"Blind Faith" - a new Banksy

Cleverly conceived, and well-executed.  Not apparent from this view is that the subject's front foot is going to lead to him fallling off the plinth.

7 + 2 = x + 6. Can you solve for "x" ?

Certainly you can.  Probably in less than 5 seconds, or you wouldn't be reading this blog.

But... one-fourth of incoming University of California San Diego freshmen taking a placement exam last year failed to solve for the x.

And... 3/5 of them failed to round 374,518 to the nearest hundred.

I found those numbers in the May 2026 Harper's Index, attributed to Akos Rona-Tas, University of California, San Diego.  A Google search led me to confirmatory editorial commentary in the San Diego Union Tribune.

"... it is so jarring to read a lengthy new report from UCSD’s Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions that says many students can’t answer simple math questions. “Between 2020 and 2025, the number of students whose math skills fall below middle-school level increased nearly 30-fold, reaching roughly one in eight members of the entering cohort,” it stated.

Some 25% of students in need of remedial math training couldn’t figure out the answer to this equation — 7 + 2 = blank + 6 — the sort of problem that California first-graders are expected to master. And 61% were unable to round the number 374,518 to the nearest hundred — a basic task third-graders are drilled on..."

From what I've read elsewhere, it appears that UCSD students take the placement exam in order to assess what level courses they should enroll in in the STEM programs.  So the low numbers would seem to reflect science-interested students, not necessarily the liberal arts-focused students.

A number of potential causes are cited, including grade inflation during high school:

But the last cause on that list — high school grade inflation — is something that UCSD can’t fix. It is part of a far-reaching educational crisis that demands a much broader response.

The report said even the students admitted in 2024 who were most in need of remedial support had high school math grade point averages of better than 3.6 — and the difference in such GPAs between the least and most prepared entering students was very small.

If you're interested, here is one Math Placement Exam from UCSD, which you can take at home privately and for free.  It seems to start easy and get harder as you go along.  I didn't see these particular questions on this particular placement exam. 

Related:  Over the years I have hired a number of bright young neighborhood high schoolers to help me with yard and garden chores, and I sometimes challenge them with math and geometry puzzles from the mathematics category of this blog to ponder while they walk in diminishing circles behind a mower, or to take home to work out.  Last year I messaged a new puzzle to a high-school junior.  The correct answer came back in a few hours.  I told him I was impressed.  He said he and his friends couldn't figure it out, so they plugged it into ChatGPT...

New word for the day: neuston (or pleuston)

Fascinating video, and IMHO worth the time expenditure to watch.  As a child I was fascinated by the water striders and whirligigs in northern Minnesota lakes.  These "ripple bugs" are similar inhabitants of fast-flowing streams.  The role of hydrophobic legs has been documented long ago, but the details here re the fans and their deployment is awesome.

Now for the words and their etymology:

Neuston, also called pleuston, are organisms that live at the surface of a body of water, such as an ocean, estuary, lake, river, wetland or pond. Neuston can live on top of the water surface or submersed just below the water surface. In addition, microorganisms can exist in the surface microlayer that forms between the top- and the under-side of the water surface.

Neustons can be informally separated into two groups: the phytoneuston, which are autotrophs floating at the water surface including cyanobacteria, filamentous algae and free-floating aquatic plant (e.g. mosquito fern, duckweed and water lettuce); and the zooneuston, which are floating heterotrophs such as protists (e.g. ciliates) and metazoans (aquatic animals).

The word "neuston" comes from Greek neustos, meaning "swimming", and the noun suffix -on (as in "plankton"). This term first appears in the biological literature in 1917. The alternative term pleuston comes from the Greek plein, meaning "to sail or float". The first known use of this word was in 1909, before the first known use of neuston. In the past various authors have attempted distinctions between neuston and pleuston, but these distinctions have not been widely adopted. As of 2021, the two terms are usually used somewhat interchangeably, and neuston is used more often than pleuston.

Also interesting to note that "neuston" is both countable and uncountable, depending on usage.

Seeking address labels that support a charity

Many years ago I used return address labels from the National Wildlife Federation and other nature- and medicine-based charities.  Then I started printing my own labels using the Avery system of buying blank sticky labels and printing them at home with my name and address.  The last time I tried that, the process was hellishly frustrating, ending with the paper jamming in my printer and the sticky labels tangled in the gears.  I vowed in the future to buy directly from charities again.

But where?  A quick search this morning wasn't productive.  And my understanding of most label-printing services (like the Walmart pictured above) is that my $$ goes to Walmart or the check-printing company and not to the charity.  My "support" for the charity thus becomes having their name or logo microprinted on the label.  

I wonder if any readers are purchasing return address labels from charities.

Majestic irony indeed

For background reading on the meeting of King Charles with Trump.

"86" explained

This morning while doomscrolling I saw a headline indicating that the Department of Justice would be indicting former FBI Director James Comey "because he shared a photo of some seashells."  They are alleging that the "86 47" in the photo is indicative of inciting violence against the president.

Any idiot could look up 86 in Wikipedia:

Eighty-six or 86 is American English slang, generally meaning to "get rid of" someone or something.

In the hospitality industry, it is used to indicate that an item is no longer available, traditionally from a food or drinks establishment, or referring to a person or people who are not welcome on the premises. Its etymology is unknown, but the term seems to have been coined in the 1920s or 1930s.

There are multiple theories re the etymology, which you can read at the link.  Think of the countless hours expended by highly-paid attorneys on both sides, much of which comes at the expense of the public, and for no practical purpose.  I'm so tired of this shit.

A curious landscape feature in Italy

Explanation at the geography subreddit.

Iran's enriched uranium

Embedded above is a screencap from an impressive New York Times article explaining how Iran accumulated 11 tons of nuclear material.  

The graph depicts uranium at various "grades" from low-level (grayish) to enriched (darker) and weapons grade (blackish).

"As the stockpile kept growing, the Obama administration began talks to curb it.  In 2015, Iran and six nations led by the United States reached an accord that limited the purity of its enriched uranium to 3.67 percent and the size of its stockpile until 2030... Iran lacked a single bomb’s worth of uranium in 2018, when Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the pact and reimposed a series of tough economic sanctions."

Continue reading at the link for more information.  

The art of the deal...

"Demand destruction" looms

I don't know if this term will work its way from the business/economic community to the general press, but it is a useful term.  Here's the Wiki:

In economics, demand destruction refers to a permanent or sustained decline in the demand for a certain good in response to persistent high prices or limited supply. Because of persistent high prices, consumers may decide that it is not worth purchasing as much of that good, or seek out alternatives as substitutes.

I've heard that phrase expressed in interviews on the Bloomberg channel and on Al Jazeera, but today I encountered the phrase in a Facebook post by Mohamed El-Erian:

I will reiterate my previously-expressed belief that the U.S. equity markets are trading at unsustainably high levels based on irrational expectations of a quick resolution to the current Gulf conflict (based on part on Trump's totally irrational claims of such), combined with positive economic news from the small sector of AI-related companies that are overweighted in equity indexes.  The American consumer is hurting and is cutting back on spending; the fact that inflation is stable or rising indicates that companies are passing on their costs to consumers, not that consumers are buying more (as El-Erian notes).  IMHO this is a good time to cash in on paper gains in stocks or to write covered calls when such are available.

Addendum:  Here is a 6-month graph of an index representing the 500 largest companies in the U.S., with the onset of the war indicated by the red arrow:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has a similar shape.  The S&P has overshot the war onset number because this is its composition:

The U.S. "economy" is increasingly being viewed as one based on information technology, and while artificial intelligence may hold enormous potential for increasing profitability of corporations through increaed efficiecy (and lower payrolls...), the underlying "boots on the ground" economy of agriculture and industry is suffering.  Even if the war ends tomorrow morning, oil prices are going to remain high for a prolonged period.

Just my opinion.  Do not make your investment decisions based on the rantings of an old English major with job skills in the biosciences.  Consult your investment advisors and read widely.

Addendum:  An Australian writing the I Fucking Love Australia substack puts the situation more bluntly:

Oxford Economics has it modelled. Oil at $150 plus for four months, global inflation back at 7.7 per cent close to the 2022 peak, world GDP growth slowing to 1.4 per cent for the year. Australian recession sharpest since the early nineties. None of this is fringe analysis. This is the orthodox economic forecasting houses now openly publishing recession scenarios with a straight face.

And the equity markets are still being held up by the AI fever dream. A handful of US tech billionaires playing a hyper-financialised game of chicken on multi-trillion dollar valuations underwritten by an artificial intelligence investment bubble that still has not delivered the productivity gains it promised, and is openly built on the premise of replacing every working person on the planet. When the energy shock fully filters through into demand destruction, into corporate earnings, into job losses across logistics, transport, agriculture and manufacturing, the unwind will not be gentle. Your super fund’s overweight position in Nasdaq tech is going to find out the same way it did in 2008.

The convergence is the real fucking story. Energy shock plus inflation shock plus AI bubble plus a US president actively breaking the global trade system with tariffs plus a global central banking response that has run out of room. We are looking at conditions that could make 2008 look like a kindergarten scuffle. It is not impossible to talk seriously now about Great Depression two point oh. The brokers laughing that off three months ago are now on speed dial to their compliance departments.

"Fake news you can trust"

That seems to be the motto of the Babylon Bee, where I found this item.

LIHOP and MIHOP return from obscurity

Raise your hand if you are old enough to remember the heyday of these terms:

LIHOP ("Let it happen on purpose") – suggests that key individuals within the government had at least some foreknowledge of the attacks and deliberately ignored it or actively weakened United States' defenses to ensure the hijacked flights were not intercepted. Similar allegations were made about Pearl Harbor.

MIHOP ("Make/Made it happen on purpose") – that key individuals within the government planned the attacks and collaborated with, or framed, al-Qaeda in carrying them out. There is a range of opinions about how this might have been achieved. 

Those were the leading contenders in the conspiracy theories surrounding the events of 9/11.  Now the terms return in discussions of the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting.  I've heard various suggestions that the event was staged, and have read strong denials.  Today I found this on Facebook:

If it's true that the police had been notified and that the shooter was on a watch list, then his being able to check into a D.C. hotel begins looking suspicious.

The tornado in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The depiction of the tornado in the 1939 film was intense and remarkably well-executed, even by modern standards.  I found a relevant Instagram post (which I don't know how to embed) that describes the basic technology used.  

The tornado isalso discussed at some length in an article at the Oz Museum.  English majors and other wordsmiths will appreciate this aspect:

“Cyclone” is the word L. Frank Baum chose to describe the Kansas storm in his story, although he clearly meant “tornado.” Shortly after THE WIZARD OF OZ book first appeared in 1900, Professor Willis L. Moore, then Chief of the United States Weather Bureau, wrote Baum’s publishers to urge them to correct the inaccurate usage. He received a response from Frank K. Reilly of The George M. Hill Company, offering that the change would be made in the next edition.  This, however, was never done, and any who purchase a copy of THE WIZARD OF OZ reprinting Baum’s original language will find that “cyclone” remains, again and again – as colloquial and as factually incorrect as ever. (MGM got around the issue in the movie by having Bert Lahr exclaim, in idiomatic fright, “It’s a twister! It’s a twister!” Later on, however, the screenwriters were loyal to Baum, and Judy Garland’s Dorothy explains to Toto, “We must be up inside the cyclone!”)

The article goes on to discuss the various static artistic depictions of the tornado in different publications of The Wizard of Oz, including this one -

- in which the tornado is still present in Munchkinland.  The Oz Museum article is nicely illustrated, but for explication of the movie technique, see the Instagram account.

Manes

This image of Icelandic horses at play in Germany was one of the Photos of the Week at The Atlantic.  It got me wondering whether horses' manes provided evolutionary advantages that might have led to selection pressures affecting their size.  I'm not a "horse person," so there is a fuckton of stuff I didn't know, nicely summarized at the relevant Wikipedia page. 

"Radiator thing on a basement pipe"

A curiosity posted in the whatisthisthing subreddit by someone who saw it while visiting an open house.  Informed discussion thread at the link indicates that this is in fact a "radiator thing" (properly termed "hydronic heater") in a "fin tube" style, and similar in intended function to a baseboard heater.

I agree with this comment that it looks like an amateur hack:

That's not going to do much to heat the space because a slant fin radiator is meant to move air by convection. The normal installation is down low near the floor, not up high. Also usually below a window. They work by heating the cool air that's coming off the window and falling down on them.

And I find it curious that traversing the same room is what appears to be a hot water pipe wrapped to prevent heat escaping into the basement.