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Essays, notes, and project updates.

Nov 12, 2026

Zero and the Last Integer

A conversation about proving there are infinitely many integers leads from a simple sum to zero, the successor operation, and the rather different problem of establishing an infinite set.

Nov 9, 2026

The Last Person Who Knows Why

One of the peculiar things about computer programs is that they can keep doing their jobs long after everyone has forgotten why they do them that way. Usually this is considered a…

Nov 5, 2026

A Coat of Arms Is Not a Picture

A coat of arms is defined by its heraldic design, not any particular picture. Several interpretations of my Maltese arms show how blazons preserve identity while giving artists room to work.

Nov 4, 2026

Twenty Candies and a Proof by Induction

A puzzle about two jars of candy looks like a probability problem, but mathematical induction shows that randomness has nothing to do with the answer.

Oct 25, 2026

What the Hell Does Temperature Actually Measure?

A thermometer tells us which object is hotter, but explaining what temperature actually measures takes us through molecular motion, thermal equilibrium, entropy, and the laws of thermodynamics.

Oct 13, 2026

The Trouble with Zero

The four levels of measurement are useful, but their familiar classroom explanations obscure the difference between what numbers represent and what we can meaningfully do with them.

Oct 11, 2026

Two Slits in the Right Ear

A colonial Quaker's livestock earmark survived in the records of West Jersey. It turns out to be a small curiosity with an unexpected connection to heraldry.

Sep 23, 2026

The Bottleneck Moved

AI does not eliminate bottlenecks. Once a model becomes capable enough, the constraint moves downstream to verification, permissions, workflow, and human attention.

Sep 20, 2026

How a Racing Stripe Became a Language

In 1967 the U.S. Coast Guard adopted a new diagonal "racing stripe." Within a generation, coast guards around the world were speaking variations of the same visual language.

Sep 10, 2026

GitHub's Ongoing Actions Outage

I have two little production systems running in GitHub Actions. One, Krigsbot, wakes up every morning, looks for environmental and polar news, makes some editorial decisions, and queues a day's worth of…