#iTeachPhysics: Work in progress desmos sim for rolling and slipping:

www.desmos.com/calculator/5...

The DNC Resolutions Committee has passed my resolution to hold Trump Administration officials legally accountable for their crimes.

Assuming the whole packet passes on Friday, it will become the official position of the national Democratic Party.

And the College Board just lost what legitimacy it had left. All students and families should know about this.

Google slide: Warm Up Try to "backspin" a ping pong ball & a pool ball to create the following scenarios. Which ball is easier for which scenario? Before: ball spinning counterclockwise, while moving right After: ball rolling right Before: ball spinning counterclockwise, while moving right After: ball rolling left

Also helped as I tried to explain why when you backspin a ball it might end rolling in either direction.

Diagram of a ball showing initial translational and angular velocities. There are two number lines below showing that the translational velocity increases while the angular velocity decreases until the final translational velocity equals the radius times the final angular velocity.

#iTeachPhysics: Thinking about modeling what happens in the transition from slipping to rolling. I showed this to students today because that’s sort of what happens in my brain (not clear if it was helpful)

Anyone do something similar?

Targeted Small Drone Attacks on Civilians: A Global OSINT Picture A global OSINT map of targeted small drone attacks on civilians since 2022.

Small drone attacks are killing more civilians around the world than ever before.

I made a map about it:

“I have discovered fire! Surely this will be a useful technology!”

“Wonderful! Let’s burn things down.”

a screenshot of the nasa artemis ii live stream with two video feeds; one from a camera mounted on a solar array pointed at the moon, and another of mission control. the feed of the moon has the iconic scene from Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon), a film from 1902

uhhhhhh is anyone else seeing this www.youtube.com/live/6RwfNBt...

Great example of bad science policy communication 👇🏽

This post does not communicate that they don’t propose cuts to the Artemis program. In fact it proposes an increase to their budget. The cut is to the science programs: the curiosity and saving planet earth programs. 🔭🧪 #scicomm

Mr Gorbachev, open the fucking strait you crazy bastard

Daughter: What do you call a female Viking?

Me: skjaldmær?

Daughter: No, mommy (*rolls eyes*). A Viqueen.

Me: Ah, I shall add this to my lecture notes. I stand corrected.

Higher multipoles of the cow Editor's Note: The spherical cow is a useful approximation familiar to physicists. But what does it leave out? How can you systematically improve on this approx

Going beyond the spherical cow approximation. The paper we all needed. 🎢 ⚛️ 🧪 ♾️ 🐄

Full-page “ad” in the March-April 2026 The Onion with a grid of 12 images of beaks (10 bird, 1 octopus, 1 squid), with text at the bottom reading: Beaks Bird tested, cephalopod approved. (Not a paid advertisement)

I’m not sure whether it’s the current moment or the general fact of an empty, uncaring universe, but the so much of the latest issue of @theonion.com is hitting me right.

You deserve more subscribers than the Washington Post, @bencollins.bsky.social.

A full disc image of Earth, as seen from the Orion Crew Module. The planet is a pale blue, swirling with white clouds and glowing slightly lighter blue in place from reflected light. At lower left, a large brown landmass is Africa, with Spain and Portugal with twinkling lights where the planet curves. At top right, auroras glow in a thin green glow, just barely separated from the planet's surface. Earth is set against the black of space (pic: NASA/R.Wiseman)

More context on this #Artemis II image:

* This is the night side, lit by moonlight. You can see city lights in Spain & Portugal, & a sliver of day at lower right

* The Sun is entirely behind Earth, which makes it a kind of solar eclipse, but w/ Earth doing the eclipsing instead of the Moon:
☀️🌍🚀🌕

blue and black ink painting of wave interference

blue and black ink painting of space-time curvature

blue and black ink painting of space-time curvature

blue and black ink painting of space-time curvature

The first four of the smaller paintings are in the shop. Originals, one of each #sciart

Here's a fun #vpython #python #physics animation showing polarization at brewster's angle #physics

This is so, so well-articulated.

Constructive Interference YouTube video by xmdemo

Video Description: Two wave pulses traveling along a slinky combine constructively when they meet to knock over a single cup in a row of cups.

Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bkZ...

#iTeachPhysics

boop

If all goes according to plan, in a few hours, a crew of astronauts will begin a journey that will take them on a loop around the moon. Here's a video that NASA put together to help people visualize the journey through space, first orbiting the earth before looping around the moon and flying home 🔭

two tweets from helena horton, a journalist at the guardian: The real Joe isn’t on X and this account is based in the US and connected via the Brazil App Store. Jonathan the tortoise is apparently alive and well. The governor of St Helena just told me he went outside to check on the tortoise, who was sleeping as it is past his bedtime, but he is very much alive.

the tortoise lives, as per helena horton at the guardian

Highlighted section of the Copilot ToS which says "Copilot is for entertainment purposes only"

www.microsoft.com/en-us/micros... is it good to build an entire economy and software infrastructure on this

Yet anti-LGBTQ+ therapists now enjoy a First Amendment right that is denied to abortion providers. But as Jackson pointed out, the inconsistency runs deeper. After Chiles, parents who seek to “convert” their transgender children have a constitutional right to do so. But thanks to last year’s decision in Skrmetti, parents who seek to affirm their transgender children with medication have no such right. States can ban gender-affirming medication but evidently cannot ban anti-transgender talk therapy. And the majority does not explain why anti-LGBTQ+ speech receives heightened protections when other viewpoints do not. Surely, Jackson wrote, a state can direct doctors to discourage, and not encourage, smoking cigarettes. It can prohibit doctors “from telling an anorexic patient to eat less” while allowing them to recommend eating more. It can stop doctors from encouraging patients to end their lives. These laws, too, censor speech on the basis of the state’s preferred viewpoint—in Gorsuch’s words, they “enforce orthodoxy.” Why is it, then, that nobody seriously argues that they’d violate the First Amendment, too?

The Supreme Court's "conversion therapy" decision today is indefensible on its own terms. A ton of medical regulations restrict speech on the basis of "viewpoint." Nobody thinks they're unconstitutional. This court just subjects pro-LGBTQ protections to special hostility. slate.com/news-and-pol...

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION IN THE UNITED STATES, Plaintiff, Civil Case No. 25-4316 (RJL) V. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION March 3l → 2026 [Dkt. #51] The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner! President Trump ("the President") claims that Congress has given him authority in existing statutes to construct his East Wing ballroom project and to do it with private funds. The plaintiff, the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States ("National Trust", claims the President has no such authority under existing statutes and that a preliminary injunction is necessary to avoid irreparable harm. I have concluded that the National Trust is likely to succeed on the merits because no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have. As such, I must therefore GRANT the National Trust's Motion for a Preliminary Injunction, and the ballroom construction project must stop until Congress authorizes its completion.

BREAKING: Judge Leon finds Trump likely lacks the authority to build the ballroom, blocks Trump admin from building unless Congress actually gives that authority.

"[N]o statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have."

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

by far the worst tendency on this platform is its tendency to interpret a description of something that happened or is happening as an endorsement of that thing

I have been reading Mark on conversion therapy cases for years and he has always been very clear about how awful it is

bsky.app/profile/drew...

Sure! "Cyclists have a right to the road, too, you noisy, polluting, inconsiderate maniacs! I hope gas goes up to eight bucks a gallon!"

$8 a gallon for gas???

That's right

Calvin & Hobbes Calvin’s dad sicko meme Calvin‘s father is standing beside his bike, taking off his helmet and yell yelling “Yes…ha ha ha…YES!” He is viewed through a window, of course, with a darkened sky and a crescent moon in the background

Required: