david jon furbish
@davidjonfurbish.bsky.social
emeritus professor studying statistical physics of sediment transport & science philosophy essays and ebook preview at: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/davidjonfurbish/ author of Fluid Physics in Geology: https://academic.oup.com/book/40895?login=false
Excited to share two preprints for companion papers that examine the statistics of bedload motion! We used high-resolution imagery to capture grain tracks from flume experiments across a range of fluid shear stresses. We also subject the sand bed to "stress history" to see how grain motion changes.
Here we go again… second attempt with a second “compact” version. But arrangements centered on extortion never work well.
Trump administration asks colleges to commit to education overhaul
Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s letter contains some similarities to a compact offered to and rejected by a small group of schools last year.
politico.com
This is terrifying and it doesn't even get into the inevitable crisis when tens of millions of climate refugees leave places where they can't survive.
Charlie Angus@charlieangus104.bsky.social · 3d agoWe are on the verge of a climatic upheaval greater than any of us can imagine. Global leaders and media aren't paying attention. They are focused on a series of self-inflicted crises that have left us dangerously vulnerable and totally unprepared. My latest. charlieangus.substack.com/p/what-keeps...
“AI is the asbestos we're shovelling into the walls of our technological society. Our descendants will spend generations digging it out again, and the longer the bubble goes on without popping, the longer it will take to repair the damage.” www.thenerve.news/p/cory-docto...
Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying
It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our t...
thenerve.news
New in PN: The new "science golden age" looks suspiciously like a grift "It’s impossible not to wonder whether part of Trump’s loathing for universities is that there's no way for him to corrupt the process and make money off it in the same way he can by giving billions to Silicon Valley types."
The new "science golden age" looks suspiciously like a grift
Trump wants to run scientific research like his family business.
publicnotice.co
the final reckoning between AI hype and reality is upon us. buckle up.
The AI Hype Reckoning Is Upon Us
The massive chasm between AI hype and reality is finally reaching the breaking point.
karlbode.com
I usually compose footnotes in a manner befitting their normally intended purpose: to support or elaborate material in the main text. But I also view certain footnotes as opportunities to drop serious snark. Here is one of my favorite recently composed footnotes, with context.
Well conceptualized and designed work — and thorough. This paper represents a key reference point for those aimed at pressing this area of sediment transport research forward.
Rachel Glade@rachelglade.bsky.social · 2mo agoHow do bedload velocity distributions change with flow strength? Can measurement bias affect experimental observations? How does all this control bedload flux? See our preprint led by then postdoc (now professor) Anshul Yadav! essopenarchive.org/doi/full/10.... Using CFD-DEM simulations we found:
eBook Preview (continued): Statistical Physics of Sediment Particle Motions and Transport Chapter 7: Master Equations Below is a brief description from my webpage to go with the link. cdn.vanderbilt.edu/t2-my/my-prd...
What is the value of human beings studying the cosmos? For @michaelgreshko.bsky.social at Science, I dug into how practitioners of humanity's oldest exact science are metabolizing the latest developments in AI...and how it seems to be forcing them to wrestle with philosophical questions.
Amid a flood of AI advances, astrophysicists are questioning the soul of their field
Researchers see enormous power in new tools—but also the potential end of astrophysics as a human endeavor
science.org
eBook Preview (continued): Statistical Physics of Sediment Particle Motions and Transport For anyone interested, I posted revised versions of the Preface and Introduction (Chapter 1) on my webpage. Below is a brief description from my webpage to go with the link. cdn.vanderbilt.edu/t2-my/my-prd...
Here's the serious bit for anyone who'd rather skip the 4000 words of jokes
it’s joyful dock diving season again… so time to repost this video of Rowan the fearless dock diving woof! #dogs #dogsofbluesky #AustralianShepherd
david jon furbish@davidjonfurbish.bsky.social · last yr.lol Rowan was rather annoyed with me that I posted her less-than-graceful dock dive without explanation… and insisted that we make things right so… here it is… her fearlessly and properly executed dock dive (and splash!) with precise tennis ball fetch! 😂 #dogs #dogsofbluesky #AustralianShepherd
A younger West-Coast academic colleague asked about any professional changes in my life. My reply: “So that you know, they immediately give you tenure when you retire, and there are no promotions. Well… maybe a promotion from “ok dog walker” to “pretty good dog walker,” but that’s it.” lol
eBook Preview (continued): Statistical Physics of Sediment Particle Motions and Transport The current table of Contents lists the topics to be covered, although the headings for the chapters in the second part of the book (Applications) are not yet included. cdn.vanderbilt.edu/t2-my/my-prd...
cdn.vanderbilt.edu
Here is the link to the article that Dan Gillmor is referring to. Grim stuff indeed. www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1...
We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard.
The emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries seem small—until you add up what the industry isn’t tracking and consider where it’s heading next.
technologyreview.com
Dan Gillmor@dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 3mo agoMIT's Technology Review takes a comprehensive dive into the energy/climate consequences of AI, and the news is terrible for everyone but the corporate bosses and billionaires in charge of it all. Grim, grim stuff here […]
this anticipated result is deliciously hilarious nonetheless the altman types will still burn through trillions of dollars in their efforts to destroy the commons, imagining the laws of physics don’t apply to their electronic matrix-inverting fantasies arxiv.org/html/2601.05...
On the Limits of Self-Improving in Large Language Models: The Singularity Is Not Near Without Symbolic Model Synthesis
arxiv.org
this is really funny clearly Microsoft is increasingly desperate with this copilot shit www.theregister.com/2026/04/23/m...
Microsoft adds uninvited AI co-author to Word docs
: Also rolls out agentic Copilot in Excel and PowerPoint, letting 21st century Clippy lend a... hand
theregister.com
Rowan especially enjoys romping amidst the bright fresh greenery of springtime in the Tennessee highlands — here on the trail to the creek (gonna look for frogs and turtles!) and on the creek floodplain currently flooded with ferns! #dogs #dogsofbluesky #AustralianShepherd
Rowan… intrepid woof, Dragon Soccer star, enthusiastic hiking companion, fearless creek wader… #dogs #dogsofbluesky #AustralianShepherd
eBook Preview (continued): Statistical Physics of Sediment Particle Motions and Transport Chapter 4: Basic Stochastic Processes Highlights of this chapter include: (i) counting processes (Poisson, simple renewal, and additive Levy processes) 1/3 cdn.vanderbilt.edu/t2-my/my-prd...
cdn.vanderbilt.edu
I have fond memories of time spent in Budapest — the people, the city, the Danube, the countryside. This is all truly wonderful news.
Luis G. Prado@luisgprado.bsky.social · 4mo agoBudapest tonight The biggest street party you ever saw
As an emeritus faculty I minimally maintain a Windows system for reasons related to legacy software and engagement with campus IT. But I have otherwise nearly completed my migration to Linux and open-source software. (I have avoided most MS software for years.) 1/3
“This fragile landscape—like so many across our planet—is on the brink of huge change.” www.motherjones.com/environment/...
Scientists set out to learn how climate change affects wild meadows—with alarming results
“It’s a profound change in the ecosystem."
motherjones.com
The author’s response to this question is absolutely brilliant! “It is a letter that arrives every few years from the government, asking a question that is medically absurd and philosophically insulting: "Are you still disabled?"” sightlessscribbles.com/posts/the-pa...
The 'Paperwork Flood': How I Drowned a Bureaucrat before dinner., Sightless Scribbles
A fabulously gay blind author.
sightlessscribbles.com
An Open Letter to Georgetown Students, In Response to Recent Announcements by the University about “Generative AI” medium.com/center-on-pr...
An Open Letter to Georgetown Students, In Response to Recent Announcements about "Generative AI"
Image source: Bibliothèque nationale de France An Open Letter to Georgetown Students, In Response to Recent Announcements by the University about “Generative AI” Dear students, As you know, in …
medium.com
Yes, the central limit theorem might just be as close as one can get to real mathemagic! Indeed, here is the opening sentence of material on the CLT that I recently posted (the link appears in 2/2 below): “The central limit theorem is among the crown jewels of mathematics and science.” 1/2
Quanta Magazine@quantamagazine.org · 5mo agoThe central limit theorem is a mathematical truth so powerful that it often strikes newcomers as impossible, like a magic trick of nature. Through it, the most random chaos can lead to striking predictability.
