Links for 2011-08-24

"Those seem to be the options. You can either risk losing a big pile of money for the slim chance of a decent return or you can give up on the idea of a decent return just to avoid losing a big pile of money.

But what if I told you there was another option? What if I told you that right now you have a chance to make your money go farther and do more than it ever could have done just four years ago before the world’s economy ground to a halt?

And what if I told you that this option was even safer than bonds — that if you choose this path, you’ll never have to worry about losing everything?

That’s what I’m telling you.

You want a no-risk guarantee of maximum return and the best bang for your buck in these trying times? The solution is simple.

Give it away."

"Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about was a fairly well-posed problem in Futurama. In the episode "Crimes of the Hot," all of the Earth’s robots vent their various "exhausts" into the sky at the same time, using the thrust to push the Earth into an orbit slightly further away from the sun. As a result of this new orbit, the year is made longer by "exactly one week." Anything that quantitative is pretty much asking to be analyzed. Let’s explore this problem a bit more then, why not?"

"I will very briefly describe these three methods [sig figs, calculus, and Monte Carlo] and then use them to determine the uncertainty for the volume of the ball above. I will also (for comparison) find the uncertainty in the coefficient of friction for a block sliding down a plane – just because it is different."

"Thanks to a tireless awareness campaign on behalf of folklorists everywhere, the dangers of your standard wishes are well-known these days. In the wrong hands, we all know, a wish can go terribly wrong. Now, fictional characters are less likely than ever to lose their temper with talking animals, or accept the gift of a disembodied monkey paw preloaded with three freebies.

Then again, even if the wishes go right, things can get pretty odd.

The history of supernatural requests is a storied one, but some wishes are stranger than others. These bizarre boons are off the beaten track–or, in some cases, flat-out head-scratchers. (Don’t worry; we’ll work out the moral of the story; no self-respecting fairy tale leaves the house without one!)"

How to choose which NFL team you ought to be rooting for.

"At some point in your life this has probably happened to you. And it will likely happen again. Be prepared.

You’re in a room with a piano. No one in the room plays the piano very well. A couple of people, however, know one song. It’s a catchy duet that’s fun to play, and they can’t resist playing it.

That’s fine. Hoagy Carmichael was a genius and “Heart and Soul” is a lovely tune. Even a sloppy rendition can be enjoyable. The second and maybe even the third rendition may be fun and pleasant.

But the fourth time through, and the fifth, and the sixth, will be less enjoyable. The seventh may be unbearable. And the enthusiastic pianists will show no signs of stopping.

There’s only one way I’ve found to make it stop without coming across like a jerk: Sing."