#FutilityCloset

@beastofexmoor.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy

7 hours ago

The Kate Bush Conjecture Many thanks to reader Colin White for this: In her 2005 song “π,” Kate Bush sings the number π to its 78th decimal place, then jumps abruptly to the 101st and finishes at the 137th. The BBC’s _More or Less_ advanced the “Kate Bush conjecture”: that the digits that Bush sings _are_ contained somewhere in the decimal expansion of π — just not at the start. The conjecture is true if π turns out to be a “normal” number, meaning essentially that all possible sequences of digits (of a given length) appear equally often in its expansion. π hasn’t been proven to have this property, though it’s expected to be the case. So, for now, “The Kate Bush conjecture is plausible but unproven.”

Happy Pi day, me luvvers. Just remembered I told the fantastic #FutilityCloset about the Kate Bush Conjecture a few years ago. It's still here:
www.futilitycloset.com/2017/04/28/kate-bush-con...
Happy Pi Day #piday2026 #katebush

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Jon Hancock

@bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy

4 months ago

Purple Haze A passage from _Irene Iddesleigh_ , by Amanda McKittrick Ros, arguably the worst novel ever written: > ‘False woman! Wicked wife! Detested mother! Bereft widow! > > ‘How darest thou set foot on the premises your chastity should have protected and secured! What wind of transparent touch must have blown its blasts of boldest bravery around your poisoned person and guided you within miles of the mansion I proudly own? > > ‘What spirit but that of evil used its influence upon you to dare to bend your footsteps of foreign tread towards the door through which they once stole unknown? Ah, woman of sin and stray companion of tutorism, arise, I demand you, and strike across that grassy centre as quickly as you can, and never more make your hated face appear within these mighty walls. I can never own you; I can never call you mother; I cannot extend the assistance your poor, poverty-stricken attire of false don silently requests; neither can I ever meet you on this side the grave, before which you so pityingly kneel!’ Mark Twain called it “one of the greatest unintentionally humorous novels of all time.” The whole thing is here.

Gosh, this really is quite, uh, something.

"A passage from Irene Iddesleigh, by Amanda McKittrick Ros, arguably the worst novel ever written"

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2025/10/23/purple-haze/

#Fiction #Books #FutilityCloset

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Jon Hancock

@bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy

4 months ago

In a Word Image: Diego Delso manducate v. chew congustable adj. having a similar flavor deturpation n. a making foul gazingstock n. a thing gazed at with wonder Beneath Seattle’s Pike Place Market is a 50-foot brick wall covered with used chewing gum. Begun in the 1990s, the wall now bears an estimated 180 pieces of gum per brick. In 2009 it was ranked second only to the Blarney Stone as the world’s germiest tourist attraction. Washington state governor Jay Inslee called the “gum wall” his “favorite thing about Seattle you can’t find anywhere else,” but in fact Bubblegum Alley, in San Luis Obispo, Calif., is even bigger, at 70 feet long (below). Opponents call it offensive, but the Chamber of Commerce lists it as a “special attraction.” Image: Wikimedia Commons

"In 2009 it was ranked second only to the Blarney Stone as the world’s germiest tourist attraction."

www.futilitycloset.com/2025/10/19/in-a-word-701...

#FutilityCloset #Trivia

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Jon Hancock

@bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy

5 months ago

Lahaina Noon Twice a year, objects Hawaii lose their shadows as the sun passes directly overhead. A “zero shadow day” occurs biannually between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, arriving at each location when the sun’s declination equals its latitude.

Futility Closet: "Lahaina Noon"

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2025/10/09/lahaina-noon/

#FutilityCloset #Hawaii

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Shaun Griffith

@shaungriffith.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy

6 months ago

Thinking > The problem of indoctrination is this: in a modern democratic society, the desired goal of education is that each student develop a set of beliefs that are rationally grounded and open to change when challenged by better-grounded beliefs. In order to develop such students, however, it would seem that they must acquire a belief in rational methods of knowing which must itself be beyond challenge, i.e., held in a manner inconsistent with its own content. Thus, students must be indoctrinated in order not to be indoctrinated: a pedagogical dilemma or paradox. — Charles James Barr Macmillan, “‘On Certainty’ and Indoctrination,” _Synthese_ 56:3 (September 1983), 363-372

Done the right way, it isn't indoctrination, but challenging what we think we know, and knowing when to accept what we think we know, until we know more.

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2025/09/10/thinking/

#futilitycloset

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Jon Hancock

@bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy

6 months ago

Retro Cinema The 1984 action comedy _Top Secret!_ contains an odd sequence set in a Swedish bookstore. Val Kilmer, Lucy Gutteridge, and Peter Cushing acted the entire scene backward, and the filmmakers then reversed this performance to produce a dreamlike atmosphere in which impossible things happen. The scene required 17 takes and four dogs, co-director Jim Abrahams told ScreenCrush. “Each dog stopped being hungry.”

Futility Closet: "Retro Cinema"

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2025/08/31/retro-cinema/

#TopSecret #FutilityCloset #PeterCushing #Movies #Film

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Jon Hancock

@bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy

8 months ago

Original post on social.vivaldi.net

In 1936 Buckminster Fuller explained Einstein’s theory of relativity in a telegram.

In 2009 artist Elisabetta Benassi reproduced the telegram in a carpet.

elisabettabenassi.com/works/telegram-from-buck...

We're […]

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Jon Hancock

@bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy

9 months ago

Crime and Punishment Memorable excerpts from the detective fiction of Michael Avallone (1924-1999): “The next day dawned bright and clear on my empty stomach.” (Meanwhile Back at the Morgue) “My body felt as abnormal as a tuxedo in a hobo jungle.” (The Crazy Mixed-Up Corpse) “My stunned intellect, the one that found death in his own backyard with him standing only feet away, hard to swallow in a hurry, found the answer.” (The Horrible Man) “Her breasts were twin mounds of female muscle that quivered and hung and quivered and hung again. The pale red of her nipples were two twinkling eyes that...

“Dolores came around the bed with the speed of a big ape. … She descended on me like a tree full of the same apes she looked like.”

www.futilitycloset.com/2025/06/12/crime-and-pun...

#Fiction #FutilityCloset

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Jon Hancock

@bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy

9 months ago

A Day’s Work Memorable passages from the pulp detective stories of Robert Leslie Bellem (1902-1968): “There were tears brimming on her azure peepers, and tremulous grief twisted her kisser.” (“Forgery’s Foil”) “She wrapped her arms around my neck; glued her crimson kisser to my lips. She fed me an osculation that sent seven thousand volts of electricity past my tonsils.” (“Design for Dying”) “And then, from the doorway, a gun barked: ‘Chow-chow!’ and I went drifting to dreamland.” (“Design for Dying”) “The rod sneezed: ‘Chow! Ka-Chow!’ and pushed two pills through Reggie’s left thigh.” (“Murder Has Four Letters”) “Against a backdrop of darkness...

"Now will you come along willingly or do I bunt you over the crumpet till your sneezer leaks buttermilk?"

www.futilitycloset.com/2025/05/14/a-days-work-2...

#Hardboiled #Fiction #FutilityCloset

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Posts tagged #FutilityCloset