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Carved Links
7 April 2007
![[Three link chain carved from soap]](/news/2007/chain.jpg)
In grade eight our teacher gave a homework assignment that involved carving something interesting out of a block of soap. Classmates chose to carve a car, a pig, and other objects topologically equivalent to the original block. I saw a more intriguing possibility and chose a pair of linked rings. However, my mother decreed that the assignment was a waste of both time and soap, and forbade me from implementing it.
Last weekend Ernest and I visited Chinatown here in San Francisco. The intricate jade and ivory carvings once again got me thinking about how to create a chain of linked rings. So I unfolded my Swiss Army Knife and carved one. An interesting attribute is that the finished chain is slightly longer than the block it was carved from.
Mr Turcotte, if you are reading this, my homework assignment is done. Twenty years late, but better late than never, eh?
Early Friday morning I walked by a garbage can outside one of the Google cafés. A bird which had been feeding on scraps saw me coming, exploded out of the garbage can and flew off. A passing coworker looked at me incredulously and said "Someone threw out a perfectly good bird."
That's why I work here.
Update: I'm not sure if this crosses the line between work and personal, but I got this selection of ads next to a personal Gmail message today. One of them is not like the others. I'll refrain from commenting further.
