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From: Charles Richmond on 6 May 2010 13:31 Jennifer Usher wrote: > > > "Mensanator" <mensanator(a)aol.com> wrote in message > news:7b6d8ba5-ffab-4d20-b345-7085cf663b13(a)b18g2000yqb.googlegroups.com... >> On May 4, 8:41 pm, "Jennifer Usher" <jennisu...(a)gmail.com> wrote: >>> "Peter Flass" <Peter_Fl...(a)Yahoo.com> wrote in message >>> >>> news:hrovgt$ggh$3(a)news.eternal-september.org... >>> >>> > Someone of Newton's generation would have been quite happy with atomic >>> > physics. Put your lead into a reactor instead of some retort and out >>> > comes gold. Obvious. >>> >>> That reminds me of the story about the guy who travels back in time >>> to take >>> Newton a calculator, thinking it would advance science. He is in the >>> process of demonstrating some things when the answer happens to be, >>> "666." >>> Newton does not take that one well at all. >> >> What was the problem? Summing the integers from 1 to 36? > > I don't recall exactly. The idea was, it was just accidental. I do > remember that the story was written in the days of LED displays, and it > described Newton's reaction as seeing "the number of the beast, glowing > with the red fires of Hell..." > But Rockwell calculators had "big *green* numbers, and little rubber feet"!!! :-) -- +----------------------------------------+ | Charles and Francis Richmond | | | | plano dot net at aquaporin4 dot com | +----------------------------------------+
From: Charles Richmond on 6 May 2010 13:33 Ian Gregory wrote: > On 2010-05-05, Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs(a)kltpzyxm.invalid> wrote: > >> Every time I try to eat one of those long yellow fruit >> I get a floating-point exception. >> >> ba + (na)^2 > > A kid was apparently heard to say "I know how to spell banana, I just > don't know when to stop". > M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i ;-) -- +----------------------------------------+ | Charles and Francis Richmond | | | | plano dot net at aquaporin4 dot com | +----------------------------------------+
From: Charles Richmond on 6 May 2010 13:40 Wes Groleau wrote: > On 05-05-2010 18:30, Michelle Steiner wrote: >> Wes <Groleau+news(a)FreeShell.org> wrote: >> >>>> ba + (na)^2 >>> >>> Standard Usenet nitpicking: >>> Why is one syllable added and the others multiplied? >> >> Actually, it's raised to a power, not merely multiplied. > > Squared. Multiplied by itself. Whatever. > Nothing like nit-picking the nit-picker. :-) > > Would the joke be better if it were phrased > "Why is 'bana..' ba + na ... > while '..nana' is na * na or (na)^2?" > > Answer, "No--yes--I don't KNOW!!!" > Ba-na-na-na, ba-na-na-na, hey hey hey, goodbye... ;-) -- +----------------------------------------+ | Charles and Francis Richmond | | | | plano dot net at aquaporin4 dot com | +----------------------------------------+
From: Charles Richmond on 6 May 2010 13:48 Michelle Steiner wrote: > In article <1236.812T2770T10276431(a)kltpzyxm.invalid>, > "Charlie Gibbs" <cgibbs(a)kltpzyxm.invalid> wrote: > >>>> I just finished reading a story in the latest Analog where the >>>> protagonist is driving a car being chased by a flying saucer. As the >>>> saucer got close enough, its inertia-neutralizing field enveloped the >>>> car, so our hero hit the brakes and came to an instantaneous stop, >>>> causing the saucer to fly right past. What was even more fun was >>>> that he then fired at the saucer with a handgun; the bullet hit the >>>> saucer, which being inertialess was flicked off into the distance. >>> *chuckle* I just may have to start reading SF magazines again. But >>> didn't the recoil send him and the car flying backwards when he fired >>> the gun? >> No, by the time he fired the saucer had gone far enough ahead that its >> field no longer enveloped the car. > > It just occurred to me that before the bullet hit the saucer, it would have > entered the field, so it wouldn't have any inertia, so it couldn't transfer > its energy to the saucer. It would just stop dead without affecting the > saucer. > You can ruin *any* story if you "think too much"... My cousin's wife is extremely intelligent. She can put together clues and knows the tricks that the writers can play in a one hour TV show. She has it all figured out in the first five minutes. That kind of ruins the whole show for her... :-( -- +----------------------------------------+ | Charles and Francis Richmond | | | | plano dot net at aquaporin4 dot com | +----------------------------------------+
From: Charles Richmond on 6 May 2010 13:51
Gene Wirchenko wrote: > On Tue, 04 May 2010 23:26:34 -0600, Joe Pfeiffer > <pfeiffer(a)cs.nmsu.edu> wrote: > >> Charles Richmond <frizzle(a)tx.rr.com> writes: >>> Pessimist: Looks at the glass as half empty. >>> >>> Optimist: Looks at the glass as half full. >>> >>> Optometrist: Says "Does the glass look better this way, or this >>> way... this way, or this way..." >> Engineer: you know, that glass is twice as big as it needs to be.... > > Real Engineer: "That glass is 1.9 times bigger than it needs to > be." (allowing for a tolerance) > Two plus two equals five... for very large values of two. -- +----------------------------------------+ | Charles and Francis Richmond | | | | plano dot net at aquaporin4 dot com | +----------------------------------------+ |