This year, what did I get done? What did I achieve?

1. I survived. I lived through a literal fucking plague.

2. I finally saw what might be this nation's fever breaking, if even a little bit - direct action on the one hand, and electoralist bleed-stopping on the other.

3. I passed my quals in algebra and geometry with flying colors. I got a rerun of the Forty Days of Hell, and I won.

4. I finally managed to get in touch with local mental health services.

5. I kept my tiny experiment in macroeconomics running (again, *through a plague.*)
5'. (More on that here: lorx.us/favor )

6. I bought a first firearm, and have been teaching myself to shoot long(ish)-range. I'm still decently good at it, after all these years; thank muscle memory, I suppose.

7. I applied to about 50 postdoc math programs.

8. I helped out with local mutual aid efforts and jail support (again, DURING A PLAGUE) more than a few times, both materially and with labor.

9. Colossal successes in [Unspecified Project 3] through predictive skill and access to [unspecified resource] permitting generous aid.

10. I came to conceptualize mathematical research, academic pursuits, and other personal pursuits as *literal* pursuits; that is, hunting abstractions.

11. I taught several friends to hunt basic algebra and calculus.

12. I turned 27; again, IN THE MIDDLE OF A WORLDWIDE PLAGUE. I didn't fully expect to make it this far.

13. I won the Little Drummer Boy Game! 9 hours to go on the bonus round.

14. I kept my own plague calendar and covid statistics tracking.

14'.) The calendar (BLaRTS) is defined to have Bunker Time Day 1 as March 17; right now is Year 1, Day 290. More finely, right now as I type this is BLaRTS T+24,985,000 - the time since 2020/3/17, UTC 22:00.

The plague stats are here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14X18mvs9dlsg9rnihnd8Vi6cMNesOkcp3AXV2epZWUQ/edit#gid=971024186

15. I put the finishing touches on my first original result (in geometric group theory, no less!).

Could I have done more? Certainly. But ultimately, hindsight is 2020.

At any rate if at midnight we roll over back to January 1st 2020, you can count on me ruling the world by about April.

Let us remember those who entropy has stolen from us this past year.

Let their names and their deeds live on in us.

Liang Wudong, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Li Wenliang, who is dead, but not forgotten.
David Graeber, who is dead, but not forgotten.
John Horton Conway, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Vaughan Jones, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Freeman Dyson, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Chuck Yeager, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Michael Hertz, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Ronald Lewis Graham, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Alex Trebek, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Shin Kyuk-ho, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Wes Wilson, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Yi Hae-won, who is dead, but not forgotten.

Cullen Mahany, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Rick May, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Ahmaud Arbery, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Breonna Taylor, who is dead, but not forgotten.
George Floyd, who is dead, but not forgotten.
James Scurlock, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Krzysztof Penderecki, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Kim Yong-un, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Bernd Fischer, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Peter Borwein, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Bernard Stiegler, who is dead, but not forgotten.
Michael Darwin Morley, who is dead, but not forgotten.
George Robery Carruthers, who is dead, but not forgotten.

I don't believe there's anything after death, unless people make it, and we haven't yet. Accordingly, these people are permanently gone. It is now ours to remember them, and to continue their work.

As of a few hours ago, it is BLaRTS T+25 megaseconds of the bunker era.

Happy New Year!

Got to do a little science today - tested out some armor-piercing ammunition and found it didn't do a thing to 1/4" AR500 plate. Possibly was due to how the target was hung up? Fun either way.

well, we sure are livetooting a doomed coup attempt in the year of our luigi BLaRTS 1, day 296

I wonder if topologically interesting molecules have an chemically interesting properties? @Canageek ?

Like - use the stick number for knots to make a hideously densely trefoil-knotted topoisomer of benzene. Does it behave any different?

@lorxus Poke me later, chemist is like 90% topology and I don't have the time right now to give you a good answer

@lorxus Ok, so what you are talking about are called isomers. Same composition, different connections.

Easy example: transplatin vs cisplatin

and I just learned I don't have chemdraw installed XD

Ok, So is is trans-Dichlorodiammineplatinum(II). PtCl2(NH3)2. It is mostly just a molecule you can make useful things from. It is called that as the similar groups are across from one another, that is trans.

@lorxus This is cisplatin, a famous anti-cancer drug. cis = the identical groups are on the same side of the central atom, beside one another. Totally different properties.

@Canageek yes, I know about topoisomers

@lorxus Ah, do you also know about enatiomers and such?

Where you actually asking about spacial arrangement, as that is very different then topological.

@Canageek No, definitely things like these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_knot

@lorxus OK, so yeah. Those are spacial arrangements, not topological.

Topological just refers to how the atoms are connected via bonds, like in graph or network theory, with molecular knots you care about spacial arrangements.

The answer is yes, and they do have weird properties, but I've actually never encountered a um, use for them. Mostly papers showing off how clever the chemist who made them was.

The exception is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotaxane which have a lot of research into them though I don't know of any uses.

@lorxus On a larger scale, in the solid state, you can get interpenetrated networks. This is one from my thesis, each colour is a different network that doesn't come into contact with the others. (The actual atoms have been heavily simplified to show how they interpenetrate)

These are mostly an annoyance, as porous materials with channels in them are a big research area right now, as you can react things inside the channels and the amount of internal volume you can get is insane. So lots of catalytic, gas storage, purification use. Interpenetration in that case is usually bad, as it fills up that volume, though you can see in this case it leaves plenty of space.

@lorxus But yeah, people do make knots, I saw someone make a Star of David a few years back by interweaving two molecules.

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/molecular-knot-shaped-like-a-star-of-david/7768.article

I haven't heard of any interesting properties for them, but ah, I could have missed something?

I think they are usually made to demonstrate a technique so far, rather then for the molecule themselves.

@lorxus If you have specific questions let me know

As of yesterday, it is BLaRTS Day 300.

Genuinely wasn't expecting it to take this long, at the start.

I... probably shouldn't be on daily modafinil, but it's about the only way I can manage to get work done consistently.

"What is true is already so.
Owning up to it doesn't make it any worse.
Not being open about it doesn't make it go away.
And because it is true, it is what is there to be interacted with.
Anything untrue isn't there to be lived.
People can stand what is true, for they are already enduring it."

I think about that a lot. One of the little charred scrolls I took with me after a couple of wise men made a series of very long and very foolish mistakes, and failed to update well enough to notice in time.

@lorxus Curious, where is that from?

@Kyresti It's the Litany of Gendlin. Something I took with me when I fled LessWrong's burning.

... Fuck me, I missed my chance to ever meet Gendlin.

Can't figure out whether I'm stressed to shit this morning because I'm already behind on thesis editing, because I forgot to take my meds last night, or because tomorrow there's going to be another attempted coup by right wing horrors.

Snapping my jaws, licking my chops, padding around, feeling like myself again.

I forgot how nice it was to hyperfocus on math I'm good at.

...I sure did hyperfocus so hard I abruptly ran out of reserves right after stopping and then crashed into unconsciousness for 2 or 3 hours. Oops.

At least I got my thesis draft done!

anyway I've used up all of my brain juice for the day and then some

wait, I slept through meds o'clock

one sec

I think about the concept of the Big Mac Index a lot.

"Let the iron rod approach your face.
If the iron is cool, the Way opposes your fear.
If the iron is hot, the Way opposes your calm."