History of Mathematics Education
Posted on 2007-10-04 at 13:19
Teaching Math In 1957: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?
Teaching Math In 1967: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?
Teaching Math In 1977: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?
Teaching Math In 1987: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20 Your assignment: Underline the number 20.
Teaching Math In 1997: A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers.)
Teaching Math In 2007: Un ranchero vende una carretera de maderapara $100. El cuesto de la produccion era $80. Cuantos tortillas se puede comprar.
The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
Posted on 2007-07-28 at 21:18
Old Godzilla was hopping around
Tokyo City like a big playground
when suddenly Batman burst from the shade
and hit Godzilla with a Batgrenade
Godzilla got pissed and began to attack
but didn't expect to be blocked by Shaq
who proceeded to open up a can of Shaq Fu
when Aaron Carter came out of the blue
and he started beating up Shaquille O'Neal
then they both got flattened by the Batmobile
but before it could make it back to the Batcave
Abraham Lincoln popped out of his grave
and took an AK47 out from under his hat
and blew Batman away with a rat-a-tat-tat
but he ran out of bullets and he ran away
because Optimus Prime came to save the day
this is the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
good guys, bad guys, and explosions as far as the eye can see
and only one will survive, I wonder who it will be
this is the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
Godzilla took a bite out of Optimus Prime
like Scruff McGruff took a bite out of crime
and then Shaq came back covered in a tire track
but Jackie Chan jumped out and landed on his back
and Batman was injured, and trying to get steady
when Abraham Lincoln came back with a machete
but suddenly something caught his leg and he tripped
Indiana Jones took him out with his whip
then he saw Godzilla sneaking up from behind
and he reached for his gun which he just couldn't find
'cause Batman stole it and he shot and he missed
and Jackie Chan deflected it with his fist
then he jumped in the air and did a summersault
while Abraham Lincoln tried to pole vault
onto Optimus Prime, but they collided in the air
then they both got hit by a Care Bear Stare, oooh
this is the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
good guys, bad guys, and explosions as far as the eye can see
and only one will survive, I wonder who it will be
this is the Ultimate Showdown...
angels sang out in immaculate chorus
down from the heavens descended Chuck Norris
who deliver a kick which could shatter bones
into the crotch of Indiana Jones
who fell over on the ground, writhing in pain
as Batman changed back into Bruce Wayne
but Chuck saw through his clever disguise
and he crushed Batman's head in between his thighs
then Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White and
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"'s Black Knight and
Benito Mussolini and The Blue Meanie and
Cowboy Curtis and Jambi the Genie
Robocop, the Terminator, Captain Kirk, and Darth Vader
Lo Pan, Superman, every single Power Ranger
Bill S. Preston and Theodore Logan,
Spock, The Rock, Doc Ock, and Hulk Hogan
all came out of no where lightning fast
and they kicked Chuck Norris in his cowboy ass
it was the bloodiest battle the world ever saw
with civilians looking on total awe
and the fight raged on for a century
many lives were claimed, but eventually
the champion stood, the rest saw their better:
Mr. Rogers in a bloodstained sweater
this is the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
good guys, bad guys, and explosions as far as the eye can see
and only one will survive, I wonder who it will be
this is the Ultimate Showdown...
this is the Ultimate Showdown...
this is the Ultimate Showdown...
of Ultimate Destiny
Some very simple financial advice
Posted on 2007-07-22 at 16:41
Most of us have two sorts of savings. We put our more liquid assets (that which we plan to need sooner rather than later) into our bank's savings account and we put our less liquid assets (that which we plan to need later rather than sooner) into retirement accounts. Thos of us who call ourselves savvy might throw a small Money Market in the middle for those assets that we expect to need infrequently---neither immediately nor after retirement. It's worth noting that there are other options.
Consider a high-yield online savings account. They sometimes (though not always) have minimum balance requirements, but the ROI is usually 4%--5%. Better than your typical 2.5%--3.5% Money Market (but just a bit less liquid). Not so good as your typical 6%--12% retirement account (but far more liquid).
In short, you should be trying to create a 4-tier (in terms of liquidity and ROI) savings plan. Keep enough for maybe two months of bills in your local savings/checking accounts. Keep enough for quick-need, big-ticket emergencies (like a new HVAC unit or a reasonable car repair) in a money market. Keep enough for major life issues (like loss of job or an impending, but planned, large expense like college tuition) in a high-yield online account, and keep the rest (hopefully enough for a real retirement) in your IRA, 401k, 403b, Mutual Fund, Stocks, and so on where it can earn a markey-quality rate of return safe from your greedy exigencies.
My Personality Defect
Posted on 2007-07-21 at 14:59
Tom's Score: Starving Artist
Tom is 28% Rational, 42% Extroverted, 42% Brutal, and 85% Arrogant.
Tom, you are the Starving Artist! Like some sort of emaciated Frenchman, you sit in your fancy little chair and contemplate beauty, meaning, flowers, and all kinds of other ridiculous crap. You are more intuitive than logical, and are primarily guided by your heart and emotions. You are also very introverted and gentle. Of course, this does not mean that you do not have an ego. In fact, you are surprisingly arrogant for someone so emotional and gentle. This is why you are best described as a starving artist. You are very introspective and quite sure of yourself, as any accomplished artist is, yet your views are impractical, guided by feelings, and overly gentle. You probably find math, logic, and similar intellectual pursuits offensive to your artistic sensibilities, and you prefer the open-endedness of artistry because it's infinitely easier to ponder the beauty of a sock than to build rocketships. So really you have no reason to be arrogant, you big doofus, because the skills you value (emotion, spirit, art, etc.) in yourself are valuable only on a subjective level, meaning your arrogance is purely masturbatory, like the insipid self-pleasuring of some twat who spouts artistic nonsense only for the pleasant tinkling sound it makes upon his indiscriminating ears. In short, your personality is defective because you are arrogant, introverted, introspective, gentle, and thoroughly irrational...posessing most of the traits needed to be a starving--and useless--artist. So get out there, write a few short stories that are allegories for the indestructible spirit of socks, and starve!
Compatibility
Your exact opposite is the Capitalist Pig.
Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Haughty Intellectual, the Televangelist, and the Emo Kid.
What is your personality defect? Find out by taking The Personality Defect Test.
You know what's creepy?
Posted on 2007-07-15 at 15:17
Babies and toddlers that have adult faces. What the hell is that about? That shit creeps me out. Stop looking at me, Igor! You look like some kinda cartoon mobster trying to escape the law by pretending to be a baby. Weird.
I spend some time in the church day care today and there was a kid in there that looked like some sort of weird adult/baby hybrid. Don't touch me, scary-baby. Your oddly grown-up facial features confuse and startle me! It looks like someone transplanted Alice the maid's face onto your skull. You may as well have a tadpole tail and a lobster claw.
What? It's not like I said all this to the kid or something mean like that.
"Elite Priority Access" vs mere "Priority Access"
Posted on 2007-06-29 at 21:21
I have been checking out personal finance tools lately. One of them has a beta program about to open and I want in. To get in to the beta, they asked me to fill out a survey. Pretty simple, really. But then I saw it. Sure, I could get PRiority Access if I filled out the survey, but I could do better. I could get Elite Priority Access, if I added this to my blog:
Do I really want Mint? I dunno. But I do know that if I must choose between mere priority access and ELITE PRIORITY ACCESS, well, there's just no contest. Give me the Elite stuff! I totally deserve it.
Ritual Epochs and the Zen of Growing Old
Posted on 2007-05-20 at 14:34
From the time we are born we are handed goals that help guide us down a communally acceptable path. We are told that can look forward to when we start school, when we get our driver's license, graduate high school, get the vote, graduate college, get a spouse, start our career, have children...then a long gap until the last of the goals society hands us: retirement. It's no wonder about half way between the penultimate prescribed goal of establishing family and the ultimate prescribed goal of retirement, we go a little wacky.
They call it a mid-life crisis. It's that point at which, life seems a free-floating morass of difficult actions, none of which seem to be leading toward any communally recognized goals. It's that point at which our goals become largely self-directed. Nothing in society really prepares us for this long stretch. It's no wonder at all that people often complain of feeling lonely, vulnerable, unfocused, or lost.
We get lost in the minutia of our daily goals. Gotta get the kids to soccer. Gotta get the raise. Gotta pay off the boat. We forget why we married. We forget why we had kids. We forget why are are alive. The result is often described as a marriage of convenience---a marriage, born in love, perhaps, but sustained by the million mind-numbing administrative duties of running a modern household. We end up treating our spouses more like business partners than lovers. The only place we find that original unadulterated love is from our children, who've yet to have the treadmill of life wear their sensibilities down. They still love us---with the same zeal and force that we once loved other people. And for that reason, we are frightened to discipline them. Don't say "No." Give them what the want. Keep them entertained and happy. Keep their lives interesting; with pony rides, sports, parks, balloons, and a shiny Barney-sized wardrobe of dress-up clothes. We do all this, we say, for our children, but the real pathos of the problem is that all that we do for them in this regard is selfishly driven. We are motivated to experience love and our children provide that. We do for them that they continue to love for us.
Georges Bernanos, in his work "The Diary of a Country Priest" said:
The world is eaten up by boredom.... You can’t see it all at once. It is like dust. You go about and never notice, you breathe it in, you eat and drink it. It is sifted so fine, it doesn't even grit on your teeth. But stand still for an instant and there it is, coating your face and hands. To shake off this drizzle of ashes you must be for ever on the go. And so people are always "on the go."
We should be preparing our young for a self-directed life. Our ritual epochs, like graduation, marriage, and retirement are fine---even Good---but they cannot be all that we use to demarcate the chapters of our life. We need to learn to tell our own story, so to speak. Today I am a programmer.
Tomorrow I am whatever I want to be.
Strange Days Indeed
Posted on 2007-04-23 at 07:49
Most Peculiar, Momma!
I think I'd be scared to ask for the ipod back.
I am not an animal!
Posted on 2007-02-12 at 08:11
Nice new business: $100,000. Pretty wooden door with placard: $130. Using Babelfish instead of hiring a real translator: Priceless.
Sometimes you need a picture to prove it's true.
Hire a Midget
Posted on 2006-12-08 at 08:09
This site speaks for itself, so I present, without additional comment Hire a Midget and it's sister site Rent a Midget. No, seriously.
Overheard at Frankfurt Airport in Germany
Posted on 2006-11-05 at 21:23
A joke. I laughed.
The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign "Speedbird 206":
Speedbird 206: "Frankfurt, Speedbird 206 clear of active runway."
Ground: "Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven."
The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.
Ground: "Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?"
Speedbird 206: "Stand by, Ground, I'm looking up our gate location now."
Ground (with arrogant impatience): "Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?"
Speedbird 206 (coolly): "Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark and I didn't stop."
Is it 12 or 13?
Posted on 2006-09-26 at 06:49
Count the people. Wait for it to move. Count them again. Feel your brain hurt.
All I Really Need To Know I Learned From Soldier of Fortune
Posted on 2006-09-25 at 09:02
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned by reading Soldier of Fortune magazine. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the killing fields.
These are the things I learned:
- Get others to share everything. You'll learn their secrets and obtain their power base.
- Always retaliate asymmetrically. The world isn't fair. If your opponent didn't already know that, it is your duty to teach them by example.
- Don't hit poeple. Shoot them. It's more final and it keeps your list of enemies managable.
- Freedom Is Never Free.
- Illegal Immigration is an invasion. Deal with it as such.
- Loose lips slit throats.
- Eat the heart of your enemy. You may not gain his courage and strength, but you'll scare the shit out of his comrades.
- Never hurt others. Wounding is inefficient. Aim for center mass.
- Accuracy Always Counts.
- Always set up the latrine first. You'll need it drinking that crazy third world water.
- Eat healthy. Buy MREs.
- Bring your "A" game if you’re going to sniper-duel "CRAZY HORSE".
- Balance is key. Your weapon should have a good mix of reliability and stopping power.
- Always post a guard. Death comes quickly to the sleeping.
- When you go out of a mission. Rely on your troop, but always be ready to shoot them. They, too, may betray you.
- Knowledge is power. Steal it whenever you can.
- Death is inevitable.
- Remember rule one: Exotic weapons are rare for a reason. Use a gun.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The rule of survival and engagement and basic sanitation. Economy and politics and equity and safe living.
Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated civilian terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all---the whole world---knew how to survive in the woods with a Streamlight Rail-Mountable Tactical Strion Flashlight, Remington's Model 7615P with slide–action, and a cracked frying pan.
And it is still true, no matter how weak you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to shoot to kill and know your latrine locations.
A fun game
Posted on 2006-09-12 at 07:20
Kudos to xkcd for the funny.
Four Horse Harmony
Posted on 2006-09-08 at 08:56
Enjoy the sites and sounds of this fine equine Doo Wop group.
Elephant Memory
Posted on 2006-08-29 at 20:03
In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from college. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air.
The elephant seemed distressed so Mbembe approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot, and found a large thorn deeply embedded in it.
As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the thorn out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.
The elephant turned to face the man and with a rather stern look on its face, stared at him. For several tense moments Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled.
Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away.
Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later he was walking through a zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing.
The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe and lifted its front foot off the ground then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.
Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder.
The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of the man's legs and swung him wildly back and forth along the railing, killing him.
Probably wasn't the same elephant.
Shantih Shantih Shantih
Posted on 2006-08-29 at 08:08
The average pencil is 7 inches long with only a quarter of an inch of eraser on the end. If that doesn't convince you that we are an inherantly optimistic people, then I don't know what will.
That makes me happy in an otherwise depressing sort of day.
The pweor of the hmuan mnid
Posted on 2006-08-17 at 15:03
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh?
Zombo Lies!
Posted on 2006-06-14 at 08:36
Earlier I requested a spare invite to zombo.com. I must now recind my request, for I have learn that zombo lies to me. Thanks go to obmoz.com for the heads up.
Define the Word "Guts"
Posted on 2006-06-13 at 08:18
This picture speaks for itself.
Some assistance
Posted on 2006-06-08 at 08:31
Anyone with a spare invite to http://www.zombo.com, please send it my way. Thanks!
Satan's Day!
Posted on 2006-06-06 at 08:58
The date is 6/6/6. Neat.
Advice for telemarketing calls
Posted on 2006-06-01 at 21:18
Every few minutes repeat, "You’re going to have to bear with me, I have a slight short term memory loss problem, who is this again?"
It'll make for a much more fullfilling conversation.
Beautiful people are mean...or is that median?
Posted on 2006-05-24 at 08:05
From a study done a the University of Texas about human beauty:
"Both cognitive and evolutionary theory suggest that faces representing the average of the population will be perceived as attractive as did Galton's work in the 1800s. We examined the hypothesis that averaged faces would be attractive by performing a "high tech" version of Galton's technique. We photographed a substantial number of UT Austin male and female undergraduates using a standard background, lighting, and distance. We randomly selected ninety-six male faces and ninety-six female faces and randomly put them into three sets of thirty-two faces for each sex with no overlapping faces in the sets. We then created three "composite" or averaged faces for each sex on a computer in a two-step process."
"In the first step, we "digitized" the individual faces (Figure 2) by converting the light and dark shades that comprise each face to an array of numbers, or chromatic values, that represent each face and can be manipulated just like any other set of numbers. Each color value represents a different shade present in the picture of the face."
"In the second step, we mathematically averaged the numbers representing the different individual faces in each of the six sets (Figure 3). We created composite faces of two, four, eight, sixteen, and thirty-two different faces averaged together for each set of randomly selected faces. These averaged faces were photographed and rated for attractiveness by 300 judges along with the photographically equivalent (in other words, slightly blurred) slides of the individuals who went into them."
"We found that averaged faces made of sixteen-and thirty-two-faces were judged to be significantly more attractive than the average attractiveness level of all the individual faces (Figure 3). Additional analyses indicated that, of the ninety-six individual male faces, only three were judged to be significantly more attractive than their thirty-two-face composite-about what is expected by chance. Of the female faces, only four were rated as significantly more attractive than the composites, again only the number one would expect by chance (Figure 4)."
"By using advanced computer technology, we demonstrated that "averaged" faces are perceived as attractive; we replicated this finding in two populations, male and female, and in three samples from each population. Although we do not think that "averageness" is the only aspect of facial beauty (expression and age are important as well), we do believe that "averageness" is a necessary and critical element of attractiveness. Without "averageness" even the most youthful, smiling face will not be judged as attractive."
Although evolutionary and cognitive theory are generally considered quite different theoretical accounts of human behavior, they both posit similar mechanisms in the case of preferences for attractive faces by suggesting that prototypic or averaged faces underlies the tendency of infants and adults from diverse cultures to notice and prefer attractive faces. At this point, we can't choose between evolutionary theory, which suggests that preferences for attractive faces are innate, and cognitive theory, which suggests that preferences for attractive faces are acquired early in life through exposure to category members. Indeed one of the most exciting aspects of this work is that we will eventually be able to contribute some answers to the age-old nature vs. nurture debate: what capabilities are we born with and what capabilities are developed due to experience?
It's just interesting. That's all I'm saying.
The White Man's Mistake
Posted on 2006-05-19 at 20:43
An old Indian Chief sat in his hut on the reservation, smoking a ceremonial pipe and eyeing two U.S. Government officials sent to interview him.
"Chief Two Eagles" asked one Official, "You have observed the white man for 90 years. You've seen his wars and his technological advances. You've seen his progress, and the damage he's done."
The Chief nodded in agreement.
The Official continued, "Considering all these events, in your opinion, where did the white man go wrong?"
The Chief stared at the Government Officials for over a minute and then calmly replied, "When white man found the land, Indians were running it. No taxes. No debt. Plenty buffalo. Plenty beaver. Women did all the work. Medicine man free. Indian man spent all day hunting and fishing and all night having sex."
Then the Chief leaned back and smiled, "Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that."
The sound of history
Posted on 2006-05-19 at 07:20
Listen to the historic words of such people as Woodrow Wilson, JFK, PT Barnum, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as they say some of the things that we have never forgotten. It's worth a click.
Gort!
Posted on 2006-05-03 at 08:46
We do not claim to have achieved perfection, but we have a system, and it works.
I'm not one for dog shows and the like...
Posted on 2006-04-24 at 07:58
...but seriously, this dog is some cool stuff:
Yesterday
Posted on 2006-04-06 at 07:39
Shortly after 1pm, the time/date was 1:2:3 4/5/6.
Stupid, but kinda neat.
Because it bothers me
Posted on 2006-03-28 at 20:40
Why does the last piece of ice always stick to the bottom of the cup?
Dovetailing into my future plans as an arch villian
Posted on 2006-03-22 at 06:57
I'm quite pleased to annouce that the Great LazyWeb has offered me another time-saver. Apparently someone else has already done the legwork on how to destroy the planet. This means I can go straight into demanding one mill...er...BILLION dollars from your earth governments.
Fear, children, fear!
Things that make you go "Hmmmm"
Posted on 2006-02-26 at 18:34
I think the AP forgot a comma in this headline.
Yes, I am childish. Yes, these are the sorts of things I see when I look at the world. Yes, I have problems that should be medicated.
what's wrong with my fellow Christians
Posted on 2006-01-25 at 12:35
No words do this video justice. I am scared.
Meouch
Posted on 2006-01-25 at 10:48
A video of cats doing what cats do. Courtesy of Google Video by way of Dvorak by way of Will.
The minutia of my life
Posted on 2006-01-16 at 11:23
I've moved from my old 64 MB keydrive (she has served me well) to a new keydrive formfactored card reader with a 256 MB SD Card. Now I can upgrade the drive without buying a new drive every time. Plus, I can read other card types when I need to. For those who care about such things (ie, no one), the new drive is is a Lexar Trio reader. It'll read SD, XD, MMC, Memory Stick, and a couple other formats. It's just a bit larger (but hardly at all) than my old keydrive. The only problem I have with it is that it has no loop for a keyring. I have to carry it in my pocket instead of on my keyring. That is lame, but otherwise it's really a very good product so far. I may upgrade this one to a yet smaller kind that I saw in the store recently. I'd have done it then, but they had none that would read SD Cards in stock. Still, I'm quite pleased.
I'm sure you feel edified having now been updated on this most significant aspect of my life.
The Internet is for Porn
Posted on 2006-01-09 at 19:45
You simply must see this. It is not work-safe, but it is not crude either. It's just damn funny.
I miss offensive jokes
Posted on 2005-12-21 at 08:02
I mean, back when I was growing up, it was fun to sit around and tell jokes that offended people. I don't mean they shocked (as crude comics do) but rather they offended (as jokes about cripples and minorities do). Now it seems we are so scared about offending each other that we've bleached out the some of the best off-color jokes from the public scene.
What brought this back to my mind was Richard Pryor's passing. Saturday Night Live replayed the famous skit between he and Chevy Chase where they throw racial slurs at each others. Neither was a racist. The audience knew that and they laughed. It was damn funny. It was particularly noteworthy becuase comparing that to what is played on SNL nowadays is like comparing wine to water. I don't blame the comedians. Certainly they could belt out a few decent, but off-color, jokes if the network execs let them. Well, I'm not controlled by a network exec.
Joking the blind: Why don't blind people like to sky dive? Because it scares the hell out of the dog.
Joking cripples: Where do you find a man with no legs? Right where you left him.
Joking Italians: How do you brainwash an Italian? Give him an enema.
Joking Jews: Whats the difference between a Jew and a Canoe? A canoe tips
Joking Blacks and Hispanics: A black guy and a hispanic are riding in a car. Who's driving? A cop.
Joking Whitey: FUBU shirt: $50 Nike Headband: $10 Bling-Bling: $100 Your disappointed look when you realize you're still white: priceless
Now, if any of the above offended you, you are likely on the wrong blog. Try going here instead. They propbably won't offend you. Me, I just think we should laugh about our differences, our stereotypes, and our problems. What the hell else are we gonna do?
Something you don't see every day
Posted on 2005-12-21 at 08:01
I wonder who got fired for this one:
Skydiving from space
Posted on 2005-12-17 at 08:01
OK. So, I actually experienced lumpy fear in my throat just watching this guy do what he did! I mean, this dude rode a hot air balloon to the edge of space (well high enough to see the curvature of the earth, at least!!!), then he jumped. He what? Yes, he jumped! He parachuted from space! With a video camera, nonetheless. All in 1960, too! Holy Frijolas!
Dodge bullets for fun and laughs
Posted on 2005-12-14 at 08:02
It's fun. Try it.
Whaaa?
Posted on 2005-11-28 at 08:01
I'm pleased with my results
Posted on 2005-11-17 at 08:01
To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla
Mood: Abstruse
Posted on 2005-11-11 at 08:01
Can I get off the whirlagig now? It's dizzied my thinking.
To waste time, nothing more
Posted on 2005-11-09 at 08:01
Play Polar Rescue, a fun online game designed to help you do anything but work at work.
I've found my new hero
Posted on 2005-10-28 at 08:01
Is it wrong to say that I wanna be like this guy?
On my way to Danville
Posted on 2005-10-14 at 08:01
Won't be posting til Sunday or Monday. Discuss the impact of Robertino Loretti on the modern American Boy Band amongst yourselves while I'm gone.
Deep Thoughts
Posted on 2005-10-11 at 08:01
I am not sure how clouds get formed. But the clouds know how to do it, and that is the important thing.
A heartwarming story
Posted on 2005-09-10 at 08:01
Here's a truly heartwarming story about the bond formed between a little girl and some construction workers that makes you believe that we can make a difference when we give a child the gift of our time.
The young family's 5-year-old daughter naturally took an interest in all the activity going on next-door and spent much of each day observing the workers. Eventually the construction crew, all of them gems-in-the-rough more or less adopted her as a kind of project mascot. They chatted with her, let her sit with them while they had coffee and lunch breaks, and gave her little jobs to do here and there to make her feel important.
At the end of the first week they even presented her with a pay envelope containing a couple of dollars. The little girl took this home to her mother who said all the appropriate words of admiration and suggested that they take the two-dollar "pay" she had received to the bank the next day to start a savings account.
When they got to the bank, the teller was equally impressed and asked the little girl how she had come by her very own paycheck at such a young age. The little girl proudly replied, "I worked last week with the crew building the house next door to us."
"My goodness gracious" said the teller, "and will you be working on the house again this week, too?"
The little girl replied, "I will if those assholes at Home Depot ever deliver the fucking sheet rock..."
Crash now
Posted on 2005-09-05 at 08:03
Must sleep now.
I'm not kooky...
Posted on 2005-08-08 at 08:02
...I'm "just unconstrained by traditional intellectual parameters." At least that's what a former professor of mine just told me. Cool. I rock! You guys (and girls?) suck!
They really like the moon
Posted on 2005-08-05 at 08:01
Introducing the Moon Song.
You are gonna die...
Posted on 2005-08-02 at 08:02
...but what are the odds, really, of dying in a given manner? Now you know.
IRA says "No More Violence"
Posted on 2005-07-28 at 08:01
The IRA has declared a permanent cease-fire and ordered all their various volunteers to decommision their weaponry and begin making their fight a politic rather than military one. This is a significant event. I don't know what changed their minds, and I hope they stay true to their word, but I think this is something worth celebrating.
While I'm at work today...
Posted on 2005-07-26 at 08:02
...discuss the Royal Danish Army amongst yourselves.
Social Engineering
Posted on 2005-06-15 at 08:01
Sometimes the most interesting and effective hacks have nothing to do with a keyboard or mouse. This one got found out, but probably not before the hacker made some moolah. Simple and effective. I like its evil elegance.
Blind Tom Wiggins (1849-1908)
Posted on 2005-06-11 at 08:01
"What was he? Whence came he, and wherefore?"
Positive Suicide Notes
Posted on 2005-06-06 at 08:01
When people commit suicide, their notes are always sad and depressing. If I were ever to write a suicide note, it'd be funny like "I wanted to kill the sexiest man alive"
My reading thirst shall be quenched
Posted on 2005-05-12 at 08:03
I subscribed to Writer's Digest, Poet's & Writers Magazine, and the Linux Journal. I plan on adding 2600 soon. I want to write for a living, but if you've been reading this blog for any length of time you already know that.
Stupid Arrogant Flies
Posted on 2005-05-12 at 08:02
A fly got into the house yesterday and now it's flying around flaunting its fly-y superiority in my face. It wants to make me look stupid, so it hovers about mocking me until I find myself standing in a dead silent room holding a neatly folded Heartland catalog waiting for that arrogant buzzing taunt with blood in my eyes. Stupid fly.
Such is the power of my mighty kick...
Posted on 2005-04-29 at 08:02
...that I can stop a 2 ton truck in its tracks. OK, well, actually, I freaked out in Data Dave's new truck when a spider reared it's dripping fangs and gaping maw. I spazzed out and kicked the floorboard to kill it. Apparently I flipped a switch that cuts the fuel line in case of accident. The mechanic said he'd never seen a person trigger it before. They laughed at me. I, too, laughed at the power of my spaz attack. :)
Tax Day Is Here
Posted on 2005-04-15 at 08:01
Let us all lament the passing of our cash reserves.
At least my taxes are a great deal less than expected. Man, my accountant is awesome!
Two eyes took the aim behind a man's brain, but he can't be blamed. He's only a pawn in their game.
Posted on 2005-04-10 at 08:01
Medgar Evers was a well respected academician, a veteran, and a devoted husband to Myrlie Evers, but he was denied entry into the University of Mississippi's Law program. Why? He was black. Despite being well qualified, and despite the Brown vs the Board of Education ruling in 1954 that segregation was unconstitutional, he was turned away. On June 12, 1963, Medgar was shot when returning home to his wife. The bigot who shot him was acquitted twice in the 60's and it was not until 1990, when his widow got the D.A. to reopen the case with new evidence, that Byron De La Beckwith was finally put in jail for what he did. We should never forgot how recent such things are. Rascism isn't a historical problem, it's a current one.
Crime statistics
Posted on 2005-04-07 at 08:01
A site with aggregated crime statistics by country. Very interesting stats in some case.
Something to tide you over 'til the system chaos subsides...
Posted on 2005-03-20 at 08:03
Jesus: Liar, Lunatic, or Lord? Discuss amongst yourselves.
What crazy are you?
Posted on 2005-02-22 at 08:01
Of the 10 base personality disorders, here's how I rate:
Paranoid: Low
Schizoid: High
Schizotypal: High
Antisocial: Low
Borderline: Low
Histrionic: Low
Narcissistic: Moderate
Avoidant: Low
Dependent: Low
Obsessive-Compulsive: High
What kind of crazy are you?
If you wanna know what the above crazies are, click here.
Flying on someone else's airline ticket
Posted on 2005-02-15 at 08:02
Still on the topic of security, There are three things to authenticate: the identity of the traveler, the boarding pass, and the computer record. Think of them as three points on the triangle. Under the current system, the boarding pass is compared to the traveler's identity document, and then the boarding pass is compared with the computer record. But because the identity document is never compared with the computer record -- the third leg of the triangle -- it's possible to create two different boarding passes and have no one notice. Credit to Bruce Schneier for the original discovery. I'm putting it here to further accentuate the point made above with the street picture...and to stick it to The Man, who should NOT be requiring us to show our papers when we fly domestically in the first place. Nazis!
Just a reminder to myself
Posted on 2005-02-07 at 08:01
You should never assume the rest of the day will be as it began.
Belief
Posted on 2005-01-06 at 08:04
An exercise for your mind: Think about those things you accept as fact and note something that you believe but cannot yet prove. I know God is the obvious first answer, try to go deeper. Other assumptions about the world around you. I can think of three offhand:
1. I will live to see 200 years of age. My confidence in the immediate progress of medical science and the direction of their interests suggests to me that I am right...but I cannot prove it.
2. There are aliens and we have been visited by them. That's the crazy one, I know. But statistically, it is implausible that we are alone in this universe, and given the age of the universe it is equally implausible to me that we are the most advanced. Given my belief that science will have us travelling the stars in short order (a few decades or maybe as far out as a century), I cannot assume that others have not already done so in this vast universe or that they have managed to overlook our (fairly loud, electromagnetically-speaking) planet...but I cannot prove it.
3. Cell phone radiation and other EM radiation is harmful to us. Studies have been inconclusive, and I still use these them, but in my gut I believe they are harmful, and possibly carcinogenic...but I cannot prove it.
Now you try.
If all the world's a stage...
Posted on 2004-12-11 at 08:01
...is this a tragedy or a farce?
Badgers
Posted on 2004-11-29 at 08:03
Badgers, Badgers, Badgers...and the occasional Mushroom and Snake. Courtesy of Bryan, He Who Shall Be Destroyed By My Hand.
Pet The Kitty!
Posted on 2004-10-12 at 08:01
I am a Defender Ship
Posted on 2004-10-06 at 08:01
I am fiercely protective of my friends and loved ones, and unforgiving of any who would hurt them. Speed and foresight are my strengths, at the cost of a little clumsiness. I'm most comfortable with a few friends, but sometimes particularly enjoy spending time in larger groups. What Video Game Character Are You?
Fascinating
Posted on 2004-10-04 at 08:02
From Robert Fogel's The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100: Europe, America, and the Third World:
So the implication seems to be that the discovery of the New World and the second Agricultural Revolution (or events thereabout) caused the elbow-bend in population growth by stemming the tide of deaths from hunger?
Mongo Head Hurt
Posted on 2004-10-03 at 08:04
This is not an animated gif.
If laziness were muscles...
Posted on 2004-10-03 at 08:03
...I'd have been the governor of California by now.
WaWa's Coffee
Posted on 2004-09-26 at 08:03
Just had some WaWa's coffee. Dude, that stuff is crack! I dig it. I want to go back out just to get another cup of the stuff. Not gonna. Just wanna.
Happy Birthday
Posted on 2004-09-20 at 08:01
To me. :-)
The Autumn's Upon Us
Posted on 2004-09-19 at 08:01
The house is filled with the smell of boiling spiced cider and roasting squash.
Johnny Rocket's Fancy 70's Extravaganza
Posted on 2004-09-02 at 08:02
Yesterday, Mark and I were eating at Johnny Rocket's in MacArthur Center Mall (Posh Shopper Central) when they dimmed the lights, cranked up Saturday Night Fever, and got the wait staff on the floor showing off their poor disco moves. That place scares me. Who thought that'd be a good idea?!? Then, a half an hour later...they did it again!
Christina and the Red Eye Cafe
Posted on 2004-08-24 at 08:04
We had a good waitress while we were there. Christina works at the Red Eye Cafe. She was nice. If you are ever in Indianapolis, the food there is great and Christina is a good waitress and a nice person. Highly recommended! Here is a pic of her and I. She was gracious enough to pose for a pic. Again, a genuinely nice person.
Sleep, precious sleep
Posted on 2004-08-13 at 08:03
Well, I went to bed last night around midnight. I had to get up at 3:30AM to take Denise to the airport (she's going to Disneyworld with her mom) and I got no sleep in between. I came home and had to wait up for a repairman to show up (damn you, Voom!) who waiting til the last minute and rescheduled on me for Sunday. Now it's 2:19PM and I've still had no sleep. I've written a linux/c# app, argued human nature with Will, and volunteered to do editing work on a Ufology project. Damned if I'm not far more productive half asleep than I am awake.
The difference between puppets and men...
Posted on 2004-07-29 at 08:02
...is that a puppet doesn't get to choose which hand goes up his ass. :-/
The Economist
Posted on 2004-06-08 at 08:01
The Economist seems like a pretty good magazine. I might subscribe.
Note to self
Posted on 2004-05-10 at 08:01
Don't get arrested in Japan. Dude, a 99% conviction rate is scary high!