AbsentBird

Plans are in motion. See you at 50501 on Wednesday.

By my estimation, of those 126: 80 are a win for X (or whoever goes first), 30 are a win for O (or whoever goes second), and 16 are a stalemate.

So the number of losing positions depends on whether you go first or second.

Good point. There’s only 126 filled arrangements that are valid game states.

There are only like 500 losing tictac toe scenarios max.

Three positions for each square (X, O, or blank), 9 squares: 3^9 = 19,683 possible game states.

Of those there are only 512 combinations where the board is compete: 2^9 = 512

Of those 512, only 16 combinations results in a win for either player. Meaning there are only 8 losing scenarios and 496 stalemate scenarios.

I thought that was from David Rovics.

I asked “What happened at Tiananmen Square?” and this is what it said:

The events at Tiananmen Square in 1989 began as student-led demonstrations in Beijing, initially sparked by mourning for reformist Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang in April. The protests quickly escalated into widespread calls for political and economic reforms, anti-corruption measures, and democratic freedoms (history.state.gov). By late May, the government declared martial law and deployed military forces, but citizens initially blocked troops from entering the city. Protesters occupied the square, erecting the iconic “Goddess of Democracy” statue, while Western media broadcast live coverage of the standoff (britannica.com). By early June, however, Chinese authorities ordered a violent crackdown. Troops and tanks advanced into the square, opening fire on demonstrators and bystanders. Witnesses reported civilians shot in the back or crushed by military vehicles, though the exact death toll remains unknown due to government censorship (amnesty.org.uk). The Chinese Communist Party later suppressed all public discussion of the event, erasing it from official records and education materials. Globally, the crackdown became a symbol of authoritarian repression, while Tiananmen Square itself—originally expanded in the 1950s to showcase Maoist grandeur—remains a politically charged site (wikipedia.org) (bbc.com).

Make the chips in Guadalajara, ship them out of Puerto Vallarta to Vancouver to power server farms in Surrey; cut the US out entirely.

Hell, use the waste heat to power hot water heaters or something. It blows my mind that we don’t do more cloud computing in cold environments. The servers produce heat, the people need heat, solve one problem with another. Instead we seem to be putting them in the driest and hottest climates available.

Sure, but novels, paintings, and songs are traditional arts, they are art first and foremost.

As opposed to all the presidents we’ve had who didn’t send bombs to Israel or set up drilling and mineral exploitation?

We need to invest in renewable energy production if we are going to survive the next century, Biden invested more than any president in my lifetime.

Biden did more to battle climate change than any president in living memory. Trump has done the opposite, we don’t have another four years of runway to speed the collapse, the time for revolution was when Bush stole the election.

Splitting the vote allows an opening for fascists to take control with a minority of support, like they do.

Honestly I think it depends more on the guy than the bear. Any time you’re alone in the woods (at least in the US) it’s safe to assume you’re with a bear, that’s where they live. Most bears keep to themselves though.

People tend to be less low-key, and less predictable. To me it seems more likely that a random guy could follow you around, take your stuff, or generally make life more difficult. There’s also a higher chance for a guy to assist you and make things easier, but I can understand how the potential risk could outweigh the potential benefits.