LAST WALTZ?

A friend recently asked how come no blog entries lately. I said "No 'news' or ideas to blabber on about lately I guess. They're all silly to begin with anyway." Having decided at the beginning to stay away from the four 'bar topics': Sex, politics, sports and religion, that leaves little to write about these days when everything is splashed in our faces (but make no mistake about it--what they tell us is only a little part of the whole story.) I learned to stay out of bars--of the hundreds of bars and thousands of conversations I've had in them, I never learned a damned thing. Except the price of potatoes and "Corby's" is about the worst bar whiskey you can drink--and that's about it.

In an unusual book called "An Agenda for the 21st Century," by Rushworth M. Kidder, there are twenty-two essays. One of the reasons I don't write anything is the comment by Shuichi Kato, a Japanese historian who ranks pollution and environmental degradation second only to the nuclear threat. He is particularly concerned about the disappearance of the forests--taking as his somewhat facetious example of the waste of paper in the developed countries."We don't need to publish so much and print so much.""I am responsible because I have published some books," he adds with a chuckle,"and I don't pretend that these books are absolutely necessary for human beings. So therefore this is a waste of paper."

In another interesting comment, he says:"Most people are not much concerned, seriously, with other people's suffering. By and large it seems to me that the whole of society is geared to domination and manipulation--rather than to compassion."

To sum up, instead of discussion and drivel: This is not a happy set of essays. All the discussions in this book predict catastrophe; nineteen of them by nuclear annihilation-- And soon. I still recommend it--you need the whole picture. Even if it takes away some of your dreams.
Mortimer Adler (philosopher,) Sissela Bok (social philosopher,) Shuichi Kato (Japanese historian,) Michael Hooker (metaphysics,) Norman Cousins (humanitarian, publisher,) Barbara Tuchman (historian,) Paul Johnson (author, historian,) Hannah H. Gray (demographer,) Amitai Etzioni sociologist,) Marina Whitman (economist,) Douglas Fraser (union leader (UAW),) Robert S. McNamara (businessman, statesman,) Abdus Salam (global economist, scientist,) Freeman Dyson (physicist, mathematician,) Theodore J. Gordon (aeronautics engineer,) David Packard (inventor, cofounder of Hewlett-Packard,) Lloyd Richards (actor, director,) Andrei Vosnesenski (poet,) Carlos Fuentes (Mexican novelist-diplomat,) General Olusegun Obasanjo (former head of state of Nigeria,) Jimmy Carter (former president of the United States and humanitarian,) and Richard von Weizsacker (president of the Federal Republic of Germany,) Almost all-- (19)-- agree that the most serious problem facing mankind is the nuclear atmosphere we live in. The others do not bring up that point. Though they don't appear in the book you can add John K. Galbraith and ADM Hyman Rickover, 'Father' of the nuclear Navy.

~~ASIAN THANKSGIVING~~

Forty years ago there was a party for POW's in North Vietnam. It's purpose was, of course propaganda. Soldiers and pilots were selected for a day of 'fun.' This included American music, movies, and skits put on by other POW's. And there was a big meal consisting of whatever North Vietnamese thought that should be. The propaganda part was that each man would be allowed to send a letter home about the gala affair. These would be heavily scrutinized, so the men were careful to make them sound good. "Say hello to Mom for me, tell everyone I'm allright and being treated well," and on and on. The letters were verified to be sent to the Pentagon, then to indicated addressees. And all were Ho-hum blah blah. Except one which one of the briefers in my office noticed, roared about, and passed around. One POW was being asked to tell about his dinner. He described delicious chicken, kimshee, other vegetables, and some kind of sweet dessert. He finished by saying to his interviewer "It was a BFD." The interviewer asked what that meant and the POW casually said "Oh, that's 'Big Fine Dinner.' " That was accepted by the head of security there and got sent! Like all such mail it went to the Pentagon first, then to the addressee in its original manuscript.

You can have a lot of fun joking with one another over dozens of really boring top secret messages rercieved daily. But fun was rare, working closely to the Chiefs of Staff. This one, however got a laugh from everybody.

From SPAM to POPEYE

I heard or read that 50% of Web logs are SPAM. I believe that. The origin of the word applied to computers is from some fraternity gag and you have to join the 'Spam Club' to find out more. I always thought it otherwise just meant 'spiced ham' Well I really don't care about giving my identity to a Spam Club so that's it on the origin of the word. I am not, a Spammer! Oh, but I'll sell you all the Spam you want--a truckload, freight car load, a train load--you name it.

I used to like Spam and mustard sandwiches. Then one day I decided to fry up a batch for breakfast. It was tasty, I thought--and I was sick all day. That's the last time I ate Spam. A loooong time ago.

I always figured it was Spam, and Camel and Lucky Strike cigarettes that got us through W.W.II. If you're very hungry in battle, a can of Spam--plenty of fat, meat, and whatever else is in the stuff, followed by a strong cigarette hit the spot.

While on the topic I should mention that the U.S. Government suggests meals with 30% calories from fat. According to an inventor, Raymond Kurzwell, who amazed the world by inventing a machine that reads ordinary books for blind persons. The prototype is slow--but aren't all prototypes deficient in a lot of ways? I don't know how it works and am not going to pursue it. It must be all over the internet. If you find Kurzwell's machine you may also find he is ideas about that 30% fat figure. He says NO! It should be 10% ! He went on such a diet, though not very fat. He visited his doctor who was perplexed by the changes in his physiology. Kurzwell explained and the doctor went on the same diet with the same results. Another case: Never believe what the government says--for some reason they're trying to sell fat.

Along the same lines Americans are lead to the impression that you need food from four basic groups The milk group, the grain group, the vegetable group and the meat group. This is completely false, and downright misleading, and probably supported by producers in these groups. Although no single group can fulfill dietary needs, a pair can do quite nicely--providing one of the pair is not from the vegetable group. No Vitamin B12.

The role of vegetables has long been overestimated. See "Anatomy & Physiology," by Frederic Martini, an advanced high school text book.

The above is all serious--the following is a joke (but he was invented in Miami, and it is a myth that spinach is very good for you, when it is of ordinary vegetable value.) Spinach growers,of course, loved "Popeye." But Popeye had diseases,--severe glaucoma and those swollen forearms, mistaken for muscle. Popeye lived a checkered life. He was born in Miami in a plain brick building that is still there. You can visit Popeye's birth place anytime. Early on he joined the Navy. He didn't get much of a kick out of Norfolk (often referred to as 'Nofuck.' by the Navy, probably because the Norfolk Naval Base is the largest Navy Base in the world and is the town. There are very few girls around.) But he really had a good time in Halifax, Nova Scotia--the Navy's favorite port of call--with thousands and thousands of prostitutes all over. There he met Olive. It is pretty obvious that she was a hooker and they had "Swee'pea" together. And that thing Swee'pea wears is just to cover the disease or diseases he picked up from Popeye or others before, not a soggy pajama thing.

PS: BULLETIN: Beware of spinach and widespread Escherichia coli O157:H7! 9/23/06--until further notice.

Love and Hate

"He loves to be around the things he hates." Bob Colacielo, re Paul Morrissey, Warhol movie director.
I hate these things but they're kind of interesting:

1. Basketball:-- Karim Abdul Jabbhour--100 points in a single NBA game.

2. Football--John Unitas--47 consecutive games with one or more TD passes.

3. Baseball--Ted Cox--six safe hits in first six official at bats (in 1978, first and last time in 131 years.)

4. Joe Dimaggio--47 straight games with at least one safe hit.

5. Ted Williams--last baseball player to bat .400 for a season--but NOT the first. Of all players with 5,000 or more at bats there were 15 with batting averages over .300. But Edgar Martinez had a .500 season, and several had 400's. #2 and #4 will not be broken any time soon. Go Google more on this if you want--I'm sick of it already.

Robert S. McNamara at the Kennedy Forum, March 3, 2004

"The major lesson of the Cuban missile crisis was that the combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons will destroy nations"

By Ken Gewertz
Harvard News Office March 11, 2004, Harvard School, John F. Kennnedy Forum.

"Learn from your mistakes. Pass the lessons on to those who may face similar problems in the future. And don't be afraid to challenge authority."

This, in essence, was the message Robert S. McNamara brought to the Kennedy School’s JFK Jr. Forum, Wednesday (March 3.)

Robert S. McNamara, U.S. secretary of defense for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, speaks at the JFK Jr. Forum. Errol Morris' Academy Award-winning documentary, 'The Fog of War,' plays on the monitor as McNamara (left) and Ernest May address the audience from the stage. (Staff photo Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News Office). Now a forceful and peripatetic 87-year-old, McNamara has served as president of Ford Motor Co., U.S. secretaryof defense,and president of the World Bank. He is also a prolific author.

The presentation was titled "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara," which also happens to be the title of an Academy Award-winning documentary film by Errol Morris, now in theaters. Moderator Graham T. Allison Jr., director of the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, showed clips of the film (which consists of a lengthy and remarkably frank interview with McNamara supplemented by archival footage,) then asked the former Cabinet member questions based on what had been shown.

Also sharing the stage was Ernest May, the Charles Warren Professor of American History, who worked with McNamara on a book about the Cuban missile crisis ("The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis," edited by May and Philip Zelikow.)

"The major lesson of the Cuban missile crisis was that the combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons will destroy nations," McNamara warned in the first clip.

He emphasized this point with a terrifying story about an interview he had with Fidel Castro in 1992 in which the Cuban leader revealed that there had had been 162 Russian nuclear warheads on the island at the time of the crisis. McNamara asked Castro whether he knew this, and he replied that he had.

"Did you recommend that the Russians use them?" McNamara had asked.

"Yes, I did," Castro said.

"And what would have happened to Cuba?"

"It would have been totally destroyed."

When Allison, who called the crisis "the most dangerous moment in human history," asked McNamara what it had taught him about nuclear weapons, his reply was straightforward: "Get rid of them!"

During the crisis, McNamara had urged caution and was responsible for restraining those who wanted to use force against the Russians. "He was the person holding everybody back by saying, Let's think hard about it," said May. "It's a marvelous example of someone having a cautionary effect on policy-making."

Later in the discussion, McNamara shared credit for defusing the crisis with another adviser to the president - Llewellyn Thompson, who had been ambassador to the Soviet Union and knew Nikita Khrushchev well. The White House had received two messages from Khrushchev, one "hard" and one "soft." While most of Kennedy's advisers agreed he should reply to the hard message,Thompson took a different position. Thompson said, "Don't respond to the hard message. You'd be wrong, Mr. President. That takes guts."

McNamara added that during the Vietnam War, there were no advisers with the same sophisticated understanding of the enemy that Thompson had shown. The lack of wha McNamara called "empathy" for the Vietnamese resulted in a basic misconception about the conflict.

"The Vietnamese saw us as replacements for the French. They thought we were fighting a colonial war, which was absurd. We saw the Vietnam conflict as an aspect of the Cold War, but they saw it as a civil war." McNamara related several incidents that showed how difficult it was even for expert opinion to stop the juggernaut of foreign policy once the the government had committed itself to defeating communism in Southeast Asia.

While doing research for his book "In Retrospect," (1995), which deals with his role in the Vietnam War, he discovered a 1967 memo from then-CIA Director Richard Helms. "Helms said if we leave Vietnam in defeat, our security will not be adversely affected. All the security analysts at the time agreed, but you can't you can't even find references to that memo today."

In the same year, McNamara himself wrote a memo to Lyndon Johnson recommending that the United States pull out of Vietnam. In response, Johnson called together the most senior and respected experts in foreign and defense policy and asked them to draft a report on the question.

"Their conclusion was the opposite - go on as before. I was the only senior official to hold the views I did, and I thought that memo was the best thing I had ever written."

McNamara believes that there are even fewer people in government today who are equipped to understand the thinking and motivation of our enemies. He said that the single most dismaying line in the 840-page transcript of the congressional hearings on 9/11 was when an authority on education in the United States was asked how many undergraduate degrees in Arabic had been awarded in the previous year. The answer was eight.

In the film, McNamara does not comment directly on the war in Iraq, although in one clip he does make a strong statement regarding unilaterasl action in foreign affairs. "If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the justice of our cause, we'd better re-examine our reasoning."

Asked to comment further on this issue, he said that he has refrained from speaking publicly about the actions of the Bush administration because he feels it would be inappropriate for a former secretary of defense to comment on ongoing military operations. But he left no doubt in the minds of theaudience where he stands on the war, eliciting a burst of applause when he invited them to draw their own conclusions. "If you think there's something you just heard that applies - apply it!"

Toward the end of the presentation, McNamara exhorted his audience, composed largely of Kennedy School students and undergraduates, not to shrink from confrontation and debate when or if they found themselves in the position of decision makers.

"For God's sake, force your associates to surface divisive issues. This was not not done in the Ford Motor Co., and it was not done in the State Department. It's very difficult to do, to force people whom you respect and love to come into conflict."

McNamara said that if the domino theory, the basis of U.S. policy in Southeast Asia, had been properly debated, the Vietnam War would not have continued as long as it did. He said that currently there is too little debate in government about nuclear weapons policy or about military spending.

He also urged his audience of future leaders to be open about their mistakes so that others can benefit from their experience."You should feel an obligation to identify your mistakes. You shouldn't wait until you're 87!"

~~41 Numbers Problems~~

1. At 6:00 (AM or PM) the clock hands are in line with one another. When will they be in line again?

2. If you were born on Friday, January 13, in a leap year when, exactly, will that happen again? Never, of course, but when will your birthday fall on Friday, January 13 in a leap year again?

3. If you tie a string around the equator, then another string just 2π feet (6.283 feet) longer around, how high above the first string will the second be all the way around?

4. How many rotations on its axis does a one-inch circumference gear make going around a stationary three-inch circumference gear?

5. Solve for x and y:√x + y = 7; √y + x = 11.

6. Rolling two dice once, what is the probability of getting at least one six?

7. I notice the alley next to my house has a ladder leaning 20 feet high against one building and another ladder leaning 10 feet high against the other building, both with feet abutting the opposite building. They intersect at a height of six feet, eight inches. I come to your house and see the same arrangement. But your alley is 3 feet wider than mine. How high is the intersection point at your house?

8. Figure two-digit cube roots by a method.

9. Prove e to the iπ ( + 1) = 0.

10. The Greek's Golden Number is (√5 + 1)/2 = 1.618 = Q. Q^2 = Q + 1 and 1/Q = Q - 1. If you draw a star inside a pentagon, almost all line to line segment ratios = Q, or its inverse. A 1 to 1.618, or the same, .618 to 1 rectangle is supposed to the most pleasing to view. The new TV aspect ratio is supposed to be changed to 16 to 9 from the current 4 to 3. What height would result in a Golden number rectangle?

11. Draw a square and make a grid of 16 little squares inside it. What is the total number of squares?

12. A man with an enclosed truck comes to a two-ton limit bridge. His truck weighs 3800 pounds and he's carrying 300 one-pound pigeons for a total of 4100 pounds, 100 over the limit. He decides to beat the bejesus out of the truck to get all the pigeons flying, then gets in the truck and proceeds to cross the bridge, knowing at least half the pigeons are still in flight. Does he make it?

13. Consider a circle with a diameter = 1. C = π, so a semicircle has a length of π/2. Draw any number of circles on the diameter of 1 and count the length of all the new semicircles (the 'S' shape, i.e.) The length remains π/2 no matter how many little semicircles are made. Q: Do the semicircles get so small that the 'S' shape becomes a line?

14. Twenty universities send a physicist, a chemist, a mathematician, an astronomer, and a biologist--each--to a convention. How many committees of ten, with each field represented by two scientists, can be formed?

15. If you get on your boat that goes 10 mph against a 5 mph current, and your girl drops her hat in the water as she gets on the boat, then you travel 45 minutes and she remembers, how long does it take to retrieve the hat?

16. How is the product of any 4 consecutive integers related to the product of their perfect squares?

17. Bob's wife picks him up every day at his train's arrival. He takes an hour off one day and decides to walk, after getting off the hour-earlier train--he meets his wife on the way, hops in and their home 20 minutes early. How long did Bob walk?

18. You have some potatoes, 99% water 1% potato. You put 100 pounds on you porch to dry. After a while enough water has evaporated so the potatoes are 98% water, How much do they weigh?

19. a. You catapult a baby straight up and it descends for 1.6 seconds. How high did it rise?
b. You set the catapult at 45 degrees. The baby lands 2.5 seconds after beginning decent. What was the height of the arc?
c. You throw a twin baby from a 512-foot building at noon. Halfway down what time is it? What time does it land?
d. You drop the other twin when the first is 1/2 way down. What is the time between landings

20. On a planet with a radius of 1080 miles and gravitational acceleration of 12m/sec/sq. what is orbit speed for the lowest possible orbit?

21. Evaluate √1 + 2 √1 +3 √ 1 + 4...and note that all √ signs extend all the way above all of those below.

22. Draw an isosceles triangle with an apex labeled 20 degrees. Then draw a 60 degree ray from one corner to the opposite side, and a 50 degree ray from the other corner to its opposite side. Now connect the 2 points where the rays meet the sides. Find the value of the uppermost angle of the triangle made by this connection.

23. What is the likelihood of being dealt 5 cards with no poker hand at all--'garbage?'

24. What is the likelihood of throwing 25 pennies on the floor and seeing 2 heads show up?

25. You deal a poker hand (Ace high, always) to a friend and yourself. You have three Aces and another card and are about to draw the tenth card. What is the likelihood you'll get the last Ace, remembering he may have it?

26. What is the likelihood of getting 5 cards with one King.

27. What is the likelihood of being dealt 5 red cards?

28. What are the chances of choosing 6 winning numbers from a field of 42?

29. What is the likelihood of rolling any pair with 5 dice?

30. What is the likelihood of getting any pair with 5 cards?

31. What is the likelihood of getting a hand with no aces?

32. What is the probability of getting a 5-card poker hand with an Ace and no other cards to improve the hand?

33. What if you specify, say, the Ace of Diamonds?

34. Three men stop at an oasis on a desert trip. They eat and fall asleep as the sun shifts. When they wake up, they've turned red with the blazing sun and begin to laugh at one another. One suddenly stops laughing. Why?

35. You come to a fork in the road, one way to town, the other to the dragon swamp. A truth-teller and a liar are there. What single question can you ask to find the way to town?

36. What is the maximum number of colors required to separate countries on a world map?

37. You're on a TV game show. The host shows you three doors. One has a Ferrari behind it, the other two, goats. You're asked to select one door. You choose door A, hoping the for the 1/3 chance at a Masurati. Then the host surprises you by opening door C, where there is a goat; he then asks if you'd like to change your mind and choose door B. Should you?

38. You throw a ball straight up. It rises then falls. For how long did it stop while changing direction?

39. To what power do you raise the number 'e' to equal the imaginary number 'i', or √-1?

40. What is the meaning of i^i?

41. Given any whole number n, what is the sum of all sets of 1, 2, 3, ... n numbers and what is the sum of those sums?.
Compilation TLOICf- MMV
#'s 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, by TLOICf-©MMV

Answers to Above Post. I cannot explain #21... It's Srinivasa Ramanujan's answer.

Some are scant. Note the formula for combinations, n!/(n -r)!r!, or nCr, is (n,r) in these answers. The answers:

1. At 6:00 (AM or PM) the clock hands are in line with one another. When will they be in line again? (7:05:27.272727, via (5 + x + (30 - (5 + 1/12(5 + x))) = 30.)

2. If you were born on Friday, January 13, in a leap year when, exactly, will that happen again? Never, of course, but when will your birthday fall on Friday, January 13 in a leap year again? (28 yrs.)

3. If you tie a string around the equator, then another string just 2π feet (6.283 feet) longer around, how high above the first string will the second be all the way around? (1 foot.)

4. How many rotations on its axis does a one-inch circumference gear make going around a stationary three-inch circumference gear? (4.)

5. Solve for x and y: √x + y = 7; √y + x = 11. (x= 9, y = 4.) Now try √x + y = 858; √y + x = 318. (x = 289, y = 841.)

6. Rolling two dice once, what is the probability of getting at least one six? (1 - (5/6 x 5/6) = 11/36, or, (1/6 x 5/6) + (1/6 x 5/6) + (1/6 x 1/6) = 11/36.)

7. I notice the alley next to my house has a ladder leaning 20 feet high against one building and another ladder leaning 10 feet high against the other building, both with feet abutting the opposite building. They intersect at a height of six feet, eight inches. I come to your house and see the same arrangement. But your alley is 3 feet wider than mine. How high is the intersection point at your house? (The same.)

8. Figure two-digit cube roots. ( Learn this second-digit pattern: 1874563290. Whatever the cube is, use its last digit to count along the pattern for the second digit of the cube root--and know that 10, 20, 30...90 cubed = 1,000, 8,000, 27,000, 64,000, 125,000, 216,000, 343,000, 512,000, and 729,000. Now have someone cube a 2-digit number, say 73. The cube is 389017. You know the second digit is a 3--from the 7th number in the pattern above, and you know the first is a seven because it must be equal to or more that 70^3 = 343,000.)

9. Prove e to the iπ ( + 1) = 0 (Given
a. e to the x = 1 + x + xsq/2! + xcubed/3!...
b. sinx = x - xcubed/3! + xfifth/5! - xseventh/7!...
c. cosx = 1 - xsq/2! + xfourth/4! - xsixth/6!...
In e to the x, substitute iu for x and do the simple algebra and remember powers of i: For i to the 1, 2, 3, 4..., the repeating pattern is +i, -1, -i, +1...)

10. The Greek's Golden Number is (√5 + 1)/2 = 1.618 = Q. Q^2 = Q + 1 and 1/Q = Q - 1. If you draw a star inside a pentagon, almost all line to line segment ratios = Q, or its inverse. A 1 to 1.618, or the same, .618 to 1 rectangle is supposed to the most pleasing to view. The new TV aspect ratio is supposed to be changed to 16 to 9 from the current 4 to 3. What height would result in a Golden number rectangle? (9.88" for a 16" length.)

11. Draw a square and make a grid of 16 little squares inside it. What is the total number of squares you can see? (30)

12. A man with an enclosed truck comes to a two-ton limit bridge. His truck weighs 3800 pounds and he's carrying 300 one-pound pigeons for a total of 4100 pounds, 100 over the limit. He decides to beat the bejesus out of the truck to get all the pigeons flying, then gets in the truck and proceeds to cross the bridge, knowing at least half the pigeons are still in flight. Does he make it? (No. It's a closed system and the truck weighs the same whether the pigeons are roosted or in flight.)

13. Consider a circle with a diameter = 1. C = π, so a semicircle has a length of π/2. Draw any number of circles on the diameter of 1 and count the length of all the new semicircles (the 'S' shape, i.e.) The length remains π/2 no matter how many little semicircles are made. Q: Do the semicircles get so small that the 'S' shape becomes a line? (No. It remains an 'S' shape with infinitely small semicircles but not a line.)

14. Twenty universities send a physicist, a chemist, a mathematician, an astronomer, and a biologist--each--to a convention. How many committees of ten, with each field represented by two scientists, can be formed? (nCr, or (20,2)=190. So there can be 2 physicists from 190 places--and with each, 2 biologists from 190 places... 190^5 = 2.47 x 10^11.)

15. If you get on your boat that goes 10 mph against a 5 mph current, and your girl drops her hat in the water as she gets on the boat, then you travel 45 minutes and she remembers, how long does it take to retrieve the hat? (45 minutes--the current is irrelevant.)

16. How is the product of any 4 consecutive integers related to the product of their perfect squares? (It's its square root.)

17. Bob's wife picks him up every day at his train's arrival. He takes an hour off one day and decides to walk, after getting off the hour-earlier train--he meets his wife on the way, hops in and their home 20 minutes early. How long did Bob walk? (He saved her 10 minutes of her travel time to the station--like she was 10 minutes early, so Bob walked 50 minutes.)

18. You have some potatoes, 99% water 1% potato. You put 100 pounds on you porch to dry. After a while enough water has evaporated so the potatoes are 98% water, How much do they weigh? (50 lbs.)

19. a. You catapult a baby straight up and it descends for 1.6 seconds. How high did it rise? (40.90 feet)
b. You set the catapult at 45 degrees. The baby lands 2.5 seconds after beginning decent. What was the height of the arc? (100 feet.)
c. You throw a twin baby from a 512-foot building at noon. Halfway down what time is it? What time does it land? (12:04:04 and 12:00:05.6.)
d. You drop the other twin when the first is 1/2 way down. What is the time between landings? (4.0 seconds.)

20. On a planet with a radius of 1080 miles and gravitational acceleration of 12m/sec/sq. what is orbit speed for the lowest possible orbit? (from a=v^2/r...1.566 mps.)

21. Evaluate √1 + 2 √1 +3 √ 1 + 4...and note that all √ bars extend all the way above all of those below. (3.)

22. Draw an isosceles triangle with an apex labeled 20 degrees. Then draw a 60 degree ray from one corner to the opposite side, and a 50 degree ray from the other corner to its opposite side. Now connect the 2 points where the rays meet the sides. Find the value of the uppermost angle of the triangle made by this connection. (30 degrees--prove it--no tools.)

23. What is the likelihood of being dealt 5 cards with no poker hand at all--'garbage?' (There are 1,302,540 such hands of 2,598,960 possible hands. So so likelihood is .501177394, or 1/1.9953.)

24. What is the likelihood of throwing 25 pennies on the floor and seeing 2 heads show up? (.5^2 x .5^23 x (25,2) = .00000894 = 1/111,894.)

25. You deal a poker hand (Ace high, always) to a friend and yourself. You have three Aces and another card and are about to draw the tenth card. What is the likelihood you'll get the last Ace, remembering he may have it? (1/43 x (47,5)/(48,5) = 1/48.)

26. What is the likelihood of getting 5 cards with one King? ([(4,1) x (48,4)]/(52,5) = 1/3.339.)

27. What is the likelihood of being dealt 5 red cards? ((26,5)/(52,5) = 1/39.51.)

28. What are the chances of choosing 6 winning numbers from a field of 42? (1/(42,6) = 1/5,245,786.)

29. What is the likelihood of rolling any pair with 5 dice? (6(1/6^2 x 5/6^3 x (5,2)) = 1/1.0368.)

30. What is the likelihood of getting any pair with 5 cards? (13 x(4,2) x (12,3) x 4^3/(52,5) = .4226.)

31. What is the likelihood of getting a hand with no aces? ((48,5)/(52,5) = 1/1.5179.)

32. What is the probability of getting a 5-card poker hand with an Ace and no other cards to improve the hand?
(You can start counting 4-sets of cards that will not improve the hand. It qiuckly becomes convoluted, confusing and quite wrong. The answer is to look at it a different way. You are looking for what is commonly called 'garbege' hands--there are 1,302,590 of them. Try counting that. See #23. The answer is .5011. 1,302,590/2,598,960) Though some players will call two 'garbage' hands by the hand with the highest card, most just call it a tie and ante-up for another round. That will always be so if the two high cards are the same rank. There is no order among suits, though some like to think Spades beat others. Not so.)

33. What if you specify, say, the Ace of Diamonds? (Again, same deal. Answer is .5011. Interesting that the deck is against you to begin with. But a little less than 1/2 of players (.4989) will be dealt a pair or better. In general, take any card from a deck, and you'll be left 1302590 4-card sets that will not better the card you chose. See my item "Frequency of Poker hands," in archives on this blog for May 2005.)

34. Three men stop at an oasis on a desert trip. They eat and fall asleep as the sun shifts. When they wake up, they've turned red with the blazing sun and begin to laugh at one another. One suddenly stops laughing. Why? (Man A reasons that if his own face was unburned, man B would wonder what man C was laughing at, and stop laughing himself.)

35. You come to a fork in the road, one way to town, the other to the dragon swamp. A truth-teller and a liar are there. What single question can you ask to find the way to town? (Ask either what the other would say and do the opposite.)

36. What is the maximum number of colors required to separate countries on a world map? (4. Try drawing 4 countries of any shape--wherever and however you draw a fifth, you can use one of the four colors.)

37. You're on a TV game show. The host shows you three doors. One has a Ferrari behind it, the other two, goats. You're asked to select one door. You choose door A, hoping the for the 1/3 chance at a Masurati. Then the host surprises you by opening door C, where there is a goat; he then asks if you'd like to change your mind and choose door B. Should you? (Positively! You double your chances to 2/3. Although this problem, published in a major newspaper syndicate, fooled the best, academic 'rolodexes' let most down. The furor was over whether probabilities change. Ordinarily the rule is "No!" But not in this case. Consider this analogy: You are an oyster shucker--your boss dumps 1000 oysters on your table, saying there's a big pearl in one. You decide to play yourself a game and put one aside on another table. Then you shuck 998 oysters finding no pearl. There are now the one you put aside at 1/1000, and the unshucked one on the table. The chances of the pearl in the unshucked oyster is 999/1000.)

38. You throw a ball straight up. It rises then falls. For how long did it stop while changing direction? (t = 0...the ball does not stop...this is a continuous function. Don't worry about it.)

39. To what power do you raise the number 'e' to equal the imaginary number 'i', or √-1? (From e^ix= cosx + i sinx, substitute π/2 for x, thus (e ^(i (π/2)) = i.

40. What is the meaning of i^i? (It is both sides of the above identitiy raised to the i power = e^-(π/2.) = i^i. You can calculate this out to .207879... but note that it is but one of a family of solutions...refer to the i and exponents thereof in question 9.)

41. Given any whole number n, what is the sum of all sets of 1, 2, 3, ... n numbers and what is the sum of those sums?. (For n = 5 that sum is 225.)

Compilation TLOICf- MMV
#'s 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, by TLOICf-©MMV

Condensing the English Language

Having chosen English as the preferred language in the EEC, the British Parliament has commissioned a feasibility study in ways of improving efficiency in communication between Government departments.
European officials have often pointed out that English spelling is unnecessarily difficult; for example: cough, plough, rough, through and thorough. What is clearly needed is a phased programme of changes to iron out these anomalies. The program would, of course, be administered by a committee staff at top level by participating nations.
In the first year, for example, the committee could suggest using ‘s’ instead of the soft ‘c’. Certainly, sivil servants in all sities would receive this news with joy. Then the hard ‘c’ could be replaced by ’k’ sinse both letters are pronounced alike. Not only would this klear up konfusion in the minds of klerikal workers, but typewriters kould be made with one less letter.
There would be growing enthusiasm when in the second year
the troublesome ‘ph’ would henceforth be written ‘f.' This would make words like ‘fotograf’ twenty persent shorter in print.
In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reash the stage wher more komplikated shanges are possible Governments would nkorage the removal of double leters whish have always ben a deterant to akurate speling.
We would al agre that the horibl mes of silent ‘e’s in the languag is disgrasful. Therefor we would drop them and kontinu to read and writ as though nothing had hapend. By this tim it would four years sins the skem began and peopl would be resepiv to steps sutsh as replasing ‘th’ by ‘z’. Perhaps zen ze funktion of ‘w’ could be taken on by ‘v’, vitsh is after al, half a ‘w’. Shortly after zis, ze unesesary ’o’ kould be dropd from vords kontaining ‘ou’. Similar arguments vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
Kontinuing zis proses yer aftr yer ve vud eventuli hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Aftr tventi yers zer vud be no mor trubls, and difikultis and evrivun vud find it ezi tu undrstand ech ozer. Z dreams of ze Govermnt vud finali hav kum tru.

Nd, nw, dlytng mst vwls n yzng fntx:
Hvng chzn nglsh s z prfrd lngwj n the YYC, z Brtsh Parlmnt hz cmsnd a fsblty stdy n wys f mprvng fcncy n kmncshn btwn Gvmnt dpts.
Yrpn ofcls hv fn pntd wt tht Ynglsh splng s unsrly dfclt; fr xmpl: cf plw, rf, tr nd thrgh. Wt s clrly nydd s fsd prgrm f chngs t irn wt ths anmls. T prgrm wd, f krs, b dmnstrd by a cmit stf at tp lvl by prtcptng ntns.
N th frst yr, fr xmpl, th comit cd sgst usng ‘s’ nstd f th sft ‘c’. Srtnly, svl srvnts n l sts wd rcv ths nws wth jy. Thn th hrd ‘c’ cd b rplcd by ’k’ sns bth ltrs r prnsd alyk. Nt nly wd ths klr up knfsn n th mnds f klrkl wrkrs, bt tipritrs kd b md wth wn ls ltr. Thr wd b grwng nthuzzm whn n th scnd yr th trblsm ‘ph’ wd hnsfrth b ritn ‘f’. Ths wd mk wrds lk ‘ftgrf’ mch shrtr n prnt.
N th thrd yr, pblk aksptnz f th nw splng kn b xpktd t rch th stg whr mre kmpliktd chngs r psbl. Gvmnts wd nkrge th rmvl f dbl ltrs whch hv alwys bn dternt t akrt spling.
W wd al agr tht th hribl ms f slnt ‘e’s n th lngwg s dsgrsfl. Thrfr, we wd drp thm nd kntinu t rd nd writ s th nthng hd hpnd. By ths tym it wd b fr yrs sns th skm bgn nd ppl wd b rspv t stps stch s rplsng ‘th’ by ‘z’. Prhps zn z fnktn f ‘w’ cd b tkn n by ‘v’, vich is, aftr ll, hf ‘w’. Shrtly aftr zs, z uncsary ’o’ kd be drpd frm vrds kntang ‘ou’. Smlr rgmnts wd, f krs, b plid t zr kmbnatns f ltrs.
Kntnung zis prss yr aftr yr v vd vntli hv rli snsbl rtn styl. ftr twnti yrs zr vd b n mr trbls, nd dfikltis, nd vriwn vd fnd t yz t ndrstnd ch zr. Z drms f z Gvrmnt vd finli hv km tr.
Nd s frthr stp fr th ftr, t mght tk lttl prcts, bt w cld lmnt flly 1/3 to 1/2 f ll wrttn txt by lmntng th bttm 1/2 r 1/3 f vry prntd wrd. Try t: Wth gd rlr, cvr th bttm half f r 1/3 thrd f vry ln --y'll fnd y cn rd t qt sly!.