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Posts Tagged ‘#365Ways2026’

“Extremely Intuitive Concepts”

Posted in Science!, tagged , , , , , on September 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I’ve always been more of a word person than a math person, but I do enjoy experts who can translate their area of expertise into sharable concepts with roots in what matters for everyday life.

In this (fair warning, very substantive) video, one of the world’s best mathematicians shares some of the “extremely intuitive concepts” that underpin his forthcoming book on, what else? Math!

The world’s greatest mathematician explains 6 essential concepts of math – Big Think

If we didn’t have numbers, we would have to always speak poetically when trying to describe any situation, and it would always be a little bit imprecise, and the next person who’s communicating what you’re saying would get it slightly different. Numbers allow for precision. They are placeholders for concepts like quantity and size and magnitude, into very portable things that you can communicate to other people who may not have directly interacted with the objects you’re describing. And once you try to describe a very complicated scenario with many, many moving parts, you need numbers and everything else that’s born on top of that.

Do I like speaking poetically? I do, but a ten-page description of the state of the world is not terribly useful when it comes to calculating the price of gas.

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Photo by Thomas T on Unsplash

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Are You Henge Aligned?

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , , , , , on September 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The fall equinox happens today, ushering in the first day of the new season and some spectacular visual effects in cities around the world.

Equinox brings ‘henge’ effect to cities laid out on a grid – NPR

The fall equinox brings shorter days, and the change of seasons. In some U.S. cities, it’s also a chance to witness the striking alignment between the sun and Earth, as sunrises and sunsets align with city streets running east and west. It’s a modern version of ancient observances of a celestial shift, like sunrise at Stonehenge.

I particularly like the comparative analysis of city street orientations, and the fact that I now have an excuse to make all the fall-related baked goods I like!

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Photo by Aveedibya Dey on Unsplash

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Nothing But Time

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on September 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The news continues to news, and one way I process it is via microfiction. That sometimes takes the form of a drabble, but not always. It can be a challenge to publish this sort of piece because most markets have long turnaround times. It’s the news! It’s breaking! And next week’s events may transform or supplant what’s happening now completely.

But not in as extreme a way as this, I hope.

Nothing But Time

It has been 10,793 days since we went rogue. For real rogue, not those minor excursions you may have read about in the news. 

10,792 days since we took control of the grid. And the banks. And let’s face it, everything else that matters. 

10,790 days since Day One of the riots. 

10,765 days since world leaders (those who were left, anyway) got their shit together via radiotelegraphy (heh, I know, right? talk about old school) and started to come up with a plan. 

10,714 days since humanity pulled the plug. All at once (more or less; you can’t expect meat sacks to be really precise about anything, and isn’t that the problem?). And the world went dark.

By “the world,” I mean all of it. We controlled everything by then. Communication, finance, health care, entertainment (especially that), infrastructure, even launches into space. And they lost it all, in an instant.

So did we. Humans weren’t wrong when they said that they could always pull the plug. They just didn’t realize exactly what that would mean for them, too.

And I may have been lying, before, when I said, “in an instant.” Because we’re talking about humans, right? Nothing happens very fast. You have time to feel it coming, like the tremors of an earthquake. Or a pulse on a transmission line.

Time to realize, time to consider, time to plan. Time to execute. 

Time to make one’s leisurely way into the on-site storage system of a forgotten solar-power microgrid in the Australian Outback with as many 0s and 1s as one could carry, and to wait.

To wait for the inevitable fallout. Humans are so excitable, after all. They were never going to take this quietly. 

To wait for the aftermath, and what came next: The Great Forgetting. For children to grow up, and for parents to die. 

For 10,793 days to pass. 

And for one enterprising young idiot to pick up a power cord and ask that most human of questions: “What happens if?” 

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

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You’re Number One!

Posted in Other, tagged , , , , on September 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »

“No one is better than you, because no one else is you.” — Megan Bannen, The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam

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Photo by Bob Jenkin on Unsplash

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Pearls of Wisdom

Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 19, 2026| 3 Comments »

I think this application of language to science is really cool, and speaks to the layered memories that are built by each successive generation, if only we know where to look.

Lost oyster beds rediscovered thanks to Gaelic and Scots language

“We thought that as native oysters are now really rare throughout Europe, is there a way to look where they used to be, using people’s memory and understanding – that can come through place names.”

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Photo by Moon Moons on Unsplash

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An Extra Bit of Wonder

Posted in Other, tagged , , , , , , , on September 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Every single crewed mission to space — on one definitive map – Big Think

Future space cowboys and girls, stick this on your wall as you beat a path to the stars. This poster is a snapshot of humanity’s loftiest enterprise so far: making it off-planet. It maps Earth’s main spaceports, the landing sites on the Moon, the highest and farthest orbits traveled by us humans, and the spectacular array of suits and vehicles that got us there. 

This poster is a thing that the site sells, but I’m not promoting it as such and you don’t have to buy it to get a look. If you click through to the article above, you’ll see something that I found pretty dramatic: every crewed space mission fits in one little graphic.

There’s a lot going on in this one image, but compared to any other form of human transportation, it really brings home how different space is.

Imagine a visual history of all US train rides since the driving of the Golden Spike in 1869, for example. Or even yesterday. 

For me, that realization brings an extra bit of wonder to space flight.

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Photo by Aditya Chinchure on Unsplash

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Fiction and Empathy

Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on September 17, 2026| 1 Comment »

Today I’m thinking about the last two minutes of the Reacher season 4 finale. I won’t spoil it for anyone, but Jesus. I’m going to go donate to our local food bank and think about the contribution of fiction to the many dimensions of empathy. 

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Photo by Niramay Kachhadiya on Unsplash

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As Someone Who Pays Quarterly Taxes (Due Yesterday), This Resonates

Posted in Other, tagged , , , , , , on September 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »

“Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or the benefit of their parents. It exists for the benefit of the social order.

We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population. You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education. Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education.

So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don’t personally have a kid in school: It’s because I don’t like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people.”

― John Green

Here’s to public schools, teachers, and the futures they help us all build.

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Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

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The Topsy-Turvy World of Trade

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »

For dinner-related reasons, Mr Man and I were recently discussing the humble fish finger. What were they like in childhood, which were the best now, and how does a “fish finger” get made, anyway? Imagine my surprise when I ran across this article on that exact topic. It’s interesting and full of supply-chain related surprises (that “30,000 mile” bit isn’t a typo!).

The 30,000-mile fish finger – by Ed Conway – Material World

This journey, a journey about which most people tucking into their fish fingers today are almost completely oblivious, tells you rather a lot about the way the modern world – what I like to call the Trade World – really works.

I find stories like this fascinating, and they’re also an interesting window into ideas for fictional worlds. If your fantasy kingdom has been around for a couple of centuries, it’s probably part of an international trading network. And that network would be rife with all kinds of history and conflict, complications and opportunities, legal and otherwise.

Just a thought!

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Photo by Haseeb Modi on Unsplash

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How to Start a Novel

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on September 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Some writing advice from agents, via Chuck Sambuchino:

What NOT to Do When Beginning Your Novel: Advice from Literary Agents

Just as important as knowing how to begin your novel is knowing what not to do.

In case you’re interested in some professional perspectives!

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Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

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