Top all-time · #8220
Matthew R Francis
Personal blog · galileospendulum.orgsciencephilosophy
Matthew R Francis writes Galileo's Pendulum, a personal blog at galileospendulum.org about science and philosophy. Since 2011, 10 different Hacker News readers have linked it 10 times, most often “The problem of Richard Feynman (2014)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-06-05, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Matthew R Francis's physics blog is linked as a source for the accounts of Feynman's and von Neumann's conduct toward women, and for an explainer on a planet with two suns.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Science, Society, and Fiction from Matthew R Francis
Most-linked posts?
- The problem of Richard Feynman (2014)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-05-15
What Hacker News says?
There's a summary with links here: https://galileospendulum.org/2014/07/13/the-problem-of-richa... But he also describes a lot of his attitudes toward women in Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman , and by modern standards they would basically fall into the PUA/RedPill category.
Comment linking /2014/07/13/the-problem-of-richard-feynman/
on “Google paid Andy Rubin $90M while keeping silent about a misconduct claim”Submitted Science by authority is a poor model for communication as a story · 4 points
HN discussionApparently he was a highly sexualized person and he partook in debauchery, got grabby with women in general and took advantage of naive science groupies when the opportunity presented itself and other things that are probably worse than that. https://galileospendulum.org/2014/07/13/the-problem-of-richa...
Comment linking /2014/07/13/the-problem-of-richard-feynman/
on “The genius of John von Neumann”Submitted The problem of Richard Feynman (2014) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIt's probably similar to other two-sun planets. The planet orbits around both stars at the same time, which are close together. http://galileospendulum.org/2011/09/15/a-planet-with-two-sun...
Comment linking /2011/09/15/a-planet-with-two-suns/
on “Amateur astronomers discover a planet with four suns”Submitted The problem of Richard Feynman as a story · 1 points
HN discussionWe don’t even know if any of it was true at all, it could all be a work of fiction. But we know at least he considered it not much of a problem to call a woman a whore for not having sex with him because he bought her a sandwich. There are other allegations [1]. But that isn’t the central point really, the point is, why idolize someone who did some good work in one area and expect everything they do to be a work of…
Comment linking /2014/07/13/the-problem-of-richard-feynman/
on “When physics meets biology: a less known Feynman”Submitted Testing the mass-energy relationship as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Children Are Not “Natural” Scientists as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Kansas, pancakes, and the Mariana Trench as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
