Scott

Selfie in front of food distribution tents

Stand-up sign for the food distribution event

Paper bags of food

Food distribution tents with bags of food ready to distribute and volunteers in safety vests

November is National Veterans Month. This was my last participation in a series of volunteer events distributing food to veterans! Many veterans are also recipients of SNAP, so being able to personally help over 180 families today felt especially meaningful #VeteransMonth

How fitting is it that American general elections are falling on the 10th national Use Your Common Sense Day? This holiday was scheduled in honor of humorist and actor Will Rogers - himself famous for incisive observations like "Rumor travels faster, but it don't stay put as long as truth." #vote

Uploader's selfie holding a mini pumpkin

Today is National Pumpkin Day! Pumpkins have been cultivated by humans for thousands of years, and they actually originated down here in the south! This tiny pumpkin is going to be decorative, but the full-sized ones have been used by indigenous peoples since antiquity to create delicious foods.

Today is the 22nd day of the 2025 government shutdown, officially making it the second-longest in US history after the 35-day shutdown in 2018. Donald Trump was president for both, and can also claim the dubious honor of causing more than half of all government shutdown days in American history.

Handouts arrayed on top of a tote bag. Clockwise from the left are a badge holder, a keychain, a chip clip, and a data blocker. All read "cyber defender."

Today is National Techies Day! My workplace, Lockheed Martin, needs all kinds of technical expertise. They recently chose to recognize me and my team as "Cyber Defenders," which came with this fun goodie bag. Pictured are a privacy-focused badge holder, a data blocker, a clip, and a keychain.

The White House with a Spirit Halloween banner photoshopped onto it

As of today, October 1, 2025, the record for most government shutdowns under one president has officially been tied. The only other POTUS to see three discrete instances of such an event was Ronald Reagan (1981, 1984, and 1986).

Selfie playing the original Doom

Sign for the National Videogame Museum

Statue of Master Chief originally made to promote the release of Halo 2

A gallery of consoles throughout history

Today is National Video Game Day! Like most adults, I don't find myself online as often as I once did, but today isn't just about playing games - it's about celebrating their history. Dallas is home to one of the best places in the world to do just that: the National Videogame Museum!

Why would I tell you all a story most of you never knew, just to then prove it false? For the handful of you still reading, I think that today is a fantastic example of the value of curiosity and the danger of credulity.

The term "bug" in this sense long predated this incident, and appeared at least as early as the 1800s. A moth did appear in the Aiken computer in 1947 and cause a glitch, but the attribution of this as the first bug was a joke that went too far. Even Grace Hopper's involvement was a myth!

Me spreading my "wings" and wondering what it would be like to land between two relays in a computer

A dead Atlas Moth that visitors can touch and interact with

Two Atlas moths sleep in a mesh house

A Blue Morpho midflight

If you researched where the term computer bug originated, you probably read that on September 9, 1947 (78 years ago today), Grace Hopper found a moth inside of the Aiken Relay Calculator. It's a pithy and memorable story that links to several of the founding figures of computation. It is also wrong.

A cyan section of the Oklahoma City Underground tunnels

An exhibit at Wonderspaces Austin. In the foreground, a red pencil holds a curled sheet of paper flat. On the left is a container of other red pencils and on the right is a printed sheet of instructions explaining the exhibit. In the background, a large board mounted on the wall holds many pieces of rolled-up paper.

The marquee for the Galaxy Drive-in Theater. It advertises "handcrafted pizza served here" and "ask about our d t cial [sic]."

A set of sculpted lanterns that resemble a frog surrounded by lily pads

It's World Photography Day! Each year, the anniversary of the daguerreotype being released to the public serves as a holiday to celebrate the wonder of photography. I wanted to use today to share a few photos from this year that I didn't otherwise have a reason to post!

Whether you're going shopping or just sitting at home, be sure to wave at your nearest surveillance camera! Surveillance Day is a perfect day to talk about the newest way we're being watched: the government has contracted Palantir Technologies to begin developing a database of every American citizen

Flat landscape of white sand

View of the dunes over a crest at the top of one

A dead bush in the foreground of a view of white sand dunes

Close-up of white sand

No, there hasn't been a surprise blizzard - this is sand! The last Saturday in June is World Sand Dune Day, and some of the most unique sand dunes in the world are here at White Sands National Park. The pure gypsum sand found here forms the largest deposit on the planet.

#WorldSandDuneDay

The informal logo of the No Kings protest movement

810 years ago on this day, the Magna Carta was signed. The Great Charter restricted the power of kings and mandated a more just legal system. It would go on to be one of the most influential legal documents of all time, inspiring the checks-and-balances system of the American Constitution. #nokings

Selfie taken with my name tag for the event

A stained glass window at the art museum

A section of trail at the park

A curious rock formation at Longhorn Cavern

We can all think of some apothegms about the journey and the destination - but it only takes a little planning to make them literally true. The Austin Cybersecurity Summit was a blast, but the road trip down there was just as fun in its own right!

I have friends everywhere

I was struggling to make the character count, but the VLA is not the largest overall interferometer array in the US - it is, however, the largest of its type.

Selfie with one of the dishes at the VLA Star Party

The VLA in Configuration D

A tour led by one of the researchers at the Open House

The ngVLA prototype dish

The first Friday in May is National Space Day, commemorating America's first manned spaceflight, and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than stargazing at the Very Large Array! This interferometer array telescope is the largest in the U.S. I even got a sneak peek at the next-gen dishes!

Selfie with a library volunteer badge, standing in front of bookshelves in a library

It's Microvolunteering Day! Volunteering can seem intense; the time and energy commitments for work like food banks can create a significant barrier to entry. Microvolunteering is all about atomically small actions that can help those around us! You just need to spare a few minutes to do some good.

VLA radio telescope under a purple night sky, illuminated by a lightning bolt within a large cloud in the background.

Lightning strikes over the Very Large Array in New Mexico ⚡️📡

📸 Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/B. Foott

#RadioAstronomy #Astronomy #Astrophotography

Very Large Array

Prints: jon.framer.art/image/very-l...

You're presenting an interesting idea, but again, I have no unique ability to get this into mathematics journals. If you can build on and formalize your work I really do think you'd be better served working with researchers at a university you trust to get your ideas published.

You're presenting an interesting idea, but again, I have no unique ability to get this into mathematics journals. If you can build on and formalize your work I really do think you'd be better served working with researchers at a university you trust to get your ideas published.

It's very ironic for the generative AI shoehorned into Elsevier to talk about "misleading claims" and sources that "lack a scientific basis." If AI models were as sentient as some optimists claim, I would hope this one experienced profound embarrassment.

I wish! I'm no more connected than you are to the domain of formal mathematics research.

Nope, sorry

I'm not British, I'm located in the US and went to Purdue for all of my degrees. I'm sorry you feel that way, but I'm the wrong person to look to if you want it addressed

If you would like to introduce mathematical claims to the US that you think need to be heeded, I recommend submitting your work to the Journal of the American Mathematical Society.

I'm confused. Respond to what? Where is the insult?

Me riding the Acela route, which holds America's only genuine high speed rail

A dining car on a Lake Shore Limited train

Interior shot of Moynihan Train Hall

A viewing car on Empire Builder westbound out of Chicago

Happy anniversary to the Swansea and Mumbles Railway - possibly the first passenger rail! Unfortunately, this anniversary brings bad news for America's national rail service: the current admin seems bent on selling it for parts to private interests, and forced the CEO to resign last week.