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John George

@jcgeorge.bsky.social
266 followers 314 following 1K posts

Professor of Mathematics, punster, cat steed, Working On A Novel but never seems actually to write. SF/F/H fan. Vaxxed. My opinions ≠anyone else's. He/him.

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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Okay, hear me out. Invisible flying mutant sharks. There you are, walking down the street. Suddenly, the person in front of you disappears in a spray of gore as some unseen thing chomps their throat. No?
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Related to Copy That, perhaps?
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Because I was worried about misremembering this, I looked. Per Wikipedia:
Early WorldWideWeb collaborators, including Berners-Lee, originally proposed the use of UDIs: Universal Document Identifiers. An early (1993) draft of the HTML Specification referred to "Universal" Resource Locators. This was dropped some time between June 1994 and October 1994. In his book Weaving the Web, Berners-Lee emphasizes his preference for the original inclusion of "universal" in the expansion rather than the word "uniform", to which it was later changed, and he gives a brief account of the contention that led to the change.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I hate to be That Guy, (not really) but LCD was taught to me as "Liquid Crystal Diode," though of course acronyms can change. I still remember being caught by URL; "Universal" Resource Locator became "Uniform," so perhaps it changed?
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I don't know how to reconcile this with the fact that many billionaires pay little to no taxes. Maybe Rich Dude meant "income" rather than "taxes"?
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Ship him off to Antarctica in winter to help him collect the whole set! Or is there even a police force there?
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
For the same reason Sandra Boynton did; wanted to use the chicken as a model.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
First thing that popped into my head: "So, what are we doing tomorrow night, Brian?" "Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to make the rockin' world go 'round!"
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Imagine writing this in a story in, say, 2010 or even 2015. You'd never get it published, and might be advised to seek psychiatric help.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Many (~50) years ago I bought an off-brand comic book with odd characters in the margins; little alien monsters, with bubbles around their heads indicating (probably) drunkenness. One recited a poem: Roses are orange, Violets are pink. 'Cause my color TV's On the blink. Happy Valentine's Day.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Based on an amazing series of books consisting of real-life stories of a rural vet. Check them out, if you haven't.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Ask him to go to counseling and find out what all his anger and resentment is about? It seems to me that this is some kind of anger issue that he can't or won't show in any other way.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Back before it was called "Episode 4: A New Hope."
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
"The vast majority...that are talking to me...." Yeah, that's likely not a statistically significant sample. I'm sure a large number of Minnesotans are not speaking to him at the moment.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
This makes me feel better about my 1,600+ Kindle titles (not to mention 2,600+ non-copy-protected other eBooks). Some of the latter were free, some paid for through other sources. I suggest keeping an eye on HumbleBundle for those who want to support charity and get more books than they can read.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Kornbluth's _The Marching Morons_ was not written as a how-to manual, but....
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
I take it you are team "No" in this debate? I'd never heard this before. Perhaps I should go back to playing the oboe to strengthen the old diaphragm muscles. Still, I don't hiccup very often.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
A Culinary Enterprise. (Unisex restrooms labeled "To Boldly Go."
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
I too am at 19, but in my case it's because the Walkman was of no use to me.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Right! No 5¼-inch floppies? No Lincoln Logs?
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Thank you. That's been irritating me for a while now.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
There are parts of Dreams Underfoot that can still unsettle me.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Also, I am reminded of this bit from the show Gravity Falls. getyarn.io/yarn-clip/1e... It shows the rich guy, his wife, and their butler persuading their daughter to join them in the bunker. He mouths, "We'll eat the butler."
getyarn.io
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
I've often thought this would be effective. I understand that if we explored the surrounding countryside, we might find air vents and pour bleach and ammonia down them, but that might endanger wildlife.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
I agree with this. I would have said "Not in my lifetime" about gay marriage up until about 2010 or so.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
Then: "We need to bring manufacturing jobs back!" Now: "I am shocked to find those foreign bastards doing manufacturing work here!"
media.tenor.com
a man in a suit says " your winnings sir oh thank you very much " in a black and white photo
Alt: From Casablanca, Claude Rains was "shocked" to find gambling. The an employee says "Your winnings sir." "Oh, thank you very much."
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Post a random picture or everything will go bad in September.
A curious neighbor. Very young deer on the grass in an open area by a large tree.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
I used a little one-cup cone-filter holder for years, and still have it for the occasional rare use when I am not making a whole pot.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Yes! My wife and I both have a monthly donation.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
I consider this to be all Agatha Christie's fault. Once you read about (or see on screen) Hercule Poirot see through a complicated murder plot with the greatest of ease, you realize you have to up your game dramatically if you are to avoid getting caught!
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
I went to a high school run by some people like that. Fortunately, my parents helped me understand that these people weren't right in the heads. Baptism as an adult by full immersion, or suffer in Hell for all eternity. That sort of thing.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
We religious iconoclasts really enjoyed _Lamb_ as well, a book about Biff, Christ's childhood best friend. I recommend it to anyone interested in religious humor.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
May he follow closely in the footsteps of Lyndon LaRouche. Right down to the cell block.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
Would it be easier to "name a movie nobody loves but you"? Maybe I know too many people with broad and eclectic likes and dislikes.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
Just out of curiosity, which five? I think all the big names are deceased; I can't think of any exceptions (Silverberg?), but of course the names I can think of are mostly non-mediocre because they come to mind. Robert Moore Williams?
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
"Paddle faster, I hear banjos! Or Scar-Jo's!"
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
If I understand KS3 correctly, these are students in their early teens? Perhaps get a large list of numbers covering a wide range of values (city populations, or powers of two, or Fibonacci numbers, for instance) and have them list first digits and confirm Benford's law?
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
Perhaps they didn't argue because they thought you were, ahem, "batty"?
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
Thanks for the warning. I won't bring it up. 🤨
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
Possible solution to the problem of detecting AI authorship: Require AI to train on nothing more recent than, say, 1935. "Sir Stanley faced the villain defiantly. 'What ho! When my telegram is received to-morrow, any body will be able to see the truth!' he cried." We'll all know it's AI.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Have you read Fred Saberhagen's _Book of Swords_ and _Book of Lost Swords_? I think you'd find inspiration there.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Movie you've seen more than six times with a gif. "Extremely HARD mode" No Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Marvel, or Domestic(US) mainstream films. (I assume Princess Bride would be banned even though it really isn't mainstream.)
media.tenor.com
a group of people are sitting next to each other and one of them is saying well she turned me into a newt
Alt: From Monty Python and the Holy Grail: a group of people are standing next to each other and one of them is saying, "Well, she turned me into a newt!" From the witch trial scene where Arthur picks up Sir Bedivere.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
I know someone who tried to flush a wooden shoe down a toilet so they could say "It's literally clogged!" They were flushed with embarrassment.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Just came here to post this. Dammit!
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Here's a relevant story from five years ago, from NPR. (Support NPR!) www.npr.org/2020/12/27/9...
npr.org
What's On The Menu In Ancient Pompeii? Duck, Goat, Snail, Researchers Say
For the first time, a food stall has been excavated in its entirety in the city. The stall had remnants of 2,000-year-old food — giving researchers a glimpse into Pompeii street food.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
I am having a wonderful time with Desmos for figures for my class. I used to use Mathematica or Maple, but somehow Desmos seems more convenient. Here's a nice example for implicit differentiation.
A Desmos screen shows the equation y^3-4y+x^3-9x=0 with the graph of that equation, a red line forming a twisting sideways "S" curve on a grid with x and y coordinate grid lines at every 0.2 units.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Pessimist: Glass is half-empty. Optimist: Glass is half-full. Optometrist: Which glass is more full, this one <click> or this one? <Click> This one or <click> this one?
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Reposted by John George
ᴄ ꜱᴛᴜᴀʀᴛ ʜᴀʀᴅᴡɪᴄᴋ🛸 @cstuarthardwick.com · 17/06/2025
Baen Books has the winning entry of the Jim Baen Memorial short story contest, Gustavo Bondoni's "Space Monkeys," available for FREE on the website! baen.com/space-monkeys
baen.com
Space Monkeys by Gustavo Bondoni - Baen Books
Space Monkeys by Gustavo Bondoni - Baen Books
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
I have this theory that says God is sending us a code in sea monsters. If we could only understand what the message in a given sea monster is, we could say we're Kraken the code. No apologies.
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John George @jcgeorge.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Being too picky puts you in a pickle.
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