Here's a simple brain teaser (via metafilter).
A plane is standing on a runway that can move (some sort of conveyer belt). The plane moves in one direction, while the conveyer moves in the opposite direction. This conveyer has a control system that tracks the plane speed and tunes the speed of the conveyer to be exactly the same (but in the opposite direction). Can the plane take off?
What do you think? Also, do you think I got the right answer initially (what with all the physics)?
The answer, after the jump. But think about it first!
Yup, the plane will take off just fine. I initially thought the plane wouldn't take off, but I was wrong.
An explaination is here.
Further explaination here.
Yet another one here.
The last one is a bit more rude, with quotes like "I could understand a random high school dropout being fooled by this, but a pilot?" Screw you, pal. I get the aerodynamics, but I don't spend a lot of time thinking about airplane wheels.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Airplanes!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Hilarity
What's better than GRE math AND Halloween being a month away? Halloween math puns!
(After the jump)
In other delicious fall news...
For some reason I'm crazy excited about fall this year. I can't wait for the leaves to change, and I like the feeling of the weather ever so slowly getting cooler.
Yesterday, I kicked of my fall fitness fanaticism, where I did an hour of yoga and then swam for 45 minutes. The results? Every muscle in my body hurts, and I have a cold. I'm going to power through though. I will conquer the aching muscles.
To reward myself, I dug out Smed's delicious African Yam Stew recipe. This is absolutely one of my favorite recipes, and I'm going to make it tonight (yummmm). I thought you guys might love it.
Says Smed:
This is based on a recipe called "Pea Chop (Peanut and Chicken Stew)
(Africa)" from the "Peanuts" section of Jeff Smith's "The Frugal
Gourmet Cooks American." In his blurb, he explains why this is
relevent to put in a book about American cooking. Good enough.
Unfortunately, he doesn't say where in Africa the recipe came from, so
I can't vouch for its authenticity since even he doesn't. Therefore, I
feel no remorse at all in tweaking the recipe to make it vegan and add
yams and potatoes and peppers and whatever else catches my whim. (And
if you know me, you know that my cooking style is very whim-based, and
thus it's a challenge for me to actually write down a recipe. But
then, if you know me, you also know that I love a challenge.)
Serves 6 hungry people.
Ingredients:
1 box "So Soya" defatted soy protein (or you could use a pound of
tofu, or some tempeh, or TVP, or your favorite beans; some kinda
protein)
1/2 - 3/4 c crunchy peanut butter
1 - 2 quarts vegetable broth
2 large yams or sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks
2 medium potatoes, cleaned and chopped into chunks
other vegetables to your taste; I recommend bell peppers, carrots, mushrooms
fresh hot peppers to your taste, diced; I used Hungarian wax,
jalapeno, and Thai chilies from Clio and Andy's garden (if you can't
get fresh peppers, use a small can of jalapenos, or use less than the
whole can if you're timid; you can always put the rest of the can out
on the table for people to add to their own taste)
dill, cumin, oregano, bay leaves, salt, and pepper to your taste
(especially salt)
enough rice to satisfy the number of people you're serving
4 - 5 bananas, peeled and cut in half lengthwise
1 - 2 T vegetable oil (or use butter if you're not vegan)
1/2 - 3/4 c chopped peanuts
1 can pineapple chunks
4 oz shredded coconut
Preparation:
If using So Soya or TVP: heat 4 cups of veggie broth to near-boiling,
and pour over the So Soya or TVP. Set aside for 15 minutes.
Cut the yams and potatoes (and other vegetables) into chunks. If you
are pressed for time, microwave the yams, potatoes, and carrots for 5
minutes or so to soften them -- not to mushiness, just till they cut
easily with a spoon.
Stir 1/2 c or so of broth into the peanut butter and mix well.
Put the So Soya (or other protein thang), the vegetables, the peanut
sauce, and some more broth into a large soup pot. Add finely chopped
hot peppers, salt, dill, cumin, oregano, bay leaves, etc. Bring to a
near-boil, then simmer for at least half an hour. (You'll need an hour
or more if you've not pre-softened the potatoes et al.) If you want it
thicker, add some water to cornstarch in a separate bowl and add to
the stew. Start with 3 T cornstarch and 1/2 c water. Get all the lumps
out, then stir quickly into the stew.
While the stew is simmering, toast the coconut on a cookie sheet at
375 degrees until just turning golden. Don't burn it! This goes
quickly; keep an eye on it.
Also while the stew is simmering, sautee the bananas in vegetable oil
(peanut oil if you have it), or use butter if you're not vegan.
To serve:
Serve this stew buffet style. Each person puts some rice down on their
plate, then stew on top of that, then bananas, pineapple, chopped
peanuts, and toasted coconut. I also put out some extra diced hot
peppers for those who like it really hot!
Hedgehogs and idiots.
Happy Friday, HONers! We made it through another week, squirrels, fruit-sniffing dogs, and all. Today's a good internet day -- read all about it after the jump!
First, disgusting fuckhead of the day is profiled here. It's easy to name this attorney the worst man in America. What amazes me more though is that there are, apparently, forums for mothers to sell sex with their daughters. Absolutely awful.
In more sad news, a woman fabricates a complicated, amazing story about her escape from the WTC on 9/11, and then dedicates her life to helping survivors. I have complicated feelings about this story. Does it matter that she made it all up? She didn't earn money, and she helped a lot of people. Clearly this is pathological attention/gratification seeking behavior. It kind of seems like a merger of PTSD and Munchausen Syndrome. Very odd.
In odder, but perhaps happier news, did you guys know that babies are sometimes born with TAILS? I didn't. Learn something new. Thanks to Metafilter for fronting this amazing revelation.
Adorable pictures of the day are of confused British hedgehogs.
Bastards of the day --- this will shock you --- the devestating INS/IRS duo of doom. Aren't there terrorists to harass, instead of this poor dishwasher? Give him his money, let him go buy land on a mountain, and stop spending my tax dollars on prosecuting people who work harder than most legal American workers.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Squirrels And Up Are Safe
So my new house on Austin's East Side is awesome--Awesome!--and you should all come visit. It does, however, have a few maintenance issues. Our management company was kind enough to send out Bear to take care of them. Bear, who looks like a mildly reformed Hell's Angel, usually comes by in the morning while I'm still working from home, sitting at my computer in a bathrobe with a cup of coffee. I don't think it bothers him, though. When I opened the door the first time, I stood out on the lawn with Bear with said coffee in said bathrobe and had a 15 minute conversation about how my motorcycle was or was not safely parked on the street.
Bear cleared out a bunch of trash left by the previous tenants, filled in a bunch of holes left from sheet rock screws, fixed some ceiling tiles in my room, etc., etc., etc. He also killed a family of rats.
We knew we had rats. We knew we needed to get rid of them. I was mostly okay with that. I don't eat meat, but I'm also not keen on getting the bubonic plague. So the little bastards can die to save me. Bear, however, takes a gleefully exuberant approach to his job that's mingled with a mix of terror every time he actually sees a rat.
The first one was killed when he lifted up a tile in the hallway to place a trap. It fell down and hit him on his face before he swatted it across the hall to the bathroom floor with his 2-foot Maglight while screaming bloody murder. "Get me the shovel, Joe," he kept saying to his assistant. "I'm gonna get it." By the time Joe got there with the shovel, Bear had massacred the little plague carrier with his flashlight and calmly scooped him into a garbage bag.
The second one got killed by a trap. It took ten minutes for Bear and Joe to coordinate the elaborate process of pulling it down from the ceiling into a bag without actually touching the rat. He explained to me this morning, while repeating the process for a third rat, that the first two were probably the parents.
"That's kind of sad," I said.
"No, no, it's cool," said Bear. "We only kill rats. Sometimes mice. Squirrels and up are safe."
That, my friends, is the exterminator's taxonomy.
Bear killed five more rats today. All with his bare hands. The man is a hulking angel of death. I'm kind of honored to have him in our home.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
All's been quiet around HON lately.
But if Smed can keep us posted from the Andes, we can all do better.
Here are some misc. updates:
First, with next to no hitches, Super Awesome Fun Week was super, awesome, and fun! On Friday night we saw Walking with Dinosaurs, and then Kris entertained us with stories of his badass Russian family over some delicious Russian wine. Saturday, bright and early, we headed out to the Yuengling Brewery. It's an absolutely beautiful drive through PA, and the brewery itself is really neat - America's Oldest Brewery, and so there were lots of neat stories about prohibition and stuff.
We then headed to Ringing Rocks State Park, where we, as promised, definitely climbed rocks and hit them with hammers so they rang like bells. It was beautiful, and the rocks were really cool. Sadly, mathgimp had been sick all day, so we headed back after that so as not to infect the NYC crowd.
Since then, I've been in crazy productive mode, trying to balance everything related to working/teaching/applying/volunteering/editing/GREing. Here's the count down of my life:
9 days: Austin trip!!!
38 days: GRE of doom
44 days: Last day at CRS
50 days: Jstew and nuraido tour the NE!!!!
58 days: Thanksgiving
64 days: First application due
87 days: I am completely unemployed.
Good times!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Crossing the Andes
Pete and I had quite the time getting from Argentina to Chile.
We didn´t reserve a spot on a bus in advance; the owners of the hotel we were staying at told us that we could show up at any time because there would be buses leaving all day. Boy, were they wrong. We showed up at 9:30AM (quite proud of ourselves for the early start) to find almost every bus going to Chile left at 8:30AM. After checking with 3 different companies, to no avail, we realized that we might be in for some trouble.
Finally, approximately 9-10 companies later, we found a minibus company that sold us 2 tickets to Santiago, Chile (it wasn´t even the destination we wanted, but at that point we were too desperate to care). It turned out that our seats were up front with the driver. Cozy, to say the least, and definitely the best view of the house.
When we were pulling out, the woman who sold us the tickets ran out, and said something really fast in Spanish to me, and then the Spanish version of OK GREAT BYE!
I got her to repeat it, and I finally figured out that she wanted us to share our two seats with someone else - she said not to worry because it would be a small boy. The entire trip Pete and I were on the look out for the mystery niño who apparently was going to sit on our laps through the Andes. It turned out a 12 year old kid did get on the minibus in Chile, but we made him sit on the floor (sorry niño).
Although I was slightly terrified of the driving (the entire road through the Andes only has one lane on each side, and our driver loooooved the blind pass technique), the trip was absolutely beautiful. The Argentine side of the Andes was covered in snow, and the weather couldn´t have been better.
The border was both pretty annoying (long lines) but also amusing. The Chileans were really, really serious about not letting foreign fruits and vegetables into their country. They had trained dogs crawling around everywhere on the veggie alert! They chose Pete´s bag as a ´practice´ for one of the dogs. I guess he looked innocent (read: he looked like a gringo). A border guard cut an apple in half, took a big bite out of it, and shoved it under Pete´s bag. Then they set the dog loose, the entire line watching expectedly. The dog, a golden retriever, pranced about happily through the luggage. He stopped for a minute above Pete´s bag, gave it a sniff, and proceded to lick my hand until I pet him. Then he trotted off. Moral of the story - if you would like to bring any illicit fruits or vegetables into Chile, go for it. The dogs will be none the wiser.
Also, the 8-hour drive through the Andes was the most beautiful road trip I´ve ever taken. I give it 4 Smeds up.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Quick hello from Chile!
Peter and I successfully crossed the Andes (barely...that trip is a blog post in itself), and we´re currently in Valparaiso, Chile. It´s a beautiful city located on hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We´re staying in the cutest hotel with a room overlooking the port. And to get around the city you take elevators up and down the hills. Oh yeah, it also pulls on my ATX heartstrings, as there is a hippie-vibe here - vegetarian propoganda graffitied everywhere around the town. More later!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
So much for being adventurous
I thought paragliding would be a unique and exciting activity. Turns out it is mostly nauseating.
Pete and I decided to go paragliding (floating through the air with the help of a huge parachute) before we head over the border to Chile. We went up into the Andes in a 4x4, and I was pretty nervous. However, Pete had done it before, and he said it would be beautiful once I was in flight.
It's a tandem flight, meaning that I was strapped to a guy who actually knew what he was doing. That made me feel better. The only instruction I received was to not stop running until I went off the cliff. Ok, fine, that was easy enough. I got in the air, and yes, it was beautiful. It felt more like floating than it did like flying.
My interest in the spectacular view of the Andes quickly waned as the queasiness in my stomach intensified. I think the guy with me could tell that I wasn't feeling well, and he tried to chat with me to distract me.
And then, in the beautiful calm of the Western Argentine sky, I THREW UP, a lot, over the shoulder of my guide. It was, to say the least, a bit embarassing. Welcome to the wonderful world of Smed, folks.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Last cool thing of the day
This is amazing to me -- come Monday, I'm going to learn more about it. So teaser, then fuller post then.
I'm out, y'all! Have a great weekend!