The Mysterious Sinking of the Bayesian
The circumstances surrounding the deaths of British tycoon Mike Lynch, his daughter and five others on a luxury yacht are fraught with improbable coincidences
@silvermouse said:
The stagnation of physics
Physicists today need to jettison the all-too-attractive myth that they are uncovering the hidden reality of our Universe
Understanding the desert one grain of sand at a time
WARNING: The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme. Proceed at your own risk.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
Reading this, a remarkable book set in Moscow during Stalin’s time. Darkly humorous.
Bulgakov was a playwright, allowed to live by Stalin, despite his criticism of the government. The book was destroyed by the author a couple of times, then rewritten. Was finally published by his widow in the 1960’s.
It presents a satirical picture of the social forces in Russia under Stalin, masked in a story about the devil appearing in Moscow, but no one can believe that it is the devil, since, of course, religion was outlawed and to admit to the reality of the devil would therefore indicate that spiritual forces exist.
It’s a picture of what society is like when everyone has to watch what they say and do lest their neighbors turn them in for improper thinking, much like what’s happening in Great Britain today with the rise of Woke-ism.
It’s partly set in Moscow, partly set in Jerusalem during the reign of Pontius Pilate
The events unfold in rather the same fashion as a dream 💭
It’s important to read the footnotes along the way, since so much of it is unknown to us, here, today.
The author was afraid to try to publish it, as Stalin had essentially sidelined him by giving him a job in the Moscow theater, a paycheck without any responsibility, a place to live, and didn’t send him to a Gulag or have him killed as had happened to so many of his colleagues.
He was Stalin’s favorite playwright, as long as he behaved.
Bulgakov was roundly condemned by the Moscow press as being an “Old Guard White Russian”, meaning that he still believed in the teachings of Russian Orthodoxy, despite the directive from the government that this was to be forgotten.
I’m about halfway through, keep wondering what’s going to happen next.
WARNING: The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme. Proceed at your own risk.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
The Great Depression of the 1930s was called "great" for a reason. It followed a long series of depressions that afflicted the American economy throughout the 19th century.
Crop failures, drops in cotton prices, reckless railroad speculation, and sudden plunges in the stock market all came together at various times to send the growing American economy into chaos. The effects were often brutal, with millions of Americans losing jobs, farmers being forced off their land, and railroads, banks, and other businesses going under for good.
Here are the basic facts on the major financial panics of the 19th century.
A new study suggests that Earth may lie within a massive, matter-deficient region of space—called the KBC supervoid—spanning 2 billion light-years. This vast underdensity could help resolve the Hubble Tension, the puzzling mismatch in the universe’s measured expansion rate.
Distant observations (like the cosmic microwave background) suggest a slower expansion rate of 67 km/s/Mpc, while nearby measurements (from supernovae and Cepheids) give a faster rate of 73 km/s/Mpc. Researchers believe the supervoid’s gravitational effects may be distorting our local view, making nearby galaxies appear to move faster than they truly are.
Even more intriguing, this immense void poses a challenge to the standard model of cosmology, which assumes a uniform matter distribution and relies on dark matter. Instead, the findings align better with Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND)—a bold alternative to dark matter that tweaks the laws of gravity.
If confirmed, this could mean we’re witnessing the first major shake-up in cosmology since Einstein—hinting that our place in the universe might be affecting how we see the cosmos expand.
📸 Upcoming missions like Euclid and Roman will put this radical idea to the test.
RESEARCH PAPER 📄
Sergij Mazurenko et al., “A simultaneous solution to the Hubble tension and observed bulk flow within 250 h⁻¹ Mpc”, MNRAS (2023)
30 Years Ago, This Book Saw the Coming Backlash Against Elites
Christopher Lasch’s “The Revolt of the Elites” anticipated the resentments of ordinary Americans that have led inexorably to Trumpism.
Comments
The Mysterious Sinking of the Bayesian
The circumstances surrounding the deaths of British tycoon Mike Lynch, his daughter and five others on a luxury yacht are fraught with improbable coincidences
https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-mysterious-sinking-of-the-bayesian/
Understanding the desert one grain of sand at a time
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
Bulgakov was a playwright, allowed to live by Stalin, despite his criticism of the government. The book was destroyed by the author a couple of times, then rewritten. Was finally published by his widow in the 1960’s.
It presents a satirical picture of the social forces in Russia under Stalin, masked in a story about the devil appearing in Moscow, but no one can believe that it is the devil, since, of course, religion was outlawed and to admit to the reality of the devil would therefore indicate that spiritual forces exist.
It’s a picture of what society is like when everyone has to watch what they say and do lest their neighbors turn them in for improper thinking, much like what’s happening in Great Britain today with the rise of Woke-ism.
It’s partly set in Moscow, partly set in Jerusalem during the reign of Pontius Pilate
The events unfold in rather the same fashion as a dream 💭
It’s important to read the footnotes along the way, since so much of it is unknown to us, here, today.
The author was afraid to try to publish it, as Stalin had essentially sidelined him by giving him a job in the Moscow theater, a paycheck without any responsibility, a place to live, and didn’t send him to a Gulag or have him killed as had happened to so many of his colleagues.
He was Stalin’s favorite playwright, as long as he behaved.
Bulgakov was roundly condemned by the Moscow press as being an “Old Guard White Russian”, meaning that he still believed in the teachings of Russian Orthodoxy, despite the directive from the government that this was to be forgotten.
I’m about halfway through, keep wondering what’s going to happen next.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
I fondly remember enjoying that book back in the late 60's. Thanks for the review.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/us/tennessee-beef-stolen-bean-station.html
Suddenly Old, Suddenly the Other: On the Unfamiliar World of Aging
Douglas J. Penick Considers Time, Transitions, and Classical Music
https://lithub.com/suddenly-old-suddenly-the-other-on-the-unfamiliar-world-of-aging/
https://apple.news/AjMB6ddqkReinjZyTxeGXrw
https://www.thoughtco.com/financial-panics-of-the-19th-century-1774020
The Great Depression of the 1930s was called "great" for a reason. It followed a long series of depressions that afflicted the American economy throughout the 19th century.
Crop failures, drops in cotton prices, reckless railroad speculation, and sudden plunges in the stock market all came together at various times to send the growing American economy into chaos. The effects were often brutal, with millions of Americans losing jobs, farmers being forced off their land, and railroads, banks, and other businesses going under for good.
Here are the basic facts on the major financial panics of the 19th century.
Another book "The Waiting" by Michael Connelly 2024. A Ballard and Bosch novel. Pretty good read.
A new study suggests that Earth may lie within a massive, matter-deficient region of space—called the KBC supervoid—spanning 2 billion light-years. This vast underdensity could help resolve the Hubble Tension, the puzzling mismatch in the universe’s measured expansion rate.
Distant observations (like the cosmic microwave background) suggest a slower expansion rate of 67 km/s/Mpc, while nearby measurements (from supernovae and Cepheids) give a faster rate of 73 km/s/Mpc. Researchers believe the supervoid’s gravitational effects may be distorting our local view, making nearby galaxies appear to move faster than they truly are.
Even more intriguing, this immense void poses a challenge to the standard model of cosmology, which assumes a uniform matter distribution and relies on dark matter. Instead, the findings align better with Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND)—a bold alternative to dark matter that tweaks the laws of gravity.
If confirmed, this could mean we’re witnessing the first major shake-up in cosmology since Einstein—hinting that our place in the universe might be affecting how we see the cosmos expand.
📸 Upcoming missions like Euclid and Roman will put this radical idea to the test.
RESEARCH PAPER 📄
Sergij Mazurenko et al., “A simultaneous solution to the Hubble tension and observed bulk flow within 250 h⁻¹ Mpc”, MNRAS (2023)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-06/vietnam-offers-to-remove-all-tariffs-on-us-after-trump-action
Behind a paywall.
Hmm..when I came across it there wasn’t one. Try searching “tarrifs dropped Bloomberg” through DuckDuckGo
No go.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/06/world/asia/vietnam-trump-tariff-delay.html
@TRayB try this one
Essay
30 Years Ago, This Book Saw the Coming Backlash Against Elites
Christopher Lasch’s “The Revolt of the Elites” anticipated the resentments of ordinary Americans that have led inexorably to Trumpism.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/books/review/christopher-lasch-the-revolt-of-the-elites-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9k4.eZ6D.i4YuZOsraWsq&smid=url-share