diff --git a/src/site/snake/canvas.ts b/src/site/snake/canvas.ts
index e3ef837..575da20 100644
--- a/src/site/snake/canvas.ts
+++ b/src/site/snake/canvas.ts
@@ -135,6 +135,8 @@ export default function runCanvas(canvas: HTMLCanvasElement, pipeRef: MutableRef
     const STARVE_STEPS = BOARD_SQUARES * 6;
 
     // neat configuration ------------------------------------------------------
+    // TODO: this configuration is not learning
+    //       figure out why, maybe scoring is not proper -- or speciation is too forced
     const FC: FertilityConfig = {
         fertile_threshold: 0.6,
         champion_min_species_size: 3,
diff --git a/src/site/snake/neat-snake-brain.ts b/src/site/snake/neat-snake-brain.ts
index fac15bc..3586494 100644
--- a/src/site/snake/neat-snake-brain.ts
+++ b/src/site/snake/neat-snake-brain.ts
@@ -25,10 +25,10 @@ const FEATURES = {
     HEAD_Y: 'HEAD_Y',
     APPLE_REL_X: 'APPLE_REL_X',
     APPLE_REL_Y: 'APPLE_REL_Y',
-    // TAIL_ABOVE: 'TAIL_ABOVE',
-    // TAIL_BELOW: 'TAIL_BELOW',
-    // TAIL_LEFT: 'TAIL_LEFT',
-    // TAIL_RIGHT: 'TAIL_RIGHT',
+    TAIL_ABOVE: 'TAIL_ABOVE',
+    TAIL_BELOW: 'TAIL_BELOW',
+    TAIL_LEFT: 'TAIL_LEFT',
+    TAIL_RIGHT: 'TAIL_RIGHT',
 };
 const OUTPUTS = {
     U: 'U',
@@ -43,10 +43,10 @@ const _BASE_GENOME_SNAKE_BRAIN_NEAT_EDGES = completeBipartiteEdges(
         FEATURES.HEAD_Y,
         FEATURES.APPLE_REL_X,
         FEATURES.APPLE_REL_Y,
-        // FEATURES.TAIL_ABOVE,
-        // FEATURES.TAIL_BELOW,
-        // FEATURES.TAIL_LEFT,
-        // FEATURES.TAIL_RIGHT,
+        FEATURES.TAIL_ABOVE,
+        FEATURES.TAIL_BELOW,
+        FEATURES.TAIL_LEFT,
+        FEATURES.TAIL_RIGHT,
     ],
     [OUTPUTS.U, OUTPUTS.D, OUTPUTS.L, OUTPUTS.R],
 );
@@ -108,10 +108,10 @@ export class NEATSnakeBrain {
         act.set(FEATURES.HEAD_Y, head.y);
         act.set(FEATURES.APPLE_REL_X, appleRel.x);
         act.set(FEATURES.APPLE_REL_Y, appleRel.y);
-        // act.set(FEATURES.TAIL_ABOVE, Math.max(...above, BOARD_SQUARES));
-        // act.set(FEATURES.TAIL_BELOW, Math.max(...below, BOARD_SQUARES));
-        // act.set(FEATURES.TAIL_LEFT, Math.max(...left, BOARD_SQUARES));
-        // act.set(FEATURES.TAIL_RIGHT, Math.max(...right, BOARD_SQUARES));
+        act.set(FEATURES.TAIL_ABOVE, Math.max(...above, BOARD_SQUARES));
+        act.set(FEATURES.TAIL_BELOW, Math.max(...below, BOARD_SQUARES));
+        act.set(FEATURES.TAIL_LEFT, Math.max(...left, BOARD_SQUARES));
+        act.set(FEATURES.TAIL_RIGHT, Math.max(...right, BOARD_SQUARES));
 
         this.brain.think(act);
 
diff --git a/src/site/snake/neat.ts b/src/site/snake/neat.ts
index 8db6e49..a8aa9de 100644
--- a/src/site/snake/neat.ts
+++ b/src/site/snake/neat.ts
@@ -594,18 +594,12 @@ export function mutate(genome: Genome, config: MutateConfig): Genome {
     if (Math.random() < new_connection_rate) {
         // create a new connection between two *previously unconnected* nodes
         const options = findAcyclicInternalNewConns(newGenome);
-        if (options.length === 0) {
-            // TODO: remove this warn once this starts working
-            //       this is mostly a sanity check / useful for metrics
-            console.warn('could not find a valid new connection!');
-        } else {
+        if (options.length > 0) {
             // choose a random connection
             const newConn = randchoice(options);
             const newGene = mutateNewConn(newConn, assign_mag * randomNegPos());
             newGenome.push(newGene);
         }
-
-        findAcyclicInternalNewConns(newGenome);
     }
 
     return newGenome;