Vincent MacKay
vincentmackay.bsky.social
Vincent MacKay
@vincentmackay.bsky.social
Postdoc at MIT, previously University of Toronto, McGill

You can mostly trust my posts on:
🌌 cosmology
📡 radio telescopes
🎹 piano
🎼 music theory
...take everything else with a grain of salt.

Fr/En | He/Him | vincentmackay.github.io | Somerville, MA
Il a été rédacteur en chef adjoint deux ans (1990-92). L'Actualité est à l'origine la branche francophone de Maclean's, et appartient aujourd'hui à Alexandre Taillefer (ancien directeur de campagne du PLQ de Couillard). C'est vraiment pas une publication pro-PQ, même si des péquistes y sont publiés.
October 13, 2025 at 11:29 PM
That's the only way I can make sense of it, e.g., what he calls a "100%" decrease is what you and I would call a 50% decrease.
October 10, 2025 at 11:44 PM
The clue from the screenshot is "even if they are separated," and from broader context, what Einstein said on the topic. True that there's room for LHV if we break common assumptions (I did evoke superdeterminism), but my understanding is that Einstein's contentions were not with those assumptions.
September 1, 2025 at 6:39 PM
From context clues we can assume that where the screenshot says "hidden variable" it implies "local hidden variables," which Bell's theorem does preclude.
September 1, 2025 at 2:36 PM
I don't think M-theory is relevant here! It's Bell's theorem (1964) that settled it. Einstein died in 1955, but Bell only used theory that existed when Einstein was alive. M-theory (1995) hasn't refuted Bell, although some marginal interpretations of QM claim to (e.g. superdeterminism).
August 28, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Tbf she specifically said "half of everyone born was dead by 35", not "life expectancy was 35". Considering the antivax/anti-science stuff will likely increase childhood mortality I don't think that's a case where the misconception matters as much.
August 14, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Very cool, I'd never seen that one!

If anyone has trouble switching between horizontally/vertically, it helps to look at the edges of the frame.
May 9, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Ben voyons je croyais que c'était une nouvelle parodique avant de lire l'adresse du site.
April 30, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Aww! There's a couple that keep coming to my house, I'll be sure to send pictures over!
April 27, 2025 at 1:59 AM
(I only doubt because I've never seen an edition use 4 on the A but it's still very playable so I can believe it)
April 1, 2025 at 3:02 PM
is it the adagio from Beethoven op. 2-1
April 1, 2025 at 2:53 PM
I think the other detail is the questions were specifically of the type "what's the source of this excerpt". Still not a good look but it doesn't mean that 60% of questions in general would be answered wrong.
March 13, 2025 at 6:52 PM
J'ignore l'origine de cette photo mais c'est de la fiction... le gnosticisme est essentiellement disparu un bon 500 ans avant que les notes soient nommées. Leurs noms n'ont d'ailleurs rien à voir avec l'astronomie (malheureusement!), mais plutôt avec un hymne religieux en latin du IXe siècle.
March 10, 2025 at 1:41 PM
February 20, 2025 at 9:06 PM
I only learned that recently when I did the math: I'm paying the same amount in taxes in the US than I would if I still lived in ON (it'd be a tiny bit higher in QC). And I have to pay $1000s/year on top for health insurance! Most of it is federal too, so it's not due to living in a blue state.
February 2, 2025 at 4:59 PM