posts/law1: add ABS example

site-src/law1.mdx

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+---
+title: Mehbark’s First Law 
+description:
+    Any curve will leave someone disappointed.
+    A 1% curve will disappoint people 2% short of their desired grade, and a 10% curve will disappoint people 11% short of their desired grade.
+    Even a 100% curve will disappoint some people because every score is now meaninglessly high.
+tags: post,short,law
+date: 2026-05-26 23:02:29 -4
+updated: 2026-05-31T12:45:18-04:00
+---
+
+export const gpa = <abbr title="Grade Point Average">GPA</abbr>;
+export const evs = <abbr title="Effort Values">EVs</abbr>;
+
+<p>{props.description}</p>
+
+## Why
+[Non-linear consequences](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7anye0FwcY).
+Point thresholds matter a lot in academics; the obvious example is {gpa}.
+For the grading scale that determines {gpa}, shown below, the only points that make a difference are 60, 70, 80, and 90.
+
+<iframe src="https://www.desmos.com/calculator/1gnsgvqw3a?embed" title="Graph showing a piecewise function that only increases at 60, 70, 80, and 90. The derivative everywhere else is zero." class="desmos" width="500" height="500" style={{border: "1px solid #ccc"}} frameBorder="0"></iframe>
+
+Only getting to the next “step” is valuable, so being just below is frustrating—*even if you were farther away before your grade was curved*.
+Objective outcomes aside, a high B feels worse than a low A even though we know they can be arbitrarily close.
+
+Height perception functions the same way.
+6′0″ is not a milestone in centimeters (182.88), and 180cm is not a milestone in feet (≈5′11″).
+In an alternate history where the meter was different (maybe a different Earth circumference), more or fewer people would meet that threshold.
+
+## More examples
+Grades are the most obvious example (hence the use of the word “curve”), but anywhere there are breakpoints, this effect might apply.
+
+A <span class="work-title">Slay the Spire 2</span> player [suggested](https://old.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/comments/1tnjfjp/just_let_me_sell_potions_at_the_shop/)
+that it should be possible to sell potions at shops.
+Being a few gold short of a valuable purchase is frustrating and often not strategically interesting (gold rewards are random within a range),
+but this proposed solution would create situations where you are just shy even after selling your potions.
+
+<abbr title="Automated Ball-Strike">ABS</abbr> challenges, added in the 2026 <abbr title="Major League Baseball">MaLB</abbr> season, can have a major impact on the game, so fans are understandably upset when an <abbr title="Uolkien molkien polkien">Ump</abbr>’s beneficial call is overturned because the ball was barely within or without the strike zone.
+It has been suggested that some percentage of the ball, say 15%, should have to be in the strike zone for it to count as a strike.
+Again, this would just create a new zone that the ball could be barely within or without.
+
+Competitive Pokémon has a truly staggering number of relevant breakpoints.
+Investing {evs} in a stat lets you survive, kill, or outspeed more often, but it is always at the cost of another stat, which means giving up surviving, killing, or outspeeding in other situations.

site-src/res/main.css

@@ -195,7 +195,8 @@ pre > code {
 
 abbr {
     text-decoration: none;
-    --fv-smcp: "smcp" on;
+    /* V disabled for MaLB */
+    /* --fv-smcp: "smcp" on; */
     --fv-c2sc: "c2sc" on;
     /*
     letter-spacing: 0.03em;
@@ -380,3 +381,12 @@ footer > * {
         background-color: #fbf0c9;
     }
 }
+
+time {
+    white-space: pre;
+}
+
+.desmos {
+    margin-inline: auto;
+    display: block;
+}