[-] drail@fedia.io 3 points 5 days ago

Nuggets truly rounding back into form. Jokic is producing more than ever, but we need to scale back his usage more as the other players each start hitting their marks.

[-] drail@fedia.io 29 points 2 months ago

My goal for the summer was to finish my PhD. I defended on Friday and am now Dr. Drail, so I actually accomplished my summer task for once. I sacrificed all my sleep and sanity to do so, as I was told at the 11th hour to redo a major analysis that made up 1/4 of my dissertation, but I fucking got it done.

[-] drail@fedia.io 50 points 2 months ago

I have both ADHD and minor hearing loss that started when I was a teenager (wear earplugs if you frequent concerts and play in live bands, turn the music down on your headphones from max volume). It is a rough combo that led to plenty of awkward situations as an awkward teen.

The worst was when I was on a first date at a SixFlags and my date didn't tell me she was terrified of rollercoasters. I felt bad, but only went on a few rides without her and spent the remaining time trying to win a stuffy at a carnival game for her, trying to have a good time anyway. She was really really quiet and I was having a hard time with all the stimulus and crowd noise understanding her. Eventually, it got to the point where I was asking her to repeat everything more than once, so I started to autopilot. While we were waiting in line for something, she muttered something and I responded, my brain playing fill in the blanks, "Uh-huh."

Turns out, when I heard her say "Mumble mumble ride mumble bring mumble with you mumble." she was not saying, "I really wish I could go on a ride, but I am happy you wanted to bring me with you anyway!"

She was, instead, saying something along the lines of, "It must be so annoying that I haven't gone on a single ride, I bet you regret bringing me here with you at all today."

Needless to say, there was no 2nd date. She told me later it was shitty of me to respond like that, and I couldn't convince her that I just misheard her. Since then, if I can't understand someone after two tries, I just explain that I have bad hearing and need them to speak up. Asking someone to repeat themselves will always be less awkward than driving her home after that.

[-] drail@fedia.io 48 points 2 months ago

I am a physicist. I am good at math, okay at programming, and not the best at using programming to accomplish the math. Using AI to help turn the math in my brain into functional code is a godsend in terms of speed, as it will usually save me a ton of time even if the code it returns isn't 100% correct on the first attempt. I can usually take it the rest of the way after the basis is created. It is also great when used to check spelling/punctuation/grammar (so using it like the glorified spellcheck it is) and formatting markup languages like LaTeX.

I just wish everyone would use it to make their lives easier, not make other people's lives harder, which seems to be the way it is heading.

[-] drail@fedia.io 33 points 5 months ago

My mom had an inspirational sign in one of her bathrooms that said, "Embrace this moment, for this moment is your life." perfectly matched to her decor. She knew exactly what she was doing.

[-] drail@fedia.io 58 points 5 months ago

I am half way done with mine, which means I only have 3/4 left to write, then I will be 90% done.

21
submitted 6 months ago by drail@fedia.io to c/nba@lemmy.world

Despite a mediocre game 1 and an abysmal game 2, the Nuggets arrived at the Target center on a mission to silence both the Minnesota Crowd and all chatter about a sweep. Beating the Wolves by 27, the Nuggets controlled this game from early on, determined to set the tone in Minnesota. Between the stabilized play of Murray and Jokic and some clear adjustments from Coach Malone, this series clearly still has the potential to be the all-out slugfest that everyone anticipated at the outset.

Go Nuggets!

36
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by drail@fedia.io to c/nba@lemmy.world

Despite holding a leading score over the Nuggets for about 70% of this series the Lakers were unable to seal the deal, going down 4-1 against the defending champions. They managed to avoid the clean sweep by winning one at home, but the Nuggets 2nd half offense proved too much for LeBron, AD, and the Lakers.

Here's how the offseason is shaping up for them:

Projected Cap Space with Cap Holds/Accept Options: -$82,925,096

Maximum Cap Space (i.e. without Cap Holds/Decline Options): $30,685,215

Cap holds and roster options

Draft Picks: 2024 1st round (The pelicans own LA's 2024 1st round pick, but can choose to instead take the Lakers' 2025 1st round pick instead.) 2024 2nd round (own)

Outlook (summarized from this BR article

The Los Angeles Lakers find themselves at a crossroads after a disappointing early exit from the NBA playoffs. With uncertainties swirling around LeBron James' future, the team faces a critical offseason. Currently, they could have significant financial flexibility, with the projected $141 million salary cap, potentially falling below the $172 million luxury tax threshold or surpassing it.

A pivotal factor in their financial planning revolves around the decisions of LeBron James and D'Angelo Russell. LeBron, with a hefty $51.4 million salary on the books, may opt for free agency, especially considering Bronny's eligibility for the NBA draft. The younger James could either enter the draft or return to college, influencing his father's choice. Meanwhile, Russell, owed $18.7 million next season, is likely to seek a significant raise in free agency following his impressive performance, averaging 18.0 points and 6.3 assists.

Despite these uncertainties, there are some positives for the Lakers. Most of their rotation players are under contract for the 2024-25 season, with only reserves Taurean Prince and Spencer Dinwiddie, and Max Christie not contracted for 2024-2025 . However, the main narrative centers, as always with the Lakers, on whether they will pursue another star via trade. If so, they must be prepared to part with a combination of players such as Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves, Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Jalen Hood-Schifino.

Adding to the intrigue is the potential involvement of DeMar DeRozan. At 35 years old and never having played in an NBA Finals, DeRozan might consider joining the Lakers as a low-cost option in pursuit of a championship ring and a return to his hometown, having grown up in Compton.

31
submitted 6 months ago by drail@fedia.io to c/nba@lemmy.world

#nba #nbahighlights #nbahighlightstoday #nbaplayoffsJamal Murray hits insane game winner vs Lakers to eliminate them from playoffs!! Los Angeles Lakers vs De...

[-] drail@fedia.io 31 points 7 months ago

To be fair to the post, it is describing how to tell people who wear all black apart, not categorizing them goth subtypes. Punk is also not goth.

[-] drail@fedia.io 24 points 7 months ago

It seems like a great way to send ~50% of the babies birthed out in space. Just remove the net, speed it up, and tilt it 90°, then you have a coin flip chance at space babies or crater babies.

[-] drail@fedia.io 45 points 7 months ago

I pitched this exact idea to my fiancé a few days ago (and have no clue why it came up). she didn't think it was a good idea, but now I can tell her that it was good enough to patent.

[-] drail@fedia.io 24 points 7 months ago

You smoking chicken dick if you think I'm frying fried fuck

14
submitted 8 months ago by drail@fedia.io to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
[-] drail@fedia.io 52 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Physics is a mixed bag with this stuff. Gell-Mann came up with the name quarks after a line from Finnegan's Wake because Joyce referenced them as coming in three. It was a nonsense word inserted just to rhyme with Mark, Park, etc, so its pronunciation in physics isn't even correct, but it was fun and physicists were just having a good time with it.

Three quarks for Muster Mark! Sure he has not got much of a bark And sure any he has it’s all beside the mark.

Then we got the strange/charm and top/bottom (which was originally the beauty/truth, so bullet dodged there) so the quarks really got all the fun names. Strong Force physics in general gets the good stuff: Axions were named after a detergent because they helped "clean up" the strong CP-violation problem of the standard model. Fantastic, no notes.

Neutrinos (my field of study), had so much potential for fun, stupid naming that was squandered. The neutrino was originally proposed with the name "neutron" by Pauli, but then the actual neutron was discovered and observed first, so the name got pinched. To remedy this, the electron neutrino was dubbed "neutrino" or little neutron (they didn't know that other flavors of neutrino existed). Meanwhile, the muon neutrino was originally supposed to be the neutretto (before they realized that the neutral leptons were related by the different particle generations), so we could have had a world where each generation of neutral lepton was just another combination of neutron + diminutive italian suffix.

  1. Neutrino
  2. Neutretto/neutronetto
  3. Neutrello/neutronello

Then, when the mass eigenstates were confirmed, we could have diversified and gone with big suffixes to indicate that neutrinos have mass.

  1. Neutroni
  2. Neutrachione/neutronachione
  3. Neutrozzo/neutronozzo

But noooooo, particle physics decided to just give neutrinos the lamest possible names, electron/muon/tau neutrinos for flavor states and m_1/m_2/m_3 neutrino for mass states. I am ashamed of my predecessors for what they've done.

Don't even get me started on the J/Psi debacle...

[-] drail@fedia.io 24 points 8 months ago

As one of the most senior grad students in my dept, holy fuck this hits hard.

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drail

joined 8 months ago