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Matt McIrvin

@mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy
69 followers 11 following 648 posts

he/him I'm a programmer who was trained in physics long ago. If on Bluesky, follow @ap.brid.gy so I can see you. 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mathstodon.xyz/@mattmcirvin, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Reposted by Matt McIrvin
Chris Staecker @chrisstaecker.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
new worst calculator design dropped
a calculator with number buttons arranged in a circle, operations in the middle
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026
In-person early voting in my town starts a week from today: whav.net/2026/10/08/haverhill-prepa… The big No Kings rallies usually happen all along that street, and that's the same day--I imagine they'll have to […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026
@futurebird and they're into the traditional round of smearing the victim to justify shooting him.
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026
@futurebird @timtfj They care about giving and withholding it, not about paying attention to it
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026
@emptywheel.bsky.social assuming he actually dies
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026
I'm actually not sure if this is public or private land. They don't seem to be restricting access to the trails, which are extensively mapped on OpenStreetMap, as I mentioned earlier.
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026
Hiking around near Bush Hill
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026
Old stone wall near Bush Hill, Bradford, MA
End-on view of an old stone wall, now a sort of linear pile of rocks extending into the wooded distance.
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026
These folks apparently do voter registration drives at concerts, but their website is great too--for every state, you can find out how to register to vote and track your registration, voting methods and deadlines, sample ballots and such: www.headcount.org I learned about this site […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026
Massachusetts says they mailed out our ballots on September 30th, so I guess they're in transit. If you applied for a MA mail ballot, you can track it here: www.sec.state.ma.us/WhereDoIVoteMA/…
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026
@futurebird Assuming they want to explain, which is doubtful.
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Reposted by Matt McIrvin
Σ(i³) = (Σi)² @svengeier.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026
@mattmcirvin Also in CA - I'll do the same as in the last couple elections: wait for the ballot to arrive in the mail, fill it in, and drop it off at the local city service center down the road weeks before the election proper. In the past I got the text-confirmation that my ballot was received […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Reposted by Matt McIrvin
reggie seidman @ennui.org · 30/09/2026
we're in CA which does a very good job at keeping us in the loop
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026
For my friends and followers in the US: Are you registered to vote? If so, have you checked your voter registration to make sure it's still valid? (Your state government probably has a website where you can do it.) Do you have a plan for how you're going to vote (by mail, early, or on Election […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 20/09/2026
Part of the reason I was interested in OpenStreetMap-related apps is that it turns out somebody mapped a vast network of hiking trails near my home that I wasn't even aware existed. Here I get a glimpse of a solar electricity-generating station that I hadn't been aware of either.
Trees in a wooded area with the tilted panels of a solar farm just visible through the trees in the distance.
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026
(I think the traffic data is actually coming from some commercial service called Mapbox? They've got a bit of ad support going on)
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026
This is an interesting project that I can't find much outside information about. It's using OpenStreetMap data, Wikipedia and other open sources to produce a more end-user-friendly map with clickable points of interest, a "satellite" layer, traffic info, a globe display, etc. mapcarta.com
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026
@katelynburns.com In Ralph Bakshi's animated movie they decided to call Saruman "Aruman" to make them sound more different, but then they didn't do it consistently and it just made the whole thing more confusing.
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026
@futurebird "have you tried turning the room off and on again?"
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026
Someone who knows about maps talks about the UN map projection story. The discourse on this has been awful. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QpCpW0Xd-M
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026
@emptywheel.bsky.social You could tell that Trump's people and particularly JD Vance thought Charlie Kirk's murder was Trump's 9/11, a national trauma that would shock the whole country into just falling in line and accepting the legitimacy of MAGA's whole project. To the people in the bubble […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Reposted by Matt McIrvin
myrmepropagandist @futurebird.sauropods.win.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026
round like the bowling ball ... soft like the cloud... dangerous... like bear trap
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Reposted by Matt McIrvin
myrmepropagandist @futurebird.sauropods.win.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026
Funk is coming back. I repeat The Funk is Returning. I didn't really notice it, just seemed like a musical style or a reference, but so many songs have that funky sound now, and every little band has some guy with the saxophone or other brass instrument instead of just electric guitars. The […]
sauropods.win
Original post on sauropods.win
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026
Aside from being a funny film even if you only have the general idea of how cartoon characters work, the movie is full of little cameos and gags that are amazingly deep cuts for Looney Tunes fans, which I don't even want to spoil.
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026
"Coyote vs. ACME" is surprisingly good, the funniest and cleverest Looney Tunes movie and it's not even close (unless you count "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and it's about on par with that). Apparently the distributor paid $50 million to rescue it from Warner's ashcan and another $10 million or […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 27/08/2026
@katharinehayhoe.com There is a lake of liquid hydrocarbons on Saturn's large moon Titan that is named Ontario Lacus in honor of ours.
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 27/08/2026
The name Ontario was derived from the lake and it was used to refer neighbouring land over a century before both the confederation of Canada and the independence of the United States.
static.klipy.com
Toronto City Skyline Time-Lapse: Day to Night
Alt: Toronto City Skyline Time-Lapse: Day to Night
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 16/08/2026
@chrisstaecker.bsky.social Saw this late but I think this is actually good usage. On the accuracy level of "several", stating that several miles = several kilometers is correct and conveys no unwarranted over-precision.
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Reposted by Matt McIrvin
Owen Maresh @graveolens.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
youtu.be/-y8bGBE71yw?...
youtu.be
The first home computer was made of plastic! The Digi-Comp I
YouTube video by Chris Staecker
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 11/08/2026
I just got accused of being AI in Reddit for the first time.
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 10/08/2026
when I'm hungry I lose the ability to distinguish Github from Grubhub
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 29/07/2026
@katharinehayhoe.com Bad idea. For several days in succession, the trash got ransacked and strewn all over the deck, clearly just to get to that peanut butter. I eventually had to just take it back indoors until trash day.
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 29/07/2026
@katharinehayhoe.com It was unusable in that condition so I dumped the whole thing in the trash bin, which at the time was on our outdoor deck patio.
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 29/07/2026
@katharinehayhoe.com Once I dropped a full glass jar of peanut butter and it shattered around the middle, becoming a blob of peanut butter with broken glass shards around the middle.
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Reposted by Matt McIrvin
Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 29/07/2026
Overnight, a masked bandit broke into our kitchen. Armed with opposable thumbs, he proceeded to sample everything on offer. I’d just visited the farmers market, so the menu was extensive. I can now share a highly specific peer-reviewed list of what this particular raider did & did not enjoy. 🧵
static.klipy.com
Raccoon's Evil Smile: 'Good, Good'
Alt: Raccoon's Evil Smile: 'Good, Good'
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Reposted by Matt McIrvin
Chris Staecker @chrisstaecker.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
#foundmath on Camino de Santiago
Mathematically interesting graffiti of interlocking circles
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Reposted by Matt McIrvin
Chris Staecker @chrisstaecker.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Project for the rest of the summer is to finish the digital topology book I'm writing (with Dae Woong Lee). I will live-tweet every Figure I make, with no additional context. These are all made with tikz.
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 15/07/2026
You know, I keep thinking back to this guy who was on Facebook back when we read Facebook, who would comment on every single post in my Representative’s feed blaming everything on “the invaders”. The country was going to hell because of “the invaders”. It sure seems to me that it isn’t […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Christian Lawson-Perfect @christianp.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 08/07/2026
This page is an astonishing mix of ancient and new HTML: www.orchidpalms.com/polyhedra/acroh… Clearly the author has made just enough changes over the years to keep it legible, starting from what looks like a frameset plus java VRML applet.
orchidpalms.com
Near Miss Polyhedrra
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 04/07/2026
@katelynburns.com I identify with an America in internal exile. One that's always been maligned by the worst of us as un-American, even though its values go back to the founding. My state? Well... for most of my life now I've been a Masshole, but I'm not FROM here, and in New England, being […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 26/06/2026
Seen via @olufemiotauwo on Bsky english.elpais.com/usa/2025-08-25/i…
english.elpais.com
In the heart of the Miccosukee, the Native American tribe that shut down Alligator Alcatraz
The community found refuge from white persecution deep in the Everglades swamps centuries ago. Together with environmental groups, they succeeded in forcing the closure of the immigration detention center built on their ancestral lands
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Reposted by Matt McIrvin
emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Rubio now deporting legal immigrants based on who they support in their home country. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/19/u...
nytimes.com
Memo by Rubio Approved Detention of Immigrant Who Criticized Trump Ally
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2026
On the final day of my trip, I explore Dorney Park: mmcirvin.dreamwidth.org/516394.html
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2026
A full day at Knoebels: mmcirvin.dreamwidth.org/516166.html
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2026
An afternoon at Knoebels: mmcirvin.dreamwidth.org/515921.html
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2026
More Hersheypark: mmcirvin.dreamwidth.org/515663.html
mmcirvin.dreamwidth.org
Coaster trip 2026, day 2: Skyrush and more nostalgia at Hersheypark
I knew I wasn't going to be able to sustain a pace like the one I'd maintained for my first full day at Hersheypark. That was why I scheduled two days. Hersheypark is really two parks for me: It's one of the wildest coaster parks in the United States, but it's also the park I probably loved most as
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2026
I spend a day just riding most of the coasters at Hersheypark: mmcirvin.dreamwidth.org/515540.html
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2026
I spent last week traveling mostly around eastern Pennsylvania riding as many roller coasters as possible. Herewith, the start of the chronicle: mmcirvin.dreamwidth.org/515077.html
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 24/05/2026
"I Love Boosters" review: Ha ha, they gave the guy who made "Sorry To Bother You" a budget. Never have the many preoccupations of Boots Riley been so spectacularly displayed on screen in the form of an absurd heightened reality. It stars Keke Palmer, which should be enough. I give it a zillion […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
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Matt McIrvin @mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 21/05/2026
@futurebird etymology in the service of entomology
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