[Cyberyeti]

I'd like Jonathan Mestel on my team please for such a combined challenge.

[ggwhiz]

 WellSpyder, on 2015-June-04, 02:42, said:

Congratulations! Was it luck or skill ?

That "leading" question reminds me of my wife asking "does this dress makes me look fat". You might get an honest answer here though. .... might, just not from me.

[y66]

How to avoid the exploding volcano of wastefulness

Quote

You describe the typical middle-class life as an “exploding volcano of wastefulness.” Seems like lots of personal finance folks obsess about lattes. Are you just talking about the lattes here?

The latte is just the foamy figurehead of an entire spectrum of sloppy “I deserve it” luxury spending that consumes most of our gross domestic product these days. Among my favorite targets: commuting to an office job in an F-150 pickup truck, anything involving a drive-through, paying $100 per month for the privilege of wasting four hours a night watching cable TV and the whole yoga industry. There are better, and free, ways to meet these needs, but everyone always chooses the expensive ones and then complains that life is hard these days.

[PassedOut]

 y66, on 2015-June-28, 13:54, said:

How to avoid the exploding volcano of wastefulness

Great article, and so true.

[y66]

A Quick Puzzle to Test Your Problem Solving

Quote

A short game sheds light on government policy, corporate America and why no one likes to be wrong.

[kuhchung]

 y66, on 2015-July-02, 12:48, said:

A Quick Puzzle to Test Your Problem Solving

what do i get for getting it right

[y66]

 kuhchung, on 2015-July-02, 13:01, said:

what do i get for getting it right

You get 50% for the right answer. The rest will depend on your test cases.

[kuhchung]

I remember taking a statistics class in college, and one of the problems on the test was (paraphrasing from memory) "Playing with a standard deck of cards, you hold 8 spades, while the other two players hold the remaining 5. What are the odds that the one on your left holds 2 and the one on your right holds 3?"

I almost put down 68%. Tricky tricky!!!!!

I also showed no work.

[gwnn]

 y66, on 2015-July-02, 12:48, said:

A Quick Puzzle to Test Your Problem Solving

I wrote "geometric progression" so at least I didn't say "each of the numbers are the double the previous one." I did not read the conditions very well; I think the fear of getting a "no" is only a part of it. There is also the problem that people are more used to "guess the next number in the sequence" than "guess the rule." The first class actually assumes there is a rule that can determine the third number based on the first two while the second one just says that there could be a large number of third numbers that could satisfy the rule (in this case, sometimes there will also be no third numbers).

[y66]

Barack Obama's amazing conversation with Marc Maron about growing up, the values he got from his mother, Charleston, gun control legislation, where his optimism comes from, the big gap between who we are as a people and how our politics expresses itself, all the things that have combined to make our political institutions detached from how people live on a day-to-day basis, how do we build institutions and connections that allow the goodness, decency and common sense of ordinary people to express itself in the decisions that are made, why governments can steer a course but can't turn on a dime, not worrying about the day to day, the ways in which we're better off than we were 4 years ago, the temperamental advantages of growing up in Hawaii, the closest he's come to feeling disgusted with Congress, the professorial myth (he'd rather debate issues based on facts and spend time with his kids than schmooze on the cocktail Washington circuit), racism, the incontrovertible facts that we have made progress and that racism still exists and there is much work to be done (he discusses specific examples of things that can be done and are being done), looking at what has worked in the past, applying it and scaling it up, that what is required is a sense on the part of all of us that what happens to kids who don't have the same advantages our kids have matters to us even if we never meet them because our society is going to be better off and we're confident that our kids and grandkids are going to have a better life if those kids also have better opportunities, that's where we have to feel hopeful, and that's within our grasp, the tragedy of his father's life and how he escaped its cycle of craziness, Michelle's role in his life, the craft of comedy, the more you do something, the more it becomes second nature, which is the same with the work of presidents, and the incredible, liberating feeling of fearlessness his experience has given him which almost makes up for not being able to play basketball the way he could when he was younger.

[blackshoe]

 y66, on 2015-July-05, 09:00, said:

Barack Obama's amazing conversation with Marc Maron about growing up…

Perhaps Mr. Obama is a very wise, albeit much misunderstood and much maligned, President. Or perhaps not. He's certainly made more than his share of mistakes.

[y66]

 blackshoe, on 2015-July-05, 09:46, said:

Perhaps Mr. Obama is a very wise, albeit much misunderstood and much maligned, President. Or perhaps not. He's certainly made more than his share of mistakes.

Perhaps much maligned? You crack me up blackshoe. Obama has most definitely made his share of mistakes. His biggest mistake was wasting the first term of his presidency trying to meet his opponents half way. One of the most interesting things he says in that conversation is how much he still has in common with his 22 year old self despite all the things he has learned in his 6.5 years as president. Colin Powell once made a similar observation when he was talking about his role as a parent and the window that parents have for instilling values.

[blackshoe]

 y66, on 2015-July-05, 10:46, said:

Perhaps much maligned?

On reflection, I suppose you could read what I wrote in that way, but that is not the meaning I intended.

[y66]

A question based on a misquoting of Bertrand Russell:

Quote

All the labor of all the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction. So now, my friends, if that is true, and it is true, what is the point?

A reply by Maira Kalman.

[Zelandakh]

I assume you mean this quote, from A Free Man's Worship:

Quote

That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair can the soul’s habitation be safely built.

[helene_t]

 y66, on 2015-July-02, 12:48, said:

A Quick Puzzle to Test Your Problem Solving

LOL at me for stating the rule as a geometric series with increasing numbers. I noticed that 1-0-0 and 0-0-0 and -2 -4 -8 did not work and -8 -4 -2 did.

[y66]

 Zelandakh, on 2015-July-09, 01:40, said:

I assume you mean this quote, from A Free Man's Worship:

Thank you. FMP.

[y66]

The United States Women's World Cup championship team was covered in confetti.Credit Richard Perry/The New York Times

New York City salutes U.S. Women's Team.

[y66]

Federer or Djokovic?

Greece in or out?

[kenberg]

 y66, on 2015-July-12, 09:03, said:

Federer or Djokovic?

Greece in or out?

Well, the first is settled. A great match. A pleasure to watch.

On the second issue, it's hard to find anything good to say. A lot of money, a lot of problems, I hope someone, or rather several someones, know what they are doing.