Fall Equinox Today

As usual, NASA's Astronomy Pic of the Day has something enlightening to show. 

On a somewhat correlated note, the first real cool front of fall moves through the area today.  I'm ready.

More on Fractals, Aesthetics, and Sanity

 This crossed my desk via The Dangerous History Podcast (topic: emergent vs. imposed order) this morning: Why Fractals Are So Soothing at The Atlantic.  The article links to this paper in Nature, Fractal analysis of Pollock's drip paintings (1999).  Here's a bonus article in Smithsonian by the author of that paper, Fractal Patterns in Nature and Art are Aesthetically Pleasing and Stress-Reducing.

Both of these are worth your time, and both are mercifully short.  (In fact, I didn't know that The Atlantic ever published articles that didn't devour at least an hour of my free time.)  Anyway, this is just a continuation of the topic previously discussed here at the blog: This is Your Brain on Broken Fractals, Modern Architecture, WWI-Induced PTSD, and Other Ongoing Problems, and finally the excellent blog The Genetics of Design.

A little too colorful for my taste.

 Nothing in particular pointed at my corner of the Gulf coast, nothing particularly developed, but that has been known to change.  Put a big stamp saying "let's wait and see" across this one, then... wait and see.

2021 Ig Nobel Prizes Announced

 Article at the BBC, with a complete listing toward the bottom.  Enjoy.

Don't try this one at home, kids.  But if you do, invite me.

All the cool kids are posting something about 9/11 today, it being the 20th anniversary and not-so-coincidentally the year we got out via a badly botched withdrawal.  But I can't, not now not ever.  8/29 and 9/10 will always loom larger in my mind.  I know this isn't so for most people, but then most people don't blog here.

Well that came out of nowhere.

 It never got that bad – I've seen far worse thunderstorms – but TS Mindy came as a bit of a surprise.

So They Say

 https://www.thefarside.com/2021/09/02/2

One of my favorite Far Sides ever.  It's weird, gritty, nerdy, and cliche-busting all at once.

Distracted Lately

 I've been highly distracted lately by hurricane season and a handful of other items.  I'll be around, sporadically.

Is it October with a nice cool front yet?