milktree

This is a fascinating article:

https://celestemdavis.substack.com/p/why-boys-dont-go-to-college

I believe it, and it makes sense (given the inside-out-bonkers country we're in now) but it felt like reading about some other place because it didn't match my experience/memory at all.

tl;dr: men aren't going to college because fragile masculinity.


When I was looking at colleges in high school, the M:F ratio was absolutely a consideration, but for very different reasons: More women than men meant it was more likely that you (I) could find someone I liked who liked me back and there could be smooching.

I didn't finish college because I was not a great student, not because I didn't want to be there.

These two FacePlant posts showed up next to each other.

Maybe they don't have roundabouts in Vermont
https://youtu.be/eMYvPH1CFc8

I was fixing a leaf shredder, and came across this bit of clever off-label use of automotive electrical connector contacts.

Yes, it came from the factory that way.

tl;dr: someone figured out how to do a Penrose-like never-repeating pattern, but with a single tile.

“einstein” means “one stone” in this context, not the physicist.


https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mathematicians-discovered-einstein-tile

“A 13-sided shape known as “the hat” has mathematicians tipping their caps.

It’s the first true example of an “einstein,” a single shape that forms a special tiling of a plane: Like bathroom floor tile, it can cover an entire surface with no gaps or overlaps but only with a pattern that never repeats.

“Everybody is astonished and is delighted, both,” says mathematician Marjorie Senechal of Smith College in Northampton, Mass., who was not involved with the discovery. Mathematicians had been searching for such a shape for half a century. “It wasn’t even clear that such a thing could exist,” Senechal says.”

The thing that I don’t quite get is how it can possibly never repeat. Infinity is rather large, and 13 sides is not. There’s a limited way two tiles can touch, right? So why doesn’t that lead to repeated pattern? Maybe I don’t understand what “aperiodic” means.

Anyway, it’s super cool, and I want to tile my kitchen and bathroom with them now.

I've gotten sucked into the FacePlant world because the UI is easier. I have to get over that, 'cuz this is in many ways a better platform.

So, starting with pictures of birds, 'cuz that's my version of aspirational instagram life nonsense.

These are some of what I took in Arizona this trip. I'll post more. Maybe with a better format or something.

Click the images for bigger ones.

Acorn Woodpecker

Bridled Titmouse

Ruby Crowned Kinglet

Rufous Hummingbird (immature, based on lack of throat sparkle)

Violet Crowned Hummingbird

Violet Crowned Hummingbird (immature)

Violet Crowned Hummingbird

Ruby Crowned Kinglet

We watched The Banshees of Inisherin on Saturday.

It's in some "art" theaters, but we watched it on HBO Max.

It's delightful, but baffling.

Delightful: Wonderful characters; fantastic acting; rich, lush, Vermeer-esque scenery and color and set design; great pace; dialog that's both plausible and funny and real... All things you want in a movie.

Baffling: This is a movie by and for the Irish. Martin McDonagh (the writer and director) was born in London, but his parents were Irish. Here's some important information you need to know that will make it not-baffling, but no spoilers:

The Irish communicate in allegory more than Americans. (based on personal observation and other media) Not as much as the Tamarians in the ST:TNG episode "Darmok", but way more than Americans.

The Irish Revolution was between 1919 and 1921.

The Irish Civil War was between June 28, 1922, and May 24, 1923.

The movie takes place in April, 1923, near the end of the civil war.

The civil war was over how connected Ireland should be to the UK: Should it be part of the commonwealth like Canada, or fully independent?

Ireland's civil war set people who fought alongside each other against England, on opposite sides. Much like the American Civil War, sometimes brother against brother.

And some stuff that would have helped me, but the more intuitive won't need this part.

The policeman represents the English.

The friends are Irish, on opposite sides.

The policeman's son is (I think) an Irishman who fought with England. (or at least didn't approve of the revolution)

This is the weirdest shit I've seen on The Internet in a long time.

I haven't figured out what his deal is.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwHw0B9zAL4Z08sVRRjfx5g/videos

It kinda seems modern (recent), but sometimes it seems like something resurrected from an acid trip in the ’70s that somehow made it to television (and then YouTube)

Put the Evergreen Ever Given anywhere, to scale:

http://evergiven-everywhere.glitch.me/

Billerica, MA
Tempe, AZ
Village of Oak Creek, AZ (south of Sedona)
Grand Canyon Village
Phantom Ranch (bottom of Grand Canyon)
Madera Canyon, AZ
Woods Hole, MA
Poultney, VT

This year I can actually post a comprehensive, complete list.

It's a shorter list than most years. Maybe, just maybe, 2021 will have more entries.