Skewray Research

#Math interests
• #Mathematics Foundations [dilettante]
• #Probability
• #Bayesian #Statistics
• #RealAnalysis and #NumericalComputing
• Stable distributions
• Finance and Project Management

#Astrophysics
• #Cosmology - detection of dark matter
• #Neutrino detection (SNAPPY cubesat)

website: https://www.skewray.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8690-4830
Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/skewray

Public Key

npub1cd8m89atxa5zznp09awxczr0nvzq6kwv83jk4zp60748hy76t34qsur4z3

NIP-05 Address

skewray_at_mathstodon.xyz@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsvxnanj74nw6ppfshj7hrvpphekpqdt8xrcet23qa8l2nmj0d9c6sprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqyv8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnndehhyapwwdhkx6tpdsr0t8jl

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

relay.snort.social

nostr.mom

Author Public Key

npub1cd8m89atxa5zznp09awxczr0nvzq6kwv83jk4zp60748hy76t34qsur4z3

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-09-26 03:56:38 UTC

- reply

Now I want to introduce myself as an amateur prophet.

2026-09-06 15:47:51 UTC

- reply

For years, I have thought that we should have the same divide for programming languages as we have for HTML/CSS. The actual language semantics (HTML) should be mathematically proven. The syntax (CSS) should be described in a file that could be utterly personal, but the CSS is invertible; any CSS file can be converted into another. So, I can use C syntax and write my fluff. When I send it to you, your CSS file makes it look like Pascal.

2026-08-07 14:34:07 UTC

- reply

IMHO, vim has added little of value for me to vi. I still use the same 10 vi commands that I first learned. But now vim does stupid, like allowing me to open and edit directories. Every time that happens, I'm all wtf wtf wtf get me outta here!?! The context coloring is nice, though, so I magnanimously allow others to use it.

2026-08-07 03:07:11 UTC

- reply

Dude. You been drinking the cool aid. Nothing wrong with csh scripting. I've been happily using csh/tcsh scripting for 45 years. I mean, people out there actually really use emacs, and that's horrifying.

2026-08-07 01:37:07 UTC

- reply

What is "command line"? Can I download it on the Apple Store?
For the last few months, I've been writing far more shell scripts than anything compiled. And all in csh derivatives. None of that bash hooey.

2026-04-07 17:25:24 UTC

- reply

Leaving us with President Vance. Uh-huh.

2026-04-06 04:42:10 UTC

- reply

Neither had thousands of physicists, apparently. Quite shocking. Someone should update Wikipedia.

2026-04-06 04:37:00 UTC

- reply

There are literally hundreds of papers every month with some clever solution to dark matter, dark energy, and/or quantum gravity.
I had a proposal turned down last year because, according to the reviewer, it was on WIMPs, and most papers now are not on WIMPs, so apparently they are passé. Wut?

2026-02-19 18:06:23 UTC

- reply

I signed a contract for solar panels on April 16th. My panels have, so far, been very decorative.

2026-01-30 19:08:19 UTC

John Baez talk in Claremont
@npub1nf4…nqe4
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/115/985/616/254/251/928/original/926632a2d2201f7d.jpeg

2026-01-15 03:21:30 UTC

- reply

Clearly, this should never have been unclassified. We will never put the Adolf back in the box now. How could we just hand out the roadmap?

2025-11-04 16:23:59 UTC

- reply

Pinyin is not based on English; they just used a handy set of letters. Dropping that misconception makes Pinyin seem...less weird?
Your textbook was competing for the World's Worst Explanation...and won! I can't hear any difference between the ch's in church, and I've been speaking Mandarin daily for 25 years. Neither 'ch' nor 'c' sound anything like anything in church (in standard American English). Maybe the author spoke some arcane dialect of English?

2025-10-31 12:37:35 UTC

Breaking news! Physicists discover that Godel's incompleteness theorems apply to reality! And get it published! Who knew mathematics could be, yanno, used for something?
https://phys.org/news/2025-10-mathematical-proof-debunks-idea-universe.html

2025-10-25 14:34:06 UTC

- reply

Seems like a sad attempt at a pun, as oriented and oriental sound similar. Hardy-har-har-har.

2025-09-26 14:34:15 UTC

- reply

My God, someone reinvented Athenian democracy!

2025-07-02 15:51:55 UTC

- reply

I've never come across empty sets with regard to AoC. Just that, if the drawers contain shoes, which come in left and right varieties, then AoC is not required.
https://proofwiki.org/wiki/Axiom_of_Choice/Examples/Russell%27s_Socks_and_Shoes

2025-06-01 18:50:18 UTC

- reply

This is a horrific idea. Also, you will probably want to have a long stem with a nozzle to get the spray away from the fan thrust. Better than an aerosol can would be a CO₂ cylinder & paint tank. Airbrush parts would work for a lot of that. Software would need to use the camera to actively stabilize the drone position relative to the surface.

2025-05-29 18:59:21 UTC

- reply

It is "just" systems analysis, but what I find new (to me) is that the approach is like software engineering patterns. There, someone can say, "Oh, this looks like a FactoryMakesLittleWhiteBunnies" and everyone knows what the structures and algorithms are. They've laid out the patterns the recur when people work together. That's pretty cool.

2025-05-29 17:05:36 UTC

- reply

Only 29 libraries in Worldcat have this book, and none are nearby me. But the PDF certainly is available.
I am interested because, over the ten years I was in industry, I saw the pattern in the image over and over. Just as an example, the industry facility I was at proudly displayed time since last injury. Then they asked how many people were injured but did not report it, since they didn't want to be blamed for breaking the safety streak. Result: overwhelming positive response. Solution: take down display of time since last injury.

2025-05-29 16:47:02 UTC

- reply

ISBN works...but the cheapest copy used is $100. Guess I'll hit the library.

2025-05-19 18:51:21 UTC

- reply

I can sort of believe that, but it makes me wonder why vorticity is considered something about incompressible fluids.

2025-05-19 16:00:15 UTC

- reply

Pretty sure all conserved quantities have a symmetry. The Wiki article mentions chirality???

2025-05-10 16:00:12 UTC

- reply

A really good use of ChatGPT would be to generate letters to academics that meet all 37 points of John's Crackpot Index.
When I was in grad school, there was some guy who printed up his ideas as a hardback book and mailed a copy to every physics professor is the US. I was surprised by how often I saw it retained on office bookshelves; for some of us back then, throwing out a book was blasphemy.

2025-04-29 21:06:46 UTC

- reply

Is a grant a contract? I am slightly skeptical, admittedly through ignorance. I know Caltech has a prime contract with NASA to run JPL, but any grants JPL has can and often are stopped at will.

2025-04-19 22:44:46 UTC

- reply

Agreed, but whatever it is won’t be based on the Democratic Party. So, then what?

2025-04-12 19:40:08 UTC

- reply

Hi, Jennifer. @npub1nf4…nqe4 lives in Riverside, so that must be who this unknown caller is. Glad I could help!

2025-04-08 22:44:30 UTC

- reply

Just implying that killing entire families is very French Revolution. Otherwise, sign me up.

2025-04-08 22:16:36 UTC

- reply

The fortunes of the richest families in the world are generally far larger than single individuals. That doesn't lead to a good place.

2025-03-18 03:19:11 UTC

- reply

Over the last 75 years, America has had the economic power to reshape the world however it wanted. The result was, overall, pretty fucked up. Let’s see how the Chinese do, shall we? Unless, of course, Europe gets its act together. How about it?

2025-02-17 03:06:48 UTC

- reply

There occasionally giant methane leaks from oil fields around the southwest. Just be prepared.

2025-02-17 01:02:41 UTC

- reply

Could make a blimp with methane. That would be about half the lift of hydrogen.

2025-02-16 23:54:18 UTC

- reply

I’ve researched a bit. A hot air blimp would be huge and ungainly. Helium too expensive. Hydrogen perfect but illegal in the US, where I am. Laws from when morons here still thought the Hindenburg was a hydrogen fire.