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Charles Day

@csrday.bsky.social
371 followers 264 following 412 posts

Anglo-American astrophysicist turned writer and editor who likes reading, cooking and listening to music.

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Reposted by Charles Day
Emily Conover @econover.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
I had fun speaking today at the Quantum World Congress panel on Demystifying Quantum: How to Communicate Cutting Edge Science to Diverse Audiences. Alongside the fantastic moderator @csrday.bsky.social and esteemed panelists @nicoleyh11.bsky.social and Ben Stein #QWC2025
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
I bought and read Masterpiece too! I hope it gets adapted for TV or a movie.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
According to a study by the New York Fed, physics majors had the second highest unemployment rate, 7.8%, among college graduates in 2023. What's going on? www.newyorkfed.org/research/col...
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Are the gravitational anomalies attributed to dark matter due to WIMPs, axions, primordial black holes, modified gravity or something else? Take Physics Magazine's survey for a chance weigh in on this and other big questions.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
I think of JWST whenever I play this card in Terraforming Mars.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Are you back in the UK? If so, where?
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Jon, there's nothing remotely erotic about either Trump or Musk. That said, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_34
en.wikipedia.org
Rule 34 - Wikipedia
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Homemade garganelli pasta with chicken gizzard sauce.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
My thoughts too. There was no lakeside venue but the historical resonance was clear. And even if some viewers don't know about Wanseee, the ruthless, bureaucratic inhumanity was obvious.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
I saw this. www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/...
dailymail.co.uk
Signature of alien life 'found' 120 light years from Earth
A distant ocean-covered world, teeming with life. That's the most likely explanation for a new discovery made by scientists studying the planet K2-18b.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
I was sorry to hear of the death of Mario Vargas Llosa. Two weeks before, I bought a copy of his 2001 novel The Feast of the Goat at my local second-hand bookshop. The book was misfiled in the cookery section. I like to think Mario would be amused.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
My go-to brand for one of my favorite foods. Unlike anchovies canned in olive oil, the ones packed in salt need to be filleted. But the effort is worth it for the fishier flavor.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
I walked by NASA HQ this morning with my dog. The building is named after (for now) Mary W. Jackson. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ja...
en.wikipedia.org
Mary Jackson (engineer) - Wikipedia
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
I like that one K is one degree Celsius. I also acknowledge that, despite my metric inclinations, the Fahrenheit scale is optimized for weather. I do not miss my native country's predecimal currency of pounds, shillings and pence (LSD in Latin).
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
"This new knowledge has all to do with honor and country but it has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to help make it worth defending" - Robert Wilson explaining to Congress why the US should fund an expensive and powerful particle accelerator and, by my extension, science.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
I followed your strategy when I was on Facebook. I pretended to be a devout member of the Taliban. Pretty much every ad that the algo showed me was offensive in some way, so I flagged them. The tactic kept the ads at bay for a few months then they (and Taliban me) returned.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
The conclusions of this article hinge on a distinction between programmer and developer. But how clear is that distinction?
washingtonpost.com
Column | More than a quarter of computer-programming jobs just vanished. What happened?
Learning to code was supposedly the salvation of millions of liberal art majors. But now programming jobs are plummeting. The Post’s Department of Data tries to figure out what’s going on.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Possibly related www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
washingtonpost.com
Nervous about Trump, international tourists scrap their U.S. travel plans
International tourists are canceling plans to visit the United States, with Canadians leading the way.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
I hope the term Darkfriend enters the mainstream. It's turned out to be useful and apt.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Jan and I haven't read the books, but we're digging the TV adaptation. It's better than Rings of Power and better than the last season of House of the Dragon.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
“If we are lucky, some new ideas will emerge that are really valid. Ponder why the successful flavors do work; use that understanding to choose new possibilities” — Giuliano Bugialli.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
"There is now a vast variety of erotica available, including cosy erotica (knitwear is torn off), Austen erotica . . . There is even erotica featuring—readers may wish to brace themselves—physicists."
economist.com
Erotic writing is becoming more explicit
Gardening metaphors are out. Other things are very much in
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
So happy to be reading again one of my favorite novelists of my teens and twenties: Honoré de Balzac. The pic is from the cover of Lost Illusions (1837-43).
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
My original skepticism remains. Arsenic's cosmic abundance is tiny. pubs.aip.org/physicstoday...
pubs.aip.org
Arsenic and phosphorus in bugs and superconductors
On Mondays I usually visit Science's press site, which contains links to papers that will appear in the journal four days later alongside enticing summaries of the most newsworthy papers. This Monday ...
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
An equal mix of red, white and blue pigments results in lilac. I dig the alliteration of Lilac Land.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Favorite clue in today’s FT Xword: Knight crossing an eastern river (6). Knight, DUB, crosses an, AN, to give DANUB followed by eastern, E.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
The track that closes side 1 of David Bowie's album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is a cover. I've finally sought and listened to the original version, and it's good.
youtube.com
Ron Davies - It Ain't Easy (1970)
YouTube video by vertigo60
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Christopher Priest's 1998 novel The Extremes is like one long creepy and riveting episode of Black Mirror.
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Reposted by Charles Day
John Preskill @preskill.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Useful perspective, clearly written and well-reasoned. arxiv.org/abs/2501.05694
arxiv.org
Myths around quantum computation before full fault tolerance: What no-go theorems rule out and what they don't
In this perspective article, we revisit and critically evaluate prevailing viewpoints on the capabilities and limitations of near-term quantum computing and its potential transition toward fully fault...
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Besides dust and magnetic fields, there's also, "Have you taken relativistic effects into account?"
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
For yesterday's dinner I made offelle alla triestine. They're like ravioli but with potato gnocchi dough as the pasta covering. These are stuffed with mushroom, tomato and cheese.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
My mother taught me which fingers to use on a typewriter. I've never used a typewriter but thanks to her I'm a fast touch-typist.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
When British PM Ramsay MacDonald visited Berlin in July 1931, he visited (at least) two spirits: Max Planck and Albert Einstein.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
'Tis the year's midnight and time for my annual reading of John Donne's poem about deep grief.
poetryfoundation.org
A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day
'Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's, Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks; The sun is spent, and now his flasks Send forth light squibs, no constant rays; The world's whole sap is ...
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
I bought Masterpiece after you posted on Bluesky. I hope Scarlet becomes a TV show or a movie.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
My favorite pasta dish combines two of my favorite ingredients: onions and anchovies.
en.wikipedia.org
Bigoli in salsa - Wikipedia
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
I haven't heard the album for eons. I dimly remember that my favorite track was Down in the Hole.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
At maximum volume -- like Ziggy Stardust
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Mine might stretch to almost the same linear feet. I plan to reread my favorite Wolfe novel, Peace, over the holidays.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Thanks for posting. I don't know the album well apart from the title track. I'll investigate.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
For when you don't eat both portions
cooking.nytimes.com
Pasta Frittata Recipe
This dish is one recipe calling for leftover pasta that is actually worth planning for It's portable, it's endlessly versatile, and it's practically foolproof Substitute almost any cheese for the Parm...
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
This wine from Whole Foods is classified as Vin de France, so I checked out the label to get a sense of where it's from and what's in it. The bottler (see under the QR code) is LCDM -- evidently, someone who favors the prevailing cosmological model.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
I'm relieved to be resupplied with one of my favorite ingredients.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
My Airedale terrier Allie in a limb configuration I haven't seen before.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
This week's issue of Science magazine includes a review of six of the 70 exhibits that make up "Art & Science Collide."
science.org
The two cultures meet again
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Brought to mind this www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwwP...
youtube.com
Why do we all HATE COLDPLAY?
YouTube video by Andy Edwards
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Your post inspired me to use Google Scholar to find a highly cited paper in ApJ from 1924. It was totally comprehensible to me, a former astronomer.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
If you're frustrated by the various cubes moving around on the player boards, I recommend getting this third-party product. Yes, it's boring beige, but it keeps things neat and tidy. Plus, all the bits fit inside the TM box. thebrokentoken.com/products/ter...
thebrokentoken.com
Terraforming Mars Compatible Base Game Organizer
Optimize your setup with our Terraforming Mars organizer, featuring removable trays and card storage solutions. Enhance your gameplay with our box inserts.
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Charles Day @csrday.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
My wife and I love the game! We have all the expansions. The best are Preludes (cards that kickstart your initial resources), Elysium and Hellas (two different Martian geographies) and Colonies (the ability to get more resources). Venus Next and Turmoil are less compelling.
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