iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

My proposal: go ahead and pass a $750M gas tax suspension, then immediately cancel $750M worth of ODOT highway projects. Ain't no highway traffic growth in the world of $60,000 cars and $5 gas and population decline that the GOP has chosen for us. (Then raise the gas tax and spend it on transit.)

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

things I did not expect to say this summer: "the upcoming White Sox/Rockies series is a big deal"

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A public bus takes the same route repeatedly, same potholes, same stops, same lurches. I wonder whether (a) fancier control theory (b) knowledge of what's expected next, and (c) a fancy active suspension, could create buses with tram-like smooth rides. 🚌🚋🛣️

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

In 1941, the administrator of St Pierre et Miquelon declared his loyalty to Vichy France rather than to De Gaulle and Free France. The Free French navy, defying the regional powers, snuck a small naval force over to seize it. LOOK AT HOW TIME MAGAZINE DESCRIBED THE WARSHIPS (link in alt)

"One night four steatopygous corvettes waddled along off the coast of Newfoundland, ostensibly bound for Britain." from https://time.com/archive/6786578/the-americas-incident-at-st-pierre/

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Life as a pedestrian in the US is going to seem like a game of Death Frogger after a week in puffin-crossing-equipped Manchester, UK, where I felt safe crossing unfamiliar car/bike/tram spaghetti intersections despite the cars being on the wrong side of the road🚶‍♀️🌇 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffin_...

en.wikipedia.org

Puffin crossing - Wikipedia

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I had to give a lecture via Zoom from my hotel, but I forgot to bring the iPad/Apple Pencil setup I usually use. Please enjoy the surprisingly stable iPhone document camera I improvised from things I had in my luggage.

A travel thermos with an iPhone tied to the top of it so it could take video of a legal pad

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This is the first time I've been at a talk that used "ββ0ν" rather than "0νββ". (Google has a few hits for for "ββν0" as well.)

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I saw very very few spotted lanternflies this summer, neither nymphs nor adults. Do they come in waves? Is there a web page with a tracker?

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

The science behind this started in my classroom! I was teaching undergrad environmental fluid mechanics ("The Physics of California") at UCSB; one student's final paper was the baby-steps first look at this; he re-attacked the problem (and named the phenomenon) as a grad student at UCSD.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

favorite journal article title of the day 🧪⚛️ doi.org/10.1021/jp03...

"The Only Stable State of O2- Is the X 2Πg Ground State and It (Still!) Has an Adiabatic Electron Detachment Energy of 0.45 eV" by Ervin et al, J. Phys. Chem. A (2003) 107 (41): 8521–8529.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

TIL that Python3 has a builtin "locals()", which returns a symbol table with all your variable name in it. This gives me the heebie jeebies; having started out in C I still think of variable names as a private matter between me and my compiler, not as text strings visible to some floozy runtime.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

MESON PHYSICIST IN 1975: I have seen 100+ inept bump hunts this year and I am burned out. Don't even show me results below, say, 4 sigma. HIS NEMESIS: mine's 4.1 MP: <shouting> 5 sigma! YOU, A BRAIN GENIUS READING DECADAL LZ NEWS IN 2026: pfft, these guys didn't learn the five-sigma rule ⚛️🧪

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Reposted by Ben Monreal

cleveland.com @cleveland.com · 02/09/2026

Cleveland's RTA unveiled the first of 54 new Siemens railcars, part of a $435 million program to replace a fleet in service since the early 1980s. ⤵️ Photo via Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Wikipedia says that Nancy Grace Roman, post-Ph.D. but pre-Yerkes in 1949, spent two months at CWRU's Warner and Swasey Observatory (then at its East Cleveland site, now in ruins, whose telescope is now at Kitt Peak and still operable.) Can't find any other info, anyone know what she did there? 🔭

two abandoned telescope domes on an abandoned brick building

large equatorial-mounted telescope with a snazzy blue paint job

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

a) Obi-Wan offers Han 17k credits to take them to Alderaan b) Han crows he can finally pay his debt to Jabba c) Luke sells his land speeder to raise an upfront 2k SO d) The Solo/Hutt debt that drives half the action across three movies was only 8.5x the fire-sale value of a farmboy hotrod

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Why did my 3M Command strips ship in a box with a no-frills matte exterior and a glossy full-color interior? The color side's printing details suggest it could be assembled that way out, BUT there's no barcode on that side.

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CWRU Physics @physicscwru.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Meet Phoebe, a CWRU Physics undergrad working with Prof Benjamin Monreal on Project 8 to develop methods for measuring neutrino mass. Her research uses machine learning and PyTorch to analyze power spectral density data and identify frequency bands. #CWRU #CWRUPhysics #UndergradResearch

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Jonathan Welle @wellejonathan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

who among us is surprised that when given the choice between the people of Cleveland and executives of private jet companies, Ohio Republican elected sided with the private jet companies? signalcleveland.org/cleveland-bi...

signalcleveland.org

Bibb talked closing Burke Airport with federal official, Congress reps

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb lobbied officials in June to close Burke Lakefront Airport. Now the FAA and U.S. Sen. Moreno say the airport should stay open.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I neglected to take a photo of it but last night I had to prepare buttercream frosting in four different colors so I could pipe this onto a sheet cake

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

During yesterday's game, Chase DeLauter's single in the 3rd pushed his OPS over 0.800. It only lasted a few innings, but briefly the Guardians lineup had THREE batters with OPS > 0.800 (DeLauter, Lowe, and Genao.) How long has it been since that was last true, @clevelandfan.bsky.social?

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Stacy McGaugh @dudedarkmatter.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Since much of human knowledge has migrated from libraries to the internet, once sane government returns to the US, a new mandate should be given to the Library of Congress: to create and operate a search engine that is free to all to use. Something that is free of ads & AI, independent of oligarchs.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I made it back to Storm King Art Center last week. Huge changes (for the better) since 20 years ago: Then: mostly lawn Now: mostly wildflowers and prarie. bees galore Then: overwhelmingly white male artists; off the top of my head I can name six (!) exceptions Now: awesome & diverse new stuff

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Remember March '20, when a single infected singer at a Skagit Valley Chorale rehearsal had infected most of the choir, with two dead? Normal folks' reaction was "this is bad", but I guess Bernie Moreno lit a cigar and said "imma destroy any government nerd who reacts to this in any way"

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Federal "X breakthrough" grantmaking is always $250k over 4y: I can train a new X workforce $225k over 2y: I hope someone trained an X I can hire $200k over 1y: our aging X expert has to write grants all day $175k for 6mo: the "big consulting group zero-expert intern-written report" sweet spot🧪

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

(unpacking into my new office) I remember picking this up for $0.50 at an MIT Library book sale. check out the inscription 🧪

pocket-sized Spanish-English dictionary with a green cover, stamped "SERCEL INCORPORATED", Houston Texas, S E G Mexico City 1973

inscribed with "Harold Edgerton" with his MIT office address, 1975

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

This spring I'm reviving Physics 306: Nuclear Physics and Technology. Everything from shell models to reactor neutronics. Last time (2021) we talked about AP1000s, ESBWRs, and doomed SMR startups. Times have changed! Would love advice about how to teach the latest fusion and SMR R&D. #nukesky ⚛️🎢

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

(getting unpacked into my new office) Once at SNOLab I picked up a piece of rock underground for a souvenir. (Or two?) And I think Harry Nelson brought me a rock from SURF once. Did I label them? Stupidly, no. @steve.mastodon.cooleysekula.net.ap.brid.gy could that be Sudbury norite lower left?

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I switched offices. I scooted a lil' particleboard desk in, movers hauled a literal ton of Steelcase desks out. Are desks a material-culture sign of how long people expected enterprises to last? Steelcase was "It's 18-gauge so your nth successor in the same office can use it 70 years from now"

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

AQI map looks like a diseased brown dragon poised to swallow Cleveland

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Reboot _Hunt for Red October_ so Vasily Borodin survives & give him a post-defection TV series. He farms rabbits in MT and AZ, tours the country in his RV solving problems with homespun Red Fleet wisdom. His CIA handlers scramble to prevent his arrest for bigamy. Dir. Natasha Lyonne. (RIP Sam Neill)

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

POLICEMAN: "Did you see what kind of car hit you?" INJURED PEDESTRIAN: "I saw no car. I was hit by an uncanny black void. A two-dimensional absence of light that grew, swallowed me, and un-disappeared." POLICEMAN: <into radio> "yeah I got a 10-57, hit-and-run, round up Anish Kapoor"

cell.com

Robust ultra-black automotive coating with structural absorption and high absorption efficiency based on waterborne carbon black/CNT composite

This work presents an easily processable strategy for the construction of ultra-black coatings with qualified automotive coating properties based on the ultra-fine and well-stabilized carbon black-car...

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

This federally-required training on Research Security is full of depressingly outdated facts like "a robust federal research program is vital to American economic and national security" and "researchers are accountable to taxpayers and Congress" 🧪

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I want the "Save Shaker Lake" discourse (which I sympathize with parts of) to be aware that 17" is a storm that ODNR expects will destroy Class II dams, but requires Class I dams to pass safely. These events are real and ODNR's threshholds are not crazy overkill here in the anthropocene.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

In Mieville's Perdido Street Station, a cast of prickly outcasts team up for fantasy-trope-standard Underdogs Discover Teamwork & Loyalty. At the very end, the sad, sympathetic Yagharek confesses his past includes a rape conviction ... and the team dumps him instantly! No regrets! It was great.

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Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Good idea. Our national 256th comes up in 2032! America’s 100000000th birthday. Around here, we light candles on the birthday cake in binary. So that would be one lit candle, followed by eight dark candles. Happy ninth candle, America! 🇺🇸🎂

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I propose MLB amend the rulebook to treat this case differently: if a fan catches a live ball after a throw from a fielder, it's still live. Put down your nachos and try to make the relay throw. Be a legend.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

"Martin Puryear: Nexus" at the CMA is not to be missed, #cleveland folks. Open through 8/9. a) imagine dressing up as "Self" (1978) for Halloween b) the hardcover monograph is a steal in the gift shop at $65 c) see your old CMA buddy "Alien Huddle" (1993-95) again but with all its friends

clevelandart.org

Martin Puryear: Nexus | Cleveland Museum of Art

Martin Puryear’s (American, born 1941) singular work across mediums illuminates the expressive potential for abstraction in our time. Martin Puryear: Nexus highlights the global histories that have in...

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Sarah Bagby @scbagby.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Out today in Nature Microbiology: a paper that started in 2021 with an email from @sullivan-lab.bsky.social. Subject line: "Crazy ideas". www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/23

Screenshot of an email header with subject line "Crazy ideas"

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CERN @cern.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

So long #LHC and thank you for all the collisions 👋 Today, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, comes to the end of an extraordinary chapter in its scientific journey. Find out more: home.cern/cern-bids-fa...

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

A.E. HOUSMAN: Now, of my threescore years and 10, 20 will not come again, And take from 70 springs a score, It only leaves me 50 more. And since to look at things in bloom 50 springs are little room ... FOSSIL FUELS: update your math! we traded some "springs" for "heat domes". stay hydrated!

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

The NHTSA standard for driver height and sightlines should be set at "Oshkosh NGDV or better".

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

I took a day off work yesterday and spent 10 hours in the garden, getting 72 bare root trees planted and staked. The eventual goal: a three-season pollinator resource in the form of a South-of-England-inspired laid hedgerow! Using 100% Ohio native plants! Wish me luck!

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

incomprehensible pitcherspeak "I get a little bit too juiced up, so my miss is way worse with the four-seam on the outer half," Williams said. "With the seam-shift that I have on the sinker, I'm able to run it back -- where with the four-seam, I just pull it. It's an auto take every time."

mlb.com

The unique way this righty uses his sinker -- and why it works for him

Before Gavin Williams could walk through his various pitch grips, he needed to find a baseball. "I can show you better than I can tell you," the Guardians right-hander said before a day game at Yankee...

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

(catching up on #guardsball) Patrick Bailey's line drive went straight behind Luis Curvelo and pegged him in the knee. Curvelo limped to the ball, threw to 1st off-target for the putout, and left the game injured. The official scorer ... charged Curvelo with his career-first fielding error! No.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

I'm reading a trashy Icelandic crime novel. It features many flashbacks to characters' childhoods, including this spectacular scene where Tinna solves a math problem correctly:

"Tinna narrowed her eyes and considered the question on the board. The teacher sighed and was about to turn back to it when Tinna said: 'The lowest common denominator of one thousand and fifty is forty-three.'

The teacher glanced at the board, then back at Tinna.

'I'm right,' Tinna said. 'Just check it.'

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Nirmalya Kajuri @kajunut.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Planning to be in Europe in July but in a bit of a pickle with Visa issues. I booked my return on 30 July, but my visit to CERN ends on the 17th. I need an official invitation for the interim. If anyone in Schengen lands would beinterested to host me at their uni bw July 20-29, send me a DM. ⚛️

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

(missed this when it first came out. v. impressive work) Q: "what beamline and detector technologies did you use to do this measurement?" A: "yes" "β-delayed proton pandemonium: A first detailed 31Cl(βpγ) 30P decay scheme" by Tamas Budner et. al. ⚛️ arxiv.org/pdf/2510.04456

arxiv.org

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

People talk about how fast we're losing WWII veterans, but we're also losing the all-star cast of The Longest Day (1962). Surviving (per Wikipedia) actors played: 5 American privates (0 officers left) 1 British Chief Wren 1 French "Second-Maître" (a naval petty officer) 0 Germans

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