cora's blog. all posts CC0 1.0 public domain: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ Zola 2026-10-28T00:00:00+00:00 https://cora.earth/atom.xml 2026-10-28T00:00:00+00:00 2026-10-28T00:00:00+00:00 cora https://cora.earth/cain-sheets-and-trackers/

<h2 id="why-i-like-cain">why I like CAIN</h2> <p>Skip to <a class="section-link" href="https://cora.earth/cain-sheets-and-trackers/#sheets-and-trackers">sheets and trackers</a> for the interactive sheets and tools. :)</p> <p>I <em>really</em> love the table-top-RPG <a href="https://tombloom.itch.io/cain">CAIN</a>, by Tom Bloom, and I encourage you to buy and play it.</p>

2026-10-26T00:00:00+00:00 2026-10-26T00:00:00+00:00 cora https://cora.earth/diy-genomics/

<p>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project">human genome project</a> was the at-the-time largest collaborative project in biology. Completed in 2003, it took 13 years and (in today’s money) about $6.5 billion USD. Last month, I sent a swab of the inside of my cheek to be fully sequenced (30x redundant reads) for $400 USD. That means the cost to sequence a human genome fell by more than a factor of two <em>each year for the last 23 years</em>.</p>

2026-10-17T00:00:00+00:00 2026-10-17T00:00:00+00:00 cora https://cora.earth/tiny-neural-networks-space-game/

<p>My goal is to make a space exploration sandbox game, with ~20%-scale planets, real physics, and a small colony/factory layer.</p>

2026-10-16T19:00:00-04:00 2026-10-16T19:00:00-04:00 cora https://cora.earth/ultra-cute-grocery-apps/

<ul> <li>android app</li> <li>180k lines of code</li> <li>&gt;400 art assets, and if it’s missing a sticker icon for an item, it generates a new one live</li> <li>18 cute easter eggs. there are holo pulls. there’s a cat that comes to sit in any basket that’s been empty too long.</li> <li>semantic understanding, recipe search, intelligent OCR and audio transcription</li> <li>a parade of little ants sorts your grocery list into store sections</li> </ul>

2026-10-16T00:00:00+00:00 2026-10-16T00:00:00+00:00 cora https://cora.earth/voltaire-le-mondain/

<p>I’ve been reflecting on cities (I love living in cities), and abundance liberalism (I happily admit to liking stuff). I then ran into <a href="https://articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/the-philosophy-club-voltaire">this post</a> re: Voltaire’s poem <a href="https://catoabroad.com/voltaire-the-worldling-le-mondain/"><em>Le Mondain</em></a> - a smug, delightful celebration of cosmopolitanism. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Le_Mondain&amp;oldid=1362980851#:~:text=Line%2022%20of%20the%20poem%2C%20%22Le%20superflu%2C%20chose%20tr%C3%A8s%2Dn%C3%A9cessaire%22%20%28%22The%20superfluous%2C%20a%20very%20necessary%20thing%22%29%2C%20became%20a%20common%20catch%2Dphrase%2E%5B1">Wikipedia</a> shares this lovely and quotable bit:</p> <blockquote> <p>Line 22 of the poem, “<span lang="fr">Le superflu, chose très-nécessaire</span>” (“The superfluous, a very necessary thing”), became a common catch-phrase.</p> </blockquote>