Hi, I'm Emma.

“Quantum physics is this incredible sect of of physics, which basically…

With like, Newtonian physics — I think of it as heteronormative physics — where its basically ‘What are the fixed universal principles that govern the world? If I do A, will B happen? What are the formulas that’ll tell us anywhere in the universe, “What will happen if I input this?”’

Quantum physics is equally a “real” sect of physics that basically looks at subatomic particles — so the very smallest things in our universe, not the macro things — and they contradict basically everything that Newtonian physics shows us. So, the most famous experiment is the Double Slit Experiment, where you fire an electron and it should go through the left or right hole. And then every now and then, it goes through both at the same time. And we don’t really know why. And sometimes, the same subatomic particle is in different locations at the same times.

Even by the standards of 2020, recent events in Portland, Oregon - a city I know well and deeply love - still have the capacity to shock. They’ve showcased the deployment of unidentified federal agents in military-style camouflage, armed with military-style weapons, who have beaten and tear-gassed protesters. This same paramilitary force has also occasionally snatched people off the street in unmarked vehicles and employed (or plan to employ) mass surveillance tools, including drones. The current administration has indicated that it sees Portland as a testbed for these tactics and deployments, with every intention of using them on a broader scale nationwide.

To put it mildly, this is not good. Portland is hardly under siege by violent anarchists. We’ve seen mild vandalism of federal property and a few businesses in a restricted section of the city, coupled with largely peaceful protests against police brutality (a particularly vexing problem in a left-leaning city with right-leaning law enforcement institutions). For all but the most committed authoritarians, this is not a sufficient reason to deploy what amounts to a new paramilitary federal police force, much less to let them off the leash to beat, gas, and detain American citizens at will.

When you're young and no one ever shows you healthy intergenerational interactions outside of close family and/or authority figures (and kids are most often taught to simply obey and not question adults of [perceived] authority), any time someone in that position gives you positive attention becomes almost heroic. And it certainly becomes intoxicating, especially for ~weird~ kids with 'uncommon' interests, or kids who just simply don't get regularly indulged by adults in their lives.

Yes, we have to be aware of and mindful of how people who would prey on kids use being nice, or just listening, to kids. However, if kids don't know that they *can* challenge adults, or that there *are* ways adults can interact with and educate them that aren't simply rooted in authority, they'll have a harder time recognizing that an adult *isn't* behaving the right way.

Simply treating a child as if they're a being in your community, and a being with inherent worth, isn't predatory. That's just what being part of the world is.

“Baby goats Marion and Juniper met walrus pals Pakak and Mitik during yesterday’s walk around the Zoo! 🐐💙🐐”

Cows trying to scare Canada goose 

THE FEDS RETREAT.

Blind cave gummi man

Jar of space virus

Don’t bully him :(

a family of honkulating dwimpuses

“Uhh this is how a duck swims right? Hoo boy. At least I remembered that they’re about two and a half inches long.”

JEREMY SCIENCE FACT: he has more friends.

“Stupid idiot little fish like to pretend they’re one big fish but I’m too high-IQ to fall for that” - a fish once

This wants to be somebody’s OC so bad.

This demon eyed tadpole isn’t even silly it’s just radical

Moomin larvae

Sometimes a fish is just like “hell yeah I have no idea what I’m looking at so it is D E F I N I T E L Y going in my mouth”

There’s nothing wrong with trying new things! If it makes you happy, however briefly, then it’s not a waste of time. I always look back with fondness on those brief obsessions with making jewelry or paint-by-numbers or whatever, because it was fun and I learned something, and what’s the alternative anyway? Doing nothing? Sitting around with twitchy fingers and too much pent up energy? Hating myself for not being “good” at anything just because I dropped karate after a few weeks?

George Francis Atkinson - Botany for High Schools (1910):

Imagine if the good cops striked and refused to work until the bad cops were held accountable.

I wonder why that never happens.

Last year I trained a neural net to generate new names for kittens, by giving it a list of over 8,000 existing cat names to imitate. Starting from scratch, with zero knowledge of English or any context for the words and letter combinations it was trying out, it tried to predict what letters might be found in cat names, and in which order. Its names ranged from the strange to the completely nonsensical to the highly unfortunate (Retchion, Hurler, and Trickles were some of its suggestions). Without knowledge of English beyond its list of cat names, it didn’t know what letter combinations to avoid.

So I decided to revisit the cat-naming problem, this time using a neural net that had a lot more context. GPT-2, trained by OpenAI on a huge chunk of the internet, knows which words and letter combinations tend to be used together on the English-language internet. It also has (mostly) figured out which words and letter combinations to avoid, at least in some contexts (though it does tend to suddenly switch contexts, and then, yikes).

When I trained GPT-2 on the list of cat names using Max Woolf’s colab notebook, it still retained a lot of what it had learned from the rest of the internet. Gone were the strange names like “Tilly-Mapper” and “Balllucidoux” - it had a bunch of real words it could use instead. Here are some of the names it came up with - and the Morris Animal Refuge (who you may remember from that time they used neural net names for their guinea pigs) has given some of these names to some highly adoptable kittens.

First, neural net can do fancy:

Taffeta Pompompur Monocle Tom Glitter Notion Tinnitus Cheesemonger M. Tinklesby Linklater Soap

It can also do the opposite of fancy:

Scat Cat Butthole Gangrene Moisture Grotesque Petard Oilbag Buttwig The Cream Meatbag Dr Fart Fudge Putty Scumbag Constipation BUTT

And it can also do names ranging from tough to downright sinister:

Miss Vulgar Lillith The Vamp Elle Fury Deadbolt Romeo of Darkness Starmaker Fist Warning Signs Bibles Smoked The Firestarter Higher Rune Scarlet Be Thy Coat Kill All Humans Bones Of The Master Mr. Sinister Evil Whispers Spawn Serendipitous Kill Stranglehold

(Starmaker and Sparky Buttons are from a litter that had upper respiratory infections that damaged their eyes, but even though their world is kinda cloudy, they love to play and cuddle.)

I’m a particular fan of the Very Weird cat names:

Honeystring Dr Leg Tom Noodle Pinball Scene Peanutbutterjiggles You’re Telling A Lie Beep Boop Thoughts Bobble Bun Atmosphere You Name It Whiskeridoo Sparky Buttons

Seemingly This Guy Various Authors Chicken Whiskey Fish Especially Thelonious Monsieur Ringo Shuffles Sweet Cakes EXTAs (Eye Stalks) Checker Spin Donut Quin Two Patz Grandpa He Glad Funky Moe Fluttering Feelers Accepted A Tribute Chewie Bean PLEASE Gregory Chimney Notable PRODUCT LEGEND Weird Science Platinum Not Suitable For Character the Enforcer

Did I mention these cats are adoptable? If you live near Philadelphia, you live near these kitties!