I’m hurrying, because I have to leave for a Urology appointment in a few minutes, and I’ll be way behind when I return. Yesterday loading the chair was a success.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:34 (average 4:55). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Upworthy: Can you answer this math question from a practice test for the SAT?
SAT study blogs recommend spending only about 75 seconds on each math problem, so you should set a timer.
Ready?
Here it is:
A typical image taken of the surface of Mars by a camera is 11.2 gigabits in size. A tracking station on Earth can receive data from the spacecraft at a data rate of 3 megabits per second for a maximum of 11 hours each day. If 1 gigabit equals 1,024 megabits, what is the maximum number of typical images that the tracking station could receive from the camera each day?
A) 3
B) 10
C) 56
D) 144
10 in under a minute. What’s hard about that?
From Daily Kos (Classic: 8/2015): This man cannot be president.
I am not exaggerating what happened here.
If a mother was going to give up her child for adoption, the conservative legislature–supported and signed by one Jeb Bush– she was required to PUBLISH HER ENTIRE SEXUAL HISTORY in a major newspaper.
The idea behind it was… actually, I don’t know what the hell the idea was except to publically shame the woman. (Publically shaming unwed mothers, by the way, is something JEB! actually loudly and proudly called on people to do.)
All I know is that it passed under our wacko bird GOP legislature.
It was called the Scarlet Letter law.
And Strike Three claims to be the moderate.
From NY Times: The Republican presidential candidates who battled for votes in New Hampshire last week, rousing the rabble with their usual talk of scary aliens at the border, were strangely silent about the closest international boundary. They did not warn of the Canadians who flood south by the millions each year to play and work, taking our Christmas-tree-selling jobs. They did not mention the Canadian scofflaws — nearly 100,000 in fiscal 2015 — who overstay their visas, the most of any nationality.
Yeah! They already committed an act of war against us with their secret weapon, the TRUS pervert!
Cartoon:
24 Responses to “Open Thread–2/15/2015”
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4:32 (4:55) A temperate rain forest?
Upworthy – ten it is – and can certainly be done in under a minute, maybe under 10 seconds, with rounding (mentally using powers of 10 in lieu of powers of 2 – and that is close enough for this problem).
Daily Kos – The shock is not that he calls himself a moderate. The shock is that, compared tot he other candidates, he IS a moderate. Shudder.
NY Times – Not to be excessively snotty, but they probably do it because they can get away with it – white privilege? Besides, you wouldn't want to keep (or kick) Squatch out.
Cartoon – I know I said this yesterday, but I still FEEL it:
OK, I just had another thought on Scalia (after reading a comment about the possibility of a vacancy appointment which could also be beautiful). This possible scenario is not perhaps a best-case, but it does carry some poetic justice:
1. Obama appoins someone excellent.
2. The Senate refuses to even up or down vote.
3. The next president, a Democrat yet to be named, realizes there is one of the brightest and best qualified constitutional lawyers in the country, if not the world, who has just become available and appoints him.
4. His name is Barack Hussein Obama.
5. The new Democratic supermajority in the Senate gladly confirms.
PS – "Yesterday loading the chair was a success." YES ! YES ! Hip hip HOORAY!
I second that opinion!
PPS –
I LOVE THAT IDEA! OBAMA ON THE SUPREME COURT!
Well, it is doable, as Taft did it, and Hillary had indicated she likes the idea, but the big obstacle is Obama himself. He expressly does not want the job.
Such a pity, as he would be superb. Taft is one of very few who did not regard the Presidency as the end of the line – in fact, the only other I can think of is John Quincy Adams, whom I admire more for what he did after his Presidency than what he did during it.
So glad you got to get out and see something besides your apartment or the doctor's office!!! What a SUCCESS!!
I can't even think about math right now!
Please, oh PLEASE get out and VOTE this election!! The office of President has to be occupied by a BLUE CANDIDATE!!! Strike Three is a Bozo and has the smarts of an ant. I take that back! The ant is at least USEFUL!!
I REALLY want Obama to have the process drawn out so the next President, whoever it is, as long as they are BLUE, can nominate Barak Hussien Obama as the NEXT JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT!!!! I can see the headline now!!! "Former President Obama is now CONFIRMED as the NEXT JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT!!! In 3, 2, 1, REPUKKKLICANTS HEADS EXPLODE ALL OVER THE PLACE!!! ROTFLMAO!!!!
DK: Unbelievable!! ''Women were required to PAY for the ads, which ran once a week for the duration of a month. The law included no exceptions for victims of rape or minors. Bush expressed reservations about publishing these details, but declined to veto the law while it wound its way through the courts for two years. Going pretty low there!
NYT: Good story, a beautiful country, w/great folks!
Cartoon: Condolences to his family, but this is a good cartoon.
Glad that the chair fits, and good Luck on the results of your appointment. Enjoy your evening, Thanks, Tom.
Sounds like they hired those that want to declare English our national language to construct the items.
Eerie that Jeb sees Hawthorne as a role model.
Interesting side effect to overemphasis on the southern border.
Nathaniel wouldn't be so bad = he wrote about the Scarlet Letter to DISAPPROVE of the practice (though he couldn't help but admire Hester's gutsy embroidery.) I think Jeb's real role model was Nathaniel's grandfather Hathorne who was a hangin' judge at the witch trials in Salem. There was a rumor that Nathaniel added the"w" in his name in an effort to atone for his grandfather having been a "w"itch – but I think that's a little too good to be true. Some of his short stories do suggest that he suspected his grandfather and the other judges of more than fundamentalism, though.
I am old enough to have learned the basics of math and the application of math for the solution of engineering and scientific problems before the availablity and affordability of handheld calculators. The slide rule was the handheld calculator of the time.
A necessary skill that we learned as a result of not having a calculation was to be able to estimate the relative size of the answer before calculating it. You had to know where the decimal point went. Using the slide rule, you could determine that the solution was 123. But was it 0.123, 1.23, 12.3, or a higher multiple? The difference between these answers (an order of magnitude) was usually sufficient to determine which number the answer was, if you had sufficient estimating skills.
Now days, the calculator not only gives you the numbers it places the decimal point for you, something the slide rule does not do.
The answers for th SAT problem are sufficiently difference that you can estimate the answer without using either a calculator or a slide rule.
First you see that it takes a little over 300 second (5 minutes) to download one gigabyte @ 3 megabyte per seconds. The pictures are a little more than 11 gigabytes, so it takes about an hour to download a picture. With 11 hours per day available for download, you estimate 11 pictures. One of the given answers is 10 pictures. That must be the answer.
No calculator (or computer) required.
Exactly!
Once upon a time, a slide rule dangleed from my belt. I'm that old. And that's how I did it
Jeb wrote a book? And the title is similar to the JFK "Profiles in Courage?" The more any of these wanna be's open their mouths, the more imbecilic they show themselves to be!
Is that cartoon picture one of Scalia, or of Scalia looking in a mirror and seeing the devil?
I REALLY want Obama to have the process drawn out so the next President, whoever it is, as long as they are BLUE, can nominate Barak Hussien Obama as the NEXT JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT!!!! I can see the headline now!!! "Former President Obama is now CONFIRMED as the NEXT JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT!!! In 3, 2, 1, REPUKKKLICANTS HEADS EXPLODE ALL OVER THE PLACE!!! ROTFLMAO!!!! OH JOANNE AND VIVIAN, HOW TRULY BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!
2:58 A bridge too far?
3:38 Too far for me! I'm really out of practice.
Hey, we are just glad to see you, out of practice or not!!!
I am so happy for you that the chair loading was a success, now you can visit your guys!
Daily Kos: The scarlet letter law has been given very little attention by the national press, but neither has Jeb. Having his brother on the campaign trail will probably harm more than help him.
NY Times: Could it be because they speak English and are mostly white and can blend in where as a Latino or Asian stands out? Too bad they let the Cruz family stay.
Cartoon: Probably true.
Puzzle — 2:58 A bridge too far?
Daily Kos — And what was the name of the law when a family values Republican strayed . . . oh yeah . . . the Peter Principle. Because Peter had family values principles, there was no shaming.
NY Tmes — If the trus pervert were Canadian, he would be exceptionally polite. ,And we all know that he is not polite. So, since he is not polite, he must be yours!
Cartoon — Good one!
But he was born Canadian!
Three cheers for the chair! Now you can go visit your boys in Salem four times a year. You must be over the moon, TomCat.
Upworthy: It seems that children spend more time in school nowadays being trained for these tests, i.e. being test wise, than the actual skills to do the math or whatever is being tested. Children learn to seek out the most improbable answer first, "guestimate"the correct one.
Daily Kos: I remember when this legislature passed and Jeb was all excited about it. It was one of the most misogynistic pieces of legislature at the time, as the Republican lawmakers first of all don't want a woman to have an abortion, then after she has brought the child to term and wants to give it up – one of the options she's pushed into as an alternative for the abortion – and then she has to let herself openly be shamed for her sex life. If she doesn't and keeps the child, her welfare and food stamps will be cut until she and her child starve if it was up to the Jeb. Funny how quick these things are forgotten during a race for the presidency, certainly by the women who vote for him, or Republican for that matter. It's not a thing misogynist Trump is going to attack Jeb on, is it?
NY Times: Has Andy started to moonlight for the NY Times under a pseudonym now?
Cartoon: They gave him a warm welcome.
The back side of the moon is cool!
Thanks all!! Hugs!! Se my reply to JD re: Obama appointed to SCOTUS.