Digital Wilderness

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell was an okay book, not as great as I was anticipating it do be. It started slow, but picked up about a hundred pages in. There were some interesting points made throughout the book, interesting insights into the way certain things caught fire and snowballed from a seemingly insignificant thing to a huge deal, while others never got off the launch pad. Not sure how practical these insights are into the average life, but still interesting.

One of the points made by the author deals with the Power of Context. Consider this example from the book:

Consider the following brain teaser. Suppose I give you four cards [each] labeled with [one of] the letters A and D [on one side] and [one of] the numerals 3 and 6 [on the other side]. The rule of the game is that a card with a vowel on it always has an even number on the other side. Which of the cards would you have to turn over to prove this rule to be true?

The answer is two: the A card and the three card. The overwhelming majority of people given this test, though, don’t get it right. They tend to answer just the A card, or the A and the six…

But now let me pose another question. Suppose four people are drinking in a bar. One is drinking Coke. One is sixteen. One is drinking beer and one is twenty-five. Given the rule that no one under twenty-one is allowed to drink beer, which of those people’s IDs do we have to check to make sure the law is being observed? Now the answer is easy…the beer drinker and the-sixteen year-old.

[They] are exactly the same puzzle…[with the latter] framed in a way that makes it about people instead of about numbers, and as human beings, we are a lot more sophisticated about each other than we are about the abstract world.

This was one of the few passages in the book that jumped out at me, made me go hmmm. This could, in fact, be applied to everyday life. If you’re struggling with making a point to a co-worker, client, etc. or if you’re trying to spread an idea, invention, point of view with little success, try changing the context of your message. Put it into terms that the receiver of your message can better understand.

Hmmm, isn’t that what word problems in math class were meant to do? How many people actually liked those word problems better than the straight-up math problems?

Now that’s a burger!

The Progress News: Behemoth burger puts Denny’s in top spot again

Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub of Clearfield retook the world record for largest restaurant hamburger on Saturday.

Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s latest salvo in the giant burger wars weighed in at 123 pounds, shattering the previous record of 105 pounds that was held by two restaurants in New Jersey and Thailand.

To create the Bismarck of burgers, Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub used 80 pounds of ground Angus beef, a 30-pound bun baked on the premises, 3 pounds of lettuce, 160 slices of cheese, 10-12 tomatoes, 4-5 onions, several jars of peppers, one pound each of ketchup, mayonnaise, relish and mustard and 30 dill pickle spears. The ingredients alone cost approximately $200, said Denny Leigey, owner of Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub.
…
The burger, named the Beer Barrel Main Event Charity Burger, is now available to all on the menu at a cost of $379. However, it must be ordered three days in advance, said Mr. Leigey.

Here’s a fun little flash game I saw mentioned on paulandemily.com:

Monty Python’s Spamalot

You can play as the English or the Stinky French and catapult cows, chickens, etc. at approaching invaders, including the Black Knight and the Knights of Ni.

Enjoy!

My highest score so far was 2090…

[etv]

For the lack of anything else to post, here’s a quiz:

How Well Traveled Are You?

My results:

***Your Travel Profile:***

You Are Well Traveled in the Midwestern United States (50%)
You Are Well Traveled in the Northeastern United States (43%)
You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in the Western United States (26%)
You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in the Southern United States (23%)
You Are Mostly Untraveled in Canada (20%)
You Are Untraveled in Africa (0%)
You Are Untraveled in Asia (0%)
You Are Untraveled in Australia (0%)
You Are Untraveled in Eastern Europe (0%)
You Are Untraveled in Latin America (0%)
You Are Untraveled in New Zealand (0%)
You Are Untraveled in Scandinavia (0%)
You Are Untraveled in Southern Europe (0%)
You Are Untraveled in Western Europe (0%)
You Are Untraveled in the Middle East (0%)
You Are Untraveled in the United Kingdom (0%)

Gotta get out of the country some more. New Zealand, I’m gunning for ya!

Gollum and Smeagol Sing Barry White

[etv]

From ComingSoon.net – C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters coming to the bigscreen.

Ralph Winter Productions is producing a bigscreen adaptation of the C.S. Lewis novel The Screwtape Letters with Philip Anschutz’s Walden Media, reports Variety. The film will be produced via Walden’s Bristol Bay Productions (Ray, Sahara).

The movie, which Walden hopes to release in 2008, is the company’s second Lewis collaboration following The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which grossed $744 million worldwide. The sequel to that film, “Prince Caspian,” is due out May 16, 2008.

First published in 1942, The Screwtape Letters takes the form of a series of missives from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his wannabe diabolical nephew, Wormwood. As a mentor, Screwtape advises his protege on the finer points of undermining faith and promoting sin. His instructions are interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine.

The book is awesome, very insightful and thought-provoking. It would be awesome to see this as a movie, but I wonder how it’ll be done and if it will turn out well, considering the book is series of letters…

Dating explained using circuits: Smart Guys Date in Parallel.

Two years ago, I posted an entry entitled Find Your Spot in which I listed my top places to live as chosen by my answers to questions on FindYourSpot.com

I decided to take that quiz again. Lots can change over two years – job, age, opinions and feeling on issues, overall mindset, etc. I wanted to see if my “perfect places” to live had changed as well.

Drum roll, please…

• Hopkinsville, Kentucky
• Walla Walla, Washington*
• Morganton, North Carolina
• Mount Airy, North Carolina*
• Paris, Tennessee*
• Wenatchee, Washington
• Hickory, North Carolina
• Berea, Kentucky*
• Maryville, Tennessee*
• Hendersonville, North Carolina
• Charlottesville, Virginia*
• Bremerton, Washington*
• Johnstown, Pennsylvania
• Abingdon, Virginia
• Jamestown, New York
• Whidbey Island/Oak Harbor/Coupeville, Washington*
• Metaline Falls, Washington
• Easton, Pennsylvania
• Clayton, Georgia
• Port Townsend, Washington*
• Culpeper, Virginia*
• Sequim, Washington
• Fredericksburg, Texas
• Littleton, New Hampshire

First thing I noticed was that the list didn’t seem to change all that much. There are 10 that appeared in both lists (marked by *). That’s a little less than half. But of those that differed, many of the new spots are still in the same state as one’s they’ve replaced in the previous list. The biggest difference between the two lists is the removal of all the Alaska locations. (Could this be due to the weather we’re currently having? ) New to the list are locations in Texas, Pennsylvania and New York.

As with the previous list, I’m still mainly clustered in Washington state (7 spots) and the Mid-Atlantic region (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky – 11 spots).

I guess things haven’t really changed all that much. Wonder what the results will be in two more years…

Via Boundless.org: Valentine’s Day by the Numbers

2.2 million
The number of marriages that take place in the United States annually. That breaks down to more than 6,000 a day. <http://www.cdc.gov>

25.3 and 27.1
The estimated U.S. median ages at first marriage for women and men, respectively, in 2005. The age for women rose 4.2 years in the last three decades. The age for men at first marriage is up 3.6 years. <http://www.census.gov>

57% and 60%
The percentages of American women and men, respectively, who are 18 or older and currently married (includes those who are separated). <http://www.census.gov>

72%
Percentage of men and women ages 30 to 34 in 2005 who had been married at some point in their lives -– either currently or formerly.
<http://www.census.gov>

119
Number of single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) who are in their 20s for every 100 single women of the same ages.
<http://www.census.gov>

34
Number of single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) age 65 or older for every 100 single women of the same ages.
<http://www.census.gov>

904
The number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2002. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed nearly 4,300 people and pulled in $489 million in revenues. <http://www.census.gov>