Cosmic birefringence: the signal that could upend cosmology

The biggest observational anomaly in cosmology is the Hubble tension.

But second-biggest is much less well-known: the cosmic birefringence signal in the CMB.

(And yes, YOU can understand it!)
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/cosmic-birefringence-signal-cosmology/

Ayagami does screenshots now! Just drop your model in, pose it however you like, and copy/save as transparent PNG (current view or full model resolution)

https://demo.ayagami.dev

Tomorrow I'll stream again and wrap up work on the 5.3 blending/color issues ^^

@encthenet the alternative is to develop libraries making it easy for application developers to do it right. i was very surprised to find that the libraries out there are largely either djbware or openssl, neither of which are remotely appropriate nor secure

Autism and lack of safety 🛟

Here are some things which, interestingly, are common in autistic people but can also be general indicators of anxiety or fear.

1. Difficulty distinguishing voices from background noise.

2. Digestion problems, sometimes culminating in IBS.

3. Strong attachment to routine and panic when it fails.

4. Persistent problems falling asleep or staying asleep.

There will be other things, I think 🤔 ... thoughts?

#AskingAutistics #Autism #Neurodivergent #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD

"they found that Big Oil’s use of AI to produce more oil and gas could create 3.3 to 13.3 times more climate pollution than powering AI’s data centers."

https://heated.world/p/ais-climate-problem-is-worse-than

All AI services are actively destructive and should be treated as a clear and present danger to human life.

#AI #LLM #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

When I was a kid I read Ionescu's play Rhinoceros, where the inhabitants of a small French town turn one by one into a herd of wild, rampaging rhinoceroses. I was told the play was "absurdist", and read it as such. But living in the United States now, I see it's completely realistic.

They know exactly what they are doing.

#flock #journalism #hacking

@spla posar-se malalt a l'estiu és molt xungo i més quan fa calor! cuida't! @Kaiz

“How an expired nameserver let me take over e164.arpa zones for multiple territories, and why I probably should have checked my logs sooner.”

#dns #arpa #nameserver

https://lina.sh/blog/hijacking-e164-arpa

Heating plant and boiler house of the former Robert Fletcher & Sons Papermill in Greenfield, Manchester. Most of the 100-year-old industrial site was demolished a few years ago; the site will be developed into housing.

#Photography #Manchester #History #Abandoned #Factory #Industry #Abandoned

@encthenet if app devs are writing cryptographic code, then i do expect them to get the crypto stuff correct. i also find it incredibly difficult and that's why i've been working through this field for the past several months.

any file that's encrypted at the application level will also protect against the same attacks, so i'm not terribly sure what disk encryption gives you except making everything significantly more difficult to do right. anything in the kernel is going to be significantly more costly to upgrade and fix and that absolutely seems like the wrong place to do encryption

The Albert Hall, London, 1910s - Davidson Bros RP Postcard

https://www.ebid.net/uk/for-sale/the-albert-hall-london-1910s-davidson-bros-rp-postcard-224550221.htm

#London #RoyalAlbertHall

@fiee I fixed the links for Guppe and Immers, thanks

22 August 1925 | German Jewish boy Erich Günther Gutmacher was born in Berlin. He emigrated to the Netherlands.

In August 1942 he was deported to #Auschwitz and registered in the camp after the selection (no. unknown). He perished in the camp on 22 August 1942.

@mattblaze

Led Zepplin song incoming...

Hundreds of youth took over the streets in #Minneapolis as part of a massive anti-Flock scooter demonstration against state surveillance.

Video via @/citycasttwincities.

#Caturday Uncle and Niece.

Their personalities couldn't be more different.

😿 Darcy: cautious and shy nature. Slinks around in silence, rarely speaks.

😸 Amber: Fizzy outgoing ball of frantic energy. Running commentary of meow chirps.

#CatsOfMastodon #BlueCat #cats

@gabboman what day are you back there? I would love to meet you! probably wouldn't work cause hamburg is sorta far, but I do have some friends there I have been meaning to visit

Why Polling Chaos Could Create Big Problems for American Politics
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/us/politics/election-polls-confusion-prediction-markets.html?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Politics @politics-newyorktimes