The courts as blood sport.

Casey Anthony has been found not guilty of the murder of her two year old daughter Caylee, but she was convicted of lying to the police. I paid very little attention to the trial or the run-up to it, except what I saw on the covers of the tabloids, and most of that I discounted as being sensationalistic claptrap.

The cops took a long time to get the evidence. Casey lied to them. She felt she couldn't trust the cops. Her dad was a cop. The previous sentence may be related to the sentence just before it.

That's how paragraphs work.

In any case, a cute little girl is dead and people clamor for justice, and now they feel it has been denied.

There's a lot of anger out there and it will take aim at anything and anyone.



Nancy Grace feels this is the worst thing that has ever happened. She feels that way a lot.

Her money quote is "the devil is dancing". Yes, if something goes this bad, it must be satanic, right?

Nancy Grace is a former prosecutor. It would be nice if every once in a while she would say that the prosecution or the police or the forensic team screwed up big time, and in this case it looks like all three, but no. Let's invoke Satan instead.

I am merely agnostic and not an atheist, but if Nancy Grace's view of the cosmos was the only other choice, I would be an atheist and a damn nasty one at that. Richard Dawkins would be writing me notes behind the scene saying, "Good lack of God, man, bring it down a notch, would you?"


Kim Kardashian tweeted.

Yes, I know, stop the presses.

Ms. Kardashian thinks a terrible miscarriage of justice has been done. Some people with long memories think she doesn't have the right to be offended because her dead father was Robert Kardashian, one of the lawyers who defended O.J. Simpson when he was found not guilty sixteen years ago.

Does it feel like sixteen years to you? Yeah, me neither. I guess we are old.

I'm not sure how many people who know who Kim Kardashian is know her first claim to fame is being her father's daughter. If Family Feud ever got around to asking 100 people "Why is Kim Kardashian famous?", I'm sure "Hell if I know" would be the #1 answer, followed by "She's on TV", "She's gotta big butt", and "Didn't she make a sex tape?". "Her dad defended O.J." would be way down the list, if it made the list at all.

But right now people are angry, so Kim Kardashian isn't allowed to join in the prevailing anger. The crowd wants blood right now, and nearly anyone's blood will do.

But please, not mine. I am Cinna the Poet, not Cinna the Conspirator.

A little message to my friends and family at the Fourth of July party.

Using my new toys like an old 8-bit programmer to send a shout out to all my peeps.

Thanks for all the great food and wonderful companionship. I had a great time. See you on Labor Day if not sooner.

Penrose patterns #3a, 3/7/11: The Bright Kaleidoscope

Title: The Bright Kaleidoscope
Date: 3 July 2011
Type: Pattern
Number of tiles: 295
Color breakdown: 135 purple, 145 yellow, 115 blue
Shape breakdown: 230 kites, 165 darts
Kosher Penrose tiling rules: no

I can't change the color of the Penrose tiles, but I can mess with the colors in iPhoto. This one messed with exposure, sharpness, contrast and temperature. The shape is six asters of a larger size (mama kites and some darts added in), with five partial asters filling in the gaps.

Some of this stuff is starting to look like cool logos to me.

Pele or Messi? Is Marta enough?

Marta is the greatest female footballer in the game today. She might be the best of all time. Of course, she's just 25, so it's a little early to tell, but she padded her resume very nicely again on Sunday as the Brazilians destroyed the Norwegians, 3-0. Marta scored two goals and got the assist on the other. She clearly committed a foul that wasn't called on the first one, but that doesn't take anything away from her talent or accomplishments.

For people who don't "get" soccer, think about Jerry Rice. When the ball was passed, he'd be a step behind the defender. When the ball got to him, he was a step and a half ahead and off to the races. He had a fifth gear that none of the guys defending him had, with the possible exception of Deion Sanders.

And then there's the task of putting the ball in the back of the net. Marta has 78 goals in 71 international matches. That's flat out reee-donkulous. For comparison, Mia Hamm had 158 goals in 275 international appearances.

A goal a game is just crazy.

She's been compared to Pele. Pele agrees. But when Pele showed up, suddenly Brazil was the best team in the world and won three of the next four World Cups, in 1958, 1962 and 1970. This is Marta's second World Cup. Brazil lost in the final four years ago to Germany when the matches were in China. Now the matches are in Germany. It will take something close to a miracle for the Brazilians to pull it off this year.

Marta might be more like Lionel Messi, the Argentine superstar. He is the spark plug for FC Barcelona, the greatest pro squad in the world right now, but he's not enough to make Argentina the best national team. Unless things change dramatically, he probably won't be enough for them to win in 2014. The Argentines have the advantage in 2014 that the games will be played in South America, but the disadvantage that they will be played in Brazil.

Brazil's real problem is that the national organization does not take women's football seriously. Other squads playing in Germany this year played six or seven warm-up matches. Brazil played one. Their defense is haphazardly organized and eventually a team with real firepower, not a counterpunch team like Norway, is going to make the Brazilian goalkeeper's day a real challenge.

Still, whenever it's possible, I'm going to be in front of a TV when the Brazilians play for the rest of the tournament. The probability of Marta doing something amazing in every game she plays is so close to 100%, it's not worth mentioning the difference. Mathematicians call that epsilon. I compared her to Jerry Rice, Pele and Messi, but let me also compare her to Willie Mays. Like with Mays, on any given day you might see Marta do something you have never seen before and will never see again.

Penrose patterns #2a and 2b, 3/7/11: The Aster Fields

Title: Aster Field #1
Date: 3 July 2011
Type: Pattern
Number of tiles: 290
Color breakdown: 100 blue, 90 yellow, 90 blue
Shape breakdown: all kites
Kosher Penrose tiling rules: no

Title: Aster Field #2
Date: 3 July 2011
Type: Pattern
Number of tiles: 375
Color breakdown: 135 blue, 120 yellow, 120 blue
Shape breakdown: all kites
Kosher Penrose tiling rules: no
Supplier: SeriousPuzzles.com

I'm going to be doing more work with the aster pattern, the rounded shape made from 15 kites with the star shaped gap in the middle. If five darts were added, it would be a star with a star shaped gap in the middle, but by rounding the shape, the outside corners fit exactly into the dents and allow for infinite replication, though it does not count as a tesselation because of the arrow shaped gaps.

Spike Lee has a point.

Everybody knows Spike Lee has a mouth on him. He's full of opinions and he isn't shy about expressing them. He has a theory on why actors are usually so messed up. Here's a quote from a recent interview in The Hollywood Reporter.

“You’re out there buck-naked and that is hard," Lee said. "The reason why actors are fucked up; can you imagine having a job where someone is, ‘No, no, no. Your butt’s too big, your head's too big, you’re too skinny, your nose is too big?'”

He's absolutely right about this. I saw the movie Beginners last night and I thought about what Lee said. Everybody in this film looked fantastic.

Forgive me if I give away a few plot points.

Christopher Plummer looked great, even though he was playing an old man in poor health. Ewan McGregor looked great, though his character is depressed. The Jack Russell Terrier Cosmo is a little scruffy compared to Eddie in Frazier, but it is impossible not to adore him.

And then there's Mélanie Laurent, who American audiences might remember best as Shoshonna in Inglourious Basterds. She is beyond adorable in this film. In her first scene, she is supposed to have laryngitis, so it's just close ups of her not speaking. She has stunningly beautiful eyes and a lovely face, every feature is wonderful and the camera loves her.

But consider this picture of her from a red carpet. The haircut isn't flattering. She has two moles, one on her neck and one in the middle of her collarbone. If just one of them is visible, it's not too bad, but if she's on camera and both of them can be seen, it's distracting.

She was terrific in both the movies I've seen her in, but I don't know if she is going to become a big movie star, all over two moles.

Here's a young woman in a different situation. Hope Solo, goalkeeper for the women's U.S. national soccer team, now playing in the World Cup in Germany.

How does she get judged? She gets judged on how many goals she gives up. So far, the United States has won two games by shutout against North Korea and Colombia. So far, Hope Solo is perfect, but every game from now on will be a tougher test, including the final game in the group stage against Sweden.

She was also judged four years ago on her performance as a teammate. She was benched against Brazil in favor of Brianna Scurry and the U.S. lost 4-1. She criticized the coach and she was benched also for the third place game. Obviously, she has returned to the good graces of the team.

And, oh yeah, Hope Solo is a very attractive young woman. Women in sports are obviously being judged on their looks, and sadly there have been some second tier female athletes given ridiculous amounts of attention for their looks in spite their lackluster performances, like Anna Kournikova in tennis and Danica Patrick in auto racing. But the standard for attractiveness for female athletes is not as unforgiving as it is for other entertainers, and more importantly, it isn't the bottom line. She and the other women on the team have chances to get endorsements, but the most important component is to become champions like the previous generation back in the 1990s when the international game began.

Now officially in the "I'm never gonna get tired of these!" stage with my new toys.

Okay, I'm obsessed with the new toys. Like Princess Sparkle Pony loves Ernie Bushmiller and Ugly Tour Buses, like Padre Mickey loves Red Mr. Peanut Bank and The World's Most Beautiful Grandchile™, I'm in love with the new toys from SeriousPuzzles.com.

The polygons that come with the set have 12 sides, 8 sides, 6 sides, 4 sides and 3 sides, but there is a way to use octagons and triangles to make a negative space regular 24-gon. The little white added rhombi are 30°, which fits the outside gaps perfectly and makes it easier to build. The shape looks like a flower, obviously, but the influence of The Other Blog is making me think of some fabulous necklace Miss Elizabeth Taylor might have received from a suitor.

In any case, I'm going to try this shape again with different colors and different backgrounds. Artists call this "variation on a theme". My readers may soon call it "beating a dead horse".

I am going to invoke the First Rule of Blogging, which of course is "You're not the boss of me."

Enjoy.