The Conway’s Game of Life community celebrated a landmark achievement on November 9th, 2022. An idea years in the making, the “Reverse Caber Tosser” design finally had all of the pieces it needed to achieve its stated goal.

That goal is simple. Select any pattern that can be built in Life – for example, the Waterbear. Begin with a small number of gliders (now 15) in an otherwise empty Game of Life universe. After enough time goes by, those gliders need to build that pattern. No extra leftover debris, no stray scaffolding, just a pure synthesis of whatever you chose.

This post will talk about how it works, how we got there, and why it’s so cool.

OK, OK. There aren’t exactly ten thousands different ways to hold chopsticks. But there are more than the one presumed, “correct” way to use chopsticks, and the one presumed, “incorrect/crossed” way to use chopsticks.

This article provides a visual guide to different chopstick grips that we have observed and recorded in real eating situations, such as the Standard Grip, the Idling Thumb grip, the Vulcan Grip, and the Chicken Claws grip. These are all fine ways of using chopsticks. In the spirit of #utensilequality, all grips are equal at the table. But these chopstick holding styles are also all different. We have captured this view in our retrospective, The Art and Science of Chopsticking.

pi seconds is a nanocentury

“Gompertz Law of human mortality.” Your probability of dying during a given year doubles every 8 years. For me, a 25-year-old American, the probability of dying during the next year is a fairly miniscule 0.03% — about 1 in 3,000. When I’m 33 it will be about 1 in 1,500, when I’m 42 it will be about 1 in 750, and so on. By the time I reach age 100 (and I do plan on it) the probability of living to 101 will only be about 50%.

I don't understand how people tag this "humor" or "funny" -- it's serious, guys!