iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

My son took this from our driveway. He calls it “Orion’s kilt”

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

“Disability is a family you can join at any point in your life.” — Judith Heumann

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Gemini are all pretty good at physics and calculus, ymmv. However, they are all terrible at differential equations. Can any smart people weigh in as to why?

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

When Plato says art can be used for the good of the State, I just think, Wow. Those were different times.

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

I had a differential equations problem today, and the only way I found to solve it was to create an excel spreadsheet and iterate for 16,000 rows, the whole time thinking about those NASA ladies doing that by hand for the space program, but also I HAVE OTHER THINGS TO DO PROFESSOR

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

My son did this last night in our backyard. I’m kind of flabbergasted.

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Sometimes the timeline is a magic eight-ball of wisdom.

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Reposted by Jonathan Byrd

Michael Greshko @michaelgreshko.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Government scientists & employees: I'm a freelance journalist who writes for NYT, Science, SciAm, Nature, etc. If you want to securely discuss disruptions to your work, I'm available on Signal at mgreshko.01. Use a personal device on a trusted network. 🧪

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Wait professors have to be the enemy now too?! They’re going to have to drop some board meetings

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

We did Jack’s DNA and turns out he’s 100% good boy

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Struggling today with applying calculus. Wouldn’t it be strange if I memorized a bunch of chess games but didn’t know how to use a bishop? Stranger still if I made As in Chess I & II! That’s how it feels. I know how to integrate but not why. Just venting.

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

I’m in Calculus III right now and LOSING MY FRIGGIN MIND! This is wizard school!

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Painters: I started with five pigments and recently started playing with two others: 1) Burnt umber 2) French ultramarine 3) pyrrole rubine 4) cadmium yellow 5) titanium white Then 6) ivory black 7) yellow ochre Honestly not finding the black very useful. Yellow ochre, maybe? What about you?

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

I had my own, private swearing-in ceremony.

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” — George Orwell, Animal Farm

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Reposted by Jonathan Byrd

Mike Brown @plutokiller.com · 17/01/2025

Just had a sample of the Eaton Fire ash that is in my driveway run on the department XRF. Is there titanium (new house paint)? Yup. Lead (old house paint)? You betcha. Heavy metals? Check. Treat that ash like it's toxic folks (because it is)

$A computer screen with a display showing output from an xray diffraction spectrometer.$ $Close up view showing fraction of metals. Fun stuff.$

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

I used ChatGPT a lot for Physics I because the instruction was pretty chaotic. The LLM was about as good as fellow students, which was perfect for studying. I made a 98 in the class and 105 on the in-person final.

chuckpearson.wordpress.com

The ethical case for resisting AI

I had my moment of reality regarding generative AI in my chemistry and physics classes this past term. I’ve always had the student frustration “I can’t Google your homework problems!” as a point of…

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

The bookshelf above my desk. The positive x-axis points upwards.

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

I hope this differential equations section lives up to this title.

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

On Complaining About the Cold On a night this cold the stars are twinkling o’er dark seas so vast we have no inkling. Neptune has the strongest winds in Sol’s realm. Venus, her sulfuric acid clouds swell- hotter yet than Mercury, the fleetest. Listen, I don’t mean to sound defeatist. 1/3

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

I started Calculus III yesterday, Differential Equations and Physics II today. Wrote an essay about Socrates and Bertrand Russell and turned that in before dinner. Took the boy out to shoot Saturn. Bought groceries. That’s enough. G’night.

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

My son just decided to read a users manual. We have definitely dialed in the ADHD meds.

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

I’m looking for contemporary female painters. Thank you.

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Got some pretty snow last night here in North Carolina. Woke up to ice. Making French toast as per tradition.

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

It’s been thirty years at least since I played D&D. I managed to kill a giant rat with a ball of fire. My charisma was -1 and wisdom was +5, so it was hard to relate to the character. Shout out to @ncstate.bsky.social C3 program!

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

I teach people how to play my guitar parts over on Patreon. Almost done with The Law and the Lonesome album. Join us!

patreon.com

Soldier's Lullaby | Jonathan Byrd

Get more from Jonathan Byrd on Patreon

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

On Closer Inspection Down the dark hallway around the ground glass, through still small cells with luminous windows a leaf or lung sliced thin as twilight stained beryl as one might paint a child’s bedroom 1/n

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

This is the best physics textbook I’ve used, by far. Unfortunately, there are a lot of wrong answers to the odd-numbered problems in the back, at least in the fourth edition (which I could afford). However, there’s a fantastic errata list on their website! matterandinteractions.org/errata/

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

I made my first 3-D thingie! Please clap.

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

A physics textbook will say, “compare the change in magnitude to the magnitude of the change” to remind you that philosophy never goes away.

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

For millennia, humans have gazed up at the night sky and wondered, who is a good boy? My personal research has shown that Jack is a good boy. (Sorry, it’s not a blurry picture. It’s a blurry dog.)

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

I’ve started thinking about the internet like I’m reading a newspaper in 1987. Would I type a letter, lick an envelope, and use a stamp to mail my response to AlphaMale2940.Jesus?

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

I don’t know who Kate Buckley is but her honors thesis about vampires is fascinating and rich. “The power of female sexuality previously represented as monstrous in Bram Stoker’s vampire brides now becomes a celebrated ideal in the vampire marriages of millennial vampire fiction.”

egrove.olemiss.edu

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Jonathan Byrd @jonathanbyrd.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

105 on my Physics I final! Omg omg omg

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