iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Just a hint of pink on the skycam tonight in the northern direction.

Skycam image showing the evening sky with a pink hue on the right side, which corresponds to the northern direction.

qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

"Quantum Theory of Angular Momentum" by D. A. Varshalovich et al. This book is chock-full of useful identities, some that I haven't seen anywhere else. Recommended.

Cover page of book by D. A. Varshalovich et al. on "Quantum Theory of Angular Momentum".

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

The skycam captured a helicopter flying overhead as the streak of light on the right.

Skycam image captured with 60 second exposure shows a line of light across a dark sky.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

I want this thing so badly! source: x.com/EagleAlpha19...

Space 1999 Eagle transporter 36 inch toy model.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Today's small victory after days of struggling with Racah algebra and incompatible definitions from different sources.

Mathematical derivation, ends with "QED !!! Finally!"

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

That's not the convergence behavior I was hoping for from my code. Needs more work...

Plot of energy as a function of iteration number, looks chaotic and trending up overall.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Work in progress. Now the instructions say I have to insert that little pin at the bottom into a hole in the railing, but in order to do that I have to pull the whole thing apart and undo all the work I just did to make enough room to insert the pin. 🙄

Plastic model of spaceship engine block, showing part not fully inserted into place.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

3D printed for my hobby area, came out pretty nicely. Now working on another one to organize the million cables I have lying around.

3D printed wall peg board with attachments holding various tools.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

And here are the star trails for it:

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

It was still pretty cloudy last night, but I did capture some star trails.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Star trails from my sky cam from a few nights ago, when the sky was relatively clear.

Image of star trails from my sky camera.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Here is my first pass at the enclosure for the skycam. Because it's fairly well sealed (I even have some putty inside where the power cable comes in to keep out insects), I was a bit concerned about overheating. For now, it's just sitting outside while I monitor CPU temperatures, so no pics yet.

Enclosure for Raspberry Pi with transparent acrylic dome for the camera, placed on a small table outside.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Experimenting with the Fuzzy Skin setting in Cura as a way of hiding Z-seams and layer lines: it works really well. #3Dprinting

Two 3D printed cylinders: one with fuzzy skin and one without

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

I've got my Raspberry Pi all set up to run as a skycam. Next comes the trickier bit: building an enclosure for it.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

The partly cloudy night sky overhead tonight. The bright light is the moon behind a tree, and the rightmost of the three pinpoints at the top is Mars.

Picture of the night sky with moon behind tree

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Looks a little better with shading and reduced opacity.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Work in progress: cutaway view of a contour plot of the calculated density distribution of nucleons inside a 6He nucleus. The plot still needs tweaking, but not bad.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Spotted today on the UC Berkeley campus.

A picture of a flowering tree with purple flowers

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

The conclusion of this evening adventures in derivations: only off by 1/3. Progress.

Remark at the end of a mathematical derivation: "so there just seems to be a factor of 1/3 difference between my result and the formula in Lee1975."

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Nickel-58 nucleus may host elusive toroidal dipole excitations. phys.org/news/2025-01...

phys.org article: Nickel-58 nucleus may host elusive toroidal dipole excitations.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

So this is a math puzzle that took me a little while to work out. It turns out there is a beautiful generalization of the formula (see Eq. (14) at mathworld.wolfram.com/InfiniteProd... )

Mathematical formula to calculate involving an infinite product of ratios

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

I’m really trying hard to disagree with this

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

I'm not sure I have exactly what you're looking for (my field is nuclear theory), but the i\epsilon prescription pops up in lots of places, and at least in the context of Green's function methods and dispersion relations, the mathematical methods book by Wyld might be of interest

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

I'll do even better, here they are :)

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Age yourself with your first computer

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

My raspberry pi 5 just got here. My current plan is to use it primarily to run Mathematica, since the license is included with the pi.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

A few pics from a recent trip to Paris.

Picture of a restaurant surrounded by flowers in Paris, France.

Picture of the Maison Rose, at the end of the Rue de L'abreuvoir.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 07/04/2024

For no good reason: price of Millennium Falcon LEGO sets as a function of number of pieces, and labeled by the set number. I had to make it a log-log plot because the points span a pretty wide range.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 27/02/2024

Clearly, there are linux commands I don't use often enough.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 13/02/2024

Here's a simple thing I keep forgetting how to do and had to relearn recently: how to draw a properly scaled arrow in python.

Python code snippet showing how to draw an arrow

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 19/10/2023

The new SSD I ordered did not come with screws. I have improvised a highly sophisticated temporary fix.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 09/10/2023

I did just enough coding this morning to launch some jobs and let the computer do all the hard work from here on out. Now I can lounge under the trees in my backyard and do other stuff.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 01/10/2023

Something tells me painting the details on the tiny astronauts for the #Space1999 Eagle model is going to be a challenge.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 22/09/2023

Plug-in power usage meters are great and everything, but do they really have to cover both outlets?

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 16/09/2023

I still use my pb-700 from the early 80s, programmable in basic, from time to time... I don't use it as often as I used to back then, but it comes in handy in a pinch.

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qmbphysics.bsky.social @qmbphysics.bsky.social · 13/09/2023

It's finally here: one of my favorite scifi spaceships. I'll be taking my time putting it together; I really want to do it justice.

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