sscifiart.bsky.social · 2d

Last chance to sign up for my art blog newsletter before the next issue's out tomorrow, all about spaceships with clear windshields! 70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io

Here's a sneak peek, featuring four Tim White artworks.

A small, golden egg-shaped craft is empty, with windows and an open door. It's hovering a foot above the ground in a pink-purple alien forest.

A yellow flying saucer hovers above a small green island in a blue sea. Three figures look out of a clear glass dome in the center.

Three figures lounge on a sci-fi couch looking out the green bay window of a big saucer-shaped spaceship, with an entire brown city visible below.

The backs of two seated figures are visible through the window of a small silver spaceship as it flies over an island lagoon.

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 2d

Caption contest: What is the bear saying to the rhino?

Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 2d

I’m partial to John Oliver.

Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 2d

“In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.”

A Full House Quench.

Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 3d

I like all of these but I think mine might be (and only 3 words): DROP & RUN

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 3d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 3d

He seemed to have his mathematical fingers in every 20th-Century pie.

#vonNeumann

Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 3d

A couple good ones I have enjoyed recently are

THE MAN FROM THE FUTURE: THE VISIONARY IDEAS OF JOHN VON NEUMANN by Ananyo Bhattacharya

and

A MIND AT PLAY: HOW CLAUDE SHANNON INVENTED THE INFORMATION AGE by Jimmy Soni & Rob Goodman.

Cover of THE MAN FROM THE FUTURE showing a photo of John von Neumann's face against an abstract background of geometric shapes and diagrams.

Cover of A MIND AT PLAY showing a photo of Claude Shannon, a notebook open on his lap, against a background of graph paper, upon which is drawn a complicated electronic circuit.

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