to balance a calendar

A Martian year is 668.6 Martian days; that’s 3.4 less than 24×28. I asked myself, how should the short months be arranged for best ‘balance’? I ran all combinations and this is it:

The three big dots represent the missing days in short months; the smaller dot represents the sometimes-missing day in the variable month; and the diamond, slightly left of center, is the center of gravity of the dots.

Then I thought, what if I were designing a calendar for a world where the number of days in a year is 5¼ off from a multiple of 12?

Posted in calendars | Tagged | 3 Comments

paraphrasing Groucho

Another Facebook “friend” request from a foaf I’ve never heard of. This one appears to be a scientist, in a field of which I approve, and we have six “friends” in common – or five, not counting one of his peers whom I accepted as a “friend” because of his reputation though we’ve had no direct contact.

Though it’s not obvious what I could possibly lose by it, I’m a bit suspicious of any stranger who’d seek to be linked with a nobody like me.

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Netflix oddities

Netflix’s subgenre “Dramas Based on Classic Literature” includes Driving Miss Daisy, an adaptation of a play first staged in 1987.

A list of recommendations for me shows some surprising and even dubious inferences:

  • Life in the Undergrowth — Because you enjoyed:
    • The Straight Story
    • Throne of Blood
    • Fawlty Towers: The Complete Set
  • Homestarrunner: Everything Else: Vol. 2 — Because you enjoyed:
    • Ballad of a Soldier
  • Stevie Ray Vaughn: Live at the El Mocambo — Because you enjoyed:
    • The Outlaw Josey Wales
  • Sandwiches That You Will Like — Because you enjoyed:
    • Sandbaggers: Collection 2
Posted in cinema | 1 Comment

character flaw

I’ve now watched three seasons of Lost, and am wondering a bit why Jack didn’t say to Ben, “Five minutes? I was a captive audience for two weeks; you could have told me then why ‘the good guys’ have been making war on us from day one. And now you want sympathy because some of your goons got hurt in yet another armed raid? I don’t owe you another breath.”

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ogre don’t play that

On the off chance that lavender_princess44, who sent two anonymous texts to my telephone just now, has some genuine chain of acquaintance with me: No, I’m not going to make an account at the site you mentioned.

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link repellent

I wonder whether anyone keeps track of how many times PVP has restructured its archives making old links invalid.

Posted in cartoons, neep-neep | 1 Comment

the clatter, or not, of the pins

Saturday, at the suggestion of my new friend Jennifer Justice, I went bowling for the first time since – um – 1983?? Well, since 1997 at least.

The previous time, whenever it was, my knuckles ached. This time my hands were fine but my knees were unreliable. My last four balls were X X 0 0, for a final score of 82.

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