I stumbled across my favorite ever Strongbad episode! Send me e-mail if you like it too. DELETED!
Which state do you think is more likely to be victim of another terrorist attack: New York or Wyoming? Did you guess New York? Me too. On a per capita basis, which one do you think receives the most Homeland Security funds? Did you guess New York again? Wrong. Under the formula the Department of Homeland Security has adopted for handing out money, it spends seven times as much protecting each resident of Wyoming as it does protecting each resident of New York. One last question: which state voted for George Bush?
Warren Buffett has some words:
I never really paid much attention to him before but recently I really am starting to like this guy. I also spotted the following rather insightful comment by Matthew on one of the best blogs I've ever discovered, "It's Still The Economy, Stupid":
Christine Todd Whitman, the woman in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency resigned Tuesday, writing to President Bush that she wanted to "return to my home and husband in New Jersey, which I love just as you do your home state of Texas." She loves her husband like George Bush loves Texas? Odd...
Of all the words that start with the letter 'F' it's the only one called The F Word.
POOR Kitty! If you sell cereal and milk separately, I will bid! Otherwise, it will get soggy. When life gives you a lemon, put it on eBay and I will bid on it.
Scott Adams was right:
Dilbert's "Salary Theorem" states that: "Engineers and scientists can never earn as much as business executives and sales people."
This theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the following two postulates:
Postulate 1: Knowledge is Power.
Postulate 2: Time is Money.
As every engineer knows: Power = Work / Time,
Since:
Knowledge = Power
Time = Money
Knowledge = Work/Money.
Solving for Money, we get: Money = Work / Knowledge.
Thus, as Knowledge approaches zero, Money approaches infinity, regardless of the amount of work done.
Conclusion: The less you know, the more you make.
Metafilter is a very good web site. I found this refutation of the Dilbert theorem there too...
That's a cute theorem, though of course the trick is whether it's money incoming or outgoing. In the original equation, power = work/time, we're talking of power= work done/time expended (so the more power, the less time spent to do the same amount of work), so the next part is greater knowledge = more work done by spending less money, which still makes sense.
The conclusion would be that as knowledge approaches zero, the money you spend to get any work done approaches infinity - not the money you earn.
You're a cop, working your beat day in and day out. Rapes, murders and every sort of human cruelty fill your day. But nothing could prepare you for an attack by ravenous horny women!
Yesterday driving around town I saw a huge van for a local casket company. On the back of the van it said, "Please drive safely." Somehow I got the feeling they didn't really mean it...
I spotted this letter in the Home section of a local newspaper:
We were about to close escrow on our home when the buyers' home inspector stirred up trouble over the roof repairs. The house is about 35 years old and has two layers of shingles. According to the roofing contractor, the building code allows a third layer to be applied. But the home inspector says the structure is sagging and should not be loaded with the weight of additional shingles.
Removing the old material will add about $500 to the cost of the job and seems to us to be a needless expense. As far as I'm concerned, the roof is strong enough to support another layer of shingles. If a third layer would truly be detrimental, t wouldn't be allowed by code. Don't you agree?
I can tell from the letter that this man is an executive at a software company for the following reasons:
The home inspector columnist replied to his letter by saying the codes set a minimum standard and the fact that the roof is sagging under the weight of two layers of shingles indicates there is a real problem that needs to be addressed. He also points out to the letter writer that this would help protect him from a lawsuit later should just adding another layer of shingles not solve the roofing problem.
Even with all this I'm still betting that the chances of the guy paying the extra $500 to do the job right are sill less than 50/50. I mean, it's $500 and everyone trying to force him to spend it are just greedy bastards -- unlike him.
Parents at the table next to me were explaining the concept of a sleepover to their three-year-old daughter. "You play all day, then you go to sleep, then when you wake up in the morning you get to play some more..." The little girl looked very concerned and even a little suspicious -- there had to be a catch somewhere.
I guess I'm just dreaming I'm out of a job. Apparently there are over half a million jobs waiting to be filled that I can't seem to find. Oh wait, they want to bring in more cheap foreign labor. I guess I'm not dreaming. It all makes sense now...
Lurking in IRC I found this link on user interface design or something. Too bad Windows XP crashes after playing five minutes. Microsoft's new slogan should be "Windows XP: Crashes more predictably than ever!"
I was cleaning up my apartment this morning and stumbled across the owner's manual for my LCD desktop monitor. Under a section titled Product Features and Caution it says the following:
It never explains why the monitor likes to face east but I would assume this is true of LCD screens in laptops as well. My screen faces more northeast than due east but "the colors, bend and tilt" of my screen seem fine so I'm leaving it for now.