#MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE

[ichorousisopod]

mmmmmmm carroté

[dv-acid]

How. Just … how.

[copepods]

crazy how 4 hours of work will literally take up my entire 15+ hour day. who allowed this

[yesthatsatumbler]

Yeah and sometimes a team is mathematically guaranteed (in the sporting meaning) to get some result but then something really unforeseen occurs and there's a different result instead!

(My favorite example is Jersey Bulls in 2019/20 - they were mathematically guaranteed promotion because they were too far ahead of everyone else, then promotion got cancelled due to Covid.)

In a US context, however, it's not mathematically impossible for a third-party candidate to win the presidential election, even assuming realistic voting patterns. There just has to be a third-party candidate who's sufficiently locally popular in one specific state (or district, in a state that does electoral votes by district, i.e. Maine or Nebraska) to plausibly win (i.e. get more votes than either of the big two individually) just there, while the other two candidates are close enough to plausibly not get a majority of the electoral votes without that state/district. Then it's down to negotiations in the House of Representatives and the third guy is eligible and a plausible compromise candidate.

(This almost happened to Evan McMullin in 2016; IIRC, before election day, his chance of becoming president was estimated at about 0.1%.)

i have seen multiple different people just today use the phrasing "it's mathematically impossible for a third party candidate to win" (implictly, in the US) and i am just perplexed at what they mean by the adverb 'mathematically' in that sentence.

i mean i quite agree that it's not going to happen (in this election, anyway) but that's not like. a mathematical theorem. it's a contingent fact about the current opinions of the electorate. do they just mean they (or someone else whose results they are reporting) took some polling numbers and did maths to them to come to that conclusion? I don't much care for the word to be used that way if i'm being honest.

[daturabouquet]

OMG! IMAGINE DOTTIE HAVING YOU SIT ON HIS LAP WHILE YOU DECORATE HIS HAIR W STICKERS AND HAIR THINGS WHILE DOTTIE IS WRITING HIS REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT REASRCH BUT YK READER GIVES NO FUCK :3 🤭

YESSS THIS IS SO CUTE. Dottie who was never really fond of physical touch can suddenly warm up to you and let you sit on his lap like a kitten making biscuits on his head.

Surprisingly, Dottore's hair is... soft? When you notice, you immediately look up ways to braid his hair, put stickers and bows and such on it.

----------------------------------------------------------

You approached him while he was writing a report and slid on his lap, a small basket of hair decorations in your hand. Dottore's face looked a bit pissed, so you didn't expect much success.

When you stuck the first sticker on the side of his head, he grabbed your wrist. You pouted a little, feeling guilty now, like you've done something he genuinely dislikes. Wait, he's not pulling it away, he's... setting your wrist aside?

Turns out your arm was blocking his view. Once your arm was out of his line of sight, he just continued with his work. Your face beamed with joy, then you stuck a second sticker, then a third, then some clips and bows. You also braided his hair gently, kissing his forehead occasionally as a sign of appreciation.

Secretly, Dottore admires your handiwork on the braids you arranged on him. One night, right after you slept in his arms, he tries to braid your hair just like how you braided his. He used his keen observation to try and replicate your work of art.

..He ended up tangling a whole chunk of your hair.

[aethersea]

idk I don't really understand the stance of "I'm tired of voting for the lesser of two evils, so I'm just not going to vote." would you rather have the greater of two evils, then? we're not voting for the lesser evil because we just love evil so dang much, it's because between a lesser evil and a greater evil, there is a significant difference. and we only get one of the two. there is no third option.

[why-the-heck-not]

computer science was a hoax from the universe to get me to study math in the pretense of ”hehe coding’s cool look at all these things u can do” *some mf vectors looming just around the corner* ”noNO dont look there; look here!! It’s ’hello world’ but in green heheh wOoOoo now it’s blue !! u are a god of this website” *matrices sharpening their knives somewhere*

[d1nnerd0g]

scraps from a human au i was excited abt last month

[queenlua]

okay let's make tibarn/naesala happen

let's enumerate every possible way to make them work. for funsies. because i am normal and have normal 3am hobbies:

option 1: reyson and leanne both die tragically somehow; tibarn and naesala have weird sex about it

pros: ngl this is my Default Option for like 80% of my ships for a reason. it's just fundamentally neat when ppl are sad about their dead former lover and think about them constantly even whilst they are flinging themselves into the arms of a new one. if you can get TWO people doing that simultaneously? with each other?? hell yes

cons: honestly...,,, both of these boys seem enormously terrible at providing anything remotely resembling comfort. like, i feel like they try to have weird angsting-over-reyson-and-leanne sex, but then they just have normal-ish, boring, wham-bam-thank-you-m'am, vaguely-unsatisfying sex, so then you're not even getting Demented Catharsis out of it, and then WHAT IS THE POINT. like have you ever known a dude who takes up jogging to try and get over his ex? and then he quits after a couple weeks when he remembers Wait Cardio Is Boring As Fuck? it's like that. i think they try it for a bit and it's blah and all purely physical and then they're done. i'm just not quite seeing it here!

option 2: naesala's the weird skrunky sometimes-third-wheel sometimes-third-partner to reyson/tibarn

pros: i think this meshes best with all their personalities as presented in canon. tibarn & reyson keep letting naesala off easy because, y'know, he's more useful to keep around and guilt-trippable, but also because he's pretty fun to drag into bed sometimes, right

cons: this is avoiding the tricky bit, right? i specifically said naesala/tibarn because i want to figure out how to emulsify these oil-n-water bitches together. if you let reyson be the glue between them, you're taking the easymode way out!

option 3: do you think love can bloom even on a battlefield

(aka, naesala and tibarn both murder the hell out of some senator who dicked both of them over, and they look into each other's eyes and realize that despite all their differences they do both find Murderous Justice very hot, deep down. and maybe also each other? like it's hot that this guy also Gets It right)

pros: ok, come to think of it, you could make this one really funny. like, suppose Reyson's been kidnapped or something, right, and Tibarn's like I Will Do Anything (Even Ally With Naesala) To Get Him Back

and so Tibarn fights Through Hell And High Water to rescue his twinky boyfriend

and they SUCCEED, and Reyson's super-unconscious but safe, and in that moment he looks into Naesala's eyes and... they get supremely frisky, and it feels incredible and right in the moment but boy that's gonna be awkward the second Reyson actually wakes up lmao

cons: dissolves the second reyson wakes up, alas. like the Weirdness hangs around after, that's still fun, but.

option 4: naesala has a little bit too much fun being the powerful one for a change

i'm pretty sure naesala would Literally Die rather than ask tibarn for help, ever. but tibarn? tibarn might in fact get desperate enough to call on naesala for help. you could probably spin some toxic yaoi out from there, right. tibarn very much trying to hold onto a sense of self and telling himself he's just doing this for instrumental reasons, but also having his sense of self lowkey fucked up by having to play second fiddle to naesala. naesala very much enjoying stringing this guy along. that kind of deal

pros: wasn't thorki big for a while or something. i feel like we get thorki vibes out of this. can i steal some MCU ppl away to spur on a Second Great Awakening Of Tellius...

cons: this would require me to have a good Theory Of Mind for Tibarn in particular, which i do not, alas!

anyway god i should get some sleep. further options welcome

[augustus816]

please can someone make a website which answers the singular question “mathematically, could charles leclerc win the world title this season?” yes or no.

[trentskis]

damn! weird we're not doing a trophy parade when we're winning the league but ok!!!!!!!!

[nostalgic-shamefest]

There is now no doubt in my mind that the ted lasso writing team went on ao3

[dualitysdownfall]

wOAH WHAT??? it says i have 701 followers? last i checked it was like. 478.

did something happen? because i cannot imagine they have been rolling in That Fast.

[remcocoa]

some fun facts about the current tirreno adriatico standings:

jonas vingegaard holds the leaders jersey, which he will wear tomorrow

jonas vingegaard also holds the kom jersey, which would then go to juan ayuso in second

but juan ayuso holds the points jersey outright, so he will wear that one tomorrow

this would put isaac del toro in the kom jersey (third place)

juan ayuso and isaac del toro are currently first and second in the young rider jersey

this means tomorrow the young rider jersey should go to thymen arensman (third place)

[thornescratch]

Oh.

[visenyaism]

could we see all the results from your quizzes? i know i’ll never break the curse but you’re so poetic that i’d love to know what you wrote for it.

all of the results for the harrenhal one? sure thing! I definitely sure did lean into the drama on these didn't I

death by fire- You take Harrenhal through violence, and maintain it through brutality. Or you would have, had the cycle of violence lapsed long enough for you to enjoy your lordship. But the fire you set to seize Harrenhal for yourself burns you right up along with it. Your name becomes a footnote in history, but your bones are as black and charred as the thousands of others within the walls of Harrenhal, and you are cursed.

death by blood- You intended on ruling Harrenhal as a lord, high above your bannermen and smallfolk. And you did, for a time, grinding others beneath your lordly heel. Even the most peaceful and benevolent lords know that Harrenhal demands blood, and you must provide it. Your rule becomes rotten, seeping into the very walls of the keep, and it festers and festers until it reaches the point of cataclysm. You and yours are completely wiped out in a matter of years. A leal bannerman slits your throat in the godswood, and earns your lordship for it. They are cursed, and so are you.

death by ghosts- No one can quite agree what happened to you. Maybe you wandered down a dark and winding stairwell and were never seen again. Maybe you lingered too long in one spot, and the world bent around you until all you could see was grey. Maybe you just faded away, bit by bit until you were just one grey ghost haunting Harrenhal out of many.

curse-passer- You don’t take any substantial risks as lord. You have a peaceful reign and quiet peasants, and nothing ever surfaces. You live long enough to die of natural causes, and the castle passes to your heir without complications. But in passing Harrenhal to your heir, you’ve also passed along the curse. They die horribly in a prolonged conflict, red and terrible. As heir to Harrenhal, they’ve been doomed since birth, because of you. Is giving your child a poisoned cup truly a better outcome than drinking it yourself? You’re not around to ask, and neither are any of your kinsmen.

escaped the narrative- The curse doesn’t get you and yours, and you’ve clawed your way out of the narrative you’ve been pushed into. But at what cost? You’re not a lord anymore. Your family has nothing. You cannot be recognized as you are or live a normal life ever again. You're nothing without Harrenhal. You’ll have to live your life outside the system, or else back in the service of others. There’s no shortage of opportunities to fake your death and come back in disguise, but Isn’t it lonely?

crushed by the wheel- Your understand that Harrenhal and its curse are just the systemic violence feudalism inflicts on the whole realm in microcosm. Good job! But you’re still the Lord of Harrenhal. How do you expect to beat the feudal curse as the feudal lord? Are you different from the rest? You know you’re not. The sun sets, and your line ends and the castle swallows the smallfolk whole, same as it ever was. You tried to break the wheel, and just ended up crushed by it.

you beat the curse!- Now this one's impossible. How did you get here, if you aren't me? This door is forever closed, but it exists for a reason. People need to look at this option and think it's real, so that they feel certain they can get it right the next time. The next lord will break the curse. The next batch of smallfolk blood will do the trick. It's very, very futile, and having to look at this on the results page will make people have to seethe about it forever. The structure of the quiz does the metanarrative legwork.