Pumie Scouring Stick

It's time for some Fall Cleaning, and I have to say that I'm super impressed with how well the Pumie Scouring Stick (http://www.uspumice.com/pages/kitchenbath.html) works to take care of disgusting looking rings in the toilet.  You do need to work the muscles a bit to work the crusty deposits, but it definitely works.

OK, back to more cleaning.

Random Thoughts on the Olympics

So, I've been watching the Olympics a bit.  And, I've been thinking a bit about it.  It seems I have a few thoughts/comments about competitive sporting events.

The first is regarding swimming versus running.  Why is it that there are multiple styles of swimming, but not multiple styles of running?  Why don't they have an event where you have to run backwards, which would be a backstroke counterpart?  Or, why isn't there a race where you hop on one leg, which would be more like a butterfly counterpart (just an awkward stroke in my opinion)?  The closest thing I could think of was that there does exist a hurdling event, but other than that, what other individual running event is actually a different style of running?

Second, everyone complains about doping and drugs in the professional sports world.  Now, I can understand if you want to make sure that professional sports are clean.  But, in the Olympics, I honestly think that there ought to be an Open Olympics.  There exists a Special Olympics for those that are disabled.  I believe there should be an Open Olympics that are for those that want to be extra-enabled via whatever drugs/training/long-term doping tactic they wish to use.

I, for one, am really interested in seeing just how fast a human can run if they did do all the crazy drugs or doping.  And, it would tell us what our drug/pharmaceutical technology has allowed us to achieve.  We were able to travel faster as humans due to technology.  We built rocket ships.  How much more dangerous is doping than rocket ships?  And, if the participant were fully aware of the dangers, then more power to them -- and the kicker is that we're not necessarily even talking about illicit drugs.

There are many competitions where competitors compete against others that are roughly at their rating level.  And, along with those competitions, there exist open competitions where all the rating restrictions are dropped.  I figure they might as well have an Open Olympics competition.  This way there exists no allegations of cheating (insofar as drugs go), and we get to really see how far technological advances have taken us.

Ya, call me crazy, but I think it'd be worth a serious look.

September 11, 2001

I really haven't posted much on this blog. I guess it's been a couple of months.

They say that you know where you were and exactly what you were doing when you first learned of the terrorist attacks on 9/11 ten years ago. I know that it is certainly true for me. I had just woken up in a Long Beach hotel. I was getting dressed, trying hard not to be late for Day 2 of a 3-day Matlab programming training class. I flipped on the television hoping to catch a glimpse of how the markets were trading before I went away for the day. Instead of the usual stock market crap on CNBC, I saw images of the Twin Towers burning.

It was unreal. I remember wondering if we were going to see more attacks or not. I did eventually make it to my class, but as expected, there was little to no discussion about Matlab. Everyone in that class sat there the entire time processing feelings and talking about what had just happened. It was a rather unfamiliar experience for me, and it felt quite strange to say the least.

The following day, I remember calling up my company's office manager to ask her to contact the rental car company. I was not going to be returning the car with the complete shutdown of all air travel. I drove that rental car with a broken left turn signal back to the Bay Area that night, after the final day of the class was over.

It was a weird time, and I remember everything was rather uneasy, at least for me, for at least a few weeks. I can only hope that this horrible event ultimately catalyzed some positive changes for the world -- though, I still feel that many of the TSA-related restrictions that were born are ineffective and do little more than annoy travelers.

I guess I'll just end this by saying to all the victims of the attack, both direct and indirect, and as cliche as it may sound: 9/11 will be a day not to be forgotten. Take care.

A True Death Ride

I'm a proponent of euthanasia. However, I'm too lazy to write much about my view of it. I found this interesting... a bit macabre, but interesting nonetheless. What a crazy and deadly ride.

Euthanasia Coaster Wiki

Euthanasia Coaster: Inventor's Video

Special Relativity and the Law

Just had a brief conversation with a friend involving time dilation, and on a complete tangent, I came up with a couple questions that seemed interesting. If ever in the future we are able to travel at ridiculous fast speeds such that time dilation becomes a real factor, then these questions might become relevant.

For those that are unfamiliar with time dilation, it is basically an effect of traveling very fast (we're talking about speeds like one-quarter the speed of light). The effect is that those traveling at the very high speed will age slowly as compared to those that aren't.

Say I hop into a super fast space shuttle and fly away from the Earth maintaining my high velocity for a year and return back to Earth. I've aged a year, but everything/everyone on Earth would have aged much more depending how fast I was going... they might end up aging 30 years, for example.

Anyway, enough of the basic background information. Here are two legal cases that I thought would be interesting for you philosophical and lawyer types.

1) A man, 40, has worked for about 20 years, paying enough in Social Security making him eligible for Old Age Social Security benefits when he is 67. He now hops into his special spaceship that allows him to travel very fast. He ages 6 months, but the Earth has aged 27 years. He is now 67 years old based on his birthdate. Should he be allowed to collect the Social Security benefits?

2) A male high school student, 15, is pursued by his high school teacher. They wind up having a secret relationship. She is much older than him, and thus any sexual relationship between them is clearly unlawful and she would be charged with statutory rape if their secret relationship were known to authorities. They both hop in their special spaceship and they each age 3 weeks, but the world around them has aged 3 years. To the world, he is now 18 (but, clearly he's only a 15 year-old kid). Should their relationship now be considered a legal one?

Don't Forget the Attachment

I accidentally ran into an automatic feature of Gmail the other day that I found useful, as it saved me from having to send a corrective e-mail. So, it turns out that if the body of your e-mail contains text that is indicative of your intent to attach a file, but you neglect to attach a file, then Gmail warns you of your potential omission.

After a little playing around, here are some phrases that trigger the warning:

"Attached is"
"Attached are"
"I've attached"
"Find the attached"
"See the attached"
"Attached file"

Here are some phrases that do not trigger the warning, but probably should:

"Attached a file"
"A file attached"
"Check out the attachment"
"File attachment"
"Attached document"
"Attached spreadsheet"

When a cup isn't a cup...

Here's a piece of trivia that I found interesting, and frankly, a bit strange.

You likely have seen that many food packaging labels in the U.S. describe serving sizes in units of cups. You're also likely to have come across cup unit measurements in various cooking/baking recipes.

However, what you're not likely to know is that these sizes are not the same. A cup used for nutrition labeling is dictated by U.S. laws to be 240mL, or roughly 8.115 customary fluid ounces. This is a little more than 1.44% more volume than the standard cup used in all your favorite recipes.

And, I thought I'd throw this out at you all as well... a Japanese cup is defined to be only 200 mL. I'd be interested to know if Japanese cookbooks refer to this smaller volume cup, the traditional one, or some other definition altogether.

Isn't it about time that we just standardize the definition? Seems silly to me the way things are today (not that I've ever noticed the distinctions).

Combinatorial Madness - The Final Post

This is a continuation from: Combinatorial Madness - Follow Up.

So, a colleague of mine was able to solve the original potions problem such that the solution was the double factorial and not the summation. Thus, he was able to kill two birds with one stone. His way of looking at the problem shows both that the solution of the problem is, in fact, the double factorial and that by doing so, produces a proof by combinatorial argument of the double factorial identity.

For those unfamiliar, a proof by combinatorial argument is basically where you show two different ways to count the same thing, each having its own expression. Thus, both expressions must be equal, since they both count the same thing.

I take no credit for the following... it was solely the work of my colleague. If I mangle his argument, I apologize. I'm sure that I could be clearer about some parts, but I do think that the reasoning is solid. Anyway, this is basically how it goes.

Say that we want to know the solution to the N potions problem. Suppose that the solution of the k potions problem is A(k). With (N-1) potions, the total number of final potion products is A(N-1). Now, in producing a single final product with (N-1) initial potions, we would have gone through (N-2) iterations where some potion was combined with another potion in each iteration.

So, we can view these (N-2) combination actions as C_1, C_2, C_3, ..., C_(N-2). Any one of these combinations can be expressed as X+Y, X and Y being available potions at that junction. In order to tackle the N potion problem, we would like to add a new potion (the Nth potion -- call it Z) to the total mix. The question now is how can we add it such that we don't end up with any overcounting, etc?

For any combination action, we can inject the newly introduced Nth potion (Z) into that particular iteration -- however, notice that there are two ways in which this injection can happen. We can replace the combination that we're focused on with one where we've injected Z as ((X + Z)+Y) or as (X + (Y+Z)). Since there are (N-2) combination actions where we can perform this injection, we have 2(N-2) possible injection points.

We're missing one more injection point. That is the case where we simply combine the newly introduced Nth potion at the very end after C_(N-2) has produced some final product. There is exactly one injection point at the very end of our chain of C_k's. That adds one, so that gives us (2(N-2) + 1) injection points, and it's clear that adding Z to each of these injection points creates a completely new final product given this particular chain of combination actions (C_k's).

Now, we also know that there are A(N-1) different chains of combination actions that produce unique final products. Thus, we have (2(N-2)+1) * A(N-1) total final products for the N potions case. This simplifies to (2N-3) * A(N-1), which is clearly equivalent to (2N-3)!!, especially given that we know A(2) = 1 (the trivial 2-potion problem) .

So, this is a direct explanation of why the N-potion problem solution is (2N-3)!!, and it gives us the combinatorial proof that (2N-3)!! is equal to our other expression (from the previous post):

I know the above wasn't explained previously. That was me being lazy. Anyway, the explanation of why the above summation counts the final products in the N-potion problem is as follows (this one I actually helped come up with).

We are essentially enumerating all possible 2-partitions of the N potions being combined. A(i) represents the total final product count of the first of two partitions where the Nth potion is not a member. The A(N-i) represents the total final product count of the second of the two partitions and it is where the Nth potion is a member. The product of the two final product counts (i.e. A(i) * A(N-i) will result in the total number of final products when all N potions (both partitions) are considered). We are allowed to do this since our construction ensures no overcounting.

To further clarify, our loop going from i=1 to (N-1) gives us all the possible cardinalities of our partitions. We must multiply by ((N-1) Choose i) in order to produce all the combinations possible that make up the partitions with those cardinalities. Again, since we cannot overcount due to our construction, we can now sum the final product counts for all the possible partitions, giving us A(N).

Hope that was clear enough. And, in a way it was nice that we did not initially come up with the solution that leads directly to the double factorial. Because of this, we now have a pretty nifty combinatorial identity relating the recursive summation described above to the double factorial.

Combinatorial Madness - Follow-Up

So, here's a follow-up to my previous post: Combinatorial Madness.
A follow-up to this follow-up post can be found here: Combinatorial Madness - Final Post.

After a fair bit more work at this and thinking about it (with a good deal of help from a few colleagues), here's where we have arrived. We basically have a good explanation of how we can formulate a recursive solution to the problem. And, it now comes to the point where we have to verify the following conjecture. We believe it holds true, but haven't yet proven it nor tried to prove it.

Assuming it's true, it is a pretty cool double factorial identity.

Here it is.

Note that A(k) is the solution for the potion problem where N=k.

So, any takers? We haven't tried to prove the above, but basically, if you can prove that then that basically proves that the solution to the original potions problem follows the double factorial.

Combinatorial Madness

A Follow-Up Post can be found here: Combinatorial Madness Follow-Up.

I've gone mad. Here I am on a Friday night, absolutely consumed by a combinatorial problem that I came up with to challenge myself a while back. Only tonight have I begun thinking about it more seriously. And, either it's quite difficult or I'm just not getting it. If anyone wants to give it a go, please do, then teach me how you were able solve it if you figure it out. Because, I think I'm kind of stuck.

This is long, but if you like numbers, you may enjoy this.

Here's the problem.

There are N potions. Combining any two potions will form a completely new potion. Thus, (A+B)+C does not equal A+(B+C), as A+B forms something completely new, call it E, and B+C forms something completely new, call it F. So the former is E+C which is completely different than A+F.

In a single iteration, two potions are combined. After N-1 iterations, there is a single final potion. The question is, how many different final products can be created starting with the N potions?

This is much more difficult than the trivial question, which is how many possible paths are there from N potions down to a final product. The total number of possible paths is clearly (N choose 2)*(N-1 choose 2)*(N-2 choose 2)*...*(2 choose 2). The total possible paths will overcount the total number of possible final products, as some paths will lead to the exact same potion.

Here's what my friend Duke and I have come up with...

N=2, clearly it's 1 possible final product.
N=3, clearly there are 3 possible final products.

For N=4, it starts getting a bit more interesting. Here's a way I came up with that helps us count the number of final products possible. If you think about it some, you will realize that with N=4, there are only 2 possible forms in which a final product can be created.

Here they are:

Form 1 = ((A+B)+C)+D
Form 2 = (A+B)+(C+D)

It should be clear that (A+(B+C))+D is an isomorphism, and doesn't give us a new final product.

Now, there are 4! ways in which we can arrange A, B, C, and D. But, we also notice that the order of A and B does not matter. Thus, we overcount by a factor of two. So, there are actually 4!/2 = 12 final products of Form 1.

For Form 2, we notice that we overcount by a factor of 2 three times (once for A/B, once for C/D, and once for AB/CD). So, we have 4!/(2^3) = 3 final products of Form 2.

So, for N=4, we have a total of 12+3 = 15 possible final products.

Following the same counting strategy for N=5, here are the possible forms.

Form 1: (((A+B)+C)+D)+E
Form 2: ((A+B)+C)+(D+E)
Form 3: ((A+B)+(C+D))+E

For Form 1, again we have overcounting by a factor of 2, so we get 5!/2 = 60 for N=5.
For Form 2, we overcount by a factor of 2 twice (2^2). So, this gives us 5!/4 = 30. Note that the order of (A+B) and (D+E) does matter, which is why we only overcount for (A,B) and (D,E) and not for (AB,DE).
For Form 3, we notice that (A+B) and (C+D) order does not matter, so we have an additional factor of 2 overcounting compared with Form 2. This gives us 5!/8 = 15.

So, for N=5, there are a total of 105 possible final products.

Since, I'm a real glutton for punishment, here's my attempt at N=6. I came up with 6 possible forms, hopefully I'm not missing any.

Here are the six forms I came up with for N=6:

(((A+B)+(C+D))+(E+F)) – I think this overcounts by factor of 2^3 (A/B, C/D, AB/CD) [Note: This is incorrect -- see the Edit at bottom.]
(((((A+B)+C)+D)+E)+F) – overcounts by factor of 2 (A/B)
((((A+B)+C)+(D+E))+F) – overcounts by factor of 2^2 (A/B, D/E)
((((A+B)+C)+D)+(E+F)) – overcounts by factor of 2^2 (A/B, E/F)
((((A+B)+(C+D))+E)+F) – overcounts by factor of 2^3 (A/B, C/D, AB/CD)
(((A+B)+C)+((D+E)+F)) – overcounts by factor of 2^3 (A/B, D/E, ABC/DEF)

This gives us 6!/2 = 360, 6!/4 = 180 (twice), 6!/8 = 90 (three times), which is 990 total possible final products.

I was really hoping that I would have come up with 945 total possible final products, but I just don't see where I've gone wrong above. Maybe I did, so if you spot a mistake, please let me know.

If it had been 945, then we have a double factorial pattern for odd values... 1*3*5*7*...*(2n-1). 1, 3, 15, 105, 945, 10395, etc.

But, since I can't convince myself that it's 945, I am officially stuck.

Anyone?


Edit:

(((A+B)+(C+D))+(E+F)) – I think this overcounts by factor of 2^3 (A/B, C/D, AB/CD) -- I neglected the E/F. This makes the overcounting factor 2^4, and that brings us to 945 possible final products for N=6. So, the solution is pretty much double factorial, but I do not have an actual proof. Will think about it, but maybe leave it to others, hehe.

Permutation Generation in the Unix Shell

Okay, so I was chatting with a friend over lunch recently about generating permutations that could be used, say, as test inputs. If we have a known number of sets of elements, then simple nested loops would work just fine. However, if we don't know ahead of time how many sets we'd like to produce permutations for, then it becomes a bit more challenging to produce permutations. You could write some code to do this recursively, but who really wants to do that.

Coming to the rescue is the Unix Shell (works fine with Cygwin Bash Shell also). Check this out.

echo {a,b,c}{11,22,33}{zyx,wvut,srq}
a11zyx a11wvut a11srq a22zyx a22wvut a22srq a33zyx a33wvut a33srq b11zyx b11wvut b11srq b22zyx b22wvut b22srq b33zyx b33wvut b33srq c11zyx c11wvut c11srq c22zyx c22wvut c22srq c33zyx c33wvut c33srq
Altering the output format to suit your needs is simple as well.

echo \({a,b,c},{1,2,3}\) | sed 's/ /\n/g'

(a,1)
(a,2)
(a,3)
(b,1)
(b,2)
(b,3)
(c,1)
(c,2)
(c,3)
How cool is that? I wish I knew about this handy trick before today.

Pub Quiz - 04/19/10

Here are pub quiz questions from last Monday. With 14 correct out of 20, we tied with one other team for 4th out of 24. There was a sole winning team that got 16 correct, and there were two teams with 15/20.

Questions...

1) What group originally released 'Wild Thing' in 1966?
2) Disgraced US football star, OJ Simpson, starred in what movie spoof series in the 80's and 90's?
3) In which part of body would you find the jugular vein?
4) In which part of body would you find the ulna bone?
5) Which superhero resides beneath the sea and can command all marine life with telepathic abilities?
6) How many women did Ross marry in the TV series, Friends?
7) True or False. Armadillos can be housebroken.
8) What is the name of the car part that recharges your battery after it starts your car?
9) What country would you be in after landing at the Freeport International Airport?
10) What is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been ruled by a European nation?
11) What is the name of the bartender in Love Boat?
12) What American city is the soap opera, Days of Our Lives, set in?
13) Which tourist attraction can be seen from outer space and is the largest single structure made by living organisms?
14) Who directed the 2005 movie version of the classic story, King Kong?
15) Which band released the album, August and Everything After, in 1993?
16) Who wrote the classic tale, The Hare and the Tortoise?
17) What Elvis Presley song was the first record to reach No. 1 on Billboard's Country and Western, Rhythm and Blues, and Pop charts in one week?
18) How many players take part in a game of pachisi, the national game of India?
19) What country does the rice and shellfish dish, Paella, originate from?
20) The Matterhorn straddles the border of Switzerland and which other country?

Answers and brief comments, as usual, please use ROT13 to decode...

1) Jr tbg guvf jebat. Gur nafjre vf gur Gebttf.
2) Jr nyy xarj guvf bar... gur Anxrq Tha frevrf.
3) Rnfl bar -- guebng.
4) Nabgure rnfl bar -- sbernez.
5) Guvf bar, bayl Oneore xarj... Ndhnzna.
6) Oneore naq V qrongrq guvf n ovg naq jr bevtvanyyl fnvq guerr, juvpu jr gura punatrq gb gjb nsgre pbaivapvat bhefryirf gung ur arire ernyyl zneevrq bar bs gurz ba gur fubj. Hasbeghangryl, gur nafjre jnf guerr.
7) Jr svtherq guvf unq gb or gehr, bgurejvfr vg jbhyqa'g or erznexnoyr rabhtu gb or gevivn-jbegul. Naq, vg'f gehr.
8) Nabgure gung jr nyy xarj... nygreangbe.
9) Jr nyy qrongrq n ovg, naq jr jrer guvaxvat vg jnf rvgure va gur Pnevoorna be va Nsevpn. Jr jrag jvgu Yvorevn, naq gur nafjre jnf gur Onunznf. V qba'g guvax jr'q unir fnvq gung pbhagel rira vs jr pubfr gur cebcre ertvba.
10) WP naq V xarj guvf bar... gur nafjre vf Gunvynaq.
11) Oneore pnzr guebhtu jvgu Vfnnp. WP naq V unq ab pyhr.
12) Abar bs hf unq n pyhr. Gur nafjre vf n znqr-hc pvgl pnyyrq Fnyrz.
13) Jr vavgvnyyl jrer guvaxvat Terng Jnyy bs Puvan, ohg gura V zragvbarq gung V gubhtug gung Terng Oneevre Errs znqr zber frafr. Jr nyy gnyxrq nobhg vg, naq jr nyy unq n inthryl erzrzorerq gung gur Terng Jnyy bs Puvan vfa'g npghnyyl ivfvoyr sebz fcnpr. Fb, jr jrag jvgu gur errs, naq vg jnf, va snpg, pbeerpg.
14) Sbe gur yvsr bs zr, V pbhyqa'g erzrzore guvf qrfcvgr bjavat gur K360 Xvat Xbat tnzr. Ohg, sbeghangryl, Oneore pnzr hc jvgu gur pbeerpg nafjre... Crgre Wnpxfba.
15) Oneore naq WP xarj gur nafjre... Pbhagvat Pebjf.
16) Nabgure tvzzr... Nrfbc.
17) Jr jrag jvgu Ryivf' Ubhaq Qbt, ohg gur pbeerpg nafjre jnf Urnegoernx Ubgry.
18) Jr gbbx na rqhpngrq thrff gung cnpuvfv jnf gur fnzr nf cnepurrfv. Vg gheaf bhg gung cnepurrfv vf na Nzrevpna irefvba bs cnpuvfv. Nf n erfhyg, jr tbg guvf evtug jvgu gur nafjre: sbhe.
19) V'z na vqvbg naq gubhtug Creh. Sbe fbzr ernfba, vg frrzf gung V'ir nyjnlf rngra Cnryyn ng Crehivna erfgnhenagf. WP lryyrq ng zr sbe orvat qhzo, naq pbeerpgrq gur nafjre gb Fcnva. Bs pbhefr, fur jnf evtug naq V jnf jebat.
20) Jr nyy qrpvqrq ba Nhfgevn, ohg gur pbeerpg nafjre jnf Vgnyl.

Pub Quiz - 04/12/10

These are late, but better late than never. This time, we had help from a third team member (Barber, for those who know him). He complements us really well, as we were able to get 15 correct this time (would have been 11 without him), which was good for a 3-way tie out of 28 teams. And, we were also one word away from 16, but this is pub quiz and neither horseshoes nor hand grenades.

As for the 3-way tie... we were not eligible for the tiebreak round. The first tiebreak is based on number of team members, and the other two teams consisted of only two. The tiebreaker question for the two of them was about the number of words in the English language, excluding scientific words. The answer was surprisingly large... something in the neighborhood of 600K.

Here are the questions from last Monday.

1) Who sang the hit song, Bette Davis Eyes, in 1981?
2) A commonly studied and diagnosed psychiatric disorder in children, what does ADHD stand for?
3) What is the name of Hilary Duff's singing sister?
4) Which artist released Brave in 2007 and Love in 2010?
5) What territory is in North-Western Canada and East of Alaska?
6) What creature can detect one part blood in 100 million parts water?
7) What is Jennifer Grey's unfortunate nickname in the 1987 movie, Dirty Dancing?
8) On what side of the road do they drive in Japan?
9) Name the 2004 movie, starring Julia Stiles, about an American girl who falls in love with the Prince of Denmark?
10) What 1988 movie is the following quote from: "I have a brain for business and a body for sin."
11) In what town is the British BBC comedy series, The Office, set?
12) What color shirts did the Secret Service Nazi troops wear in the 1940's?
13) Who wrote the opera, The Marriage of Figaro?
14) What word describes the study and tracing of family pedigrees?
15) Which director was famous for most of the 'Brat Pack' movies?
16) What disease is defined as a permanent intolerance to gluten that results in the damage of the mucosa of the small intestine?
17) What Hawaiian acknowledgement can be used to say both Hello and Good-bye?
18) What side did the group, Musical Youth, ask people to 'Pass the dutchie from' in 1983?
19) What is the surname of the royal family in the principality of Monaco?
20) In what year was Arnold Schwarzenegger voted Governor of California?

Answers and some comments in ROT13 (copy and paste to this link for translation):

1. WP unq ab vqrn, naq V ernyyl fubhyq unir orra noyr gb pbzr hc jvgu vg evtug njnl fvapr V npghnyyl yvxr gur fbat naq vg'f ba bar bs zl ZC3 cynlyvfgf. Ohg, vg jnf nyy bxnl... Oneore erpnyyrq gur pbeerpg nafjre nsgre n srj zvahgrf. Vg jnf Xvz Pnearf.

2. Rnfl bar... Nggragvba-Qrsvpvg Ulcrenpgvivgl Qvfbeqre.

3. Ntnva, V'z ab uryc. Obgu Oneore naq WP xarj gur nafjre gb or Unlyvr Qhss.

4. N gevcyr fghzcre sbe hf... gur nafjre vf Wraavsre Ybcrm.

5. Fhecevfvatyl, V jnf gur bayl bar gung tbg guvf bar. Vg'f gur Lhxba.

6. Gur guerr bs hf jrag jvgu Terng Juvgr Funex, juvpu jnf npprcgnoyr. Gurl jrer ybbxvat sbe gur trarevp nafjre bs funex, fb nyy inevnagf jrer qrrzrq tbbq.

7. Bayl Oneore xarj guvf bar. Onol vf gur nafjre.

8. WP tbg guvf bar evtug njnl, ohg V guvax jr nyy xarj. Vg'f gur yrsg unaq fvqr.

9. Abj, guvf bar jr nyzbfg unq pbeerpg gunaxf gb Oneore. Gur nafjre vf Cevapr naq Zr. Bhe nafjre jnf Cevapr naq V. WP naq V unq ab pyhr, fb jr jrag jvgu Oneore'f nafjre. V fhccbfr, jr fubhyq unir tbar jvgu gur tenzzngvpnyyl pbeerpg Cevapr naq Zr. [Ba n fvqr abgr, n crg crrir bs zvar vf jura crbcyr hfr V vapbeerpgyl... vg vf ABG "Tvir gur zbarl gb Wbua naq V." Vg vf "Tvir gur zbarl gb Wbua naq zr." -- V fubhyqa'g or hfrq nf na bowrpg... gurer ner n srj rkprcgvbaf bs pbhefr.]

10. Bapr ntnva, WP naq V jrer pyhryrff, naq Oneore pnzr guebhtu jvgu Jbexvat Tvey.

11. Abar bs hf unq nal vqrn. V guvax jr chg qbja Oevtugba. Gur pbeerpg nafjre vf Fybhtu.

12. Jr nyy svtherq guvf bar jnf tenl. Gbb onq sbe hf. Gur pbeerpg nafjre vf oynpx.

13. WP chg qbja gur pbeerpg nafjre bs Zbmneg vzzrqvngryl.

14. Nabgure cerggl rnfl bar... trarnybtl.

15. Bayl Oneore xarj gur nafjre, juvpu jnf Wbua Uhturf.

16. WP naq V obgu xarj Pbryvnp Qvfrnfr gb or gur nafjre.

17. Gur nafjre sbe guvf bar vf Nybun, juvpu WP nafjrerq orsber Oneore naq V rira tbg n punapr gb ernq gur dhrfgvba.

18. Oneore naq WP xarj guvf bar jnf "gur yrsg unaq fvqr."

19. Abar bs hf unq n pyhr. Gur pbeerpg nafjre vf Tevznyqv.

20. Nsgre fbzr guvaxvat nobhg vg, Oneore naq V unq n fgebat vapyvangvba. Jr chg qbja 2003, juvpu jnf pbeerpg.

As you can see, I'm really kind of a useless team member. My knowledge overlaps too much with JC and Barber. A winning strategy would be to oust me and find someone else. Ha ha.

Easter Formula

I know Easter Sunday has already come and gone this year, but there's something about Easter that I only learned recently that I wanted to throw out there.

So, I have never really understood how the Sunday for Easter is chosen, and it never did occur to me to look it up. Well, this year, I did. To my surprise, it's a bit complicated as far as holidays go. Is this something that most people just know? Or, do most just refer to a calendar for the magic date?

Anyway, here's how you figure out which Sunday of the year is going to be Easter...

Easter is determined to lie on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal (spring) equinox. Note that the vernal equinox date used for the Easter formula is March 21, which means no adjustment is made based on astronomical truth (sometimes the true vernal equinox falls on March 20). It follows that there's a fairly wide range that Easter Sunday can occur (March 22 through April 25). Also, one thing to note, vernal equinox will be a bit of a misnomer for those in the Southern hemisphere, so keep that in mind before you offend the Aussies.

Seriously? If you didn't know this Easter Sunday formula before and someone told you of a religious holiday that is selected based on the above rules, wouldn't you think it was some spooky pagan event? I mean, really? Anyway, I just find it a bit humorous. Maybe you will too. Silly rules for a moving holiday.

Un-Boll Weevil-ble Trivia

Tonight, JC and I went over to Trials Pub in San Jose to give their Trivia Night a try. We had fun, and we did alright, especially given that we were only a two-person team; they allow up to three per team.

Every team was given 20 minutes to answer 20 questions. The winning team got 15 out of 20 correct, and our team, Team Un-Boll Weevil-ble, had a fine showing (probably top 20-25%) with 11 out of 20.

Here were the questions from tonight:

1) By what name is the pay-for-hire spy, Simon Templar, better known as? [we had no clue on this one]

2) In what country was St. Patrick's born? [we did not get this one either, though our guess wasn't too bad]

3) Where are British coins minted? [I had a correct educated guess]

4) Which famous actor married 18 year old Oona O'Neill and had eight children together up until his death in 1977? [we didn't know this one]

5) Who painted "The Three Dancers" in 1925? [I wrote down what I thought was correct, but JC came in with strong reasoning as to why I was wrong, and we had a correct educated guess -- I'd say 90% credit goes to JC]

6) What is the name of Tarzan's chimp companion? [I knew this one, surprisingly JC did not]

7) Which Edvard Munch painting was stolen in 1994 and stolen again in 2004? [we both knew this one]

8) What book starts with 'Call me Ishmael'? [we both knew this one]

9) What Shakespeare play has the line 'Frailty Thy Name Is Woman'? [JC came through on this one]

10) Which M*A*S*H character comes from Crabapple Cove, Maine? [we had no idea]

11) What was the name of the 3rd Austin Powers Movie? [we really should have gotten this one, but man we couldn't come up with it. Ugh.]

12) What popular breakfast food was brought to America by the Irish? [JC nailed it]

13) Yugoslav Wars from 1991 to 1995 began when Serbia invaded which two states? [we got one of the two, and argh, we really should have gotten the other one]

14) What is the profession of Mike Stone, the man who Priscilla Presley left Elvis for? [we had no idea]

15) The wars Britain fought in Southern Africa against the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic were called what? [we did not know, but I think I really should have gotten this one]

16) Who was the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip? [we both knew]

17) What drink consists of Tequila, Cointreau, and a strong squeeze of lemon/lime? [after a little debate, we got it correct -- I'd say 75% credit goes to JC]

18) What whiskey is made from potatoes? [we got this wrong]

19) What word starting with 'K' means destroyed in German? [JC to the rescue]

20) What Australian animal has fingerprints that are are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans? [I got this one right]

Enjoy.

I think we'll do this again, but next time, I'm going to make sure we have a third team member. I'm sure we could have gotten a few more questions correct with a third person to help fill in the gaps.

Silver Bar Arrival

So, the Johnson Matthey 100oz silver bar arrived last week. I didn't realize that it would take as long as it did due to having to wait for a personal check to make it to them and clear the bank. One thing that I have to say is that Apmex customer service was great (both on the phone and over online chat), and they were really good about updating the status of my order promptly.

In any case, if anyone is interested in buying precious metals, I would definitely give Apmex a try. As for my shameless ad plug... if you are interested in precious metals, try clicking on the gold/silver related banner ad that is very likely to show up above this post. I don't have any experience with Goldline or any of the other advertisers, but you might as well check them out too and form your own opinion.

Now, for a pic... this is what just under 7 pounds of silver looks like.


It's not that large physically (roughly 6" x 3" x 1"), but it's definitely a lot heavier than you would think just looking at it. Anyway, if silver comes back down I will probably add a few more bars. But, at current prices, I'll stay away.

A Faraway Land of the United States

Once in a while I check out the USGS Site to see what earthquakes hit the U.S. recently. One recent earthquake (2010 February 21 02:54:15 UTC) that I looked more closely at was a 4.6 that hit 55 miles south of Shemya Island, Alaska.

Now, curiousity got the best of me when I read that the quake was 1500 miles west of Anchorage. I'm thinking, wow, that's really out there. So, I looked up this mysterious island, and as I read a bit about more it, I kept reading more and more. Also, it's interesting to note that it is part of the Aleutian chain that causes the kink in the International Dateline.

I guess there have been a number of folks (primarily military) that have called that island their home over the past 65 or so years. There is a radar and refueling station on Shemya, which used to be an Air Force base. Anyway, other than what I read, I don't know anything about it, but I think it's really neat that we have such a distant and hardly populated land that is officially a part of the United States.

Here are a couple images I snagged showing a close-up of the island and also where it sits in the grander scheme of things.



Here are a couple links with more information, including some personal stories about life on Shemya.

Shemya Island - Apparently, there was a female Air Force Captain (Barbara Nowak) that was sent there as the only woman out of about 1500 men. This is her story about life on Shemya.

Shemya in the 1940's - This guy (Bruce Watson) was stationed there in the 1940's and he's got a lot of old photos and stories. Really pretty neat. Also, there's a picture of some good old fashioned gambling too!

What a fascinating place to have lived for some time... man, you'd definitely come back with some stories, I'm sure. Anyway, hope you all find this as interesting as I did.

Secret Messages Via HTTP Referrer

Here's how you can send me secret messages. Do an Advanced Google Search for "Adventures of BruteForce" and include your secret message in quotes where there is the unwanted words field. You can also use Yahoo! or other search engines in a similar manner.

Now click on any link that shows up that leads to any of this blog's pages.

Once you do that, I should be able to see the HTTP Referrer URL when I look at the blog's traffic logs. I sent myself a couple secret messages using this technique. Here they are.

February 2nd 2010	08:50:37 PM	www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=adventures of bruteforce&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=%22this is a secret message%22&num=10&lr=&as_filetype=&ft=i&as_sitesearch=&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images
February 2nd 2010	08:52:15 PM	search.yahoo.com/search?p=adventures of brute force -%22another secret message%2C this time from yahoo%21%22&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-701

You can see the two messages clearly in the links above, or you can click them to see the exact referral page (resulting from my specific searches).

So, go ahead, send me whatever secret message you want.

I do wonder what would happen if you had a long conversation with your secret lover or whomever using this method. Would it eventually stop working due to the search engines modifying the Referrer URLs to stop the silliness? Who knows.

I8HRO@DPR

This is something silly that I came up with when I woke up this morning... maybe I was hungry.

I 8 H R O @ D P R

Chromatic Trickery

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. A friend posted this up on their site, and I thought it was pretty cool. And, in case you don't believe the illusion is real, I did extract the individual frames of the animation and found that there's nothing phony about this at all. It is definitely a real perception phenomenon that is taking place.

Go here: Perception Image.