Category Archives: Friday Notes
It has been a minute or two since the last Science Notes — this subset of Friday Notes where I share bits and pieces of science news that have caught my eye.
In fact, the last of these was back in October, and the reason I didn’t post sooner was that not many articles have caught my eye since. In part because I’ve found myself skipping more and more articles due to lack of interest.
I fear it’s also in part because science has become so broken these days, so lost in fantastical speculation that I’ve begun skipping articles in which the word “might” or “could” plays a prominent role.
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Leave a comment | tags: beer, conservative, education, liberal, Science Notes, sleep | posted in Science, Friday Notes
Pardon me for going momentarily meta, but these three-paragraph opens (hopefully with a pithy cliffhanger punchline for the third) are sometimes a real challenge. The intent is a recognizable style that acts like a watermark.
Some opens are more challenging than others, though. The right half-dozen or so sentences comprising three thoughts (with a hoped-for haiku-like third) can take forever to whip into shape.
Friday Notes are among the hardest because there isn’t much to say other than “here we go again…”
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11 Comments | tags: adaptations, AI, Bentley, Dogma (movie), opinions, seconds are long, Substack, weather | posted in Friday Notes
Today’s Friday Notes post is a small first — I’ve never published one on the sixth of the month (until today). A bit more significantly, this one is early in the month. I’ve discovered a strong bias towards publishing these posts in the latter half of the month: only 14 posts before the 16th of the month; 44 after (very close to exactly a 25/75 split).
As it turns out, I have plenty for a post (including some stuff left over from the previous post). And, of course, there’s always the weather and various other charts.
So, let’s get to it…
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11 Comments | tags: Grace Hopper, Steve Martin, snow, charts, weather, email spam, Richard Feynman, Martin Short | posted in Friday Notes
Winter announced itself a bit earlier than usual this year. In December it settled in with a fair bit of snow, though some warm spells melted a lot of it. We had our annual January Thaw but are in the deep freeze now.
Maybe it’s winter. Maybe it’s the insanity of the last decade catching up with me. I find myself decidedly in the blogging blahs (and fishing ain’t gonna help).
But let’s see if I can whip up another edition of Friday Notes.
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14 Comments | tags: atheists, cold, computer generated images, desktop, email spam, Schrödinger's Glass, snow, weather, winter | posted in Friday Notes
I meant to put out a rare early-in-the-month Friday Notes post this time but with one thing and another didn’t start on this until last week (on the very day I meant to post it). It’s true what they say about time passing faster when you’re older. In part because so much becomes known.
Novelty makes life richer — it’s one reason I love and pursue science and math. Endless new vistas to explore; always a new hill to climb.
And always new notes on the pile…
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15 Comments | tags: atoms, Bentley, Substack, time passing, Watching the Detectives, weather | posted in Friday Notes
This post begins with a bit of what I see as good news. We’re exactly one month away from Winter Solstice — December 21st at 15:03 UTC. That’s 9:03 AM USA Central Time, and I set posts to publish at 9:14 AM, so by the time you read this, it’s just under a month away.
Cue regular Solstice-Equinox reminder that the day-length changes very slowly at the Solstices and very rapidly at the Equinoxes [cue regular link: Solar Derivative].
Until then, here’s another edition of Friday Notes.
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5 Comments | tags: AI, Bentley, eagle, equinox, Python, snow, Solstice, squirrel, weather | posted in Computers, Friday Notes, Math
Fall — my favorite season ‘cept for the fading of the light — has fallen here in Minnesota, and our thoughts are turning towards the question of what kind of winter it will be: easy or miserable.
My winter is coming triple mile markers loom, the first dead ahead: Will it snow by Halloween? Will it snow by Thanksgiving? Will it snow by Christmas? Answers to all three vary depending on the whims of Mother Nature and her unexpected offspring, Climate Change.
In the meantime, here we are again for another edition of Friday Notes.
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17 Comments | tags: brown sugar, charts, Future Shock, math fun, Quadratic Equation, smoke alarm, stillness, weather | posted in Friday Notes, Math
This Science Notes series (a subset of the Friday Notes series) gives me a chance to record bits of science articles that catch my eye and seem worth sharing. I’ve been doing this since my library app provided access to a huge number of online magazines.
Nearly all of which don’t interest me — in some cases, seriously don’t interest me. Bridal and Fan magazines are an obvious example, but there are myriad magazines devoted to interests that don’t interest me at all.
But I do like the ones devoted to science, and some articles fit some receptor in my mind enough to generate a note.
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5 Comments | tags: gravity, human consciousness, infinity, lucid dreaming, real numbers, Science Notes | posted in Friday Notes, Science
I’ve been dog-sitting Ms. Bentley Beans since last Saturday. She’ll be hanging out with me until at least the first of October. We’ve been enjoying the fall weather, though it has actually been slightly muggy for late September. Not like the swamp of late summer, but enough to soak my tee-shirt and make Bentley pant a little during our walks.
As usual, I take Bentley’s visits as my own vacation and spend most of the time hanging out with her and catching up on reading and TV.
Sadly, Friday Notes won’t write themselves, so while Bentley snoozes, I blog.
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12 Comments | tags: Ai Safety, autumnal equinox, Bentley, Digi-Comp I, hail, Mandelbrot, Microsoft Windows, Timex Sinclair 1000, Ultra Fractal, weather | posted in Friday Notes
I’m beginning to think this Friday Notes series is a Sisyphean Mission. While I’ve managed to reduce the main pile of notes to almost nothing (or at least nothing I feel like writing about), there remain other piles.
Not to mention the way new notes constantly spring up like mushrooms in the shady damp part of the forest.
Fortunately, I enjoy writing these (in all honestly, because they’re easy to write). For a while, largely because of Substack, I thought they might end up being mostly what I posted here.
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6 Comments | tags: Dell Computers, disenvoweling, HP Computers, Kidde smoke alarms, Lenovo Computers, Leverage (TV series), Substack, weather | posted in Friday Notes
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