Regruntled.com

Martha Sparks of Portland, Oregon is also a sudokuholic, apparently. She does something similar to my Patchwork sudoku, except that she does it with real fabric. The quilt at right is a real quilt, with fabric squares sewn over cotton batting. Martha is teaching a class in Sudoku Art Quilts, and to allow her students to focus on the art instead of the sewing, she is making “no-sew” quilts.

A little googling revealed a whole world of no-sew fabric crafts that I didn’t know existed. I suppose that HTML, JavaScript, and cascading style sheets are also no-sew.

I’d like to have a sudoku quilt, but I also like the changeability of digital art. Maybe there is a way to have it both ways, some combination of color printer and iron-on transfers that would let me go directly from digital to physical.

Reader TTB sends this story. It used to be that “news” was something that actually happened. Nowadays news is a video that someone says they’re going to show someone else a couple of days from now, that might or might not turn out to be fake, not that it matters, because you can’t see it anyway:

Peckman said the general public will have to wait to see it because it’s being included in a documentary by Stan Romanek.

“No one will be allowed to film the segment with the extraterrestrial because there is an agreement in place limiting that kind of exposure during negotiations for the documentary,” he said.

Note that Add-Art overwrote the banner ad.

Friday update: maybe we can see it after all.

The Libertarian Party nominated former Georgia Republican Congressman Bob Barr for President. The video clip shows that both Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes can tell the difference between a Libertarian and a right-wing Constitutionalist, and that Bob Barr is no Libertarian.

I wish Intrade had a Barr contract that I could short. The closest thing is the “Field” contract on the Presidency, which pays off if someone other than a Democrat or Republican is elected. This contract would cover Bob Barr and Ralph Nader and anyone else, and is trading at 1.4%. With 5 months until the election, that’s 3.36% annualized. Not very attractive, but I suppose there are worse trades. In comparison, Hillary is at 7.7% or 18.48% annualized.

Maybe the Ron Paul supporters will migrate to Barr and bid up the the Field contract. Meanwhile, my Gore short position is in the money, and I’ve added a bit to my Hillary short position.

See also:

• Selling Hillary short

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Here are some sudokus made of squares with rainbow patterns. As usual, there are 9 different patterns. There are 4 horizontal or vertical patterns, 4 diagonal patterns, and one centered pattern. Click on the image for a new sudoku.

I like the way the diagonals sometimes line up, creating larger patterns that extend from square to square. The effect is similar to the Sudoku maze, except that with the maze everything always lined up, but here things line up only part of the time.

I keep running into the fact that 4 times 2 is 8, not 9. I need 9 patterns because it’s a sudoku, but the sudoku is made up of squares, which have 4 sides. I can rotate a rainbow square 4 ways, and I can rotate a diagonal rainbow square 4 ways. I always seem to come out one pattern short, hence the one centered rainbow pattern that sticks out visually. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Note that the board is positioned incorrectly. The lower right hand corner should be a light square. You can also see a support bar between the table legs that suggests the correct orientation of the table. Of course, this isn’t about chess, it’s about art, but if you’re going to appropriate the game of chess as part of your art, get the chess right. I use real sudokus for my sudoku art.

I use the FireFox browser with the AdBlockPlus plug-in to block advertisements. It doesn’t catch everything, but I get big white spaces instead of the worst ads.

Now there is Add-Art, which replaces ads with art:

Add-Art is a Firefox extension which replaces advertising images on web pages with art images from a curated database.

For many, replacing ads with blank space would be enough. Add-Art attempts to do something more interesting than just blocking ads - it turns your browser into an art gallery. Every time you visit the New York Times online or check the weather you’ll also see a spattering of images by a young contemporary artist.

I’ve been using Add-Art for a week now. I’d like to see the art changed more often, but that’s a minor criticism. All in all, it’s a great idea.