Joshua Loftus

@joft.bsky.social

1894 Followers 330 Following

recently I have taken naps for the first time since I was baby

Classic meme that says "Drink coffee. Do stupid things faster with more energy" but it says "Use generative AI" instead
Graph of average steps per month. Drops in May from about 11000 to about 5000
google's "AI" confidently stating that the M1 is a motorway connecting Belfast to Derry
Caption of New York Times reporter pointing out the new US tariffs will be applied to a remote island with no human inhabitants
Pooja and I had a ~near death experience, and didn't even know it at the time. We were on a flight that got diverted. An hour or two after takeoff, the seat screens all went blank. Crew announced over the speakers that there was an electrical short in a business class seat, they turned off all the other seats as a precaution, and we were going to land at the nearest airport. No more explanation. We thought they might be overreacting, because everything seemed normal aside from the entertainment screens. Why land? Now we were going to be delayed. We had an unplanned layover and got home later, tired. The next day, we found out from reddit posts by other people who were on our flight that there had actually been a fire. The first class seat didn't just short circuit, it started a fire. That's not something you want to have on a plane, not even when it's on the ground never mind when it's at cruising altitude. I guess it didn't spread much because nobody was hurt? But the crew used up the fire extinguishers(!) and apparently started pouring water bottles(!!) before the fire was out. I'm profoundly grateful for the actions of the crew, that nobody was hurt, and especially that our plane didn't blow up in the sky. Even so, so much has happened in the news since then that I've almost forgotten our near death experience. Yet it serves as both a metaphor and a specific reference point related to the news. I'll end with the metaphor, hopefully you'll see why.
Highlighted passage reads "... the simple-mindedness of mathematics–its willingness, like that of a computing machine, to elaborate upon any idea, however absurd; to dress scientific brilliancies and scientific absurdities alike in the impressive uniform of formulae and theorems. Unfortunately however, an absurdity in uniform is far more persuasive than an absurdity unclad."
Graphs show trends described in the post and in the linked paper and supplement
A scatterplot shows a cloud of points and a curve fitting through the middle of the cloud. The curve is being pulled by springs attached to each point. Springs for points farther from the curve are stretched longer and hence pull with greater force.