Arcane Cartography

This is frustrating.

I love the comparison, but I hate how they are comparing.

They are acting like she is using optics to give herself an advantage. But the device she is wearing is just for comfort and essentially does the same thing as closing one eye and squinting the other.

The little thing over the left eye is basically like an eye patch.

And the thing over her right eye is a mechanical iris, like in a camera lens, but it is NOT a lens.

Different lighting environments are going to be brighter or darker and you may have to squint more or less to let in the same amount of light into your eye. Squinting allows the shooter to get the sharpest possible vision in order to shoot a bullseye the size of a 12-point Times New Roman period.

But if you have to squint for hours for practice and in competition, this can strain your face muscles and become uncomfortable. So this iris basically squints for you.

It's more like wearing comfortable shoes so your feet do not hurt than a lens magnifying the target and giving an advantage.

Both athletes have access to these items. One felt more comfortable without them. The other didn't feel like getting a muscle cramp from squinting all day.

Either would have shot the same if they had or had not used these devices.

Just a funny difference in gear preference.

The gold medal winner in the women's air pistol finals was adorable and a bit overshadowed.

Oh Ye-jin, who is only 19, won gold and set an Olympic record with her final score.

Kim Yeji is her mentor and seems very supportive of her.

Also, Oh Ye-jin added a little heart to the barrel blocking thingie.

I mean, it's like she got lost at summer camp and just wandered into the Olympics to win gold.

And then the commentator said the bullseye was literally the size of a period—smaller than the actual pellets they are shooting. And that the entire target was the size of a coin.

They'd have to set up a macro lens next to every target for you to see them.

Pretty much every shot lands within the 3 inner circles. And if you hit the 3rd circle your shot is basically garbage. Like you'd see the shooters grimace and do an angry little foot stomp if they hit it there.

Like, if you get a 7 you might as well go home.

And the best shot possible is a 10.9—which would be hitting as close to the bullseye as can be measured.

This was Oh Ye-jin's final gold medal winning shot.

A 10.6!

It's absolutely bonkers how precise these shooters are.

I mean... look at this period...

.

Now imagine trying to shoot it from 30 feet away.

It's POTATO TIME

a disappointment. This is

not one of those times

So broccoli is one cultivar of a plant called Brassica Oleracea. Cultivars are basically just different expressions of certain traits from the same plant. Think of the different varieties of apples.

But Brassica Oleracea is different. Brassica Oleracea is actually like. half of the vegetable section at the grocery store. These things you've come to think of as being separate vegetables are all actually the same plant producing wildly different expressions.

I'll provide a non-comprehensive list of all the vegetables that are actually Brassica Oleracea:

Broccoli

Cauliflower (you probably saw that one coming)

Kale

Cabbage, both white and red, but not Napa (getting weird now) (napa cabbage is also a brassica, but closer to radishes, they have their own species)

Brussels Sprouts

Kholrabi

Collard greens

Romanesco

Broccolini (NOT JUST YOUNG BROCCOLI BUT A SEPARATE CULTIVAR)

And Those are just the familiar ones. Theres all sorts more ranging from the tame Ornamental Kale varieties to the almost otherworldly jersey cabbage.

But why? Why so many different cultivars of this one plant? ITS GOT A BIG OLE GENOME THATS WHY. With such a large genetic map, it leaves room for lots of variation between individuals (a laymen's understanding of genetics) And we've been eating it for a LONG time. Like most of these cultivars are not the result of modern agricultural fuckery. We've had the majority of them since Roman times.

Armed with this knowledge you can now appreciate my most favorite XKCD comic.

ADDITIONALLY, we've been working on making better versions of these plants in modern times. Ever wonder how brussel's sprouts went from "unanimously yucky stink balls" to "drizzle them with balsamic reduction and serve with bacon"? Well botanists in the 90s worked to create progressively more palatable versions of sprouts and reduce their bitterness/stink factor.