#crank — Public Fediverse posts

@cenobyte

I've spent the last hour-plus going through more of the "stuff" he links from the overview, and (a) I still have no way to tell if it makes sense or if it's just LLM-generated physics drivel, and (b) I get more and more concerned that "one self-educated non-physicist overturns all of modern physics and solves all outstanding problems", while hypothetically tenable, strains credulity.

I mean, a long history of cranks "disproving" Einstein (dunno why they all hated relativity so much) and Dirac and everything else just screams "This guy is a nutter". The alarm bells are ringing. I really want people who actually understand this stuff to read it and tell me whether I can write this guy off as such a crank.

But weirder things have happened. Einstein was just a clerk in a patent office who no one had heard of when he demonstrated the then-new and completely unsupported-by-evidence quantum theory, which had only been proposed to solve the (ultra)violet catastrophe, could actually explain the completely unrelated and then-unexplained photoelectric effect. He won the Nobel in physics for that - not relativity - and cemented quantum theory in place, even if he never liked it. A nobody who single-handedly stamped the dividing line between classical physics and modern physics.

<brain-exploding>

#crank #cranks #relativity #nutter

Old issues are free to download! Automata are storytelling toys(?) using mechanized movement, usually with a hand crank on the side of a box.
Also check out Oliver Pett in the U.K.
#automata #magazine #mechanical #toy #automaton #mechanized #movement #gear #crank #spin #shaft #raise #lower #tip #hat #kiss #cheek #magic #trick #rabbit #disappear
https://automatamagazine.com/the-magazine/

Old issues are free to download! Automata are storytelling toys(?) using mechanized movement, usually with a hand crank on the side of a box.
Also check out Oliver Pett in the U.K.
#automata #magazine #mechanical #toy #automaton #mechanized #movement #gear #crank #spin #shaft #raise #lower #tip #hat #kiss #cheek #magic #trick #rabbit #disappear
https://automatamagazine.com/the-magazine/

Old issues are free to download! Automata are storytelling toys(?) using mechanized movement, usually with a hand crank on the side of a box.
Also check out Oliver Pett in the U.K.
#automata #magazine #mechanical #toy #automaton #mechanized #movement #gear #crank #spin #shaft #raise #lower #tip #hat #kiss #cheek #magic #trick #rabbit #disappear
https://automatamagazine.com/the-magazine/

Old issues are free to download! Automata are storytelling toys(?) using mechanized movement, usually with a hand crank on the side of a box.
Also check out Oliver Pett in the U.K.
#automata #magazine #mechanical #toy #automaton #mechanized #movement #gear #crank #spin #shaft #raise #lower #tip #hat #kiss #cheek #magic #trick #rabbit #disappear
https://automatamagazine.com/the-magazine/

<https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/codger?s=t> strong matches:

crank | dodo | eccentric | fellow | galoot | miser

😸 OK, I'm probably most of those, except a miser.

The word "galoot" was new to me. <https://www.dictionary.com/browse/galoot#example-sentences> led to a 'Godzilla vs. Kong' review in The Washington Post, which I can not read. Instead, the sponsorship invites me to use Comet Browser, which was also new to me. <https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/announcing-comet-plus-launch-partners> launch partners, et cetera. <https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/comet-is-now-available-to-everyone-worldwide> two weeks ago:

"Today we are releasing the Comet browser to the world, for free."

Yeah, right /s ‖ <https://www.perplexity.ai/download-comet> "requires an invitation | Comet download is not available to you yet | Join waitlist | Get immediate access to Comet when you upgrade to Pro. | $20.00 USD / month"

Erm, no thanks ‖ you've got to be fucking kidding me.

How Perplexity is Evading Anti-crawling Measures | Lobsters <https://lobste.rs/s/i81fly/how_perplexity_is_evading_anti_crawling> and if that's not bad enough, <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45487511> 🠶 <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45004846> "Comet AI browser can get prompt injected from any site, drain your bank account" 🠶 ‖ 🠶 My Lethal Trifecta talk at the Bay Area AI Security Meetup <https://simonwillison.net/2025/Aug/9/bay-area-ai/> (August 2025), about which <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44846922> includes a response from "one of main devs of GitHub MCP" (whatever MCP is … I'm severely undereducated in these areas).

https://fedi.simonwillison.net/@simon/114996947615300629 @simon

https://infosec.exchange/@patrickcmiller/115336355573208202 @patrickcmiller

https://social.skynetcloud.site/@jos1264/115391181813017065 @jos1264

#codger #crank #dodo #eccentric #fellow #galoot #undereducated #Comet #Perplexity #MCP #lethal #trifecta

#Crank magnetism is the condition where people become attracted to multiple crank ideas at the same time. Crank magnetism also denotes the tendency — even for otherwise "lone issue" cranks — to accumulate more crank beliefs over time. You know that old saying about not being so open-minded that your brain falls out? People with crank magnetism didn't pay attention to that. Crank magnetism is an important stepping stone on the path towards being wrong all of the time. Its opposite is the stopped clock (which is when otherwise overly credulous people actually find some crankery that they won't believe in, and may even actively denounce it).

#RationalWiki #crankmagnetism #kooks #pseudoscience #pseudohistory
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Crank_magnetism

#MillenniumMedia will try again to revive the #Hellboy film franchise as production on a new film titled #HellboyTheCrookedMan, based on the comic of the same name, goes into production next month in Bulgaria. For the first time, the comic's creator #MikeMignola and his #DarkHorse collaborator #ChrisGolden will be involved, penning the screenplay. The film will be directed by #Crank's #BrianTaylor. No word yet on casting although conversations are in the later stages. #movies #comics

#MillenniumMedia will try again to revive the #Hellboy film franchise as production on a new film titled #HellboyTheCrookedMan, based on the comic of the same name, goes into production next month in Bulgaria. For the first time, the comic's creator #MikeMignola and his #DarkHorse collaborator #ChrisGolden will be involved, penning the screenplay. The film will be directed by #Crank's #BrianTaylor. No word yet on casting although conversations are in the later stages. #movies #comics

#MillenniumMedia will try again to revive the #Hellboy film franchise as production on a new film titled #HellboyTheCrookedMan, based on the comic of the same name, goes into production next month in Bulgaria. For the first time, the comic's creator #MikeMignola and his #DarkHorse collaborator #ChrisGolden will be involved, penning the screenplay. The film will be directed by #Crank's #BrianTaylor. No word yet on casting although conversations are in the later stages. #movies #comics

#MillenniumMedia will try again to revive the #Hellboy film franchise as production on a new film titled #HellboyTheCrookedMan, based on the comic of the same name, goes into production next month in Bulgaria. For the first time, the comic's creator #MikeMignola and his #DarkHorse collaborator #ChrisGolden will be involved, penning the screenplay. The film will be directed by #Crank's #BrianTaylor. No word yet on casting although conversations are in the later stages. #movies #comics

What kind of #crank would need to test the hashtage #cranks? Seems #cranky.