Aneesh Sathe

Probably the cutest paper you’ll read today. The wetting and general tribology of cats has not progressed enough to give a definitive answer to the capillary dependence of the feline relaxation time. Fig. 2b gives an example of a lotus effect of Felis catus, suggesting that the substrate is superfelidaphobic. […] cats are proving to be a rich model system for rheological research, both in the linear and nonlinear regimes.

It seems monstrosity requiresan organic element. When there isn’t one, monsteris more often an adjective than a noun qualifying an incomplete potentialfor monstrosity. […] Monumentality embodies distant, impersonal forces at work, that pose a terrifying threat because they don’tcare about us. Monsters on the other hand, care enough to be deliberately threatening to us. Includes a recipe for making the perfect monster! — Reading on contraptions.venkateshrao.com/p/monsters-and-mediocrity

There is a shared soul shard between Dwarf Fortress, Emacs, and AI that lured me to them and has kept me engaged for over a decade. For a long time, I struggled to articulate the connection, managing only to describe Dwarf Fortress as the Emacs of games. But this analogy, while compelling, doesn’t fully capture the deeper resonance these systems share. They are not merely complicated; they are complex—tools for creativity that reward immersion and exploration.

Every few years decentralization and RSS feeds come back into the ligh. Usually this happens when one otherwise functional social media site dies in a real or practical way. Google Reader being my, and my generation’s, touchstone. During these times of turmoil, a beautiful soul puts together a guide for how to use RSS. This is a good guide for this iteration: Escape the walled garden and algorithm black boxes with RSS feeds

I’m taking part in the Contraptions Book Club where we are reading City of Fortune which is about Venice. I was struck by the character of Doge Dandolo. Dude was 80+ when we saw a trade opportunity in the 4th Crusades. In the book, the author, Roger Crowley describes a brief moment when Dandolo makes a heroic rush on the banks of Constantinople’s Golden Horn during the Sack of Constantinople. I found both the Doge and the imagery interesting so went looking for art depicting the art, there’s supposed to be lots. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any and nothing in the public domain. So I asked AI …