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Nicola De Mitri

@nicoladem.it
161 followers 518 following 96 posts

Former physicist who makes scientific software, molecular models and occasionally 3D art. He. Italian and British. @_nicolasap elsewhere, user 172020 June 2023.

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 27/05/2026
I'm sad with you :( BUT. It's not a lost battle. The (overwhelmed but surviving) collective belief that the craft of human artists has value, will itself give it value. Value that will be tangible in real economic terms. @hankgreen.bsky.social's take gave me hope: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT5I...
youtube.com
What is "Slop" (and why it gives me hope)
YouTube video by vlogbrothers
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 27/03/2026
Not a plea — a wake-up call. What @danabra.mov captures here cuts straight to the heart of it. In a world increasingly shaped by AI-assisted writing, this isn’t just a nuance — it’s the conversation we should all be paying attention to. (oh boy I feel so dirty now)
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
I don’t choose that word lightly. The idea that an entire field of medicine, as well as numerous academic journals, systematically suppressed evidence that gender-affirming care doesn’t work is a conspiracy theory. Meanwhile, none of these people can provide a shred of evidence for their core claim
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 04/03/2026
Etherogeneous? heterogeneous? eterogeneous? Reharsal!? Heigth?
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Chick Gone Bad 🐸🐱🦖🏳️‍🌈♀️🇺🇦 @chickgonebad.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Gender affirming treatment has an astonishingly high rate of satisfaction. You probably already know this, but I feel like we need to repeat it over and over.
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 12/01/2026
allow me to go meta, but I loved the choice of metaphor
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il Post @ilpost.it · 11/01/2026
Ho voluto la bicicletta
ilpost.link
Ho voluto la bicicletta
«Sulla ciclabile di viale Monza a Milano, nel colorito repertorio di scarico merci, ritiro parenti, posteggio furgoni, posteggio auto, mi è capitato di ricevere: silenzio, improperi coloriti e tonanti inviti allo produttività: “Ma vai a lavorare, va!”. Una parte di città è ostile alle bici perché è preoccupata che la sua idea di modernità sia diventata vecchia»
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 31/12/2025
> the mor- root is also present in morning This just made me realise that in Spanish "mañana" is both "morning" and "tomorrow"
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 26/12/2025
It's actually way older!! In some form or another, the same concept is found in virtually all indoeuropean languages, and should trace its roots to PIE *seǵʰ-seb
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 26/12/2025
(my question is about the algorithm in general, not just the load-balanced adjustment from today)
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 26/12/2025
Out of interest: are the user's "past likes" weighted for recency? (To be clear, my instinct is that weighting would be a *bad* thing since it'd risk trapping you in a chamber of yesterday's fad)
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 22/12/2025
Shouldn't need explaining but: Bosons are clearly boubas: integer spin, happy to get cozy in a shared quantum state. Fermions are kikis, sharp, half-integer spin, quite particular with their personal space. Well done, particle physics. 👏
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 22/12/2025
I personally appreciate that Bose and Fermi particles follow the bouba/kiki effect correctly.
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 28/07/2025
funny how in modern UX the buttons would be "OK" and "proceed anyway", reversing the behaviour of clicking "OK".
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Elad Nehorai @eladn.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Journalists in Gaza describing their starvation in real time Originally compiled by @standing-together.bsky.social
Hamada L
@AHMED_ABUHAMAD_
• Translated by Grok Show original
No bread in the city!
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Not a grain of flour in the markets
We literally can't find anything to eat!
It pains me that I crave food, and it becomes the first and last wish of my day.Samer &
@Sssssssssssamer
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• Translated by Grok Show original
The sounds of my stomach are louder than the sound of the airplane.
@AHM3D_HAMDAN
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I don't have the power to cover media anymore.
My body is lean and I no longer have the ability to walk.
14:02 • 19/07/2025 • 114K ViewsNahed hajjaj @nahed_hajjaj99
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Today I didn't do any journalistic work. I left the house to the market to find anything to eat. I found nothing. No one found anything. How do I enter the room of my family, how do i tell my mother, that they have to starve another night tonight? Tell me what should I tell them?
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 07/07/2025
I'm glad I have a tweet of mine – from almost 2 years before consumer-level LLM chatbots – that proves that I was a prolific user of en dashes back then already. (Not em dashes, as I'm from this side of the Atlantic)
Two tweets by Nicola De Mitri (@_nicolasap), dated Jan 25, 2021, 1:12 PM. Text:

"Fraction of the sentences I write – in tweets, chats, emails – that contain a en dash ("–"):
 
• before I found a quick way to type it: 78%

• now that I've found it: 98.4%

(on Ubuntu: Shift+AltGr then "--.". Shift+AltGr then "---" for the em dash)"
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 25/06/2025
Hai ragione,non ho centrato il punto. Me ne scuso! (Il mio commento comunque voleva essere: non credo che questa storia sia vera. Non so perché avrebbero un occhio di riguardo, difatti non ci sono stati ancora scandali confermati con europei. La celebrity era un caso di overstaying, a quanto si sa)
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 25/06/2025
*Errata: vari milioni hanno attraversato il confine da quando è iniziato Trump 2. Non milioni ogni giorno.
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 25/06/2025
Che si arroghino il diritto di controllare i cellulari è un fatto assodato. Che i contenuti di dissenso abbiano portato a rimpatri di europei è un po' dubbio. Detto questo, abbasso i fascisti. Non è che mi stiano simpatici: è che stanno molto attenti a prendersela con i loro confinanti e non col G7
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 25/06/2025
Ci fu il ricercatore francese la cui storia fu ripresa da un ministro, ma anche lì non si ebbe nessun riscontro. Nel frattempo, milioni di europei attraversano quel confine ogni giorno, e le storie confermate di rimpatri sono tutte legate a wrong visa / overstaying / precedenti legali.
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 25/06/2025
Ehy, io odio la retorica dei confini chiusi, i raid ICE, le detenzioni dubbie allungate a dismisura sfidando pronunciamenti dei giudici, le deportazioni in paesi a caso. Ma finora nessuna storia su europei mandati indietro per i contenuti dei loro cellulari è stata confermata da qualcuno di serio.
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 12/06/2025
L'unica eccezione che mi viene in mente è Tangentopoli. Ma forse quella non prende l'articolo perché "sembra" un nome di luogo (come "dopo Norimberga", o "prima di Maastricht").
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 07/06/2025
I like that you exist.
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 28/05/2025
Not related to the point, but that sentence in the manuscript could really have used some proofreading 😵‍💫
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
The problem with the left is all the word policing
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alex 🐀 @tinysnekcomics.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
just got back from the gastro-etymologist. he told me that stomach comes from the greek word stoma, meaning mouth 😟
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 17/04/2025
RE: typesetting. Wow. I'm suddenly so sad that I was in Tokyo last month without knowing about the city's printing museum. (Image enhanced from @npreining.bsky.social's blog, 2013)
metal typesetting tray filled with metal letterpress type. The rectangular frame contains multiple rows of various metal type blocks arranged in horizontal lines. There are spacers of different sizes, as well as mathematical symbols, equation-making blocks and text (Japanese characters).
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 17/04/2025
I'm so glad for the @archive.org 🥰 Screenshots in this thread from "Rendiconti. Accademia nazionale dei Lincei. Classe di scienze fisiche, matematiche e naturali". Link: archive.org/details/rend... (1902) and archive.org/details/rend... (1895).
archive.org
Rendiconti : Accademia nazionale dei Lincei. Classe di scienze fisiche, matematiche e naturali : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Series 5-6, 8- issued as Atti della Accademia nazionale dei Lincei; series 7, as Atti della Reale Accademia d'Italia
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 17/04/2025
To think of how modern mathematical notation (sums, integrals, differentials, subscripts/superscipts, roots, trig, ...) had already been long-established – and typesettable! – by the time this 1895 bulletin was printed. And look so similar to lecture notes from the computer era.
Old page in Italian showing some differential derivationOld page in Italian, classical differential geometry (?)
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 17/04/2025
Literal "preprints", I believe to prove and set a date for a discovery? Title, author, endorser. "These articles will be published in the next issue".
Old text, in Italian. "Botanica. — Origine e differenziazione degli elementi vascolari primari nella radice delle Monocotiledoni. Nota I del Socio R. Pirotta. Matematica. — Sugli spazi plurisecanti di una semplice infinità razionale di spazi. Nota di Francesco Severi, presentata dal Socio Segre.
Queste due Note saranno pubblicate nel prossimo fascicolo." It translates to: "Botany. — Origin and differentiation of primary vascular elements in the root of Monocotyledons. Note I by Member R. Pirotta. Mathematics. — On plurisecant spaces of a simple rational infinity of spaces. Note by Francesco Severi, presented by Member Segre. These two Notes will be published in the next issue."
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 17/04/2025
"Herein, we present an alternative framework..." but in 1902's Italian. "Noi abbiamo però pensato che alla soluzione del problema si poteva forse arrivare..." ("We thought, however, that the solution to the problem could perhaps be reached...")
Old text in Italian: "Noi abbiamo però pensato che alla soluzione del problema si poteva forse arrivare determinando le grandezze molecolari di sostanze racemiche, sciogliendole in un solvente in presenza di un forte eccesso di uno dei loro componenti. All'applicazione di questo metodo molte e varie difficoltà si oppongono, e prima di tutto la non grandissima precisione che si può raggiungere coi comuni apparecchi crioscopici."
which translates to "However, we thought that the solution to the problem could perhaps be reached by determining the molecular sizes of racemic substances, dissolving them in a solvent in the presence of a strong excess of one of their components. Many and various difficulties oppose the application of this method, and first of all the not very great precision that can be achieved with common cryoscopic apparatus."
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Scottish Trans @scottishtrans.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
We'd urge people not to panic - there will be lots of commentary coming out quickly that is likely to deliberately overstate the impact that this decision is going to have on all trans people's lives. We'll say more as soon as we're able to. Please look out for yourselves and each other today 💗🏳️‍⚧️
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 12/04/2025
> I find I often want a term for the opposite you mean, apart from "the one downside"?
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 08/04/2025
Checkmate, health nerd
meme: a man giving a clever look (grinning and pointing to his temple), saying "can't give it a critical read ...if it isn't written"
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 21/03/2025
Ah, the beauty of regional variations
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 21/03/2025
Ed Balls.
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Possibile @possibileit.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Votiamo Sì per portare da 10 a 5 gli anni di legale residenza per poter chiedere la cittadinanza italiana per chi vive, studia, lavora in Italia per sé e i propri figli minorenni e conviventi. Vuoi dare una mano? Unisciti a noi ora su www.referendumcittadinanza.it
referendumcittadinanza.it
Firma subito il Referendum Cittadinanza
Firma ora il Referendum Cittadinanza: puoi farlo con SPID o CIE in pochi minuti.
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 12/03/2025
but *WILL* I
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 12/03/2025
PS I'm no linguist and I don't pick a side on whether a tense is only a tense if it's morphological/inflected. I just happened to have read that page before.
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 12/03/2025
itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languag...
Screenshot that reads: "The fact that there is a stubborn tendency in English grammar books to misrepresent will be as the future tense of be doesn't make it right. Traditional grammar is wrong about a whole big ugly bunch of other things too. The arguments that will does not form a tense are briefly summarized in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, chapter 3, section 10.1, pp. 208-212, and set out in more detail in an article by Rodney Huddleston ("The case against a future tense in English", Studies in Language 19:399-446, 1995). The arguments include the fact that will expresses volition as well as future temporal location, and that it shows its own tense contrast between present and preterite"
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 12/03/2025
See for instance Italian: "mangio" (I eat), "mangerò" (I will eat). Uses inflection (unlike English) just like simple past does (like English)
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 12/03/2025
Is this an inflection versus construction kind of misunderstanding? English itself doesn't have a morphological marking (?) for the future tense, i.e. no inflection, but marks the tense using "will"... Is the same going on in Mandarin?
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Filip Szczypiński (SzczSky) @fiszczyp.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
I’m told by @nicoladem.it that I could enter the wallpaper business.
A shallow depth-of-field macro photo of a moss with an ice cap.
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Beatrice Mautino @divagatrice.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
A margine della puntata che abbiamo pubblicato ieri di Ci vuole una scienza, condivido una preoccupazione che riguarda l'informazione e le questioni scientifiche /1
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 01/03/2025
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Elizabeth Smith @eeeeelizzzzz.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
I’m a federal employee, a research meteorologist at a NOAA lab (OAR-NSSL). I still have my job tonight. Many of my NOAA colleagues and many more of my fellow civil servants don’t. I want to share what people like me do. Instead of doomscrolling, maybe we can learn what civil service looks like.
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 24/02/2025
thanks for clarifying!
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 24/02/2025
This technique is so cool! To find out for instance that 25% young men voted AfD (🥲) compared to 15% young women, they don't need to rely on exit polls or ecological inference. They have the actual ballots.
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 24/02/2025
My personal take home message from this article is that: "Joy Division plot" ➕ color coding 🟰 3D surface I must try this.
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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 20/02/2025
e poi comunque mettiamo anche le cose sul giusto piano... Ok fare autocritica sui modi, ma addossarci per intero la colpa dello zeitgeist reazionario è un po' fuori fuoco
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