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Ray Lee

@4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy
7 followers 8 following 41 posts

Culture is kept in our conversations, for some loose definition of 'conversation'. Black lives matter. I work in software with a team of physicists, MEs, EEs […] [bridged from mathstodon.xyz/@4raylee on the fediverse by fed.brid.gy ]

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Reposted by Ray Lee
Flipboard Science Desk @sciencedesk.flipboard.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026
Popular accounts of the discovery of the structure of DNA suggest that Rosalind Franklin missed the significance of the photo she famously produced, and that the flash of insight was James Watson's alone. A new paper by science historian Alistair Sponsel and crystallographer Brian Sutton argues […]
flipboard.social
Original post on flipboard.social
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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I keep having discussions with mathematicians, artists, etc., where they insist that we should make sure people are valued for being humans, not just their maximum economic contribution or whatever, and I keep wanting to shout... come visit any get-together of the special needs parent community.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
RE: mastodon.cr/@mem/117337584573167180 Teaching sand to sing is way better than getting it to mimic thought. Quartz resonators seemed magical when I was a child, and still a bit wondrous today.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026
I wonder if I could teach the git source control tool to physicists by telling them (a bit tongue in cheek) that it's a discrete symplectic manifold: where an element called "a commit" caries both the entire state of the system at that point, as well as the evolution between it and the previous […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Chris Dwan (he/him) @somershade.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
A friend refers to the "a pedestrian was struck by a car" construction as the "exonerative" tense, and that shall be its name henceforth and hereafter.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 23/08/2026
I find cooking a lot like programming. Except each type of ingredient has its own little language it wants to be manipulated in. Maybe that's why I enjoy it.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 04/08/2026
RE: mathstodon.xyz/@tao/117035750548664… AI generated code is free as in free puppy, not free as in free beer.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2026
RE: fediscience.org/@fortnow/1169321180… The ACM starts with a fairly pragmatic statement of where we are, and asks for broad community feedback on what to do.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 19/06/2026
“Voisin emphasizes the importance of language in mathematics for understanding old concepts, and for creating new ones. “You could compare a mathematical theorem to a poem,” she said.” In which case, I should probably stop leaving steaming piles of doggerel lying about. ( Credit for that turn […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Scott Francis @darkuncle.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 19/06/2026
Google optimized Shor’s algorithm earlier this year, but US gov blocked paper release. So Google published a ZK proof of it. Then somebody figured out how to use an LLM to brute force the problem using the ZKP verifier as the reward circuit. Then it became a contest to improve on Google’s […]
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Original post on infosec.exchange
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 19/06/2026
RE: fyfluiddynamics.com/2026/06/inferno Once while flying the Pacific, I watched an enormous cloud cell slowly turn itself inside out due to an updraft rising through its middle. Large atmospheric phenomena can be beautiful. You can find the time lapse videos mentioned in the post […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 01/06/2026
I love my current job, which often includes working with people in far flung timezones. But I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to running meetings or giving presentations at 6 or 7am.
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Karsten Schmidt @toxi.mastodon.thi.ng.ap.brid.gy · 24/04/2026
...and because sometimes a video is worth a 1000 images, here's a short clip from the earlier mountain pass nearby, giving more of an impression of the mood of this place! #FootpathFriday #NaturePhotography #BloomScrolling #Alps #Mountains #Video
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 18/04/2026
On self-study. Something I've wanted for a long time is "pinch to zoom" but for mathematical arguments. If I happen to accidentally be reading a topic that's above my level, I'd love to be able to stop on a few sentences where the leap happened, and zoom in a bit. As my fingers spread the text […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 02/04/2026
RE: mastodon.social/@dtgeek/11633191381… Victor Glover attended my Alma mater. Based on posts I’ve seen on a different network today, a great many of us from there are quite proud of him. Godspeed, sir.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 07/02/2026
I daresay this will be familiar to anyone who works with modeling systems, not just programmers. A snippet from a delightful blog post by @lindsey on simulation: "Programmers often choose an unnatural representation for their data objects, even when a more natural choice exists in the language […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 04/02/2026
[software + mathematics] I've been enjoying Jujutsu (vs git), and hope it leans into its conflict algebra more in the future. Though I find it's so smooth handling this stuff, you'd never know what it's doing under the hood if you don't go poking at it. Currently if two changes don't commute […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 19/01/2026
One of the best decisions I’ve made recently was to set an alarm for 15 minutes before #sunset. The stage before the show.
A view of the sky. Lots of little puffy clouds which will each capture a slice of the colours of sunset.
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Tim Bray 🇨🇦 @timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 16/01/2026
What computer programmers look like; Ada Lovelace in 1843. petapixel.com/2026/01/16/only-known…
An oval black and white photograph of a woman in a Black-and-floral V-neck dress with an elaborately-decorated hairdo. Her expression is sad.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 20/12/2025
"Spaghetti code" + the Curry-Howard correspondence implies the existence of spaghetti types. In this essay I will...
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
This is a scorching article on the absolute state of The New York Times, and much of the rest of the media. Not just the billionaire media, note, but also the billionaire-*compliant* media, which both-sides every issue with purchased junktank talking points. lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2025
This week included handling issues from the 10⁻¹¹s to 10⁸s timescales. (Debugging custom electronics on one end, and prepping for the new EU Cyber Resilience Act on the other.) I'm tempted to rewrite my resume sorted by time frame now.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2025
TFW you have a bit of free time so dust off a hobby project, only to remember it’s actually three hobby projects in a trench coat.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2025
For the teachers: A friend who teaches a technology ethics class at the local university wrote an essay on why AI can be problematic for students. Patrick writes: "TEACHERS: If you're looking for a reading to assign, to help explain why you're banning AI from your classroom, here ya go. "There […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 07/08/2025
A guilty pleasure, picking up textbooks on topics I’ve already studied. First time through is the hard one. Though, book 5 looks new…
A picture of text on the inside of Volume 1: Classical Mechanics by David Tong, listing the books in his series. The text:

Lectures on Theoretical Physics
Volume 1: Classical Mechanics
Volume 2: Electromagnetism
Volume 3: Quantum Mechanics
Volume 4: Fluid Mechanics
Volume 5: You may need to be patient
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bazzargh @bazzargh.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 29/07/2025
Test renderings from an algorithm I wrote to generate mosaics. It came from being unhappy seeing image mosaics that are just pixelations - real roman mosaics used the Opus Vermiculatum style en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_vermicul… , tiling along edges […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]
Mona Lisa (the Prado copy) as a mosaicTiger mosaic
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 27/07/2025
Tom Lehrer has passed. At least we can take comfort that, at age 97, he died in one of his primes.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 02/07/2025
This week in things I find myself saying often: We can always make it complicated later.
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Dan Piponi @dpiponi.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 05/05/2025
Could quantum mechanics have been invented earlier? Counterfactual questions like this aren't meant to be taken literally, but I think it's interesting anyway. Once upon a time it was noticed that light rays follow the shortest path - for some definition of shortest [1]. This generated interest […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 25/06/2025
Big whirls have little whirls that feed on their velocity, And little whirls have lesser whirls and so on to viscosity —Lewis F. Richardson, 1922
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 03/06/2025
Fermilab is announcing final results from the muon g-2 experiment today! I'm heading out the door, but the results will be at 10am CT. Quoting myself from April 7th, 2021: Fermilab shared first results from their "g-2" experiment showing the Standard Model of physics is even more incomplete […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Ionosphere Declines Offer Of Horse www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/s...
nytimes.com
SpaceX Loses Control of Starship, Adding to Spacecraft’s Mixed Record
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Dan Piponi @dpiponi.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 25/05/2025
I really enjoyed the Ruth Asawa exhibition at SFMOMA. Sone of these structures remind me a lot of minimal surfaces.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 24/05/2025
"Use the most natural notation available to solve a problem." -- Peter Norvig Pictured is a dance in Beauchamp-Feuillet notation. It shows the connection between a dancer's motion and the music. "Like all forms of writing, choreography — literally the […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 19/05/2025
Despite it being common in my industry, the first time I’ve ever put a sticker on a laptop was one of these lovelies. Thanks for adding a bit of art to my life @gwenbeads ! mathstodon.xyz/@gwenbeads/114349109…
mathstodon.xyz
Gwen Fisher (@gwenbeads@mathstodon.xyz)
Attached: 1 image I had some stickers printed of a few of my recent paintings and a couple of older ones. These include “The Pigeonhole Principle”, “Skew-Symmetric Meow Tricks”, ”Infinite Holes and the Cosmic Goo”, “Cats on a Surface”, and “Bunny Surfs the Great Wave”. Get a set here: https://gwenbeads.etsy.com/listing/1886004058 #watercolor #painting #mathart
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Jonathan Z Simon @jzsimon.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 17/05/2025
Ed Smylie, Who Saved the Apollo 13 Crew With Duct Tape, Dies at 95 www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/science/…
nytimes.com
Ed Smylie, Who Saved the Apollo 13 Crew With Duct Tape, Dies at 95
He and his team of NASA engineers jumped into action to help three astronauts bound for the moon. His quick thinking earned him a shout-out from Richard Nixon.
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Dr. Juande Santander-Vela @juandesant.astrodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/05/2025
Using data from ALMA and advanced simulations, a research team led by Santiago Orcajo from the Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata in Argentina (CONICET and Universidad Nacional de La Plata) has presented a new model that traces the evolution of […] [Original post on astrodon.social]
This image shows the 15 brightest protoplanetary disks (ordered in 5 columns and 3 rows) in Ophiuchus (as observed by the ODISEA project and DSHARP), in which one can observe the presence of rings and grooves of different sizes that indicate the presence of bodies in formation. Credit: Orcajo, S. et al. (2025)
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Mark T. Tomczak @mark.mastodon.fixermark.com.ap.brid.gy · 02/05/2025
[uspol] God, the CPB responding to Trump's EO trying to end their funding with "I'm sorry, who are you again?" is really sending me. This is the energy I want in the room.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2025
"My job is to carve off a sliver of the ineffable, and to eff it." This is quick, humorous, and gave me some things to think about in my own writing. (Apologies if this has made the rounds already. I'm still 2000+ posts behind on this social network, lolsob.) […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Col. Boozy Badger @boozybadger.lawyersandliquor.com · 14/04/2025
Foreign Friends with Travel Plans to the U.S. for Conventions: A bit back I said you should maybe reconsider those plans. I would like to amend my prior statement. Cancel them. Cancel them now. We cannot keep you safe from our own government. Take your holiday in Spain or something.
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Kevin Leecaster @greenfire.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/04/2025
Many of the world’s largest shipping nations decided today to impose a minimum fee of $100 for every ton of greenhouse gases emitted by ships above certain thresholds, in what is effectively the first global tax on greenhouse gas emissions. Which goes to show that maybe it's better when the USA […]
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Original post on mstdn.social
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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
100 years ago, Cecilia Payne discovered what the stars are made of It might seem obvious today, but it was just 100 years ago that we discovered that the Sun, and all stars, are made of hydrogen and helium. We should thank Cecilia Payne for that. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #science #stars
bigthink.com
100 years ago, Cecilia Payne discovered what the stars are made of
For centuries, even after we knew the Sun was a star like any other, we still didn't know what it was made of. Cecilia Payne changed that.
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 06/03/2025
Pre-bunking is where it’s at. bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/pro…
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Matthew Facciani (@matthewfacciani.bsky.social)
New study finds that pre-bunking messaging was the most effective strategy for countering ExxonMobil’s misleading climate ads, while disclosures had a smaller impact on reducing deception. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-025-00209-6 #MisinfoResearch
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/03/2025
A team of archivists has recreated the pre-Trump CDC website as a live, easy-to-navigate website that should be indexed by Google. The team is hosting it in Europe. Cool project that is sadly necessary: www.404media.co/archivists-recreate…
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 04/03/2025
Wrote up something about Techdirt's recent coverage, and why (whether we like it or not) we need to be a "democracy blog" now, rather than just a "tech" blog (not that we've ever been just a tech blog). This story is *the* story and it impacts everything else. www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/w...
techdirt.com
Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not)
While political reporters are still doing their view-from-nowhere “Democrats say this, Republicans say that” dance, tech and legal journalists have been watching an unfortunately recogn…
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Dan Piponi @dpiponi.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 24/02/2025
From the section on Teichmuller space: It does not of necessity follow that, if the work delights you with its grace, the one who wrought it is worthy of your esteem. -- Plutarch, The Parallel Lives sites.math.washington.edu/~jarod/mo…
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Ray Lee @4raylee.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 19/02/2025
I really enjoyed this explainer on why making a calculator app do the right thing is way harder than you might expect. Recommended for both the software engineers and mathematicians. chadnauseam.com/coding/random/calcu… The paper is "Towards an API for the Real Numbers" by […]
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Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/02/2025
Too bad it has to be super cold for it to be this pretty
Looking straight up at the crowns of bare trees with white trunks, with every branch and twig covered by bright white frost, in front of an almost impossibly blue sky.
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