spontaneous symmetry breakdance
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t8erboi.bsky.social
spontaneous symmetry breakdance
@t8erboi.bsky.social
570 followers 560 following 3K posts
a.k.a. Matt. Physicist, conformal bootstrapper, and #1 Leonid Kantorovich respecter. Idaho → Colorado → Connecticut → Italy. he/him.

Unionize the radiation lab!
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t8erboi.bsky.social
Next big breakpoint is 29-31 (SD,TN,AL,KY,AR), at which point we're talking possible removal from office once Republican senators smell blood in the water. Won't happen, but nice to think about.
December 3, 2025 at 5:02 AM
t8erboi.bsky.social
the magic number is 13, by the way
Projected Democratic senate seats as a function of margin swing from 2024 to 2026. The plot crosses majority at 13.1.
December 3, 2025 at 4:42 AM
t8erboi.bsky.social
anyway, here are two articles from our contract that I'm very proud of:
ARTICLE 4: Academic Rights of Graduate Workers This provision is intended to ensure that employment in a bargaining unit position shall not limit or modify the academic freedoms and rights of Graduate Workers otherwise protected or afforded by the University, including; 1. Employment in a bargaining unit position shall not limit Graduate Workers' ability to pursue their own research, and their freedom in the classroom in discussing their assigned subjects, subject to the University's academic policies and rights and the expectations of their departments, programs, schools, courses, and labs. 2. Employment in a bargaining unit position shall not limit Graduate Workers' right to speak, write, and express themselves as members of society and representatives of their fields of instruction, study, research, training, scholarship, or expertise free from censorship, retaliation, or discipline by the University, subject to the University's policy on free expression. 3. In their roles as researchers and teachers, Graduate Workers are entitled to receive necessary training from the University in how to fulfill and maintain the academic standards and integrity of the University. 4. Employment in a bargaining unit position shall not limit Graduate Workers' ability to participate fully in the academic, scholarly, and extra-curricular affairs and activities of the University and any of its affiliated programs, departments, schools, and events. ARTICLE 10: Discipline 1. No Graduate Worker may be issued a warning, suspended, or discharged from their bargaining unit position except for just cause. The Union and the Graduate Worker shall have the right to grieve such disciplinary action, by filing a written grievance at Step 2 of the Grievance Procedure provided by this agreement within ten (10) days after the University's action. 2. Discharge from a bargaining unit position will not prevent a Graduate Worker from seeking or holding a future bargaining unit position for which they are qualified. 3. Counseling or coaching of a Graduate Worker shall not be used to justify subsequent disciplinary action against that Graduate Worker. 4. Discipline older than twelve (12) months shall not serve as the basis for progressive discipline except in cases of serious misconduct. 5. Notice of an investigatory meeting shall be emailed to the Graduate Worker with a copy to a Union Steward at least 48 hours in advance of such meeting. The investigatory process shall commence as soon as possible after the incident or discovery thereof. 6. Issuance of discipline shall occur within a reasonable period following the completion of the disciplinary investigation and shall be communicated in writing to the Graduate Worker and the Union. 7. Graduate Workers may have a Union Steward present at any meeting to interview the Graduate Worker about a disciplinary matter and/or at any meeting to issue discipline to them. This provision shall not apply to discussions with Graduate Workers concerning their academic performance. 8. Decisions about academic standing or dismissal from a degree program, for reasons including but not limited to failing to make adequate academic progress; unsatisfactory performance in examinations and academic milestones; or academic dishonesty shall be at the University's sole discretion and shall not constitute discipline or be subject to grievance or arbitration.
December 1, 2025 at 7:22 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
Tracy Jordan vindicated
30 Rock screenshot in which Tracy says "Next, you'll be telling me that leasing a sports car is a bad investment"
November 27, 2025 at 6:28 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
Still haven't beered this season, but I've somehow had 3 scored against me. And my last opponent somehow 9(6)ed this set despite being *Belgian*.
Q1. THEATRE - Derived from the Latin for "speaking alone", what theatrical term refers to a device in which a character voices their inner thoughts aloud, unheard by other characters, so the audience can understand their true feelings and motivations? Q2. MATH - What former Prussian city had, in Leonhard Euler's time, seven bridges that crossed the Pregel (Pregolya) River, connecting the city's northern and southern portions with the Kneiphof (Immanuel Kant) and Lomse (Oktyabrsky) islands? Q3. GAMES/SPORT - What is the team name of Portland's National Women's Soccer League franchise, a pointed nod to the city's nickname dating back to the late 19th century? Q4. POP MUSIC - Name the country music legend and "Okie from Muskogee", the "Lefty" to Willie Nelson's "Pancho", whose "Mama Tried" but was unable to keep her son from spending nearly three years in San Quentin in the late 1950s? Q5. LITERATURE - F. Scott Fitzgerald's character Monroe Stahr, said to be based on "boy wonder" producer Irving Thalberg, is described by the author as "The Last" what, in the title of his unfinished novel from 1941? Q6. WORLD HIST - What country, despite being home to various UN and UN-aligned organizations including the World Health Organization, International Labour Organization, and Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, did not join the United Nations as a member until 2002?
November 26, 2025 at 8:59 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
getting absolutely slaughtered in my trivia league through very little fault of my own
Screenshot of my LearnedLeague ranking in which I am 23rd out of 28 in my rundle, just above the relegation zone. Another screenshot, demonstrating that my opponents have scored more correct answers against me than anyone else.
November 26, 2025 at 8:45 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
November 22, 2025 at 11:04 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
"the bullet theoretical"
"I would take a bullet for you,” the Politician said. He always said that. “Please don’t say that,” I said. I always said that. From his mouth the bullet theoretical launched the bullet possible. I did not like to think about it. About the armed man at his speech. Or the armed man who broke into his home. Or the armed men he paid to guard him from armed men who sought to harm him while the federal government denied his pleas for protection from the security agency whose modern protocols were carved by the same bullets that cut boughs from his family tree and cut the track of the American experiment.
November 17, 2025 at 11:43 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
Down with the traitor
Up with the
a green neon sign that says "BAR", outside a combination pizza restaurant / brewery
November 17, 2025 at 7:35 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
i feel you, ian. i really do.
For science, I timed what I’ve been dealing with this whole time: $ time nix-env --install hello installing 'hello-2.10' nix-env --install hello 14.08s user 5.51s system 60% cpu 32.211 total My 30 second guesstimates have actually been pretty close. Nice. And what about… $ time nix-env -iA nixpkgs.hello installing 'hello-2.10' nix-env -iA nixpkgs.hello 0.42s user 0.10s system 69% cpu 0.759 total What? Are you kidding me? Why – why is the other thing even a thing? Why are there two ways to install packages, when one of them is short but terrible and one of them is slightly more to type but usable? Why isn’t there a short and usable command? And isn’t that what the nix tool is supposed to be? Where is it in all of this? Is it complicit?? I’m sure there is some complicated reason for all of this – that without saying nixpkgs.hello it needs to like evaluate every single package in the entire package store – all 32,544 of them – and then do a linear scan for one called hello, or something ridiculous like that. Because how could it possibly guess that by hello I might mean nixpkgs.hello. But by using -A/--attr, it can just go to the right one? (???)
November 14, 2025 at 1:28 AM
t8erboi.bsky.social
[ slowly banging head against wall ]
@skdh: In a few years, Americans will see that the only consequence of defunding parts of academia was fewer publications which no one cares about anyway. What will happen next? @DanielleFong: that's not what we're seeing in materials science. even the companies supplying the field are hurt, many going out of business. @skdh: so? @DanielleFong: it's impacting energy technology, which you would think would be important for ai and climate change. just chaos for any academic or federally supported funding right now, not just papers @skdh: is it? I guess we'll see about that
November 11, 2025 at 2:38 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
like how am I supposed to top this?
November 9, 2025 at 12:08 AM
t8erboi.bsky.social
happy to take on the paperclipping risk if it means I never have to think about this diagram again:
autotools flowchart
November 5, 2025 at 8:27 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
I am still not drunk enough for this game, and we're running out of cider
November 2, 2025 at 1:44 AM
t8erboi.bsky.social
so Wilders is pretty much cooked, right?
tweede kamer coalition diagram showing that the right wing parties can't get a majority
October 30, 2025 at 3:00 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
October 30, 2025 at 3:09 AM
t8erboi.bsky.social
Love to drag my unrelated humanities/STEM grudges into [checks notes] a dispute between two different social sciences
A post which reads "Humanities and social sciences are being systematically gutted while STEM disciplines rediscover their half a century-old research insights and pass them off as their own"
October 26, 2025 at 9:25 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
Basically this:
October 23, 2025 at 6:40 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
it's even weirder when you condition on the other variable
A bar chart showing that 65% of Green voters, 56% of Lib Dem voters, 55% of Reform voters, 42% of Labour voters, and 31% of Conservative voters think they're going to hell.
October 23, 2025 at 11:22 AM
t8erboi.bsky.social
why did our chair think it was a good idea to send this out to our entire department?
an email I received, bragging that one of our astrophysics faculty got ...a phys.org writeup
October 22, 2025 at 4:34 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
on the plus side, I *have* learned a lot about plot styling in the past 24 hours
cool graph
October 21, 2025 at 4:12 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
woman eating out Christ's spear wound
October 12, 2025 at 10:01 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
The Netherlands has an election at the end of this month, and as an American, this is basically my understanding of Dutch political parties:
SP: dirtbag left PvdD: vegans (also degrowthers) PvdA/GL: progressive Democrats/the sane half of DSA D66: the PMC Volt: /r/neoliberal DENK: Dearborn, Michigan CU: Christian (your devout grandma who leans Dem) CDA: Christian (Upstanding Members of Society) NSC: Christian ("seriously guys, stop freaking out about 'welfare queens'") SGP: Christian (Handmaid's Tale) VVD: Reagan Republicans PVV: MAGA BBB: Real America (tm) FvD: Alex Jones listeners JA21: Richard Hanania
October 11, 2025 at 9:27 PM
t8erboi.bsky.social
called it
A discord screeshot, which reads as follows: other person: Nobel predictions? me: Slow light, twisted bilayer graphene, or metamaterials for physics. me: Optogenetics or GLP-1 agonists for medicine. them: GLP-1 is a good one me: Idk about chemistry. Maybe MOFs? GLP-1 could win for that too them: peace? me: No clue me: But I'm gonna say Krasznahorkai for literature again, and maybe Chetty or Piketty for econ me: you have any?
October 9, 2025 at 11:55 AM
t8erboi.bsky.social
nothing's ever gonna top that one guy from North Georgia State crashing out because someone disagreed with his tournament's tiebreaker policy
...Professional sports has very little parallelism to Quiz Bowl. Their jobs, income and livelihood depend on winning, the more they win, the better their off. We don't get paid to win. We don't get scholarships to win. Yes the purpose of professional basketball is to win. You are hired based on your ability to win the game. The owners increase their money based on their teams winning. One might however make the argument the purpose of professional basketball is to make money but I believe that would be classed as a result. Now some of you are confused because you hurriedly assumed that purpose and point mean the same thing as goal or aspect. The purpose of the military is not to win battle's, the point of the military is not to win wars. Those are goals, aspects, objectives of the military, not the objective or point. The point and/or purpose of the military is to protect the nation (this is an example on the use of wording). Winning a tournament is a great reason to participate in quiz bowl. That is neither the purpose nor point. ...
October 6, 2025 at 12:01 AM