Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 1h

Some day I'm going to have to sit down and think about why I think Euclid is magnificent and yet the pedagogy of high school trigonometry is so dreadful.

That's an excellent way to give a kid a useful toolbox for the rest of their life.

1

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 8h

I'm just a little way in, but the polka band doing Starman is delightful.

1

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 19h

No, thank you for pointing them out. I'll go listen.

1

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 19h

I am a cis het white dude and David Bowie is the hottest human to have ever lived.

3 2 120

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 21h

Except at least with outsourcing you're usually getting people who have...*some* idea how to write code? Not very well, sure, but at least they have a mental model of what a computer language *is* and some capacity to imagine what it is you need their part of the software to *do*.

2

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 22h

But it was also only $99.

I mean, I had the BASIC PROGRAMMING cartridge for Atari 2600 and it was amazing in that you had 63 bytes of RAM to work with and nevertheless the last demo program was a working Pong.

1

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah, that's just one of them.

1

Reposted by Adam Thornton

Joe Vilas @jhv.bsky.social · 1d

🧵 Thread: I know the USA has a reputation for, um, impolity: our citizens are sometimes considered rude or boorish abroad; our federal government is out of control. I like seeing No Kings protests internationally, but I think Canada & Mexico would be lining the borders w/ hate signs. I'm tired…

3 12 22

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 1d

Would you rather be in the woods and happen upon a) a bear, b) a man, or c) 1,324 unread emails?

2 4 68

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 1d

Oh I dunno you'd think being all about celebrating pedophilia should be pretty goddamn taboo too but here we are.

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 1d

California Games.

1

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 2d

Mine's from 1983, and while it hasn't been getting heavy use the last few decades, yep, still runs just fine. And 140K floppy disks have survived MUCH better than their 720K and 1440K counterparts.

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 3d

I've also invested barely any time into learning how to eat ground glass mixed with feces, and I'm OK with that too.

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 3d

Define your taste in books with 8 authors:

* Thomas Pynchon
* Gene Wolfe
* Ursula K. LeGuin
* Cormac McCarthy
* John Crowley
* David Foster Wallace
* Martha Wells
* Fritz Lieber

#BookSky

Hex @hexentart.bsky.social · 3d

Define your taste in books with 8 authors:

• Anne McCaffrey
• Terry Pratchett
• Alison Cochrun
• Darcy Coates
• T.J. Klune
• Anna Fury/Hazel Mack
• Lissa Kasey
• Robert Asprin

#BookSky
📚💙📚🌈📚🌶️📚🩸📚🪐📚⚡

geekycleary @geekycleary.bsky.social · 4d

Define your taste in books with 8 authors

• Becky Chambers
• Terry Pratchett
• Brandon Sanderson
• Lois McMaster Bujold
• T.J. Klune
• S.A. Chakraborty
• John Scalzi
• J.R.R. Tolkien

#BookSky 💙📚🪐

1 1 3

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 3d

Let's see how well the Roman Empire works with no bread and no circuses.

1

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 3d

I gotta admit it was very weird to be scrolling through Bluesky paying, like, a quarter attention at best, while watching a YouTube video. Then I looked back at the window and was like, "huh, that guy looks a lot like Tiago." Then I actually read the text.

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 3d

Is he *trying* to get himself martyred like John Paul I?

6

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 3d

Weird thing is, he got the Silicon Alley feel very right in _Bleeding Edge_; that's the only Pynchon setting I was in (or at least on the periphery of). I just didn't like it much.

1

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 3d

Those are also things you put in your mouth. Allowed.

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 3d

1. Gravity's Rainbow
2. Against the Day
3. V
4. Mason & Dixon
5. Lot 49
6. Vineland
7. Shadow Ticket? Not sure yet, maybe up or down one
8. Inherent Vice
9. Bleeding Edge

Not counting Slow Learner but it's near the bottom.

1 1

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 5d

Was this particular staffer one of the people on the Young Republicans group chat we learned about yesterday?

If not, why did nobody like him enough to send him an invitation?

1 14

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 5d

The twist, of course, is that that silent stranger standing in the background of the scene is *also* going to turn out to be a protagonist.

1

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 5d

I didn't know he died last year. Thanks for a little good news today.

1 1

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 8d

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

I can do three:

"UTC or TAI?"

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 8d

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

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 8d

"The chancellor approved it"

1 3

Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social · 8d

Fair enough.