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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey@beamjockey.bsky.social |
237 followers 127 following 1712 posts
Physicist. Writer. Mono-instrumentalist. My posts are my opinions, and I do not speak for Fermilab. Nor NASA. Avatar: Bill Heterodyne, smiling & tipping his boater, by Phil Foglio. Banner: Me, infinitely reflected in mirrors.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Also seen in today's browsing: one of the UK's political parties "eeking out a small but non-trivial number of seats..."
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Pro tip: If you write "hone in on," your readers will recognize that you are not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Interesting reading. We were urged, at some point, to call such things "beam absorbers," because "dump" might connote, as you say, garbage. It was undesirable to give the impression our lab was dumping something. This did not keep us from thinking of a beam dump as a beam dump.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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I cannot dispute your impeccable logic.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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We Americans might have the only National Anthem with rockets in it. I, for one, am proud.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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This sculpture only does one thing. But it's a pretty neat thing.
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Andrew D Thaler
@drandrewthaler.bsky.social
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Library funding is almost always justified through patron numbers. The more people a library serves, the more funding it gets. So even if you don't regularly use a public library, get a library card. It costs you nothing and helps everyone in your community.
9 replies 240 reposts 478 likes
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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If I had to hire someone in 2024 to do the job your dad did back then, it would definitely be @generalising.bsky.social.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Until this moment, I had no idea Dissolution Honours were, as they say, a thing.
#IgnorantAmerican
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Are Dissolution Honours higher in status or lower than Royal Birthday Honours, or— [HIGGINS pauses to consult Wikipedia] Gee whiz, I never knew there could be so many different occasions to announce Honours Lists! —anyway, are some honours cooler than others, depending on the announcement time?
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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A goodnight link, for your whirlybird-loving enjoyment: Jaroslav Hrášek flies his replica of the mighty ALBATROS, from Jules Verne's novel ROBUR THE CONQUEROR.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Your remark was perfectly sensible. I was merely amusing myself imagining how deep whirlybird-nerdmanship could, hypothetically, go.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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I was expecting that #whirlybird nerds would show up and start piling on this guy. Thank you for your service.
(I will refrain from making the case for Mikhail V. Lomonosov's clockwork drone from 1754; Sikorsky is all we really need to make the point.)
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Aleph-1 bottles of beer on the wall Aleph-1 bottles of beer Take infinity down, pass 'em around Aleph-1 bottles of beer on the wall...
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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That's the second verse. It's just that nobody ever gets to the second verse.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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A truly excellent joke. I learned it long ago; can’t remember whether your dad was the person I first heard it from, but it was around the time I was in his classes. When we say of a teacher “How many lives he touched!” It also means people everywhere are sharing his jokes.
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Elizabeth Tasker
@elizabethtasker.bsky.social
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It’s July 4, and the Brits are headed to the polls. On November 5, the Americans will head to the polls. The irony should be a whole new meme era but the world is too awful.
1 replies 5 reposts 24 likes
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Happy birthday to the land of Beautiful Pilgrim Feet and also A Thoroughfare For Freedom Beat (a reference to Route 66). "America! America! God mend thine every flaw Confirm thy soul in self-control Thy liberty in law!" --Katharine Lee Bates Photo:Carol M. Highsmith
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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JarJar Abrams?
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Checking Twitter, several eagle-eyed viewers posted screengrabs when this finale first aired, in January 2022. This is by no means the only Easter Egg in THE EXPANSE, but it's especially rich.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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This #ScienceFiction history buff just watched Season 6, Episode 6, the finale of THE EXPANSE.
And found, at 26m 06s, the collection of Easter Eggs, years after everyone else did.
Three groups of soldiers prepare for an assault. Here's telemetry from their suits.
A lot of familiar names here.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Those of us following you for reasons such as "I want to learn about the world of planetary scientists" benefited from this.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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This began as notes compiled by the late Dorothy J Heydt, episode by episode, as they aired. Characters, planets, ships, plots, etc. Dorothy's huge collection of index cards was expanded into a fanzine-like reference by Bjo Trimble, later becoming the book. Heydt later wrote SF & fantasy novels.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Good insult, 5 out of 5.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Collect 'em all! Have you gone through them to see how much your beloved optical constants have changed over the years?
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Could... could the President QUARTER TROOPS IN MY HOUSE and be immune from consequences?
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Would an Emoluments Clause prosecution be a more attractive prospect now than it would have been, say, yesterday?
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Bigger than Taft's?
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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You GUYS. I was JOKING.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Oh, yeah. You need this.
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James Davis Nicoll
@jdnicoll.bsky.social
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Anyone here happen to know who Joanna Russ' literary executor is? Or better yet, is actually said executor?
5 replies 12 reposts 18 likes
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Cool. I've never been to Brookhaven, though I have visited SLAC, CERN, and Argonne.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Did you see @williamthomas.bsky.social's recent article on, among other things, the origin of RHIC?
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Maybe they should hire a better artist? Someone who could put more character into the characters?
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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That time I commemorated Andrew Plotkin's letter of comment to "PyroTechnics," sent 17 years after the fanzine was published, 17 years after Andrew sent the letter.
(In the pages of @file770.bsky.social.)
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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I myself, sadly, am stuck on Earth.
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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey
@beamjockey.bsky.social
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Reminder: Shop for Wehrmacht costume for family cat.
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David D. Levine
@daviddlevine.com
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