Wilder Furies

Wilder Furies

"Furies Incorporated complaints department, how may I help you?"

"Yeah, I ordered three wild furies last week Tuesday with the primo delivery option."

"I see, and they haven't shown up within the 48 hours, do you have a tracking number?"

"No, no, that's not the problem, they showed up before the 48 hours was up."

"Well then, what can I do for you?"

"Well, the thing is, I ordered three wild furies, but the three furies you sent me are tame furies."

"I am sorry sir, that is just not possible. We don't carry tame furies. All our furies are wild furies. We have never handled tame furies at any time. We deal in only the best, freshest, Wild Furies on the planet!"

"So, let me tell you a little story about one of my uncles. Hopefully, after hearing the story, you will understand how to help me. OK?"

"OK."

"I remember when I was young, we were out at dinner with my uncle at a nice restaurant in Miami. My uncle placed his food order and the his drink order and asked for too much ice in his drink."

"OK..."

"So, after the waiter left the table, I asked my uncle why he ordered too much ice in his drink."

"OK..."

"So here's the interesting thing. He told me that he used to order his drinks with a lot of ice because he liked his drinks cold."

"OK..."

"Well, he told me that way too often his drink came with far from a lot of ice. So one night in particular, after ordering his drink with a lot of ice and getting his drink with three cubes in it, he told his waitress that he had ordered a lot of ice but only got three cubes. At this point he looked up and laughed. Then he said she told him that it was enough ice and so he told her to bring him too much ice then."

"OK..."

"Well, I thought this hairy dog story might enlighten you."

"What hairy dog story? Do you mean shaggy dog story?"

"Well, I mean hairy dog, I am not dragging it out longer and longer for no real purpose enough for the dog to be shaggy. But it is certainly no Mexican hairless or mangy potcake! Anyway, he said from that night on, he always ordered his drinks with too much ice right of the bat to save all the back and forth."

"OK... And???"

"I thought the point would be obvious by now. If those three furies you sent me are wild furies, I propose that I ship them back to you and you immediately send me three Wilder Furies! Or better yet, your three Wildest Furies."

Who Can Lie To Whom?

Who Can Lie To Whom?

Working some more on my US civics education:

In the US, who can legally lie to whom and under what circumstances?

In the US, who is it a crime to lie to and under what circumstances?

Is there any person or group that it is never legal to lie to?

Is there any person or group that it is always legal to lie to?

What other questions do I need to ask to better understand all of this?

The Shortest Distance

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is Seldom Paved.

A good number of years ago now I came up with the statement:

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is Seldom Paved.

Today on Slashdot I saw something similar along the lines of "The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is Under Construction."

Unfortunately I close the page before deciding to write this and I don't recall who gets attribution. Perhaps a search on Alta Vista will find it for you... <grin>

In any case it made me recall my long ago invented cousin and got me to thinking...

Pick two points on earth in the following ways and say what are the chances that the shortest distance between them is paved.

1. Pick any two random points on earth.
2. Pick any two random points on earth such that both are on land.
3. Pick any two random points on the same random land mass on earth.
4. Pick any two random points on the same random land mass such that the points are 100 miles from each other.
5. Pick any two random points on the same random land mass such that the points are 100 yards from each other.
6. Pick any two random points on the same random land mass such that the points are 30 feet from each other.
7. Pick any two random points on the same random land mass such that the points are 3 feet from each other.

Can you think of how you would approach writing a program to do this for you? What assets would make the job easier? What language do you think might make the job simpler?

Any other questions you think might be interesting in this game?

That's Like...

That's Like...

That's like the pot calling the kettle black.

Last updated Dec, 2019

1. That's like the cloud calling the paper white.
2. That's like the leaf calling the grass green.
3. That's like the water calling the spit wet.
4. That's like 9 calling 3 odd.
5. 
   

Jimmy Bethelll

Jimmy Bethelll

"Hey, hey, hey! Jimmy Bethel, long time no see!"

"Frank, ma bey, mussee be long time fa tru. I een Jimmy Bethel no more, ice a new man wit a new name fa almost tree year now."

"What, say you een Jimmy Bethel? Well who you tink you is den?"

"Ice Jimmy Bethelll now."

"Ain't dat what I say? Jimmy Bethel?"

"Frank, listen close, Jimmy Bethelll..."

"Well why you hanging on dat ending el so long Jimmy?"

"Man Frank, yinna Rolles don't know da pain a livin ya whole life as a Bethel and all a dem Bethells what say dey is rich enough to afford one extra el does look down dey nose at you erry time dey see you. Man Frank, commin up tree years ago now I finally done had enough a dat."

"So what ya do Jimmy, put one notice in da paper and change ya name to have 2 els?"

"Frank, you still een listen close, I say Bethelll, not Bethell. I een lookin to join dat snob set ya know."

"So, what ya do den?"

"Well, I did call up dem fortunate wheel set and tell dem I want buy 2 el. Dat White gal tell me dey only sell vowel, day say you get constament free when you guess right. I tell dat gal I een wan dem or no one else to gumma no el and she bess hurry up an sell me two el quick. She still try tell me dat een how tings go so I but in an tell her cheapus she put dat Alex fella on cause he is da big boss. Frank, she wan argue wit dat too but I but in so strong she did relent right quick and sell me my two el!"

"Jimmy, she was right about Ale..."

"Frank! Don't you start and try gumma no el too! I done buy ma two el an ice a new man! From now on, please remember ma title is Bethelll and my full name is James Alonsius Bethelll but I does go by Jimmy Bethelll dese days."

"Anyway Jimmy, I gotta run! I meetin my cousin fa lunch!"

"I see dat! Das Howie Rolle commin down da road now. Yinna have a good time."

Lottery Winner To Successful Business

Lottery Winner To Successful Business

This is going to be incomplete... For now at least.

This is to document the idea. I hope to work on it from time to time. Perhaps putting it here will lead others to help with it as well.

I think I want to do this as a list with details.

I want to compile a list of (relatively broke) people who won significant lotteries (shall we say 10 million or more dollars as a first starting amount) and then founded a successful startup business and too it to success and the business still exists. Extra credit if the lottery winner is still running it.

For a start, can someone supply one example from memory?

A Piece Of The Pi

A Piece Of The Pi

Fractional Pi

I just had a thought pop into my head. I have not explored it enough yet to know if it has even the slightest merit so let's explore it together for a bit shall we?

Pi can be expressed as a fraction. I figure one of the most famous is 22/7.

I just saw another mentioned on Slashdot:

""355/113 -- Not the famous irrational number PI, but an incredible simulation!""

So, the thought is to find a fraction that matches pi to the "most" decimal places such that the ratio of the number of digits in the fraction to the number of digits of Pi matched is smallest.

Number of digits in 22/7 is 3.
Number of digits in 355/113 is 6.

3.14159265358979323846 (Pi to 20)
3.14159292 (355/113)
3.142857143 (22/7)
3.14159265358979323846 (Pi to 20)

22/7 matches to 3.14 or 3 digits, ratio is 3:3 or 3/3 = 1.
355/113 matches to 3.141592 or 7 digits, ratio is 6:7 or 6/7 = 0.857142857

Get it?

Is this a known thing?

If not, off the top of your head, how do you think it will behave?

Obviously, no tricks with Pi up top and 1 below...