Amazon.com: A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates: Books
Amazon.com: A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates: Books: Thrilling reading, to be sure: a book from before the widespread availability of random number generators, published by the RAND...
View ArticleAmazon.com: Customer Reviews: Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 fl oz
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 fl oz: Speaking of amusing Amazon.com reviews, this product seems to be a sort of soapbox for the people who write them. A parody of Poe’s...
View ArticleIBM Watson—The computer that plays Jeopardy
IBM Watson—The computer that plays Jeopardy: IBM, the company that built Deep Blue (which beat Kasparov at Chess in 1997) has a new system, called Watson. They claim it can beat the best humans at...
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Review: Casio Edifice EFA-119
Until now I’ve usually worn some sort of Timex watch with an analog movement and a leather band. I have a distinct preference for analog watches; I find them easier to read quickly than digital...
View ArticleWarren Buffett's Worst Investment Ever
Warren Buffett's Worst Investment Ever: Warren Buffet, telling CNBC about the worst financial decision he ever made: The dumbest stock I ever bought was, drum roll here, Berkshire Hathaway. And that...
View ArticleBad Copy Kills – Read It Out Loud
Bad Copy Kills – Read It Out Loud: Cindy Alvarez: Every sentence and every paragraph you’ve read on this blog, I read out loud before I hit the ‘Publish’ button. … Reading your writing out loud first...
View ArticleThe Joy of Stats
The Joy of Stats: A great BBC production about the art and science of statistics, hosted by Hans Rosling (who is probably the world’s most excited person about statistics).Topics covered include the...
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Call Partner Rook
This Christmas break we played a lot of Rook. We play a variation called Call Partner Rook, in which the player who wins the bid and calls trump also calls the person—unknown to him—who holds a...
View ArticleThe first solar eclipse of 2011
The first solar eclipse of 2011: Great photos from The Big Picture, as always.
View ArticleFrederick Vosburgh and the $30,000 comma
Frederick Vosburgh and the $30,000 comma: I read this story yesterday in the excellent book National Geographic: 100 Years of Adventure and Discovery and thought it was worth sharing. From the...
View ArticleReformed Resource
Reformed Resource: A new website put together by my friend Kenneth: Reformed Resource.net is your source for Biblical analysis of contemporary issues from a Reformed Christian Perspective. They have a...
View ArticleBeethoven Sonata No. 8 'Pathetique' Mvt. II
Beethoven Sonata No. 8 'Pathetique' Mvt. II: I have had this movement of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata (played here by the incomparable Wilhelm Kempff) in my head almost incessantly for the last few...
View ArticleInternational Music Score Library Project
International Music Score Library Project: Speaking of sheet music, I get a lot of it at IMSLP, the International Music Score Library Project. It’s a great database of public domain sheet music, both...
View ArticleLaser Beams: Fact vs. Fiction
Laser Beams: Fact vs. Fiction: A good article dealing with some common misconceptions about laser technology. When I tell people that I zap things with lasers, I can almost see the mental images...
View ArticleTouch Trigonometry
Touch Trigonometry: For math nerds like me, or those who just want to check out a cool animation. The author writes: When I got to Calc II, I realized my fuzzy memory of trig was making certain...
View ArticleFrance is Bacon
France is Bacon: You know how when you’re young you misunderstand words sometimes? This is probably the most amusing example I’ve ever heard of. When I was young my father said to me: “Knowledge is...
View ArticleThe Blind Man Who Taught Himself To See
The Blind Man Who Taught Himself To See: Can humans use echolocation? Apparently yes: The first thing Daniel Kish does, when I pull up to his tidy gray bungalow in Long Beach, California, is make fun...
View Article"Song of the Sea, a Cappella and Unanswered"
"Song of the Sea, a Cappella and Unanswered": A poignant article from the New York Times on the loneliest whale in the world: The animal is called the 52 hertz whale because it makes a distinctive...
View ArticleJapan quake shifted earth's axis by 25 cm
Japan quake shifted earth's axis by 25 cm: Amidst all the other coverage of the Japanese earthquakes (The Big Picture has great photography, as always) this brief news item from the National Post...
View ArticleHi everyone. It seems that someone decided I wasn’t posting here often enough...
Hi everyone. It seems that someone decided I wasn’t posting here often enough (e.g., not at all) and politely helped me out by posting a link to some scammy work-from-home site. Just for the record: I...
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