Point of Failure

I continue to experiment with the gopro doing long timelapses trying to figure out why the camera seems to stop randomly in the middle of a long capture. Today I was pulling the battery out of the camera and the little plastic tab that enables one to pull out the very snugly fitting battery broke. It seems like an obvious point of failure:

I searched around on gropro forums and this is not an uncommon problem. Again, obvious point of failure. I got onto the tech support chat and they're sending me a new battery (free). Also, I was able to get the stuck battery out of the camera by tapping the camera on the edge of a table (but cushioned by a pad of paper). Not ideal, but I think not hurting the camera either.

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The flowers are really coming in strong here. This bright yellow and orange bloom was along the upper bank of the river today:

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I continued working on my paper draft today. I also continued reading All of Statistics today. Still working through proofs in basic probability. It's a lot like real analysis and set theory, so kind of fun and familiar.

I also started/continued reading The New Childhood by Jordan Shapiro. Today he argued that play is the work of childhood. Play helps children develop executive function and social skills. In my generation play was social and physical, but since, play has become social and virtual. Our play helped us prepare for our adult lives where many of the occupations were physical in nature. Our childrens' play helps them prepare for an adult life that will be mediated by virtual interactions and on-line activities. When we disdain that kind of play, we are concerned about shifting norms about play. Shapiro argues that the kind of play, video games, minecraft, social media, is precisely what children today need to thrive as adults. I'm not sure I buy his argument, but it is thought provoking. I'm certainly not of a mind to condemn these new forms of play because they aren't the same as those of my childhood.