No, it needs to be not worse than. Better is nice, but it's not necessary.

The selection process is often not about gaining an advantage, it's about not having a disadvantage. 'As good as' is usually just fine for evolution.

You sure he didn’t tell them to play with Dixie and they misinterpreted it?

/s

I find using ResearchGate is one of the best ways of doing that. If the paper isn't already there for download they have "request text" button to contact the authors directly.

The paper isn't there for download, but it is listed and the "request text" button is active:

• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365844139_Leonardo_da_Vinci%27s_Visualization_of_Gravity_as_a_Form_of_Acceleration

I did a lot of other extremely cool and far less common stuff than the Inca Trail, although I did hike parts of that too, further north near Chachapoyas and Kuelap.

There is a lot to do and see in the region and I was working in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, mainly in rural or remote areas so I had a good opportunity to experience some interesting things.

That whole region is spectacular.

Back in 2005 I spent most of the year between the Andes and the Amazon.

Didn’t get to Huayhuash, but did some hiking around Lagunas de Llanganuco, and a few other areas in the region.

Definitely recommend it.

So, let me preface this with the, "I'm not a professional," caveat.

That doesn't look like butcherblock. Butcherblock is generally end grain oriented. This is made more like a hardwood floor, with the grain running parallel to the surface.

In a situation like that it's much more difficult for oil to penetrate the wood, and it doesn't look like you have entire pieces where adsorption is low, just sections of many pieces where it's slow.

This could be due to any number of things, but if they've been hard used some of the pores could have been crushed and are slower to adsorb fluids as a result (I used to work in a winery, and doing this intentionally was one of the ways you repaired leaking barrels). It can also easily be simply because of variations on the seasonality of wood (wood cut this way can wind up cutting within a single season's growth, and wood density varies a lot between seasons depending on water availability, temperature, wind, etc, which in turn will mean differences on how easy it is for oil to penetrate).

This doesn't look at all like a problem to me, just something that may take a bit more time and applications than you initially intended.

Apply it, and periodically give it a reapplication. Maybe every few months for 3 or 4 cycles after the initial oilings.

Someone who is a professional in this should weight in and give their opinion, but that's my take from a number of years of non-professionally working with wood.

Got you some pests eating your plant.

You have any photos?

If they're used butcherblocks it may simply be that some areas have retained oil from previous oilings and are at capacity. Or those specific pieces are of a much more dense grain.

It it were boards I'd suggest that maybe some areas have sap in them (or something similar), but for butcherblock that's already been used that's not going to be the case.

If you're really worried soak a paper towel in the oil you're using and lay it over the area in question (flat, don't ball it up). This will give an extended period of contact for oil to soak in.

I have cutting boards where some areas drink oil like an alcoholic denied booze for two weeks, and other areas directly adjacent let it run off like water from a duck's back, all due to grain structure and orientation.

Kessler cascade. One is destroyed and there is a ton more debris to take down the next one, and so forth.