Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ":
Can a stupid person be a smart-ass? from my friend Mike for the end of the summer
In response to last week’s questions, “Can you have clean dirt ?”, my friend Tracey assured me, “Yes, that's where the five second rule applies.” My cousin Wes explained Tracey’s rule, “Dirt that is virus and bacteria free would meet standards for edibility and thus be clean.”
My neighbor Al wrote, “Yes, It's called soft porn. Or if you want to be serious .... Yes you can. There is such a thing as sterile dirt. Oddly plants won't grow in it.”
Al then added my college roomie John agreed with, “If you are trying to be mean and dig up some dirt on someone, and you find out that they are really a great person….Yeah right! Like no one has a skeleton in their closet. Well maybe just an embarrassing skeleton.”
My dentist friend Ted concluded, “Absolutely--Give me all your dirt and I will sterilize it in the Autoclave!”
I can’t be sure which answer my sailing friend Vaughn referred to when she added, “Absolutely, I just didn't get any; it cost more.”
My dad’s beach buddy Bob knew that “Clean Dirt comes from clean rooms. They have them in all plants that produce High Purity products.” To this, my ceramics and engineering friend Blair added, “Not only can you have clean dirt, but you can have calibrated clean dirt. Do you want small particles (dust) or large particles (rocks)? Do you want a specific color - red, sienna, copper, grey, charcoal, black? Hard dirt or soft dirt? Dirt can be big business! Of course, you need to be careful when you wash it or you can end up with a mudpie….”
My sailing friend Kate recalled “My first thoughts were about childhood and playing outside…and they brought a smile to my face. Yes, there is good, clean dirt! It's the kind that we managed to get all over our clothes by the time we came in from a day of exploring the great outdoors when we were kids. Do today's internet-savvy, X-box addicted kids even know what that is?”
Go outside and play sometime. Live well...laugh often and heartily….be happy and have a good week…
Monday, August 31
Monday, August 24
Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ":
Can you have clean dirt ?
In response to last week’s questions, “If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?“, my dad’s beach buddy Bob concluded, “No, it comes from ‘mor_on the ball.” My friend Kevin added, “Actually, it's morasses that come from morons.”
My birthday bud Jon said, yes, “it explains the Moral Majority” and my college roomie John added, “The obvious answer is morons give us politicians.”
My colleague Swany noted the words of the immoral (not immortal) Bill Clinton, “Politics gives guys so much power that they tend to behave badly around women. And I hope I never get into that.”
My sailing and writing friend Rich “fears this statement is correct - Exhibit A, reality tv (with the exception of the Deadliest Catch).”
Live well...laugh often and heartily….be happy and have a good week…
Hal
PS: My very punny friend Richard wanted all to know that this line of thinking does raise other questions:
• Does lumberjacking skill result from being an axon?
• Does banality result from being a boron?
• Does slickness result from being a teflon?
• Does contentiousness result from being an argon?
• Does a soprano singing voice result from being a trillion?
• Does a devil-may-care attitude result from being a hellion? (Of course, the answer to that one is propbably "yes.")
I could go further, but there's probably no sense in going "-on and -on." (Oy! Sorry about that.)
Can you have clean dirt ?
In response to last week’s questions, “If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?“, my dad’s beach buddy Bob concluded, “No, it comes from ‘mor_on the ball.” My friend Kevin added, “Actually, it's morasses that come from morons.”
My birthday bud Jon said, yes, “it explains the Moral Majority” and my college roomie John added, “The obvious answer is morons give us politicians.”
My colleague Swany noted the words of the immoral (not immortal) Bill Clinton, “Politics gives guys so much power that they tend to behave badly around women. And I hope I never get into that.”
My sailing and writing friend Rich “fears this statement is correct - Exhibit A, reality tv (with the exception of the Deadliest Catch).”
Live well...laugh often and heartily….be happy and have a good week…
Hal
PS: My very punny friend Richard wanted all to know that this line of thinking does raise other questions:
• Does lumberjacking skill result from being an axon?
• Does banality result from being a boron?
• Does slickness result from being a teflon?
• Does contentiousness result from being an argon?
• Does a soprano singing voice result from being a trillion?
• Does a devil-may-care attitude result from being a hellion? (Of course, the answer to that one is propbably "yes.")
I could go further, but there's probably no sense in going "-on and -on." (Oy! Sorry about that.)
Monday, August 17
What is the Roman Numeral for zero?
Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ":
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
In response to last week’s questions, “What is the Roman Numeral for zero?”, my college rommie, John, who I saw this past week for the first time in XX years and is still looking well, shared his actuarial understanding, “XO – XO”. Similarly, my videographer friend Ivan explained, “It is accepted practice to use subtractive notation in Roman Numerals, so that instead of IIII for 4, four becomes lV. Using this strategy, I conclude that placing a I in front of another I therefore subtracts I from I, resulting in zero. It looks like this: II. See? Easy. So whenever you see 2, think zero!” All it takes is a little logic and you can figure most things out. Now I feel qualified to teach your kids in your local public school.”
While my colleague Swany also thought it was “I minus I,” my Dad’s beach buddy applied shorthand by writing “-I”.
My sailing friend Vaughn, who apparently speaks many languages, wrote, “The Roman Numeral for zero is "N" for nothing, null, nada.” However, Ivan thought “the rarely used ‘N’ stood for Nulla,” To this, my sailing and writing friend Rich added, “In Ancient Rome "Everybody was Somebody.’ The town of Snellville has no zeros either because "Everybody is Somebody".”
My cousin Wes noted, “Being the supercivilization, Romans never ran out of anything, hence they had no use for a zero. As they were counting the remaining troops after a battle, zero was not needed since zero person would not be alive to write.”
My friend Ivan countered, “The Roman system was changed slightly in the middle ages, as everyone knows. Since people don't much like the middle ages, you know, their 40's, 50's, the zero has been done away with much the way hoteliers have removed 13 when numbering the floors.”
My woodcarving and sailing friend Doug responded, “I can't think of a funny answer, but the real answer is "N/A" The Romans didn't believe in the concept of nothing being a number. That's why there was no year Zero. The Christians believe Jesus was born in the year One. That's why the millenium started in the year 2001 and not 2000.”
“So we can say that the Romans had no nothing,” wrote Doug’s and my friend Stuart. “Since that is a double-negative, I guess they had something.”
Alas, my birthday bud Jon, did find a Roman Zero on Broadway (see link above).
My sailing friend and Renaissance man Mike concluded, “Roman numerals were not positional (like our 0-9 Base 10 system) so zero wasn’t necessary:
So let’s go sailing, or at least drink rum and play with model trains.”
Live well...laugh often and heartily….be happy and have a good week…
Hal
Want to know more? My friend Stuart wrote, “The concept of zero was developed by the Hindus around 9th century CE. Babylonians and Olmecs used zero as a placeholder for writing numbers much earlier, but zero was not used in calculation. The Romans did not need such a place holder. By the way, if you have a sick mind like mine and really want to learn some math history, read ZERO, The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, by Charles Seife or go to http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/romannumerals.htm, as my friend Mike suggested.
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
In response to last week’s questions, “What is the Roman Numeral for zero?”, my college rommie, John, who I saw this past week for the first time in XX years and is still looking well, shared his actuarial understanding, “XO – XO”. Similarly, my videographer friend Ivan explained, “It is accepted practice to use subtractive notation in Roman Numerals, so that instead of IIII for 4, four becomes lV. Using this strategy, I conclude that placing a I in front of another I therefore subtracts I from I, resulting in zero. It looks like this: II. See? Easy. So whenever you see 2, think zero!” All it takes is a little logic and you can figure most things out. Now I feel qualified to teach your kids in your local public school.”
While my colleague Swany also thought it was “I minus I,” my Dad’s beach buddy applied shorthand by writing “-I”.
My sailing friend Vaughn, who apparently speaks many languages, wrote, “The Roman Numeral for zero is "N" for nothing, null, nada.” However, Ivan thought “the rarely used ‘N’ stood for Nulla,” To this, my sailing and writing friend Rich added, “In Ancient Rome "Everybody was Somebody.’ The town of Snellville has no zeros either because "Everybody is Somebody".”
My cousin Wes noted, “Being the supercivilization, Romans never ran out of anything, hence they had no use for a zero. As they were counting the remaining troops after a battle, zero was not needed since zero person would not be alive to write.”
My friend Ivan countered, “The Roman system was changed slightly in the middle ages, as everyone knows. Since people don't much like the middle ages, you know, their 40's, 50's, the zero has been done away with much the way hoteliers have removed 13 when numbering the floors.”
My woodcarving and sailing friend Doug responded, “I can't think of a funny answer, but the real answer is "N/A" The Romans didn't believe in the concept of nothing being a number. That's why there was no year Zero. The Christians believe Jesus was born in the year One. That's why the millenium started in the year 2001 and not 2000.”
“So we can say that the Romans had no nothing,” wrote Doug’s and my friend Stuart. “Since that is a double-negative, I guess they had something.”
Alas, my birthday bud Jon, did find a Roman Zero on Broadway (see link above).
My sailing friend and Renaissance man Mike concluded, “Roman numerals were not positional (like our 0-9 Base 10 system) so zero wasn’t necessary:
So let’s go sailing, or at least drink rum and play with model trains.”
Live well...laugh often and heartily….be happy and have a good week…
Hal
Want to know more? My friend Stuart wrote, “The concept of zero was developed by the Hindus around 9th century CE. Babylonians and Olmecs used zero as a placeholder for writing numbers much earlier, but zero was not used in calculation. The Romans did not need such a place holder. By the way, if you have a sick mind like mine and really want to learn some math history, read ZERO, The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, by Charles Seife or go to http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/romannumerals.htm, as my friend Mike suggested.
Sunday, August 16
Does life have inertia?
Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ":
What is the Roman Numeral for zero? from my neighbor Al
In response to last week’s questions, “Does life have inertia?”, my sailing friend Kate wrote assuredly, “Yes, life has inertia. Anyone doubting this need only witness how many times I need to swat the sleep button on my alarm clock in the morning!
My friend Tracey agreed that life has inertia, writing “It's what causes most midlife crises.”
My dad’s beach buddy Bob was not so sure as he responded, “For a limited period of time then it peters out like many other things that cannot be eternally sustained.” My cousin Wes responded, “Certainly. The older we get the more inertia our lives have. That's way "time flies" and everyone I know is amazed it's August 2010 already.”
“This leads to deep thought” observed my college roomie John. “Living requires inertia, one cannot just sit there and expect life to happen, you have to get up and do something about it. Wow, this is much too deep, I need to lie down.”
My flying friend Ted wrote, “Ask any physicist, he will tell you inertia is the tendency of all matter to resist changes to its state of kinetic energy. Ask any old married physicist, he will tell you that his energy state tends to resist changes --- always low! Ask David Lee Roth after watching his MTV videos; that man has Inertia. He never stops moving!!” My wife tells me I have too much inertia if I stay in the bathroom too long. Just can't get moving. Oops TMI. Work seems to have too much inertia these day; it never ceases. I may have too much inertia if I don't quit writing this.”
“Life does not have inertia because inertia does not exist,” challenged my sailing friend Vaughn. “All life is made of atoms that are made of electrons that are in constant motion. Humans conceived of inertia to give our minds a rest, otherwise we would be dizzy all the time. Hmmm, maybe that's what is wrong with me, I am dizzy.”
My sailing and writing friend Rich concluded, “All lives hurtling down life's highway have inertia. Never forget that it takes an outside force to overcome inertia. Unlike physics, there is no calculating what your force will do to change the inertia of another's life. Use it wisely.” (Also see my friend Swany’s response below.)
Live well...laugh often..be happy and have a good week…
Hal
Seriously folks. “This is another way of asking is life’s path predetermined, or do we believe in fate?” wrote my analytical colleague Swany. The obstacles we encounter and decisions we make cause our path to change throughout our life but we are constantly moving in some direction. We can only hope that when we do land in a negative situation, we make another decision which corrects our path and sets the course back to a positive conclusion. Absolutely life has inertia, and, our human decisions affect our spiritual fate.”
What is the Roman Numeral for zero? from my neighbor Al
In response to last week’s questions, “Does life have inertia?”, my sailing friend Kate wrote assuredly, “Yes, life has inertia. Anyone doubting this need only witness how many times I need to swat the sleep button on my alarm clock in the morning!
My friend Tracey agreed that life has inertia, writing “It's what causes most midlife crises.”
My dad’s beach buddy Bob was not so sure as he responded, “For a limited period of time then it peters out like many other things that cannot be eternally sustained.” My cousin Wes responded, “Certainly. The older we get the more inertia our lives have. That's way "time flies" and everyone I know is amazed it's August 2010 already.”
“This leads to deep thought” observed my college roomie John. “Living requires inertia, one cannot just sit there and expect life to happen, you have to get up and do something about it. Wow, this is much too deep, I need to lie down.”
My flying friend Ted wrote, “Ask any physicist, he will tell you inertia is the tendency of all matter to resist changes to its state of kinetic energy. Ask any old married physicist, he will tell you that his energy state tends to resist changes --- always low! Ask David Lee Roth after watching his MTV videos; that man has Inertia. He never stops moving!!” My wife tells me I have too much inertia if I stay in the bathroom too long. Just can't get moving. Oops TMI. Work seems to have too much inertia these day; it never ceases. I may have too much inertia if I don't quit writing this.”
“Life does not have inertia because inertia does not exist,” challenged my sailing friend Vaughn. “All life is made of atoms that are made of electrons that are in constant motion. Humans conceived of inertia to give our minds a rest, otherwise we would be dizzy all the time. Hmmm, maybe that's what is wrong with me, I am dizzy.”
My sailing and writing friend Rich concluded, “All lives hurtling down life's highway have inertia. Never forget that it takes an outside force to overcome inertia. Unlike physics, there is no calculating what your force will do to change the inertia of another's life. Use it wisely.” (Also see my friend Swany’s response below.)
Live well...laugh often..be happy and have a good week…
Hal
Seriously folks. “This is another way of asking is life’s path predetermined, or do we believe in fate?” wrote my analytical colleague Swany. The obstacles we encounter and decisions we make cause our path to change throughout our life but we are constantly moving in some direction. We can only hope that when we do land in a negative situation, we make another decision which corrects our path and sets the course back to a positive conclusion. Absolutely life has inertia, and, our human decisions affect our spiritual fate.”
Monday, August 3
Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' " (this is a hard one):
Does life have inertia? from my friend Michelle
In response to last week’s questions, “Can you imagine “more than you can imagine”?”, my comedic friend Bruce, colleague Swany and birthday bud Jon all agreed, “I can only imagine that you can.” My friend Ed added, “you can if you can imagine the unimaginable, to which my Disney-adoring friend Alan wrote, “Walt Disney said "It's kind of fun to do the impossible". Isn't that "more than you can imagine"?”
My dad’s beach buddy Bob concluded, “I am often amazed that I had not imagined that to be the case.”
While my sailing friend Scott wrote, “No,” my college roomie John shared, “It is more than I can imagine that we are going to get together in 2 weeks. It’s been, what, 20 years?”
“Have you ever had anesthesia or painkillers?”, asked my friend Tracey. “You can imagine all sorts of things you never thought you could imagine.”
“Here comes the educator in me,” wrote my friend Vivian. “When you push yourself to imagine more and perhaps "out of the box," that's when you become creative.” My colleague Jeff agreed, saying, “for me, that would require thinking outside the box (in this case would be my head). When I have streams of consciousness, I would say ”If I imagine I could, then I can!””
And my sailing, writing friend Rich concluded, “Going to the Moon 40 years ago was beyond the imagination of most. And for those who made it possible, they imagined it as only the first step.”
Live well...laugh often..be happy and have a good week…
Hal
Does life have inertia? from my friend Michelle
In response to last week’s questions, “Can you imagine “more than you can imagine”?”, my comedic friend Bruce, colleague Swany and birthday bud Jon all agreed, “I can only imagine that you can.” My friend Ed added, “you can if you can imagine the unimaginable, to which my Disney-adoring friend Alan wrote, “Walt Disney said "It's kind of fun to do the impossible". Isn't that "more than you can imagine"?”
My dad’s beach buddy Bob concluded, “I am often amazed that I had not imagined that to be the case.”
While my sailing friend Scott wrote, “No,” my college roomie John shared, “It is more than I can imagine that we are going to get together in 2 weeks. It’s been, what, 20 years?”
“Have you ever had anesthesia or painkillers?”, asked my friend Tracey. “You can imagine all sorts of things you never thought you could imagine.”
“Here comes the educator in me,” wrote my friend Vivian. “When you push yourself to imagine more and perhaps "out of the box," that's when you become creative.” My colleague Jeff agreed, saying, “for me, that would require thinking outside the box (in this case would be my head). When I have streams of consciousness, I would say ”If I imagine I could, then I can!””
And my sailing, writing friend Rich concluded, “Going to the Moon 40 years ago was beyond the imagination of most. And for those who made it possible, they imagined it as only the first step.”
Live well...laugh often..be happy and have a good week…
Hal
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