The short days are bad enough, but “falling back” on the first of this month adds insult to injury. And hence a common parody song making the rounds (sung to the obvious 1965 tune):
Hello Darkness my old friend;
Now you arrive at five PM.
It’s taking me a while to adjust to it. The silver lining, for what it’s worth, is that we’re just over a month away from the Solstice and the return of the light. While we wait, here’s another edition of Friday Notes.
The last year or so, after discovering a tendency to publish these Notes posts in the latter half of the month, I’ve been trying to write them earlier and balance out the stats:
Initially, I figured I’d publish the November Notes on the 6th, the first Friday, but then realized the month had a Friday the 13th, and I can’t resist bumping the red bar one more notch (the chart above does not include this post).
After all, seeing how often I published these on Friday the 13th was the reason I created the chart in the first place.
The only day I’ve never posted is the 5th, and I missed my chance this year in June, the only month Friday falls on the 5th in 2026. But next year, it happens in February and March (and November).
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A few notes about the mid-term election:
🔷 The urge stations have to interrupt any discussion so they can do the “Breaking News!!” thing in declaring results. Which were often just announcements that someone was ahead. This “me first!” thing is so dumb.
🔷 The new thing this year is how the race can be “leaning” — the term now for a minor lead (“Breaking News!!”).
🔷 Most on-air people were wearing some shade of purple or dark blue. In a few cases green. The sets were blue and red, but the people not so much.
🔷 Everyone has a magic election board now. Usually with impressive graphics.
🔷 Our local Fox station focused on the local races (which I appreciated) but their set and magic election board was seriously low-budget. Downright laughable compared to the networks. And a single hand-held camera.
🔷 From what I heard, the folks over at MSNBC were positively giddy.
🔷 Best Quote: “The only thing that didn’t turn blue was the Reflecting Pool.”
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Eating PopCorners is like eating flavored Styrofoam but is somehow compelling even so. I guess all it takes sometimes is crunch and magic flavor crystals. I can resist potato chips but tend to go crazy on PopCorners.
In a related vein, I had a small bag of Doritos recently and realized I don’t care for them (anymore) because they have the same texture relationship to actual corn chips that Burger King onion rings have to actual onion rings.
Specifically, Doritos have a corn meal mouth feel that lacks the crunch of a tortilla chip. As I recall, because of that crumbliness, they were terrible as dip chips. Instant breakage.
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Take a look at the three vehicles in the picture below:
Would you believe me if I told you they not only are the same size, they are the same image repeated three times?
You should, because they are. If you don’t, try holding a piece of paper up to the screen and using a pen to mark of the size of one vehicle. Then compare it to the others. Or use a photo tool of some sort to measure the distance between features (for instance, where the wheels touch the road).
It looks as if they get bigger because the road gets smaller and we expect the vehicles on it to also get smaller. When they don’t, they appear to be larger.
What striking is how striking the illusion is. It’s hard to believe they are all the same size.
Something similar goes on with a “rising fastball” — which appears to the batter to have pronounced lift. But even MLB pitching isn’t capable of getting a ball to actually rise above its release point; it always falls. But MLB pitching is capable of getting a ball to fall less fast then years of batting trains batters to expect.
And hence the ball appears to rise, to defy physics.
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When I made the meme images to commemorate Walter Koenig beaming out, I did it the only way I’d figured out how:
Duplicate the image, reduce it to grayscale, and cut or mask away all but the part that should be black and white. A bit involved, but not bad. Modern image editors probably have a tool that does it automagically, but I’m still clinging to my old copy of Jasc Paint Shop Pro, version 7.0. I’ve had it forever, know it well, and it doesn’t require a subscription.
After I created it, I realized PSP did have a useful tool I could use that might make the task easier. Just create a new (empty) raster layer and on that layer paint white over the part of the image you want to make black and white. Then use that layer to modify the lower layer, specifically to adjust the color saturation. The white area has zero saturation, so it turns the underlying image to grayscale. The unpainted areas let the color image show through.
I tried it with this image of my pal Bentley:
The caption for which is, ‘You know the joke is good when even the dog laughs!’
And the technique is indeed a bit easier. I used it three days later for the meme image to commemorate Patrick Stewart following Koenig to the Great Beyond.
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As a kid, besides science fiction, I was into spy stories (and spy craft), so The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964-1968) was a favorite show. Back then I leaned towards wanting to be Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn), but fellow agent Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) was cool, too.
McCallum returned to TV in another (once) favorite show of mine, NCIS as Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard. [See the links at the bottom of the Gibbs’ Rules page for a list of posts that track my growing and ultimate disengagement from the show.]
Point is, not long ago I happened to watch an old episode of NCIS, and watching a very agèd McCullum (who died in 2023 at 90), I was struck the memory of a young Illy Kuryakin and advanced-years Ducky.
So struck that I wrote a note: “Across the gulf of years.”
It’s a sensation I experience more and more now that I’ve reached my three score and ten (and now one more).
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There was a crime seen at the crime scene.
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Back in September I shared a picture of the new blinds for my patio door/window and mentioned it took me three tries to get right. I didn’t share the attempts, but I did capture them.
First try:
Hard fail. I used the same holes as the previous blinds (except for one of the five brackets — these blinds were a number of inches less wide than the old ones, which extended far to the left beyond the window — so I had to fit my five brackets in a shorter span).
I’d ordered 82″ blinds. Apparently, the old ones were 80″.
I thought, maybe I can drill one extra hole above the existing holes and move everything up just that much (almost 2″). So the bottom screw now goes in the old top holes, and the top screw goes in the new top holes.
And, boy, it was close:
But some of the blinds dragged while others were almost dragging. I almost went with it, but after opening and close them a few times realized that, no, I couldn’t live with it like that.
So, a new set of holes above the old new set of holes:
Change approved!
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Late last month I published Brain Bubble #96. I’d like to make it to #99, if not to #100, but I find it challenging to divide posts into regular posts and Brain Bubble posts.
The early ones were a bit like these Friday Notes posts: just a bunch of random things I wanted to share but which were too short for a post. For those, the items were really small; just a paragraph or two. As the Notes posts took over that role, Brain Bubbles were intended to be single short posts, usually about oddball topics.
But it never really gelled for me. The really short Bubbles ended up in Notes posts, and the longer ones, well, there was no reason they couldn’t be regular posts. There was nothing that really made them Bubbles. If you look at the Brain Bubbles index, you’ll see that the problem becomes glaring around #85.
The last three (#94 thru #96) got back on track, but I don’t have much else like that up my sleeve to get me to the finish line. Part of me says, “screw it, who cares, just abandon it!” But another part answers, “well, let’s see what happens!” And that’s probably what I’ll go with for now.
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After my unplanned (but well enjoyed) hiatus this summer, I’ve managed to crank out ten posts per month:
Not sure how much effort I’ll put into maintaining that level of output. As I just said, I’ll see what happens. Be interesting to see if my ennui lifts any as a result of the mid-term election results. But then, I’m not sure how much of it comes from the socio-political situation in the first place.
Besides, the current situation is just symptomatic of a deeper change in our culture. One election, especially a mid-term, isn’t going to put a dent in that.
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Here is an oldie that’s too trivial for it’s own post. It’s (mildly) interesting because it proves 1=2 without using the usual trick of a hidden division by zero or the other trick using square roots.
It goes like this:
![\textsf{1)}\quad{1}=\cos({0})\\[0.5em]\textsf{2)}\quad{1}=\cos({0+0})\\[0.5em]\textsf{3)}\quad{1}=\cos({0})+\cos({0})\\[0.5em]\textsf{4)}\quad{1}={1}+{1}\\[0.5em]\textsf{5)}\quad{1}={2}](https://s0.wp.com/latex.php?latex=%5Ctextsf%7B1%29%7D%5Cquad%7B1%7D%3D%5Ccos%28%7B0%7D%29%5C%5C%5B0.5em%5D%5Ctextsf%7B2%29%7D%5Cquad%7B1%7D%3D%5Ccos%28%7B0%2B0%7D%29%5C%5C%5B0.5em%5D%5Ctextsf%7B3%29%7D%5Cquad%7B1%7D%3D%5Ccos%28%7B0%7D%29%2B%5Ccos%28%7B0%7D%29%5C%5C%5B0.5em%5D%5Ctextsf%7B4%29%7D%5Cquad%7B1%7D%3D%7B1%7D%2B%7B1%7D%5C%5C%5B0.5em%5D%5Ctextsf%7B5%29%7D%5Cquad%7B1%7D%3D%7B2%7D+&bg=f9fbf9&fg=000080&s=1&c=20201002)
Every step is legit, except one. Can you spot the error?
The third line doesn’t follow from the second. You cannot distribute the cos operation like that.
When done using the right identity:
![\textsf{1)}\quad{1}=\cos({0})\\[0.5em]\textsf{2)}\quad{1}=\cos({0+0})\\[0.5em]\textsf{3)}\quad{1}=(\cos({0})\cos({0}))+(\sin({0})\sin({0}))\\[0.5em]\textsf{4)}\quad{1}=({{1}\cdot{1}})+({{0}\cdot{0}})\\[0.5em]\textsf{5)}\quad{1}={1}](https://s0.wp.com/latex.php?latex=%5Ctextsf%7B1%29%7D%5Cquad%7B1%7D%3D%5Ccos%28%7B0%7D%29%5C%5C%5B0.5em%5D%5Ctextsf%7B2%29%7D%5Cquad%7B1%7D%3D%5Ccos%28%7B0%2B0%7D%29%5C%5C%5B0.5em%5D%5Ctextsf%7B3%29%7D%5Cquad%7B1%7D%3D%28%5Ccos%28%7B0%7D%29%5Ccos%28%7B0%7D%29%29%2B%28%5Csin%28%7B0%7D%29%5Csin%28%7B0%7D%29%29%5C%5C%5B0.5em%5D%5Ctextsf%7B4%29%7D%5Cquad%7B1%7D%3D%28%7B%7B1%7D%5Ccdot%7B1%7D%7D%29%2B%28%7B%7B0%7D%5Ccdot%7B0%7D%7D%29%5C%5C%5B0.5em%5D%5Ctextsf%7B5%29%7D%5Cquad%7B1%7D%3D%7B1%7D+&bg=f9fbf9&fg=000080&s=1&c=20201002)
Which shows that 1=1 (of course).
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Spam emails to my old and dear email address are definitely down:
No idea why, but I’m fine with it. More than.
Lately, I’ve gotten another rash of attempted blackmail emails. Those ones claiming they’ve hacked your computer and used the webcam to spy on you doing dirty things. They want crypto bucks to delete the files they supposedly have.
I just wrote about the BBC TV series Sherlock, which has an episode centered on a surprisingly successful blackmailer who only bluffs his victims. He doesn’t actually have any of the materials he claims he does.
These idiot thieves are doing the same thing. They don’t have squat. A couple of them hilariously try to prove they have the goods by revealing my real name and address. Which is apparently “L Newby”. The address isn’t even close.
I got a good smile out of the ones with this verbiage:
The time has come for you to learn something important to you. Have you forgotten what religion teaches, L? Don’t sin! But you’ve sinned, and not just once. And we have photos, we have video, and not just one. And something else that proves your guilt.
Very funny on the one hand, but I’d support capital punishment for such as these. Or at least banishment to our penal colony on the Moon.
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I keep thinking I want to write something about these two infinite series:
And:
But I haven’t figured out where to go with it. Yet? Or maybe never, because infinite series can be snaky. You may have seen the one that adds all the integers:
Which isn’t true, except in an analytic number theory context involving the Riemann zeta function. But otherwise, in no case is the above true. The point here is that infinite series have more going to with them than first meets the eye.
For now I’ll just share the joke that goes with the latter series from the pair above:
An infinite number of mathematicians enter a bar. The first one asks for a glass of beer. The second asks for a half-glass. The third for a quarter-glass, the fourth for an eighth-glass, and so on, each asking for half of what the previous mathematician requested.
The bar-tender shakes her head, says “you guys are crazy”, and pours two glasses of beer.
As an aside, this calculus is a reply to Zeno’s paradoxes.
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I have a dead man’s switch post scheduled for a future date that I regularly move forwards so it never posts. Unless I’m not around to change the move the date. As an aging single person who lives alone, my suddenly ‘shuffling off this mortal coil’ is an increasing possibility.
The reality is that one of my IRL friends would likely notice my absence long before the post published, though that obviously depends on the timing. I generally have the publish date set to the next blog anniversary (July 4) or New Year’s Day.
If I popped off during Christmas, it would show up soon, but if it was after New Year’s, it likely wouldn’t show up for six months. Which reminds me I need to add an instruction to my executor to cancel the post if it’s still pending.
Since I hope to manage my expiration better than that, I don’t expect the post will ever see the light of day, so I thought (what the heck) I’d share it here:
If you ever see this, things have seriously gang agley.
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Stay popping, my friends! Go forth and spread beauty and light.
∇
November 13th, 2026 at 11:56 am
I find the fall-back easier to adjust to than the spring-forward. The main difficulty for me with falling back is I get hungry too early before each meal. But I feel constantly jet lagged in the weeks after a spring forward. One of the aspects of retirement I’m most looking forward to is not having to care anymore.
I love visual illusions! They’re a constant reminder that our perceptions are a construction, a process, rather than anything primitive.
I never realized that David McCallum was the same actor from The Man from UNCLE. But that’s not unusual for me. The other day my cousin pointed out all the parts Jenny Agutter played after Jessica in Logan’s Run, some of them pretty recent, after I wondered what had happened to her.
Interesting idea with the Dead Man’s post. Although I suspect I would constantly be forgetting to push it back.
November 13th, 2026 at 12:33 pm
It may help that I schedule posts a lot, so I’m in that screen a lot and so see that pending post as a reminder. And since I see it often, there’s a pressure that builds as the date approaches, so I’ve never even had any near misses.
I think I mentioned I met Jenny Agutter back in my Los Angeles film student days? Logan’s Run, yes, but also Equus the year after. And, yeah, she’s got a lot of film and TV credits. I saw her most recently as a guest star on Agatha Christie’s Poirot. She did that in 2006. She was even in The Avengers in 2012.
It’s amazing how we turn nerve signals generated from a 2D view into a mental representation of reality. Even more amazing that we get it generally right. Though, per the post, it can be fooled by unnatural visual representations.
It’s true: being retired, I hardly notice it. Mostly, it’s the pain of having to go around and change every clock. I know what you mean about getting hungry. I wonder if it’s losing that hour that jet lags you? As opposed to gaining one? Who knows. It getting dark so early is what throws me. I tend to stay up until around midnight, so it makes for long dark evenings.
November 13th, 2026 at 1:08 pm
I used to schedule a lot of posts, but at some point WordPress became unreliable with the social media shares on scheduled posts, so I switched to manual. That was many years ago when many of my posts also weren’t showing up in the Reader and I wasn’t sure why. For all I know, it might be more reliable now.
I think you did once mention meeting Agutter, although I’d forgotten that too until now.
Definitely it’s the lost hour that gives me lag. I hate Daylight Savings and really wish we could just do away with it. Although once I no longer have to be anywhere on a schedule, I probably won’t mind it, except for the clock maintenance part, but that usually only takes a few minutes.
November 13th, 2026 at 2:12 pm
I can understand that. I don’t do any social media sharing, so it was never an issue.
I wonder if anyone actually likes DST. I can’t recall hearing anyone arguing for it.
November 13th, 2026 at 2:35 pm
There are people who really like the extra daylight on summer evenings. And, likely the real reason it stays around, people are more likely to go out and spend during that extra daylight.
I’d be ok if we just went DST year round, just to avoid the time shifts. But it does make for some very dark winter mornings, which is reportedly what sunk year round DST in the 1970s.
November 13th, 2026 at 5:08 pm
Oh, yeah, now that you say it, I remember. It always was something of a two-edged sword.
I think I saw you mention somewhere the idea of UTC everywhere. It would certainly solve a lot of problems. (Especially software difficulties if we also standardized the date formats.) The cultural shift is staggering, though. Terms such as “noon” and “twilight” become decoupled from the clock. Writers would have to use terms like that (rather than clock times) to describe events coupled to the diurnal cycle. OTOH, news reporting would likely stick with the clock times. It actually sounds like an interesting short story.
November 13th, 2026 at 2:32 pm
I’m ok with this time change. More light in the morning, yes please! The other one though, ugggh, it leaves me zombielike for a week or even two now.
That optical car illusion is so cool. I actually measure it, because I didn’t believe you 😀
You really have a thing against short posts don’t you? But if it’s for only 3 more, you should totally do 3 short brain bubble posts and then retire in glory and honor, hahahahahaa.
I’m cool with the death penalty for the authors of the code that sends out those blackmail emails. Madame Guillotine stands ready for duty, sir!
I like your deadman switch idea. I wish more bloggers, especially those with health issues, would have them. That way when they just disappear we’d know why instead of wondering if they died or just quit blogging.
Have a great weekend.
November 13th, 2026 at 5:00 pm
I didn’t believe it either and had to measure it. I started trying to make my own, but it was hard to find an image of an empty road running at the right angle, plus it requires a vehicle at the right angle, and I lost interest after not all that much searching. This one is good enough.
Ha. Sometimes I write a short post, but I am a long-form blogger, so verbosity is required if I’m to keep my license. That said:
I raised my word ceiling after my 2017 hiatus. At first 1,500 words, but these days it’s 2,000 words. It’s a soft ceiling that, like the speed limit, I consider a strong suggestion.
They ought to build in a deadman switch feature on blogging platforms. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of bloggers disappear. Some I knew had health issues, but most… just… stop… blogging. Quite a few start a new blog, discover it’s harder than it looks, and fairly quickly move on. But those who’ve been around for a while; it always makes you wonder.
November 13th, 2026 at 5:27 pm
I’m about a 600 worder myself, but that includes those long “synopses” so my real number is much closer to 500 😀
November 13th, 2026 at 6:13 pm
😄 I’ve written longer jokes!
November 13th, 2026 at 5:53 pm
Love the van illusion! Way cool. Love the picture of Bentley, too. She is such a sweetheart.
November 13th, 2026 at 6:13 pm
She really is!