Paper Scutoids and Other Updates (Patreon)

Hello good humans! Four entire topics this week.

1. Good Humans

All your kind comments on my last post really filled me up! I was worried that without video piles of videos I wouldn't be able to make this work, but y'all really have my back and that is a very good feeling.

Thank you thank you thank you!

Let's DO THISSSS! :D

2. Scutoids: Papercraft edition???

On the recent Scutoid post, Amy Tobol commented asking if there were a papercraft version. I was immediately intrigued.

I knew it wouldn't be as simple as a polyhedron net, as not all the faces are flat. Which is probably why a papercraft version did not yet exist. But maybe it's close enough to make it work?

So I tweeted at Laura Taalman (who made some nice 3d printed models) to ask, and she test-fitted some paper to the curved face and thought it was promising, and came up with a draft net design.

Tom Ruen jumped on the thread and tried using Laura's 3d printable file to do some software and by-hand wrangling and made a few polygonizations.

The first version was difficult to assemble, but did get in a slight amount of curvature:

Then he made a nice connected version that avoids the curvature problem. It's much, much easier to assemble and still works very nicely. It's not quite as tight a snug between the two as the one with the extra triangles, but worth it. I recommend trying it out!

("Scutoid" is officially named after the triangle-shaped "Scutum" of a beetle)

Tom also came out with this variation, which I haven't tried yet:

I might try some other variations. In the end I'd like there to be a printable version suitable for the classroom (so maybe a little scutoid info and directions in the empty space) because I think a classroom full of scutoids would be just excellent. A scutoid set where all of them fit together (instead of just in pairs) so that a class can collaborate would be even better!

I'll look into it...

And obviously it would be best with a video that connects the shape to a pile of mathematical concepts (including, now, negative curvature and developable surfaces and computational origami...).

3. Fake-cation

So I've been trying a new schedule that allows me some burnout-killing vacation time, before I go off on my real vacation later this month. 

For the past few days I've been doing 3 hours of more mundane work in the early morning alongside tea and breakfast (emails, meetings, paperwork, and... writing this, dear reader!)

Then, 3 hours of Fake Vacation Yoga Retreat (yoga, meditation, reading, lunch) which I pretend is the longest and core component of my day because fake-cation,

And after a break I'm ready to dive into 3 or 4 hours of creative/thinky work. Outside on my floor office.

And then 5pm is music time, and then the rest of my evening is No Work Allowed. It's really great.

I'll report back after some more experimentation. Also about outdoor floor office work aesthetic.

4. This Week's Sleets (now with sleet 🌨emoji so you know which are threaded):

🌨One of the benefits of moving to california from NY is it's easier to find your state on drop-down menus

🌨Competitiveness, for me, is really just a way of feeling like I can measure meaningful progress in my own skills. It's not about winning or losing but building a context for goal-setting.

🌨Dream: we’ve combined a kinect and XR to create an interface where you can sculpt using any real life object as a primitive (or at least, the half facing the kinekt). You can click-drag or just click to add it to your sculpture. 

We demonstrate by dragging a bowl around, and then show “one of the two canonical ways” to combine two cups, by making a sculpture that has two cup instances where they overlap just barely on the edge but with the handle of each inside the other.

🌨Why yes I am listening to Eminem's new album because I grew up in the 90s and Eminem is still alive so that's cool, it’s like it's the 90s again but with the occasional anachronism.

🌨Dream: I find a 4-leaf clover and make a Lens clip of it (I used to be very good at finding these; I’ve been known to casually pick one out while walking past a clover patch in conversation). I drop the clover but Lens bugs out and loses the video, and then I can’t find another one and am annoyed at the interface.

🌨I feel like I like pumpkin spice lattes, but every time I've ordered one it has been terrible and cloyingly awfully sweet and gross. But I still feel like I like them? Like, I can’t update the definition in my head to reflect the reality of the thing rather than what I imagine it’s like. Also, clearly advertising and marketing have worked hella well on me.

Counterpoint: maybe my head-canon version IS the real version. For another example, take butterbeer from Harry Potter. In the books, it is meant to be a mildly alcoholic beverage. I always imagined it to be this delicious warm literally buttery drink, not very sweet, closer to a hot toddy than a soda, with a smooth creamy mouth-feel from the butter. The version you can buy in real life is something else entirely, a horribly sweet butterscotch soda, basically. But just because this version is literally real doesn’t mean it’s the real version! This kid-friendly adaptation diverges significantly from what is described in the book, and I’m comfortable calling the version in my head the correct one.

So too, perhaps, with pumpkin spice lattes. Somewhere in the land of platonic ideals exists my perfect pumpkin spice latte, unsullied by the market forces of sugar-addicted consumers. I will meet you there.

Vi