Struggle for Freedom & Democracy Day in Czech Republic, commemorating student protests against Nazi Occupation (1939) & 1989 protests, suppressed by Communist Government, inaugurating Velvet Revolution. Just saw this band singing Bella Ciao in the rain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuQTiDd6fN8

@GeneseGrill You came on the perfect day. Welcome to #Brno. Will you be giving any public talks, readings?

For World Philosophy Day, download a free copy of my new book with Derk Pereboom--Moral Responsibility Reconsidered! It is only available #OpenAccess for five more days (Nov. 22). https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/moral-responsibility-reconsidered/0DD200C8E84E6458EA56A098BC7E206F?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Hootsuite&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Elements_Philosophy_November_IOC | #Philosophy #FreeWill #MoralResponsibility #Punishment #Blame #Anger #Retribution #Morality #Meaning #Love

Just published a blog post consolidating my 4-month long Twitter thread about the design and fabrication of my Penrose tiling quilt, please check it out!

Feel free to reply to this toot with any questions or comments about the article or the project. #MathArt #LongRead #Quilting #Tiling #Tessellation

https://mzucker.github.io/2022/11/13/penrose-tiling-quilt.html

@cantabkitty @matt_zucker this looks amazing. Congratulations!!!

I've come on mastodon to share a piece about mastodon, which sounds like the kind of cannibalistic self-referentialism that started mad cow disease https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/nov/16/could-this-be-twitter-without-the-toxic-slurry-my-week-on-mastodon

At 3 pm UK time today -Thursday November 17th - I'll explain how to multiply quaternions AND OCTONIONS using just the dot product and cross product of 3d vectors.

You can join us on Zoom, in person, or watch later on YouTube:

https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2022/09/11/seminar-on-this-weeks-finds/

The connection between quaternion multiplication and the dot and cross product of 3d vectors is famous.... but for for octonions it's not so well-known, and I must admit there's a little twist. Still, it makes octonions easier to understand.

The internet wasn't intended to be 3 websites with enough power to turn us into doomscrolling zombies, sway public policy and lead to the collapse of democracy.

I just presented Art Spiegelman with the National Book Award Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, on the same day that PENAmerica put out a letter signed by Art and Margaret Atwood and me, among others, protesting the latest round of book bannings.
https://pen.org/spiegelman-atwood-sign-pen-america-letter-against-missouri-book-bans/

I’m boldly going where I haven’t gone before, which is right here at this site. Apparently this is a “toot.” I would appreciate a follow!

How do algorithms decide what content you see online? Is there really no way to prevent the misuse of social media to spread disinformation and hate?

Online platforms must be transparent and accountable for what their algorithms decide to promote. It's time we make this happen.

Starting today, we're setting up a European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency in Sevilla, Spain. This is one of the many measures in our new #DigitalServicesAct.

More info: https://algorithmic-transparency.ec.europa.eu/index_en

#DigitalEU

A few recommendations for life on Mastodon:

1) Follow anyone you think looks potentially interesting; you can always unfollow later, and they may lead you to new people via boosted posts.

2) Boost posts you think are worthy, so others can discover new content.

3) Don't obsess on replicating your Twitter follows on Mastodon; let it be its own experience, and grow it organically. Obvs follow anyone you miss from Twitter, but this isn't a 1:1 replacement; have fun, follow your instincts.

Today Earth reached 8 billion people, despite pandemics and violence and wars. There were 3.5 billion when I was born in 1968.
There's plenty of space left (no need for space!), but between us (30%), our livestock (67%), we're crowding out the wildlife (3%). Our dominance enabled by one-time finite fossils.
https://twitter.com/profmarkmaslin/status/1481202928090161152
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/world-population-8-billion/

Given that we are rapidly trying to build community here…

Can I ask you to do two key things:

1) Reshare other people’s posts - so your timeline is rich with other people’s posts for anyone browsing your content to discover.

2) Follow, follow, follow. That goes for following those posting good stuff - and also following those that follow you (as much as practically possible/sensible).

If you do these things, you’ll help us all network up at fast pace - and we all grow our voices & reach. ✌️

@GJohnstoneArt

@GJohnstoneArt
It may depend on what application you're accessing the page from. I use the Android phone app called Mastodon and it gives me a list of people registered in the zirk.us server that you can directly follow without moving to that server. That should at least be the principle of Fediverse/Mastodon. However, you may have come upon a bug :(. I'll send a screenshot of what I see in the next toot (if I can manage) :)

This evening I learned about the magic number 0.4323320871 8590286890… from @narain and @ereliuer_eteer. Drop everything left of the decimal place. Take the reciprocal of this fractional part. Keep doing that. This makes a sequence of numbers. What do you notice about the integers left of the decimal place?

A quick comment for people asking (and others as well).

When you "Favourite" something on Mastodon it gives the author warm fuzzies, but does not increase the reach.

When you "Boost" something, your followers get to see it in addition to those who follow the original poster.

So for "Reach" you need to "Boost", not simply "Favourite".

Having said which ... getting a Favourite *does* give me warm fuzzies ... thank you!

"To be honest, Proust’s sentences – and his sensibility – are at times trying. They demand attention to the infinite examination of a moment, its history and its psychological construction. My mind blurs, I drift off. But that is only on the page. As it is read aloud, every moment hangs in the air, an extraordinary architecture of light, always in flux but always precise, a glorious reality made of spells."

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/nov/12/reading-proust-aloud-how-can-it-be-that-deeply-flawed-and-terrible-humans-have-the-capacity-to-create