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1. The Ubiquity of $\pi$ or, Life, the Universe, and Everything: A Simple Statement of Fact $\pi$ is everywhere you look. It is even the case that there is $\pi$ in the sky. We need $\pi$ in order to live … Continue reading
Category Archives: essays
When you wake up, get up. When you get up, do something. —one of my favorite quotes, from Viola Babbitt Wake up. Sit with the cat for a bit. Because Cat Time. “Is necessary, hooman. Sit.” Wait for cat to … Continue reading
An always delightfully engaging friend asks of the Hive Mind on Facebook: What is the first wildlife you remember encountering in the actual wild (wild is broadly meant here–not a zoo)? Maybe don’t count squirrels. Or maybe do. I’m pretty … Continue reading
A driverless car hit a woman who was walking her bicycle across a street at night. Numerous articles, some less useful than others, but also some more helpful to a better understanding, describe this incident. For example, in order of … Continue reading
For the umpteen-gazillionth time, here is a known fact: America has more mass shootings — more gun murders — than any other country on Earth, because America has more guns per person than any other country on Earth[3,6,8,11,10,12,13,15]. Our mass … Continue reading
Trigger warning: I am about to use facts. If you are a conservative, the following will be foreign to your way of thinking and therefore will induce apoplexy. You should probably stop reading NOW. Looky there, my pay check has … Continue reading
Hey, Roy Moore, Here are the numbers (WaPo, NYT, and all manner of Fake News): Jones……671,151 Moore……650,436 write-in….22,819 military…..8,700 You lost. It was not a fair contest, since you Republicans prevented thousands upon thousands of those people from exercising their constitutional … Continue reading
Motion catches the corner of my eye. Look up. Over there, beyond Spike the cat on his high perch, out the front window, past the rough-barked pine trees. A little girl struggles to get her bicycle going again. It is an impossible bright … Continue reading
Other than the airports; the TSA ding-dongs, dipshits, and assorted knuckle-draggers, wannabe-thugs; the doltingly stupid “security”-theater rules invented by bitter assholes who’ve nothing better to do all day than find even more pointless, inane ways to make people miserable; the noisy, milling mass … Continue reading
This is America. Republican politicians cynically abandon every American value, values we the people—some of us—hold dear. You who voted for Donald Trump and for other high-office Republicans: you are lost, only half a step behind your callous leaders, none … Continue reading
Have you had your caffeine injection yet? Well, then, here are three puzzles (with answers, but the answers are not helpful!): Can you completely mix a mug of coffee, such that, at every point inside the mug, the coffee at that … Continue reading
Notes to self, part 437. When I am at my desk, preparing for tonight’s observing. And it is evening. If an email arrives from the satellite tracking app, you could open it. Be aware that this alert is for tonight. … Continue reading
Star guts. Ground mountains. Seething motion unseen. Organism detritus. Feculence. Bug poop. _____ Knees pop as I bend down and pinch a gram of soil between my fingers. I bring it up to my face: grains, and the filler between the grains. I am looking at … Continue reading
Given the widespread unreason in this mind-numbing political season, how can one cut through the din to make a good decision on who should be our Democratic presidential candidate? It is still not that hard to go about it at least … Continue reading
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.