attenuated.bsky.social
Nebula guy. Astronomy and physics, teaching, books, games, no politics right now if I can help it.
236 posts
147 followers
247 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
Hard agree. That was a frustrating watch.
comment in response to
post
The two people holding modern compund bows? 😁
comment in response to
post
That's the second time *today* I've seen that account doing malicious shit.
comment in response to
post
Yeah, brainnotonyet has added you to a bunch of his lists she's subscribed to. E.g
comment in response to
post
And that, sadly, is why you've got to be super careful with blocklists. It's giving other people power over your feed, and lots of people become petty little tyrants at the first whiff of power over others. What a little shit that guy is.
comment in response to
post
Yeah, this is something @catsofyore.bsky.social has (rightly) been petitioning the dev team about for some time. There really needs to be a way to make sure repliers ahve actually read the whole thread.
comment in response to
post
One of many reasons not to take film critics seriously.
comment in response to
post
Literally a study just came out showing that using ChatGPT for 4 months reduces brain connectivity by about 47% on average.
Source: arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872
comment in response to
post
These are a great read (that I read because of one of your earlier giveaways, in fact). Highly recommended!
comment in response to
post
Best one yet! Where the heck did you get dice beads?!
comment in response to
post
She moved to Toronto. So the "lesson of 1933" is that you move to the Sudetenland?
comment in response to
post
I knew you were a man of taste and sophistication.
comment in response to
post
This one's going on the classroom door, no question.
comment in response to
post
I utterly adore the animated film but yes, please let this tank. No one needs more of these creatively defunct exercises in IP money-grubbing.
comment in response to
post
It's an idea that's been tackled in several different ways and this is by far my favorite of the lot.
comment in response to
post
I love the hell out of these and really wish more were forthcoming.
comment in response to
post
Always worth clarifying but yeah, those of us that follow you are well aware of how seriously you take this virus.
Also, for whatever its worth, this (very non-biologist) scientist really appreciates the amount of effort you put into getting the biology right in your work.
comment in response to
post
Glad to see I'm not the only one whose hackles got raised by that.
comment in response to
post
That would be a very strange way to take your statement, being as COVID is never going to be "over." I sincerely hope no one is still waiting for some sort of end state where it goes away.
comment in response to
post
I think it depends a lot on the age of your kids, too. I was watching with a pretty small one and (my own fault) wasn't expecting anything like that. It is, as you say, utterly heartbreaking footage. Anyway, yes, give it a bit and we get to "recovery is possible and here's how" which is great.
comment in response to
post
There very much is an optimistic turn but it takes a bit to get there. I ran into the same watching-with kids issue and had to skip ahead quite a bit.
comment in response to
post
Thank you for the reply. I haven't read that short story (clearly an omission I need to correct) so didn't catch the reference.
comment in response to
post
I loved these books but I seem to have missed the "retelling of a classic short story" aspect. Can you clue me in?
comment in response to
post
"Science Communicator" and "Research Academic" are fundamentally different jobs requiring fundamentally different skill sets. Science communication is critically important right now, especially in social media, but that doesn't mean prolific research academics are the best people for the job.
comment in response to
post
Scalzi's cats actually have their own account, too: @scamperbeasts.bsky.social
comment in response to
post
Shit, I wasn't aware of that. What are they doing?
comment in response to
post
Thanks! I was looking at a DRM'd book and didn't see any indication, but I suppose the absence of that "unlocked" iconography is the warning.
comment in response to
post
Not that I can find, unfortunately, so (for now at least) I've had to stop buying from Bookshop.
And I understand completely about Amazon. At the moment I buy my ebooks from Kobo. I'd rather support my local bookstore through Bookshop but can't until/unless this policy changes.
comment in response to
post
It does not appear to be possible to download DRM'd books from them, which is frustrating. DRM-free books have a download option, though.
comment in response to
post
It would be "fly you fools!" but they can't because Ukraine just blew up all their planes.
comment in response to
post
Granted I haven't been in a lab in awhile but the extent of my training at the time was "don't turn on the laser unless you're wearing goggles." 😀
comment in response to
post
Speaking as a physicist, I recognize 2 & 3 but am just as glad 1 & 4 don't apply. Not sure what our equivalent of glass bending would be - setting up really byzantine laser pathways on the optics table?
comment in response to
post
I'm just glad to hear it ends in a satisfying way. Sometimes even the most enjoyable reads fall flat at the end. Hearing that it sticks the landing from an author who always seems to stick her own landings is really heartening!
comment in response to
post
Yeah, the first half is definitely one of the most fun things I read last year. I can't wait to dive into the conclusion!