Future Publishing

I wish I had a better sense of where gravity comes from. Anyone have good intuition that they could explain?

I obviously get what it is: apple falls from the tree, etc. And I think I more or less get how it is: Newtonian mechanics, general relativity, curved spacetime, etc.

But I do not get why it is. Why does gravity exist? Why do large accumulations of mass naturally pull other mass toward them? 🧐

One theory I’ve heard is that there’s a universal field, like the Higgs, with particles traveling in all directions and colliding with mass. If you’re near a massive body like a star or planet or moon, it blocks some particles on its side from hitting you, but not from the other side, so the net effect pushes you toward it.

That would make gravity related to volume instead of mass, though, which obviously isn’t right. Still, I don’t remember hearing any other explanations. Does anyone know of any?

Software Prevention Engineer

Added Farcaster to my social protocols comparison table. Click through for HTML version with text, links, etc. Feedback is welcome!

My sister makes her own greeting cards with a celery heart as a stamp. They turn out pretty great.

Discovered a nasty, days-old data bug in prod just now in an untested code path. Only hit a few users, but still, ugh.

Lesson learned: 90+% test coverage is great, but bugs still happen in the other 10%. It may be harder to test, but do it anyway. If you shipped it then you should have put a test on it. 💍

there’s a whole world down there

Hi all! I’m overdue for another Bridgy Fed status update. Bottom line up front: we’re now bridging video on Bluesky! Out from Bluesky works now, in will work as soon as they finish their user rollout, hopefully within days.

Also, Bridgy Fed can now ask people to bridge their accounts! This is the infamous “discoverable opt in,” and it’s finally launched. If you want to follow someone, but they’re not bridged, send their handle to Bridgy Fed in a DM or chat message, and it will message them to say you’re asking. (Only once; it won’t send another message if someone else asks.)

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ok now it’s a party