rob mahurin
@robtasm.bsky.social
I am large. I contain multitudes.
HE-HIM-MAN
People Are Big Mad About He-Man Having Pronouns
People Are Big Mad About He-Man Having Pronouns
A joke in the new 'Masters of the Universe' trailer plays into a familiar online grift.
gizmodo.com
January 23, 2026 at 7:53 PM
HE-HIM-MAN
My physics students know this: if the units are wrong, the answer is wrong.
If the units are missing, the units are wrong.
If the units are implicit, the units are missing.
If the units are missing, the units are wrong.
If the units are implicit, the units are missing.
If you're writing API documentation, always specify units for duration parameters.
Not just "timeout: 30" but "timeout: 30 seconds" or better yet name the parameter if you can "timeout_in_seconds"
Not just "timeout: 30" but "timeout: 30 seconds" or better yet name the parameter if you can "timeout_in_seconds"
January 22, 2026 at 7:54 PM
My physics students know this: if the units are wrong, the answer is wrong.
If the units are missing, the units are wrong.
If the units are implicit, the units are missing.
If the units are missing, the units are wrong.
If the units are implicit, the units are missing.
Reposted by rob mahurin
Last year I had a job as a paid singer in a church choir. A parishioner sat in the balcony near the choir with a handgun tucked in the back of his waistband. I walked out.
As a singer I've visited probably 200–300 churches in my life. At least two have later been the sites of mass murders. Insane.
As a singer I've visited probably 200–300 churches in my life. At least two have later been the sites of mass murders. Insane.
January 22, 2026 at 7:03 PM
Last year I had a job as a paid singer in a church choir. A parishioner sat in the balcony near the choir with a handgun tucked in the back of his waistband. I walked out.
As a singer I've visited probably 200–300 churches in my life. At least two have later been the sites of mass murders. Insane.
As a singer I've visited probably 200–300 churches in my life. At least two have later been the sites of mass murders. Insane.
The name of this animal, "oreodont," means "cookie tooth," referring specifically to the evidence that their teeth were sturdy on the outside but contained a creme filling.
Oreodonts are extinct mammals that looked similar to pigs and sheep, but were more closely related to camels. They are the most commonly found fossil in the White River Badlands in South Dakota, and this exceptional specimen from our collection shows an oreodont curled up inside its burrow.
January 18, 2026 at 11:51 PM
The name of this animal, "oreodont," means "cookie tooth," referring specifically to the evidence that their teeth were sturdy on the outside but contained a creme filling.
In the 1930s, shoe stores had x-ray machines as a marketing gimmick. You would try on the shoe and then stand in the x-ray machine to see how it fit. Kids loved this gimmick and would stick their hands in the machines to watch their bones wiggle.
See also cocaine in Coca-Cola, lithium in 7up, etc.
See also cocaine in Coca-Cola, lithium in 7up, etc.
Also, that x-ray analogy is perfect. I spent much of my time warning about all the ways things could go *wrong*. One conclusion I can give - at the very least, LLMs as a mass market tool have way more ways they can go wrong than ways they can go right. Just like an x-ray machine in every home could.
January 18, 2026 at 11:32 PM
In the 1930s, shoe stores had x-ray machines as a marketing gimmick. You would try on the shoe and then stand in the x-ray machine to see how it fit. Kids loved this gimmick and would stick their hands in the machines to watch their bones wiggle.
See also cocaine in Coca-Cola, lithium in 7up, etc.
See also cocaine in Coca-Cola, lithium in 7up, etc.
I don't ordinarily dignify chatbot-generated art with a response, but this disaster of "please draw a thermometer" is particularly amusing.
If you're a person for whom credibility is important, you gotta check that you're not putting slop out there.
If you're a person for whom credibility is important, you gotta check that you're not putting slop out there.
THE HEAT IS NOT NORMAL.
We just shattered another global heat record. This isn't "just summer." This is fossil-fueled climate breakdown.
Our leaders are negotiating terms while our planet burns.
#ClimateEmergency #Heatwave
We just shattered another global heat record. This isn't "just summer." This is fossil-fueled climate breakdown.
Our leaders are negotiating terms while our planet burns.
#ClimateEmergency #Heatwave
January 17, 2026 at 11:08 PM
I don't ordinarily dignify chatbot-generated art with a response, but this disaster of "please draw a thermometer" is particularly amusing.
If you're a person for whom credibility is important, you gotta check that you're not putting slop out there.
If you're a person for whom credibility is important, you gotta check that you're not putting slop out there.
Started watching The Office with a person who manages about a hundred employees but has somehow never seen more than snippets of the TV show.
Her horrified gasps are honestly funnier than what's onscreen.
Her horrified gasps are honestly funnier than what's onscreen.
January 17, 2026 at 11:01 PM
Started watching The Office with a person who manages about a hundred employees but has somehow never seen more than snippets of the TV show.
Her horrified gasps are honestly funnier than what's onscreen.
Her horrified gasps are honestly funnier than what's onscreen.
The hypothetical baby from the "dancing baby" meme (created 1995, widespread in 1996, on Ally McBeal in 1998) is old enough to serve in the US Senate, but not quite old enough to serve as US President.
i thought inside (2007) was kind of silly, but i think it's cool they got the dancing baby to come out of retirement for it
January 17, 2026 at 1:56 AM
The hypothetical baby from the "dancing baby" meme (created 1995, widespread in 1996, on Ally McBeal in 1998) is old enough to serve in the US Senate, but not quite old enough to serve as US President.
I followed a few accounts that post climate data. Now when I look at the Discover feed, there's usually an out-of-date daily weather forecast for a place where I don't live, like Ontario or Cambodia.
January 15, 2026 at 5:22 AM
I followed a few accounts that post climate data. Now when I look at the Discover feed, there's usually an out-of-date daily weather forecast for a place where I don't live, like Ontario or Cambodia.
furious that this animal isn't called a "septopus"
[reads link]
PSEUDOSEPTOPUS
[reads link]
PSEUDOSEPTOPUS
January 9, 2026 at 3:35 PM
furious that this animal isn't called a "septopus"
[reads link]
PSEUDOSEPTOPUS
[reads link]
PSEUDOSEPTOPUS
This is substantially nicer than what it looks like when I take notes.
While I'm laid up, I'm catching up on reading and note-taking. Here's what I jotted down from chapters 2-4 of @markwitton.bsky.social's "King Tyrant" before I had to take it back to the library.
January 4, 2026 at 9:15 PM
This is substantially nicer than what it looks like when I take notes.
As an analogy to this bogus anthropomorphism, I am imagining a big oil company responding to a spill with a statement like "I'm very sorry that my safety failures have led to this environmental disaster."
Then, when people take the statements at face value, a debate about corporate personhood.
Then, when people take the statements at face value, a debate about corporate personhood.
This is a thread of major media outlets falsely anthropomorphising the "Grok" chatbot program and in doing so, actively and directly removing responsibility and accountability from individual people working at X who created a child pornography generator (Elon Musk, Nikita Bier etc)
#1: Reuters
#1: Reuters
January 2, 2026 at 8:22 PM
As an analogy to this bogus anthropomorphism, I am imagining a big oil company responding to a spill with a statement like "I'm very sorry that my safety failures have led to this environmental disaster."
Then, when people take the statements at face value, a debate about corporate personhood.
Then, when people take the statements at face value, a debate about corporate personhood.
Here's a fun old paper about an early take on whether maybe Einstein's proposal that our universe is the three-dimensional surface of a four-dimensional ball is present in Dante.
⚛️🧪
⚛️🧪
January 2, 2026 at 4:06 PM
Here's a fun old paper about an early take on whether maybe Einstein's proposal that our universe is the three-dimensional surface of a four-dimensional ball is present in Dante.
⚛️🧪
⚛️🧪
The way to avoid AI hallucinations is to ask for *sources which address your question*, rather than just asking for the answer to your question directly.
A wrong answer pollutes the memory; a wrong citation just wastes a few minutes' search.
A wrong answer pollutes the memory; a wrong citation just wastes a few minutes' search.
January 2, 2026 at 5:49 AM
The way to avoid AI hallucinations is to ask for *sources which address your question*, rather than just asking for the answer to your question directly.
A wrong answer pollutes the memory; a wrong citation just wastes a few minutes' search.
A wrong answer pollutes the memory; a wrong citation just wastes a few minutes' search.
For the new year, I replaced the moldy jack-o'-lantern outside the apartment below mine with a can of pumpkin with a face drawn on it in marker.
December 30, 2025 at 4:47 AM
For the new year, I replaced the moldy jack-o'-lantern outside the apartment below mine with a can of pumpkin with a face drawn on it in marker.
Announced that I once slept on a caught.
Now everyone finally agrees that I do *not* have that particular vowel merger.
Now everyone finally agrees that I do *not* have that particular vowel merger.
December 21, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Announced that I once slept on a caught.
Now everyone finally agrees that I do *not* have that particular vowel merger.
Now everyone finally agrees that I do *not* have that particular vowel merger.
The part of me that wants to have geologists' lore about minerals at my fingertips is not DESPERATELY CURIOUS about other interesting minerals that fossils can become.
#FossilFriday Stack of opalised vertebrae from an Early Cretaceous ichthyosaur. Another remarkable fossil on display in the South Australia Museum, Adelaide.
December 19, 2025 at 11:56 PM
The part of me that wants to have geologists' lore about minerals at my fingertips is not DESPERATELY CURIOUS about other interesting minerals that fossils can become.
I learned today that the Python library "Textual" has (a) a nice set of tools for building terminal-based user interfaces, but also (b) a companion library that will serve your application as a responsive web page with those same keyboard and mouse interactions.
Cooooooool
Cooooooool
Textual - Home
Textual is a TUI framework for Python, inspired by modern web development.
textual.textualize.io
December 19, 2025 at 11:39 PM
I learned today that the Python library "Textual" has (a) a nice set of tools for building terminal-based user interfaces, but also (b) a companion library that will serve your application as a responsive web page with those same keyboard and mouse interactions.
Cooooooool
Cooooooool
Watch the reflection of the sun move from the center of the field of view to the Indian Ocean and become an ocean sunset thousands of miles across.
Then, because it's solstice season, the twilight zips around Antarctica on its way to becoming the dawn.
🔭
Then, because it's solstice season, the twilight zips around Antarctica on its way to becoming the dawn.
🔭
December 12, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Watch the reflection of the sun move from the center of the field of view to the Indian Ocean and become an ocean sunset thousands of miles across.
Then, because it's solstice season, the twilight zips around Antarctica on its way to becoming the dawn.
🔭
Then, because it's solstice season, the twilight zips around Antarctica on its way to becoming the dawn.
🔭
A company whose full-time employees qualify for welfare should have to pay 200% of the benefit as a tax penalty.
The Boston Globe identified the companies in Massachusetts that employ the most SNAP recipients. A key stat: "In Massachusetts, 74% of working-age recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are employed, half of them full-time."
Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...
Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...
November 29, 2025 at 11:00 PM
A company whose full-time employees qualify for welfare should have to pay 200% of the benefit as a tax penalty.
Reposted by rob mahurin
Hey fun fact google thanatophobia
October 27, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Hey fun fact google thanatophobia
I really enjoyed this visualization of polynomial coefficients and solutions animated together in the complex plane … with some serious reservations, described below.
1/🧵
1/🧵
There is NO Quintic Formula
YouTube video by 2swap
youtu.be
November 29, 2025 at 6:29 AM
I really enjoyed this visualization of polynomial coefficients and solutions animated together in the complex plane … with some serious reservations, described below.
1/🧵
1/🧵
"It wrong," is what they are doing. They are doing it wrong.
What the actual fuck is Statista doing with this graph?
November 29, 2025 at 1:51 AM
"It wrong," is what they are doing. They are doing it wrong.
In quantum optics, light with "left circular polarization" is made of photons which have "right-handed helicity."
I bet lots of technical fields have these sorts of context-dependent contranyms.
I bet lots of technical fields have these sorts of context-dependent contranyms.
I have learned that in machine learning sparsity is measured as 'fraction of zeros', as in sparsity=0.9 means very sparse. Whereas in neuroscience sparsity is measured as 'fraction of non-zeros', so sparsity=0.1 would be very sparse
not sure what to do with this discovery but there you go
not sure what to do with this discovery but there you go
November 26, 2025 at 11:00 PM
In quantum optics, light with "left circular polarization" is made of photons which have "right-handed helicity."
I bet lots of technical fields have these sorts of context-dependent contranyms.
I bet lots of technical fields have these sorts of context-dependent contranyms.
This isn't a pun. It is a crime.
I love the sound of rolling out a thin carpet on top of a shelf.
“On a Mat Up ‘ere?”
“No, it sounds nothing like it’s name”. #LunchPun
“On a Mat Up ‘ere?”
“No, it sounds nothing like it’s name”. #LunchPun
November 25, 2025 at 4:25 PM
This isn't a pun. It is a crime.