Dr. ir. Brian R. Pauw
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doc.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Dr. ir. Brian R. Pauw
@doc.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Against atrocities regardless of who carries them out. Malcontent, Small-angle Scatterer, Long-time blogger at http://lookingatnothing.com/ . Science, sailing, diving […]

🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://mastodon.social/@doc, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
Went bouldering for the first time in a long time. Was nice but still expensive, and I have lost a lot of strength. Not sure if I’ll take it up again regularly.
January 18, 2026 at 8:08 PM
Engineering Art:
January 15, 2026 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Dr. ir. Brian R. Pauw
RE: https://mastodon.social/@dangillmor/115896762629929197

#meta met 38 times with MEPs from the ECR, the Patriots and the Europe of Sovereign Nations Group.

#google has also not shied away from meeting far-right MEPs. A few days after the launch of the digital omnibus, the Head of Public […]
January 15, 2026 at 5:25 AM
I've been working on a traceable, modular method to process instrument data. It processes any data using interchangeable processing steps with units handling & (multiple!) uncertainty estimates.
It now outputs some interesting results, and I'm talking about the software design here […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
January 14, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Found a piece of engineering art: a CF flange with two tiny KF flanges welded to it, in the compactest possible configuration. Kudos to the welder for making this work.
January 13, 2026 at 8:22 PM
If the Nobel prizes are the Oscar’s of science, what are the Golden Globes of science? The Tony awards of science? The Academy awards of science? I get the impression we may be glorifying professional pretending more than professional wisdom-seeking… 🧪⚛️
January 12, 2026 at 6:12 AM
I think a good start might actually be for the EU members to station a battleship or two in front of Greenland right now. Show there’s going to be a bit more consequences than just politicians bloviating.
January 10, 2026 at 11:58 AM
Was getting fed up with our previous two Severin induction plates shorting out after one year. So this time I decided to test if pro models are better than the newer sibling. Cost 300 vs 70 Euro, and there’s a massive power difference. Will report back on the findings.
January 6, 2026 at 12:15 PM
Still one of the most elegant and enjoyable games in existence.
January 5, 2026 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Dr. ir. Brian R. Pauw
I have not updated my Starlink numbers in a while, and great flying fuckballs, is it ever bad. We are now up to 9,422 Starlink satellites in orbit, out of 14,046 total active satellites.

1,446 Starlinks have reentered and added their 500-1500kg of computers, batteries, solar panels, and […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
January 5, 2026 at 3:15 AM
Hmm. Outlook now says it's "(classic)". I dread the horrors that are on the horizon.
January 5, 2026 at 9:09 AM
Waking up and reading the news:
January 3, 2026 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by Dr. ir. Brian R. Pauw
Moai on the Lawn by Matt Morris in Waterloo, Canada! 😶‍🌫️

What is the best/most fun snow sculptures you made/seen?
I will put them in a post on streetartutopia.com

Fun With Snow (8 Photos): https://streetartutopia.com/2025/12/31/even-more-fun-with-snow-sculptures/
January 1, 2026 at 10:34 AM
Finally managed to get my stocking stuffer, looking forward to reading about your adventures, @uchujinfilms
December 24, 2025 at 3:31 PM
It's been one of those weeks. We've been hard at work on a temperature-jump experiment, but discovered trouble with the detector motions. Cue some troubleshooting and finding that a broken microswitch had broken some more, leading to some emergency X-ray surgery before the Christmas run. 🧪⚛️
December 20, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Immortal words from Tom Lehrer: "Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it"
December 14, 2025 at 5:42 PM
An update from my side on the lack of posts on my science blog 🧪⚛️:
https://lookingatnothing.com/index.php/archives/4666
Apologies for the radio silence..
Dear reader, It’s been very quiet the last few weeks on here. Reasons include (mental) health, high demands at work, perfectionism, and fear of discussing certain topics. On top of that are the increasing expectations I put on myself for these blog posts; I do not want to discuss a story until it is completely resolved, which then become enormous blog posts that drain energy and make me very reluctant to write another. I have at least half a dozen half-finished posts sitting and waiting for me to have another stab at them. So this is just a short, off-the-cuff post to let you know I am still alive, working hard on all kinds of interesting X-ray scattering topics, and that “normal” programming will resume shortly. I can’t wait to tell you all about all these things again, hopefully in shorter and less strenuous posts. Until then, I remain, Sincerely yours, Brian. p.s. while you wait, please enjoy this meme that I think came my way via Stefano Canossa. It addresses a certain pet peeve I used to have, but has been resolved thus:
lookingatnothing.com
December 13, 2025 at 9:31 AM
No expert, but maybe Inoreader?
December 7, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Sounds like a cult to me: "In an interview on CNBC, Alex Karp, Palantir’s chief executive, criticised Burry and other short-sellers for “trying to call the AI revolution into question”."

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/nov/05/global-stock-markets-fall-sharply-over-ai-bubble-fears
Global stock markets fall sharply over AI bubble fears
Drop in US, Asia and Europe follows warning from bank bosses that market correction could lie ahead
www.theguardian.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Thanks. I very quickly get irritated at train-of-thought-derailing user interface peculiarities.
Windows bugs the hell out of me very quick, but so does Linux: it has such poor user experience popping up distracting elements and with such a discordant mix of inconsistent design choices. Mac OS X […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
October 26, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Very niche, very cool.
October 26, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Do you want to produce exactly the same #mof #particles every time? Do you want to be able to control particle #size and size #distribution? Check out our latest manuscript on #chemrxiv!
More details in my blog post:
https://lookingatnothing.com/index.php/archives/4581
#metalorganicframeworks […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
October 18, 2025 at 9:29 AM
This absolutely insane gold price development makes me very worried that the economy is about to collapse. People are dumping their investments into a safe haven with a massive trade volume, and 100% increase in the last four years, with 20% just in the last […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
October 17, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Reposted by Dr. ir. Brian R. Pauw
EducationHow Many Countries Fit in Africa? Visualizing the Continent’s True Size
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-many-countries-fit-in-africa-visualizing-the-continents-true-size/
October 12, 2025 at 6:27 AM