What are the odds of having a pee free pool?

heh, nice question.

Many of us have spent time beside a pool. And you have probably wondered: what are the odds that no children (or adults, for that matter) have peed in the water? When pressed, we'd have to admit that the odds that the pool is pee-free are close to zero, but the lack of absolute certainty allows us to relax and swim anyway. We may comfort ourselves with some fuzzy thought about chlorine, or the immense volume of the pool relative to a few bladders, and our concerns slip away.

When things are very close to being certain, but we are still able to pretend otherwise, we are experts at using this window, small though it may be, and expanding it. For example, lots of people don't wash their hands after visiting the lavatory. We all know this, but we can happily imagine that everyone who cooks and serves in a restaurant we patronise does. At least until we see a server leave the stall, straighten their shirt in the mirror, and walk out without so much as a rinse. Dinner is served ruined! It's only when we face direct evidence that we can no longer put our heads in the sand.

Quite an interesting psychological insight into our behaviour, no? But then, the follow up question is, how many people will start washing their hands after seeing that behaviour? Take my own example, I have pee’ed into the pool when I was a child and teenager and then stopped. Washing hands after taking a pee? only idiots who didn't wash their penis’s and keep it clean and manage to get pee over their hands need to wash. Or so I thought.

Its only much later that I realise that the reason you wash your hands is not because of the bacteria on your wee or penis, but because more we wash, the more the overall toilets are cleaner. You have a bigger chance of catching an illness from the taps, the door handles, etc. etc. than from having a few spots of wee on your hands from your tinkle..

A Girl You Should Date

Kannu

I may have sent this to you earlier. But no worries. This is worth reiterating. Again and again. 

You will have loads of girls. As you should. Look around. Know various people. Check them out. Experiment. Spread your wings. You will have your own criteria to select girls. But who do you open up to? Who do you cuddle up in front of a fire and share your thoughts and dreams of winning the world? 

One sure fire way to see if she reads. A girl that reads (and I mean reading dead tree books or e books). I didn't mean magazines or TV guide only. Girls who read voraciously are fascinating creatures son. 

They are usually quieter. They are difficult to spot because they aren't found in noisy places. They need to be found very carefully. You have to walk gently in the undergrowth. Part the leaves carefully and quietly. Peek around the tree trunks slowly. Don't startle her. Pick a good time and then say a hi. 

They are good people to be around. They are full of ideas and full of alternative realities. You can be silly with them and you can be Serious with them. They will never be clingy because they are with their books. You are a fellow traveller. They are difficult to get but the rewards are so much worth it. 

It's a good way to know who is better. And remember one thing, son, they will also be checking you out so always have a book to hand :)

Love

Baba

869
http://nonamerah.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/869/?refid=12

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Oct 03 2011

By nonamerah

A Girl You Should Date

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

How to Get a Nuclear Bomb

Dear kannu

A very good article on how to get a nuclear bomb. There have been fictional accounts of how people made a nuclear bomb in their backyard but its not even that difficult. Just get some plutonium, grind it up and sprinkle the stuff out of the car while you are travelling in New York or London. And viola, one has achieved what the terrorists want, terror and hitting the enemy (us) when and where we don't expect it. 

So what do you do when the situation is too complex? Or too big? It could be a huge company or a huge project or huge macroeconomic situation. Keep a handle on the detail son, size shouldn't make a difference to keeping an eye on the detail. 

Second, keep things simple. As much as possible. More complexity means more dimensions and it will cause issues managing and fixing the inevitable problems. So reduce the complexity down. 

Third, always keep an eye out on the stupidity factor. There's always that stupidity angle. In my experience there is always some kind of stupidity involved. 

Finally, always use problems. As the man said, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. While people may be running around thinking the sky is falling down, stay cool. Use the problem to solve something else, short something etc etc.  

love

Baba

How to Get a Nuclear Bomb [longform.org]
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2006/12/how-to-get-a-nuclear-bomb/5402/

---

Hiroshima was destroyed in a flash by a bomb dropped from a propeller-driven B-29 of the U.S. Army Air Force, on the warm morning of Monday, August 6, 1945. The bomb was not chemical, as bombs until then had been, but rather atomic, designed to release the energies Einstein described. It was a simple cannon-type device of the sort that today any number of people could build in a garage. It fell nose-down for forty-three seconds, and for maximum effect never hit the ground. One thousand nine hundred feet above the city the bomb fired a lump of highly enriched uranium down a steel tube into a receiving lump of the same refined material, creating a combined uranium mass of 133 pounds. In relation to its surface area, that mass was more than enough to achieve “criticality” and allow for an uncontrollable chain of fission reactions, during which neutrons collided with uranium nuclei, releasing further neutrons in a blossoming process of self-destruction. The reactions could be sustained for just a millisecond, and they fully exploited less than two pounds of the uranium before the resulting heat forced a halt to the process through expansion. Uranium is the heaviest element on earth, almost twice as heavy as lead, and two pounds of it amounts to only about three tablespoonfuls. Nonetheless, the explosion over Hiroshima yielded a force equivalent to 15,000 tons (fifteen kilotons) of TNT, achieved temperatures higher than the sun’s, and emitted light-speed pulses of dangerous radiation. More than 150,000 people died.

A Bit of Sarbanes-Oxley for Universities, Please

This is a very interesting and important view on the independence of trustees of a University Board. I quote:

The impulse to impose Sarbanes-Oxley on universities is tempting.  Indeed, formal legal mandates on conflicts of interest and the other attributes of good governance might be even more appropriate for universities than for public corporations, as universities lack many of the safeguards of good governance, such as the ability to measure performance through profitability and engaged  shareholders with incentives to monitor performance.

It has traditionally has been assumed that universities, as ostensibly charitable organizations, would be run with an eye on the public good, thus formal restraints on self-dealing, conflicts of interest, and rules that apply to private corporations would not  be necessary.  Today, however, universities are big businesses riven with self-interest.  And there is little evidence that charitable purpose plays any role in their behavior.  University president's salaries routinely reach into the seven figures--Dartmouth's recent president, for example, earned over one million dollars a year and demanded millions of dollars of renovations to the college president's house and access to a private jet as part of his compensation package, even while laying off dozens of staff members and issuing hundreds of millions of dollars in debt (to be financed by future generations of students and parents) to close a massive budget deficit caused when the endowment cratered in the wake of the financial crisis.

Go read the full article, its very interesting..I fully concur with this view, being in this situation, I am quite concerned in general about the lack of governance that universities have, specially on this side of the pond. Do trustees or board members really hold university management to account? Very doubtful, when was the last time you heard any kind of debate in the newspaper between board members and management in universities as one would frequently hear in the corporate world?

And dont give me that guff about board members not knowing about academics or university policies / procedures, that’s insulting and basically tells me that your cranial end is interposed in your anterior end.

What would happen if we removed the silent letters?

silenc – visualization from Kenneth Aleksander Robertsen on Vimeo.

A nice internship letter

This was a nice letter. I quote

From: BLOCKED
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2013 1:14PM
To: BLOCKED
Subject: Summer Internship

Dear BLOCKED

My name is (BLOCKED) and I am an undergraduate finance student at (BLOCKED). I met you the summer before last at Smith & Wollensky’s in New York when I was touring the east coast with my uncle, (BLOCKED). I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to talk with me that night.

I am writing to inquire about a possible summer internship in your office. I am aware it is highly unusual for undergraduates from average universities like (BLOCKED) to intern at (BLOCKED), but nevertheless I was hoping you might make an exception. I am extremely interested in investment banking and would love nothing more than to learn under your tutelage. I have no qualms about fetching coffee, shining shoes or picking up laundry, and will work for next to nothing. In all honesty, I just want to be around professionals in the industry and gain as much knowledge as I can.

I won’t waste your time inflating my credentials, throwing around exaggerated job titles, or feeding you a line of crapp (sic) about how my past experiences and skill set align perfectly for an investment banking internship. The truth is I have no unbelievably special skills or genius eccentricities, but I do have a near perfect GPA and will work hard for you. I’ve interned for Merrill Lynch in the Wealth Management Division and taken an investment banking class at (BLOCKED), for whatever that is worth.

I am currently awaiting admission results for (BLOCKED) Masters of Science in Accountancy program, which I would begin this fall if admitted. I am also planning on attending law school after my master’s program, which we spoke about in New York. I apologize for the blunt nature of my letter, but I hope you seriously consider taking me under your wing this summer. I have attached my resume for your review. Feel free to call me at (BLOCKED) or email at (BLOCKED). Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

BLOCKED.

Interesting, eh?

Black Men more likely to be in prison than married or college educated

Forget the esoteric discussions about statistics…This is what is extremely worrisome

“….others have been arguing for a long time that incarceration is by now a modal event in the life-course for young black men. Black men are more likely to go prison than complete college or serve in the military, and black, male, high-school dropouts are more likely to spend a year in prison than to get married. “

What kind of a society are we bring up? In 30 years time, what will these people and their children do? And its worse

… incarceration is so common in some sociodemographic groups that there are few comparable individuals in the population who have not experienced incarceration. The ubiquity of incarceration among low-skill black men undercuts research designs that require comparison groups to isolate the effects of incarceration from other factors like race, low education, or living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. A significant body of causally oriented research uses quasi-experimental designs … that compare the outcomes of inmates or former inmates with similarly-situated individuals who have not been to prison or jail. There is no valid comparison group for many of America’s inmates exactly because incarceration now inheres in whole sociodemographic groups ..

What are we talking about here? that there is nothing we can do? because they simply do not know any other way of living?

Its a similar discussion about the hundreds of thousands of families here in the UK where nobody has EVER done a bit of job. What kind of kids will come out of these families? There are QUARTER OF A MILLION kids in these families. What is the upbringing they are getting?

What are the 10 Most Important Documents in American History?

Quite an interesting survey…

1) The Declaration of Independece
2) The U.S. Constitution
3) The Bill of Rights
4) The Louisiana Purchase Treaty
5) The Emancipation Proclamation
6) The 19th Amendment to the Constitution
7) The 13th Amendment to the Constitution
8) The Gettysburg Address
9) The Civil Rights Act
10) The Social Security Act

(and the spelling mistake is on the history site, heh, ironic, eh?). Note that the top 3 were already defaulted to the The Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

but quite fascinating to see the relative rankings, eh? Why would the Louisiana Purchase Treaty go on the top?

You got a opportunity for a job - Bhaskar Dasgupta -

heh, this is a new one for me, I got this email yesterday…fascinating, i am so going to apply for this…£1500 for 2-3 hours per day? It has to be kosher, no? lol

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Hill [mailto:it.multimedia.uk@gmail.com]
Sent: 21 January 2013 11:23
To: Bhaskar Dasgupta
Subject: You got a opportunity for a job - Bhaskar Dasgupta - Mon. Jan.21, 2013, 1:31 PM

Welcome Bhaskar Dasgupta,

We are delighted to offer you employment as Financial Services Officer We have selected your resume from jobsite.co.uk.

The salary for position offered is 1,500 pounds per month. The standard group benefit plans and fringe benefits will be covered. The job details will be provided to you with return e-mail.

Your working timetable will be Monday through Friday for 2-3 hours a day. Trial period - 30 working days from the day you apply.

Please contact with HR Department at it.multimedia.uk@gmail.com if you agree to the specified terms and conditions.

Regards,

Jason Hill

HR Manager

One of the bibliographic hero’s

I was bidding for a set of books on ebay and came across this name. John Leland.

What a great man in the annals of bibiliophilia. I quote from his wiki entry.

In 1533, the king appears to have entrusted Leland with a document, "a moste gratius commission" (or principis diploma as he called it in Latin), which authorized him to examine and use the libraries of all religious houses in England.^[10] Leland spent the next few years travelling from house to house, for the most part shortly before they were dissolved, compiling numerous lists of significant or unusual books in their libraries.^[11] About 1535, he met the ex-Carmelite churchman and fellow antiquary John Bale, who much admired his work and offered his assistance.^[2]

In 1536, not long after the First Suppression Act commanding the dissolution of lesser monasteries was passed, Leland lamented the spoliation of monastic libraries and addressed Thomas Cromwell in a letter seeking aid for the rescue of books.^[2][12] He complained that

"The Germans perceive our desidousness, and do send daily young scholars hither that spoileth [books], and cutteth them out of libraries, returning home and putting them abroad as monuments of their own country."^[12]

In the 1530s and 1540s, the royal library was reorganised to accommodate hundreds of books that were previously kept in monastic collections. Leland himself describes how Henry's palaces at Greenwich, Hampton Court and Westminster were adapted for the purpose. Leland's part in this is uncertain.

In humanist fashion, Leland styled himself antiquarius, a title which was at one time interpreted as referring to a formal appointment as 'king's antiquary': however, it is now understood to have been merely Leland's own preferred way of describing himself.^[13] There is no evidence that he personally oversaw the relocation of the books to their new home or received a librarian's wages. What he did do was to compile his lists of important volumes, and to take measures to encourage their preservation.

What a man, eh? a man who rescued books. Hats off to you, Sir.