discussion with john huerta today

i think maybe i see how to build up the identification of the 1d null subalgebras of the split real octonions with the configuration space of a ball rolling on another one 3 times the radius.

my vague idea is to build it up one step at a time, each step being an added degree of genericness wrt the favorite flag. or something like that.

from an old e-mail to huerta:

here's my rough description of the false rolling behavior:

the rotation plane is always "the same color" that it would be if the
point of contact was as given, but the orientation was the standard
one and true rolling was happening.

(as a special case of this, true rolling does occur when the
orientation is the standard one, which is part of what we already
observed.)

(that e-mail is from when i wrote a mathematica animation which related the null subalgebra geometry of the split imaginary octonions to a ball rolling on a ball of _the same_ radius.)

so how do i make this more explicit??