spontaneous symmetry breakdance
@t8erboi.bsky.social
a.k.a. Matt. Physicist, conformal bootstrapper, and #1 Leonid Kantorovich respecter. Idaho → Colorado → Connecticut → Italy. he/him.
Unionize the radiation lab!
Unionize the radiation lab!
"Show up to the airport 3 hours early" GF vs "Treat every trip like it's a game of Jet Lag" BF.
December 11, 2025 at 2:13 PM
"Show up to the airport 3 hours early" GF vs "Treat every trip like it's a game of Jet Lag" BF.
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Didn't even want to get into this but yeah the dyslexia justification is kinda bullshit
Sans serif fonts suck and the claim they are more accessible is pseudoscience bullshit.
bsky.app/profile/nwbv...
bsky.app/profile/nwbv...
With the news that the State Department is going back to Times New Roman, calling the move to Calibri a "wasteful diversity move", reupping this. With an administration this bad it's important to highlight the few good things they do.
standard-out.com/2023/01/18/s...
standard-out.com/2023/01/18/s...
December 11, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Didn't even want to get into this but yeah the dyslexia justification is kinda bullshit
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Oh is she moving into secondary schools?
New - Bonnie Blue nails her colours to the mast, writing in The Spectator:
“Reform has sensible positions on immigration and inheritance tax, so I stand with Nigel Farage.”
“Reform has sensible positions on immigration and inheritance tax, so I stand with Nigel Farage.”
December 11, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Oh is she moving into secondary schools?
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"Something simple as a crackpipe ... make this a conversation starter."
For example watch this video from the 2 minute mark, where Adams explains how to search your child's room for weapons and drugs. Comedy gold
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk2W...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk2W...
Sen. Eric Adams: Combating Gun Violence
YouTube video by New York Daily News
www.youtube.com
December 11, 2025 at 11:39 AM
"Something simple as a crackpipe ... make this a conversation starter."
Yes… Ha ha ha… Yes!
December 10, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Yes… Ha ha ha… Yes!
David Tong's gauge theory notes. Weinberg is a close second.
omg. Kat Abughazaleh just posted that if she's elected, she'll swear in on a copy of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower.
If you were elected to public office (never mind whether you'd ever actually run), what book would you swear in on?
If you were elected to public office (never mind whether you'd ever actually run), what book would you swear in on?
December 10, 2025 at 9:42 PM
David Tong's gauge theory notes. Weinberg is a close second.
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It's very banal but I think the right synthesis here is:
1. moderation has electoral benefits
2. other things also have electoral benefits (incl. getting policy calls right, anticipating shifts in public opinion, generating shifts in public opinion)
3. sometimes there are tradeoffs between 1 and 2
1. moderation has electoral benefits
2. other things also have electoral benefits (incl. getting policy calls right, anticipating shifts in public opinion, generating shifts in public opinion)
3. sometimes there are tradeoffs between 1 and 2
i have no issues with arguing that moderation does have beneficial effects. my issue here is that bazelon and the entire orbit of boosters (like Matt) around him are paying absolutely no attention to what happened to Labour
i've said it before but this is the post that makes me think the centrist strategist wing of American politics is cooked
December 10, 2025 at 2:26 PM
It's very banal but I think the right synthesis here is:
1. moderation has electoral benefits
2. other things also have electoral benefits (incl. getting policy calls right, anticipating shifts in public opinion, generating shifts in public opinion)
3. sometimes there are tradeoffs between 1 and 2
1. moderation has electoral benefits
2. other things also have electoral benefits (incl. getting policy calls right, anticipating shifts in public opinion, generating shifts in public opinion)
3. sometimes there are tradeoffs between 1 and 2
My more serious position on liberal arts education is "shut up, academia has huge positive externalities and you're still getting the college wage premium. Stop looking a gift horse in the mouth while republicans are trying to slaughter it."
Nah, the point of humanities gen-ed classes is to teach you concrete skills. Science gen-eds are what make you a better person.
there is not any particularly strong evidence that study of the humanities make people good people. the elites of many brutal empires were extremely well-read!
December 10, 2025 at 12:23 PM
My more serious position on liberal arts education is "shut up, academia has huge positive externalities and you're still getting the college wage premium. Stop looking a gift horse in the mouth while republicans are trying to slaughter it."
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my take on fonts is that using either Times New Roman or Calibri as the official font for government documents is insane. you should have a government font that the government commissions and thus places in the public domain. it's like if every government memo was stamped with a Microsoft watermark.
December 10, 2025 at 1:55 AM
my take on fonts is that using either Times New Roman or Calibri as the official font for government documents is insane. you should have a government font that the government commissions and thus places in the public domain. it's like if every government memo was stamped with a Microsoft watermark.
Their justification is fucking insane, you don't have to hand it to them, etc, etc, but tbh I've always felt like a humanist sans was unbecoming of government work.
Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move
Rubio Stages Font Coup: Times New Roman Ousts Calibri
The secretary of state called it a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.
www.huffpost.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Their justification is fucking insane, you don't have to hand it to them, etc, etc, but tbh I've always felt like a humanist sans was unbecoming of government work.
Made a post advertising the Nix packages in our collaboration slack. No one has responded to it or indicated that it solved one of their problems.
Thank god.
Thank god.
Nix is kind of the apotheosis of this, in that it:
- Has probably saved me a month of work
- Took me most of the week to learn
- Would've taken me a few hours to learn, if anyone had bothered to write a half-decent tutorial
- Has probably saved me a month of work
- Took me most of the week to learn
- Would've taken me a few hours to learn, if anyone had bothered to write a half-decent tutorial
This is a cold take, but the only problem with functional programming is that it selects for people who are terrible at (or uninterested in) writing documentation.
December 9, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Made a post advertising the Nix packages in our collaboration slack. No one has responded to it or indicated that it solved one of their problems.
Thank god.
Thank god.
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People wonder why the criminal justice system has a massive pseudoscience problem and then you'll see a tweet like this
Is it too much to ask to get a criminal justice degree without having to also be required to spend $800 to balance chemical equations for some reason? The election valence of Mercury is irrelevant. It’s useful to someone, but it’s not useful to me.
December 9, 2025 at 10:46 PM
People wonder why the criminal justice system has a massive pseudoscience problem and then you'll see a tweet like this
Nah, the point of humanities gen-ed classes is to teach you concrete skills. Science gen-eds are what make you a better person.
there is not any particularly strong evidence that study of the humanities make people good people. the elites of many brutal empires were extremely well-read!
December 9, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Nah, the point of humanities gen-ed classes is to teach you concrete skills. Science gen-eds are what make you a better person.
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I get median voters (derogatory) eat this shit up but in Anglo countries the people in control absolutely are not experts in some lab somewhere. They’re law school professors with basically zero subject matter expertise lmfao.
December 9, 2025 at 7:33 PM
I get median voters (derogatory) eat this shit up but in Anglo countries the people in control absolutely are not experts in some lab somewhere. They’re law school professors with basically zero subject matter expertise lmfao.
Every time I see this quote, I get irrationally angry at the extraneous "the". It was close to common meter. And yet.
Lmfao how did I not know/remember that this is the context of the most joker-meme JBP quote, and how is it that Nuzzi put it in her book?
December 9, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Every time I see this quote, I get irrationally angry at the extraneous "the". It was close to common meter. And yet.
Should clarify that I'm still on the pro-virtue-signalling train. Good things are good even if they're not "authentic."
But it's worth distinguishing between real virtue for the purpose of signalling, and empty signalling as a substitute for virtue.
But it's worth distinguishing between real virtue for the purpose of signalling, and empty signalling as a substitute for virtue.
Though to the extent anyone besides the right deserves blame here, it's administrators. Many of them went in hard on transparently stupid and ineffectual DEI policies, so they could (a) make it less obvious that they were doing nothing about sexual harassment, and (b) look hip to 18-year-olds.
December 9, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Should clarify that I'm still on the pro-virtue-signalling train. Good things are good even if they're not "authentic."
But it's worth distinguishing between real virtue for the purpose of signalling, and empty signalling as a substitute for virtue.
But it's worth distinguishing between real virtue for the purpose of signalling, and empty signalling as a substitute for virtue.
The incentives for colleges to min-max their admission/yield rates are just fucked, dude. What else can you even say about this?
Can Universities Help Students Become Influencers?
Syracuse’s new Center for the Creator Economy and other certificates aim to help students pursue what is now one of the most common career aspirations for Gen Z: social media content creation. https://bit.ly/4a4dzcr
#EDUSky #AcademicSky
Syracuse’s new Center for the Creator Economy and other certificates aim to help students pursue what is now one of the most common career aspirations for Gen Z: social media content creation. https://bit.ly/4a4dzcr
#EDUSky #AcademicSky
December 9, 2025 at 1:37 PM
The incentives for colleges to min-max their admission/yield rates are just fucked, dude. What else can you even say about this?
CU's physics building is right next to the stadium. Back when I was a student there, I used to root against the football team because it was near-impossibly to get into my office on game days.
I stand by this decision.
I stand by this decision.
"well, we lost $27 million this year, but we expect to balance the budget next year" riiiiighht. Oh, and in the article, they say CU won't cut sports or resources for student-athletes but will rather cut "expenses” 🙄
December 8, 2025 at 8:28 PM
CU's physics building is right next to the stadium. Back when I was a student there, I used to root against the football team because it was near-impossibly to get into my office on game days.
I stand by this decision.
I stand by this decision.
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tbc, it’s not mutually exclusive that weirdo online tradcaths are telling on themselves that they don’t get invited to house parties and that there *are*, based on statistical estimates, fewer house parties than there used to be and we should change that
Terminally online Right wingers are telling on themselves
December 8, 2025 at 8:08 PM
tbc, it’s not mutually exclusive that weirdo online tradcaths are telling on themselves that they don’t get invited to house parties and that there *are*, based on statistical estimates, fewer house parties than there used to be and we should change that
"Universities are not responsible for the attacks on academia" is true at the macro level.
But "reduce your carbon footprint" is bad climate policy at the macro level, and it doesn't mean you can't get mad at the guys rolling coal.
But "reduce your carbon footprint" is bad climate policy at the macro level, and it doesn't mean you can't get mad at the guys rolling coal.
December 8, 2025 at 7:34 PM
"Universities are not responsible for the attacks on academia" is true at the macro level.
But "reduce your carbon footprint" is bad climate policy at the macro level, and it doesn't mean you can't get mad at the guys rolling coal.
But "reduce your carbon footprint" is bad climate policy at the macro level, and it doesn't mean you can't get mad at the guys rolling coal.
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I'm developing a kind of cosmopolitan-chauvinism, I guess you could call it anti-feudalism, as a through line in my politics. The peasant-brained and the local landed gentry are the enemy. Sort of funny that this could describe being either rabidly capitalist or communist.
December 8, 2025 at 6:16 PM
I'm developing a kind of cosmopolitan-chauvinism, I guess you could call it anti-feudalism, as a through line in my politics. The peasant-brained and the local landed gentry are the enemy. Sort of funny that this could describe being either rabidly capitalist or communist.
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I don't think the two are really separable. Ever since the New Left, liberalism has been a political movement by and for lawyers. That comes with certain quirks that are coming home to roost
sometimes people take specific Dems doing dumb things as a pretext to impugn all of liberalism but I really do think this points to a crisis of principles in the mid-to-upper levels of the caucus
December 8, 2025 at 4:10 PM
I don't think the two are really separable. Ever since the New Left, liberalism has been a political movement by and for lawyers. That comes with certain quirks that are coming home to roost
Currently recovering from jet lag while out of both ADHD meds and melatonin. Feels oddly nostalgic, like I'm 22 again and barely holding my life together.
December 8, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Currently recovering from jet lag while out of both ADHD meds and melatonin. Feels oddly nostalgic, like I'm 22 again and barely holding my life together.
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Their explicit case to shareholders is that the president is in their pocket and will try to block Netflix, so you might as well cave and take our offer, which will pay out faster.
Trump has become their corporate thug.
Trump has become their corporate thug.
December 8, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Their explicit case to shareholders is that the president is in their pocket and will try to block Netflix, so you might as well cave and take our offer, which will pay out faster.
Trump has become their corporate thug.
Trump has become their corporate thug.