Dr. Joseph J. Thiebes

The geometry of attention Meaning emerges from where attention settles and how long it remains

What we treat as central is often an effect of duration.

A new essay on attention, distribution, and interpretation:
The geometry of attention.

A photograph of Alysa Liu skating with a quote: I say unto you: one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. I say unto you: you still have chaos in yourselves.

Alysa Liu & St. Friedrich

Why the aurora never look like the photos Most people who see the aurora say it looked nothing like the photographs.

Most people who see the aurora say it looked nothing like the photographs. They are right. What few realize is that the longer they stood there, the less true that became.

After watching Bad Bunny's performance again, I was looking at thumbnails of past halftime shows and thought, wow I bet Shakira sang a lot of Spanish songs. Sure enough, she did. Do you know what else made an appearance? The flag of Puerto Rico. And do you know WHO else made an appearance? Benito!

Graphic displaying the title “Measurement is not observation” and the name Joseph J. Thiebes, Ph.D.

open.substack.com/pub/josephth...

A potted Oxalis triangularis (shamrock) plant with green, triangular leaves and delicate pale lavender flowers. The plant sits in a terracotta pot by a window, with soft natural light highlighting the translucent petals and the geometric shape of the leaves.

As I always say:

Shamrocks for your real friends,
Real rocks for your sham friends.

(Unless they are geologists, in which case give them both.)

Person wearing a white mask with handwritten text ‘FU RFK,’ showing their upper arm with a colorful cartoon bandage after receiving a Covid booster.

Got my COVID booster.

Doctor Evil, the bald parody villain from the Austin Powers films, smirks while raising his pinky finger to his mouth.

Yay I got the bonus scribble! Amazing book.

Joseph Thiebes, wearing pajamas, holds the book “A Guide to Making Friends in the Fourth Dimension” by Toby Hendy, partly covering his face. An elephant sconce hangs on the wall behind him. A hallway extends into the background with a mirror that reflects light and his silhouette from behind.

Cozying up to kick off my birthday weekend with this remarkable new book by Toby Hendy @tibees.bsky.social. Look closely at the photograph: an inversion hides in plain sight! The fourth dimension may be closer than it seems…

But if I do a fit on two points, I get an R^2 of 1.0000000!!!

I’m starting a new position as a part-time Middle School Science Laboratory Instructor!

I’ll spend an hour each week helping students explore the scientific method, nurture critical thinking skills, and connect with the Montessori tradition of self-directed cosmic education.

@bskyttrpg.bsky.social unsubscribe

From the glossary in my dissertation.

Let’s normalize calling it Meitner-Auger recombination, shall we?

Meitner-Auger recombination: A process by which energy transfer between excitons causes one to recombine and the other to be excited to a higher energy state within the same energy band. It was discovered and published in 1922 by Lise Meitner and—independently—in 1923 by Pierre Victor Auger.

Gold crusted food is especially ridiculous.

A cartoon illustration showing the Greek letter tau (τ) with a smiling face on the left. On the right, there are two smiling cartoon pies stacked vertically. An equal sign is between them, indicating that tau equals two pies. The background is dark blue.

Happy Tau Day!

We celebrate both Pi Day and Tau Day at our house. Tau (≈6.28) is 2π, and some say it is the better circle constant. Either way, it is a great chance to talk angles, radians, and geometry with kids. Preferably over something round and tasty. #TauDay

There are always more people who can be argued to be “best qualified” than there are awards to give. Final decisions often come down to vibes, gut feelings, or familiarity. In that context, it’s not a band-aid. Ensuring gender balance is a way to check bias and expand who gets recognized.

Every science award given to multiple people should go to half who identify as women and half who identify as men. For odd numbers, alternate yearly.

“Best qualified” is no excuse. There are always more qualified people than awards. All-male award lists should be embarrassing.

#WomenInSTEM

A green plastic container filled with freshly baked pão de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread). The small, round pastries have a golden-brown crust on the sides and a soft, slightly puffed, yellowish top. They are piled together, showcasing their airy and chewy texture. The container sits on a neutral-colored surface.

Pão de Queijo! Easy to make:

170 g tapioca flour
1 egg
1/3 C olive oil
2/3 C milk
66 g cheese
1 tsp salt

Blend to homogeneity, 3/4 fill greased mini muffin pan, bake at 400 F for 15 min.

Spray the pan w/ canola oil because it is healthy and to spite RFK who hates it. #ChemistsWhoCook

a man and woman are sitting next to each other in a church . Alt: An animated gif from The Good Place in which a character says, “Anytime I had a problem and I threw a Molotov cocktail, boom! Right away, I had a different problem.”

The Good Place

Other than NMR… IR: No OH stretch at 3300 cm⁻¹; Hydrides: No bubbling with Na, NaH, or LAH; Sieves: No clumping or heat with 3Å or 4Å; Conductivity: Low value; Density: 0.782 g/mL at 25°C; Refractive index: 1.344 at 20°C; Boiling point: 81.6°C at 1 atm.

The fact that the 95% CI includes no effect does not mean there is no significant correlation. The mean is above zero; did you dig deep enough to figure out what the confidence level would need to be for zero to be excluded from the interval?

Dang

Maybe they can be wowed by: Gwendolyn Brooks, Claude McKay, Robert Hayden, Pablo Neruda, Nikki Giovanni, Federico García Lorca, Seamus Heaney, Lucille Clifton, Frank O’Hara

@sarahmackattack.bsky.social

White House statement: www.whitehouse.gov/articles/202... 9/9

None of these studies “make mice transgender.” The claim is pure nonsense. #transgender #DOGE #NIH 8/

Hormones & Asthma: How estrogen triggers inflammation in asthma, not gender identity. 7/ reporter.nih.gov/project-deta...

Androgens & Reproduction: How androgens regulate reproductive hormones, not gender identity. 6/ reporter.nih.gov/project-deta...