Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 2h

I have watched this short video and I endorse this recommendation. Five minutes well spent.

Kate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 2d

this got recommended to me by YouTube, and it deserves to have one billion views, so I'm showing it to you in the hopes that you will also watch it and share it, because it is so lovely

youtu.be/bV-2KfJtthE?...

Steve, Socks, and Spleen Surgery - An Animated Story

YouTube video by william snekspeare

youtu.be

Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 1d

Jenrick complains that there are immigration judges (presumably he means the part-time ones) who spend the rest of their time representing immigrants.

Wait until someone tells him about Recorders (part-time Crown Court judges) who spend the rest of their time defending the accused.

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 1d

I did not know that there was such a thing as the Inverse Traveling Salesman Problem but here we are.

Ricardo Autobahn @ricardoautobahn.co.uk · 2d

This is the maddest tour I've ever seen in my life. It seems like he's doing more gigs than there are days in the year.

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Reposted by Major Clanger

Rhianna Pratchett @rhi.bsky.social · 2d

GNU Jilly Cooper. Jilly and dad were friends and the only person I’ve known to call him ‘Tel’. Hope they’re both having a big drink somewhere.

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 3d

That would be my even better example, yes. “Hmm, we’ve shot all the pigeons, it can’t be pigeon shit causing the excess noise in our antenna”.

Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 3d

I think the difference is that Fleming wasn’t looking for an an antibiotic (he was studying staphylococcus varieties) and his research came about after a chance fungal infection. Edison was aiming from the outset to develop a lightbulb.

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 3d

I read that to myself in Whiny Anakin Skywalker voice.

a man and a woman are sitting next to each other with the words i do n't like sand

ALT: a man and a woman are sitting next to each other with the words i do n't like sand

media.tenor.com

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 3d

As Isaac Asimov put it, ‘The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka” but “That’s funny...”’

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 3d

Serendipitous would be, for example, Fleming’s discovery of microbial antibiotics by noticing that mould contaminating a Petri dish had inhibited growth of a bacterial culture.

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 4d

For fans of writer Lois McMaster Bujold, 'shunned by Palantir as disreputable' has strong echoes of 'cashiered from the Barrayaran military for brutality'.

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 4d

Palantir has pulled out of involvement with the UK Digital ID card, according to an interview with their UK CEO on Times Radio. They’re concerned about the reputational damage of being involved with an unpopular Starmer policy.

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 6d

Back in the days of USENET and sci.military.naval we used to have the 'BB Loon', the sort of person who would post a long half-baked screed about how what the US Navy needed was BATTLESHIPS WITH MODERN TECH. I don't think anyone envisaged POTUS being one.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

Trump: "I think we should maybe start thinking about battleships, by the way. We have a Secretary of Navy who came to me, 'cause I look at the Iowa out in California and I look at different ships, the old pictures. I used to watch Victory at Sea. I love Victory at Sea. And I look at those ships... "

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 6d

"Siri, show me a picture of Little Boy and Fat Man."

mariewalsh18.bsky.social @mariewalsh18.bsky.social · 7d

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 6d

Yes, the Nimrod gave good service, but there were other aircraft that would arguably have made a better basis for ASR.381, and which wouldn't have been shackled by the Comet's design legacy. There's a reason why the RC-135 is still in service 71 years after the 367-80 first flew.

Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 6d

The Comet, or more specifically any derivative of it after 1960. It was a pioneering aircraft, but there are really good reasons why subsequent airliners used podded engines. Perpetuating a 1940s design into the 1960s (Nimrod MR1) was unwise, the 1980s (AEW) daft, and 200s (MR4) deranged.

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 6d

That is one of those questions that implicitly poses so, so many more questions.

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 7d

Hegseth comes across as one of those worryingly weird kids who got hold of "genuine SAS-issue" kit to wear to Army Cadets and would gleefully recount gruesome extracts from their collection of Sven Hassel books.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

Hegseth: "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement."

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 7d

Paging @ansiblemag.bsky.social - a belated entry for the in memoriam list?

Francesco Francavilla @ffrancavilla.bsky.social · 8d

Sad to hear about the passing of the Michelangelo of Movie posters, RENATO CASARO. The Man painted so many iconic posters, specially in the 70s/80s: CONAN, TERMINATOR, DUNE, TOTAL RECALL, DANCE WITH THE WOLVES, BLOW OUT, FLASH GORDON, RAMBO, NEVER-ENDING STORY, and the list goes on and on. 1/2

Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 7d

Private Eye is going to have to come up with a lot of little speech bubbles for its cover next week.

Dozens of generals and admirals, plus their senior NCO aides, stare stonily ahead or look at each other in disbelief at the Hesgeth / Trump briefing yesterday. At least one is facepalming.

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Reposted by Major Clanger

Simon Le Gross Bisson @sbisson.com · 8d

And this is the point when as someone who ran a dial up ISP in the mid-1990s, I turn to @marypcbuk.bsky.social and say "That's a US Robotics modem negotiating down from V.90 on a pretty shitty line... Probably to a bank of analog modems rather than an Ascend..."

Encyclopaedia Britannica @britannica.com · 8d

(solemnly) You've had mail.

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 7d

Now picturing a 2045 murder mystery where the police turn up at a retirement community of aging tech geeks with a recording of this weird sound nobody under 75 knows how to interpret…

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 9d

They call this the All Terrain Telescopic Platform and even abbreviate it to ATTP and yet they don't get someone in Imperial Stormtrooper armour to model it?

www.henchman.co.uk/products/all...