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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Creative writing for 12 year olds


When is it appropriate for a man to write like a 12 year old, and say "OMG"?
I think if I saw a devastating mushroom cloud on the horizon. Maybe....
If I witnessed a school bus full of children get scooped up by a tornado, I might say Oh my god.
But if I saw a funny picture of a cat with its paw on its genitals, I don't think I would say oh my god.

Citizen Cope - Friendly Fire

Repost:
A great video and song combo. Youtube likes to yank it after a while...
http://youtu.be/h8aeOCYcmm0

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Sucky Odds

Went to the local 2012 Home Show, which the local contractors association (known as CAK) advertised "Win $25,000 Cash, The first 1,000 adults over the age of 21 receive the opportunity"....

How misleading. The game, a scratch off ticket with 6x6 squares. The objective scratch only 6 square and reveal 6 stars, and you win. So I get up there, scratch mine, first one is wrong, game over. Guy mentions that someone got 3 stars, then the 4th one was off.

Little advertisement to the odds of winning.  Lets go through the probability
P = P(6|36) * P(5|35) * P(4|34) * P(3|33) * P(2|32) * P(1:31)
P = 0.16 * 0.14 * 0.12 * 0.09 * 0.06 * 0.03
P = 4.3 * 10^-7
1:2.3Million
Yeah.. nice odds. thanks
Pretty much means they weren't planning on giving any money away. They might as well have offered $1Million.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Healthy Community Design

A speaker was visiting our community (I did not attend) who talked about healthy communities. The topic was why don't we stop separating housing and commercial areas. If housing and commercial areas were more mixed, it would promote healthier lifestyles since people wouldn't have to drive everywhere. This got me thinking about the last 5 homes I lived in, none of them were walking distance to anything. If you think about the San Jose area, there are several newer town home communities built around or near shopping areas. While these are ideal they are way too crowded. This got me thinking that we have been going all wrong with community development. The communities should be centered around shopping areas and parks, with smaller homes, apartments, then lead outward into larger lots, almost like mini-cities (with urban and suburban environments)...