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shimpsblog [en]

English blog at blog.shimps.org

Frederic Schuller: Gravity From Electromagnetism?

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fmg Thursday September 4, 2025

Frederic Schuller (University of Twente) gives some insights into his approach to theoretical physics, research and teaching philosophy and concepts. The interview with Curt Jaimungal lasts ~2.5h and is a highlight for inspiration.

Frederic Schuller: The Physicist Who Derived Gravity From Electromagnetism

Curt Jaimungal
Aug 21, 2025

There are teaching videos available from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg / FAU:

The YouTube account is not official and not owned by F. Schuller, but the videos are available there, too (uploaded 2015-09):

Geometric Unity III

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fmg Thursday August 21, 2025

This is Eric Weinstein’s 2025 UCSD lecture about Geometric Unity. Data from DESI, published on 19 March 2025, might indicate a problem with the ΛCDM model. Eric Weinstein's Geometric Unity opens up a possibility for a time dependent cosmological constant. Data from Rubin Observatory might bring more insights in the near future. An interesting aspect of Geometric Unity is the unification of Riemannian and Ehresmannian Geometry, which looks like a squaring the circle problem.

Einstein was WRONG! (ft. Eric Weinstein)

Dr Brian Keating
May 22, 2025

Update (2026-01-09): title changed

  • Quantum Gravity Is A Mental Disorder! (ft. Eric Weinstein)

Geometric Unity II

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fmg Friday August 15, 2025

Curt Jaimungal made a deep dive into Eric Weinstein's theory of Geometric Unity. He published a video which he calls the Iceberg of Geometric Unity and a comprehensive and technical addition. It took 250 hours to produce ~3h explanation, and it will presumably take much longer than three hours to understand the different pieces of mathematics (excerpt of interesting topics with links below) just as preliminary, let alone the assembly into a theory of the universe.

Eric Weinstein's Theory of Everything "Geometric Unity" Explained

Curt Jaimungal
Apr 22, 2025

Why we should stop saying "explain it to me like a five year old"
peregrination

Additional Information

There is a lot of mathematical background which might be helpful to understand the video.

At timestamp ~3m50s it is visible that this list is by far incomplete.

Geometric Unity I

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fmg Monday August 11, 2025

Starting in the 1980s Eric Weinstein developed a theory called Geometric Unity which belongs to the category theory of everything (TOE). The first time Eric Weinstein presented his idea and theory of Geometric Unity to a broader audience was at Oxford May 23, 2013. There is footage available including an introduction by Eric Weinsteil from April 1, 2020 (during the pandemic). The lecture itself starts with a kind and two minutes short introduction by Marcus du Sautoy emphasising scientific speculation [...] is by no means discouraged at timestamp 35m18s.

A Portal Special Presentation- Geometric Unity: A First Look

Eric Weinstein
Apr 2, 2020

WP: Marcus du Sautoy
WP: Theory of everything
The Portal Group
WP: Eric Weinstein
Geometric Unity
Theory of Geometric Unity - The Portal Wiki
Geometric Unity: Author’s Working Draft, v 1.0
Geometric Unity: Author’s Working Draft, v 1.0 (PDF)
2013 Oxford Lecture incl. transcript

Additional Information

At timestamp 27m42s Eric Weinstein talks about equations he discovered at Harvard in 1987, which showed up again later presented by someone else at MIT in 1994. A first glimpse of mathematical context:

Physics Fight Club

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fmg Thursday August 7, 2025

Prelude

There are some older horror films made by John Carpenter in the 1980s and 1990s. They are entertaining. This kind of horror is welcome and I can enjoy it. To the contrary a different topic is on the menu. This blog post might be summarized as: We are not amused.

Introduction

Last week I stumbled over a YouTube video made by Sabine Hossenfelder mid July. It's a comment about another video from the YouTube Channel Piers Morgan Uncensored in late May, where two guests, Sean Carroll and Eric Weinstein, didn't share the same ground and had a little chitchat resulting from a disagreement regarding a scientific paper written by Eric Weinstein. Phrasing it this way is probably my last chance of winning the diplomacy award. Sabine Hossenfelder is quite clear, straight and blunt about her point of view. Warning: by using this video as an entry point your emotional state might be out of balance at the end, which takes less than a quarter hour. Prepare to have a break (and maybe a cup of coffee or tea), and then watch it again to fill in the details which you might have missed while watching it the first time.

Physicists are afraid of Eric Weinstein — and they should be

Sabine Hossenfelder
Jul 16, 2025

Intermezzo

A few words to avoid misunderstandings: every now and then I tend to write in an ironical, satirical or even cynical way. This is my personal style. Deal with it. This doesn't mean in any way that the topic, especially the behaviour of parts of the community, is funny or even acceptable by any civilized standards. To the contrary the topic is a long chain of ignoble events. Obviously manners and social graces went down the drain and some folks are even proud to aim for or have already achieved maximum distance to what is called a gentleman. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. If you have a feeling to be addressed by these lines, please continue reading here.

Carrollgate

At timestamp approximately 0m55s Sabine Hossenfelder introduces the phrase Carrollgate. This was the beginning, but not the end. There is quoted YouTube footage from Piers Morgan Uncensored at timestamp 5m02s, where Sean Carroll is speaking:

The good news is: I have read Eric's paper. Here it is. I actually have it here, right here, and it's worse than you think, you know, it's not serious. It's the dog ate my homework kind of thing.

WTF? Obviously I missed the memo where the new peer review style was announced. At least this could explain my confusion. I suppose it is save to assume the paper is this: Geometric Unity: Author’s Working Draft, v 1.0 or as PDF Geometric_Unity-Draft-April-1st-2021.pdf.

None Of That

There was also some more detailed critique from Sean Carroll on the show, which was answered by Eric Weinstein on X. Since the above mentioned paper is available online you can check for yourself. I don't have an idea how to comment. Instead let me repeat quoting Sean Carroll: I have read Eric's paper. Let's read this quote very exactly. No claim whatsoever was made concerning any level of understanding the paper. So far fair deal. Sean Carroll is in good company. I don't understand the paper either (yet).

Overture

There is ~1h footage from the gladiator meeting at Piers Morgan arena available on YouTube since May 23, 2025. Hence you can watch the whole start of an ugly story uncensored and hopefully unbiased, not only some cherry picked quotes.

“Don’t Talk About Physics Fight Club” Eric Weinstein vs Sean Carroll Science SHOWDOWN

Piers Morgan Uncensored
May 23, 2025

As you should have noticed (scientists check data, don't they?) the quoted footage of Sean Carroll, which I transcripted above, was cutted in the first video. You can compare it beginning from timestamp 37m49s, ending with you know and unquoted text until timestamp 38m54s starting again with it's not serious. However, the paper about Geometric Unity wasn't the only topic. The scientific or academic environment and community was part of the debate, too. At timestamp 22m40s Eric Weinstein nails this down to: And this kind of toxic sociology is the true problem. A few minutes later, at timestamp 26m53s, he arrives at the core: The first rule of physics fight club is don't talk about the problems with physics fight club. This is his essential and important takeaway. Let me repeat and emphasise it:

The first rule of physics fight club is don't talk about the problems with physics fight club.

It didn't take a week for things to pick up speed and go off the rails. The first issue I found wasn't from a member of the physics community but those followed shortly after in less than two weeks. This is in total another part of the story and Sean Carroll wasn't (to my knowledge) involved anymore. But the avalanche of holy shit was on its way to exorcise the heretic and burn him at the stake.

Little Break

In the first video above at timestamp 10m19s Sabine Hossenfelder mentions Brian Keating. Guess what happened - exactly. Later in the story he will be in the line of fire, too. There is a quite famous song about this situation: You never burn alone. Maybe someone from Liverpool can tell some details... However, as long as things were still on the rails there was time for a civilized conversation between Eric Weinstein and Brian Keating.

Why People Are TERRIFIED Of Eric Weinstein’s Geometric Unity

What If Eric Weinstein’s Geometric Unity Is True?
Dr Brian Keating
Jun 12, 2025

Hate Spiral

The first reactions on YouTube were still quite moderate and irrelevant. But events developed towards a rougher baseline. After Sabine Hossenfelder's video it became clear she had pushed herself into the line of fire. The mob made crystal clear she has to be sentenced to and burned at the stake. Obviously she is a witch serving the Prince of Darkness. This makes three to the cost of one stake - an impressive ROI. Digging deeper and expanding the context a little bit we can find more people on the blacklist of the mob. Among them are the brother of Eric Weinstein, the employer of Eric Weinstein, podcaster Lex Fridman and of course Curt Jaimungal, who dared to talk to Eric Weinstein. In the latter case this was predicted by Sabine Hossenfelder (which proves her witchcraft). The whole picture is an empirical proof of toxic sociology and thus, at least regarding this point, Eric Weinstein is proven correct. At the moment I don't publish the unappetising details of quotes and sources because I don't want them to be distributed easily. It is not difficult to find them, e.g. in YouTube videos or descriptions or on Twitter/X.

Final Remark

Just to avoid any misunderstanding: Sean Carroll is not part of the mob. He had the guts to talk to Eric Weinstein directly on Piers Morgan's show. The problem is the ecosystem of wimpy cowards and snipers who always chicken out when Eric Weinstein invites for a dance.

Update (2025-08-09): https://mstdn.social/@fmg/114998367700855960

To be continued...?

Quantum Mechanics Deep Dive

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fmg Friday August 1, 2025

Tim Maudlin discusses our understanding of quantum mechanics with Brian Greene in an episode of World Science Festival videos. There are some essential problems which have been challenging us for 100 years but still remain unsolved. Is quantum mechanics a theory at all or rather only a recipe for computing and predicting results of experiments without a deeper explanatory power? Do the principles of quantum mechanics and relativity fit together on a deeper level? What are the caveats we need to rethink?

What We've Gotten Wrong About Quantum Physics

World Science Festival
May 23, 2025

WP: Quantum mechanics
WP: Tim Maudlin
WP: Brian Greene
WP: World Science Festival

whois -h localhost

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fmg Monday July 28, 2025

Situation

Defending cyberattacks is one of the most challenging topics in a digital world. Proactive activities regarding protection and security concepts are essential in cybersecurity. One of the goals is cyber resilience. Another essential piece is data analysis. Administration of servers requires log file analysis every now and then. One important data point is the IP address to identify possible attackers. This data point can be enriched with additional information from the whois database, e.g. subnets, autonomous system numbers, company names or geolocation data. This transformed data set can be used to aggregate and extract more information and to make tactical or strategic defense decisions.

Problem

Running a real world server you can observe log files becoming arbitrarily large - especially during heavy cyberattacks the number of lines can exceed any expectation very easily. The main tool for IP database queries is whois, which sends network requests to whois database servers of one of the regional Internet registries (RIR) by default. This might leed to rate limit exhaustion depending on whatever the RIR has got configured, and even without a rate limit it is a dependenciy on external ressources which is not the best way to be included in a security concept.

Idea

External dependencies and rate limits can be avoided by running a local whois server. This consists of two pieces: software and data. Assembling a solution from scratch by developing software and collecting huge data sets might be an approach, but maybe it can be done in a more feasible way.

Solution

IPinfo provides the IPinfo Lite database with a subset of whois data as CC licensed download in several data formats (e.g. MMDB, CSV, JSON). From the Frequently Asked Questions:

IPinfo Lite is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, which allows you to freely use and incorporate the data into commercial and non-commercial applications.

A simple Python script is provided by the community: Create a WHOIS server from scratch. The script server.py can be improved, some minor details are added below: the route in CIDR notation, no eternal wait state on missing IP ranges and a dbstatus which indicates presence or absence of IP ranges in the database. You can check all of this at once by choosing e.g. 127.0.0.1 as query.

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import argparse
import asyncio
import maxminddb
import ipaddress
SEPARATOR = b"\r\n"
class Handler:
    def __init__(self, database):
        self.reader = maxminddb.open_database(database)
    async def handle(self, reader, writer):
        data = await reader.readuntil(SEPARATOR)
        # Convert bytes to UTF-8 and lookup data in the MMDB.
        ip = data.split(SEPARATOR)[0].decode()
        info , prefix = self.reader.get_with_prefix_len(ip)
        bgp = ipaddress.ip_network(f"{ip}/{prefix}", strict=False)
        writer.write(f"route: {bgp}".encode() + SEPARATOR)
        # Output one key/value pair per line.
        if info:
            for k, v in info.items():
                writer.write(f"{k}: {v}".encode() + SEPARATOR)
            writer.write(f"dbstatus: ok - data found".encode() + SEPARATOR)
        else:
            writer.write(f"dbstatus: warning - no data available".encode() + SEPARATOR)
        await writer.drain()
        # Close the connection.
        writer.close()
        await writer.wait_closed()
async def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument("database")
    parser.add_argument("--host", default="localhost")
    parser.add_argument("--port", default=43, type=int)
    args = parser.parse_args()
    handler = Handler(args.database)
    server = await asyncio.start_server(handler.handle, args.host, args.port)
    await server.serve_forever()
if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

On the shell level prepare a folder for your local whois server python environment, download the MMDB database IPinfo lite and prepare the server:

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mkdir whois
cd whois
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install maxminddb
editor server.py # script above
python3 server.py --port 8043 ipinfo_lite.mmdb

Now the queries might look like:

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$ whois -h localhost -p 8043 -- 127.0.0.1
route: 127.0.0.0/8
dbstatus: warning - no data available
$
$ whois -h localhost -p 8043 -- 8.8.8.8
route: 8.8.8.0/24
as_domain: google.com
as_name: Google LLC
asn: AS15169
continent: North America
continent_code: NA
country: United States
country_code: US
dbstatus: ok - data found

WP: Information security
WP: Computer security
WP: Network security
WP: Cyberattack
WP: Cyber resilience
WP: Data analysis
WP: Subnet
WP: Autonomous system (Internet)
WP: Tactic (method)
WP: Strategy
WP: Regional Internet registry

Inside A Neutron Star

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fmg Friday July 18, 2025

Neutron star are the remainders of stars without any ongoing nuclear fusion. They are very small and dense and provide extreme conditions in physics: state of matter, gravity, magnetic fields, radio waves or angular momentum and rotation frequency. What do they look like below the surface?

What Is Hidden In The Core Of A Neutron Star?

History of the Universe
Apr 10, 2025

What Is Inside A Black Hole?

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fmg Monday July 14, 2025

Despite a black hole can be described by only three numbers they are strange objects which are difficult to understand. The simplest solution has got zero angular momentum and zero charge, thus its properties are determinded by its mass only. This solution was found by Karl Schwarzschild in 1915 (published 1916) and it is the simplest solution. The mystery of black holes started with this outstanding achievement.

What Is Inside A Black Hole?

History of the Universe
Nov 21, 2024

WP: Schwarzschild metric
WP: Karl Schwarzschild

Shared SSH Accounts

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fmg Saturday July 12, 2025

How to distinguish different users on shared SSH accounts

Situation

Sometimes more than one user has gained legitimate access to an account on a computer via SSH (to be more precise: OpenSSH). But these users may have different opinions and preferences regarding the environment. How can the environment be adjusted to a special user when all users share the same configuration files? How can it be avoided to set up the environment manually each time a user logs in? This situation requires a switch which can be triggered during the login process. We assume a Debian GNU/Linux style system close to default settings with bash as login shell and public key authentication (password authentication is prone to cyber attacks). The users must be cooperative and not change configuration sections which affects other users. This is the social part of the solution(s). In the configuration examples below there are some ANSI escape codes with \[\033 for demonstration purposes. These codes create colored output for a nice optical effect.

Solution I

The switch is implemented in ${HOME}/.bashrc.

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if [ "${LC_REALUSER}" = "alice" ] ; then
    PS1="\[\033[32;40m\] alice ${PS1}"
elseif [ "${LC_REALUSER}" = "bob" ] ; then
    PS1="\[\033[36;40m\] bob ${PS1}"
fi

If the variable is not supposed to begin with LC_ we have to adjust the line with AcceptEnv in the sshd config file /etc/ssh/sshd_config to our needs.

Trigger I

The ssh login command must be adjusted in the following ways:

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# alice
LC_REALUSER="alice" ssh -o SendEnv=LC_REALUSER -p "${sshport}" -l "${sshloginname}" "${machine_ip_or_domain}"
# bob
LC_REALUSER="bob" ssh -o SendEnv=LC_REALUSER -p "${sshport}" -l "${sshloginname}" "${machine_ip_or_domain}"

Solution II

Again the switch is implemented in ${HOME}/.bashrc. We choose a different variable name thus both methods can be combined to test what is happening.

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if [ "${LC_AUTHUSER}" = "alice" ] ; then
    PS1="\[\033[30;42m\] alice ${PS1}"
elseif [ "${LC_AUTHUSER}" = "bob" ] ; then
    PS1="\[\033[30;46m\] bob ${PS1}"
fi
Trigger II

We need a line

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PermitUserEnvironment yes

in the sshd config file /etc/ssh/sshd_config. In ${HOME}/.ssh/authorized_keys there are lines with the public keys of Alice and Bob. The structure is something like

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ssh-rsa AAAA[...] alice@example.net
ssh-ed25519 AAAA[...] bob@example.org

These must be changed in the following way:

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environment="LC_AUTHUSER=alice" ssh-rsa AAAA[...] alice@example.net
environment="LC_AUTHUSER=bob" ssh-ed25519 AAAA[...] bob@example.org

Client Distinction

The second solution is applicable to distinguish between different client machines with different ssh keys. Sometimes a user needs this kind of configuration for redundancy or other reasons.

Thanks

This solution was inspired by a conversation in the LUGA online meeting with contributions from DLUG.

Ron Garret: Quantum Conspiracy

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fmg Thursday June 26, 2025

How does a quantum eraser work and what can we learn? And what are common misconceptions or misunderstandings? And why does quantum mechanics not fit together with boolean logic? Recommended tools while watching: pencil and paper.

The Quantum Conspiracy: What Popularizers of QM Don't Want You to Know

Google TechTalks
Jan 13, 2011

Ron Garret's Home Page
Ron Garret's info site
Quantum Mysteries Disentangled (PDF)
WP: Quantum eraser experiment

A Cosmic Mystery Story

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fmg Sunday June 22, 2025

Footage from 2012 (Vancouver) about our knowledge and understanding of the universe. The main question is about something and nothing. Lawrence Krauss is an expert in nothing.

"Lawrence Krauss - Life, the Universe, and Nothing: A Cosmic Mystery Story "

The University of British Columbia
Mar 6, 2012