Comments for Paul's blog

Comment on Kids, ping-pong balls: it’s all the same. by Paul

Paul — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 01:58:42 +0000

Ruben, the point of controversy (even though I don’t see any) seems to stem from “how the knowledge about one kid being a boy’ is obtained”.
I think that’s a nonsensical objection, but anyway, you can find more about all that, (as well as more references) here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_or_Girl_paradox

I looked at some of the objections, and I’m finding myself sitting there shaking my head and mumbling “no, no, no, no, NO!”

BUT .. I have to be careful! Probability theory a tricky subject.

Comment on Kids, ping-pong balls: it’s all the same. by Ruben Agin

Ruben Agin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:25:39 +0000

What is the point of controversy? It seems fairly obvious if you spend more than a few seconds thinking about it. Boils down to a simple combinatorics problem. Now, I can see why Monty Hall confounds so many and causes controversy. Beca…use of the wording and the conditional vs. unconditional probability. Why so many mathematicians blasted Marilyn vos Savant when she published it in 1991. Incidentally, the anecdote about Erdos is funny because it shows that the greatest mathematicians still have problems with basic probability. I think combinatorics should be taught before probability, as it is fundamental to many of its problems. Any good mathematician should be able to distill such a problem to the combinatorial equivalent and solve it.

Comment on Kids, ping-pong balls: it’s all the same. by Paul

Paul — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:05:46 +0000

Shit.

I thought I had a good argument, but I don’t think I can argue with this.

Comment on Kids, ping-pong balls: it’s all the same. by Your Wife

Your Wife — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:02:14 +0000

Laurilee, who is a GIRL was born on a Tuesday. Therefore, you are wrong. And I will gamble with you any time … if I win, YOU LOSE! If you win, I will immediately take away your money, because TODAY is Saturday.

Comment on Name that Thing by Paul

Paul — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:34:32 +0000

No no no, i wasn’t obsessing! Just noticed it.
Only now did I look it up to see if this was indeed THE famous “Meteor” crater.
I ALSO looked up if I could find Meteor City’s post office!
Turns out ‘Meteor City, AZ’ consists of only one trading post (I guess the post office is part of it):
See http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/14538

Comment on Name that Thing by Your Wife

Your Wife — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:32:16 +0000

Good grief. All I could think about on the plane trip out TO Vegas was that Holland was in the World Cup finals. All I could think of on the way back FROM Vegas was that Holland lost. Apparently – you were obsessing on other things.

Comment on Unemployed again by Paul

Paul — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:37:49 +0000

@Injun: I agree!

I’m SURE there will be a box somewhere in my garage, that has all the coasters (bierviltjes) on which backs’ we jotted down our next big inventions! I forgot the name of that pub in Zaventem where we solved most of the world’s problems. Some of those scribbled-on napkins are now probably worth MILLIONS!
Didn’t we detect the Higgs boson one day, with a coffee machine, a WC plunger and the magnets of an old 67MB CDC drive?
And we also duplicated cold fusion one weekend! DANG, that was fun! And remember that letter we sent to Richard Feynman, about what the problem with the Challenger was? And there he was: on TV, as if that cup of ice water was HIS idea! We did so many great things! Do you know that there are people here in the US, who actually think that the Internet was an AMERICAN invention? HA!

And throwing away my old Vista-TELEX notes? NEVER!!!

Comment on Unemployed again by Injun

Injun — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:08:43 +0000

I for one do not agree with item 8. Scrap it. We still need to go over all that, with a good beer/single malt W. at hand, not for good ol’ times sake (oh, no!), but to find that missing project that was going to get us all filthy rich. Plenty good afternoons filled like that would make it impossible to finish it all before July.

2012.

Comment on Unemployed again by Paul

Paul — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:24:13 +0000

@Laurilee, ahw, thanks!

And you know, I’m pretty sure she WILL forget half of it, and guess what .. I will forget the OTHER half.
As for making that list disappear: believe me, I know how to do that, EVEN (if not especially) with electronic ones.

Comment on Unemployed again by Laurilee

Laurilee — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:48:40 +0000

HOLY CRAP!!!!!! Paul don’t worry I will help you. This list is a picture window into my childhood. I had tons of those lists. But they were hand written and I just made them disappear, and she forgot half of what she wrote… Your list is electronic though and she probably has this list in a folder titled Paul’s to-do lists. 🙂