Astrophysical Tau Neutrinos and Other Recent Results from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Neutrinos are very reticent fundamental particles. Tau neutrinos make electron and muon neutrinos look positively gregarious.  The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole has sensitivity to all three active neutrino flavors over an energy scale spanning six orders of magnitude.  We report on recent results from the experiment, including the first high-significance measurement of the most energetic tau neutrino candidates ever observed.