Thursday, January 8, 2026

This Year I'll Be Less Better

 
[An Instagram acquaintance graciously allowed me to put this on the blog]

This new year
I will strive to be
A slightly less than perfect me.
Perfection is a flaw, you see-
My greatest flaw,
We all agree. 
I'll try my best to worry less
Over having much too much success.
I won't complain or overstress
For too many skills that I possess.
And this year
I'll be more forgiving
To those who envy perfect living. 
--B.C. Byron



Thursday, January 1, 2026

Mobilus

 
Personally, I hope AI starts feeding on itself and gets caught in it own version of a Möbius loop (strip).  --Marie Byars

   New Year's is a time when we think about "endings" and "beginnings."  Perfect time to ponder the "Möbius strip", a mathematical oddity which has neither.
      If you draw a line down the middle of a Möbius strip and keep going, it will keep going on what appears to be "the other side" at first. But a Möbius strip has only one side and one edge. 
    If you cut this down the middle, you will get one big loop with a double twist (or four half-twists).
    If you cut it 1/3 of the way in, it creates two linked strips. One is a central, thinner Möbius strip.  The thicker has two half-twists. 
     The Möbius strip was independently discovered by two German mathematicians.  You can make your own by taking a strip of paper, giving it a half twist, and gluing or taping the edges together.
     Also, for fun, Marvel Comics has a character named Mobius M. Mobius.  He appears in Ant Man and is very small, apparently.