Happy Thanksgivukkah!

Here's a roundup of a few news stories that quoted me about "Thanksgivukkah."

• Wall Street Journal, Oct. 3, 2013
• Albany Times Union, Oct. 14, 2013
• Toronto Star, Nov. 1, 2013
• The Jewish Week, Nov. 19, 2013
• The Algemeiner, Nov. 26, 2013

It's also been picked up in assorted blogs.

I assume this will quiet down for a few years, until 2070, when the first night of Hanukkah falls out on Thanksgiving.

Anachronistic Subway Advertising

The other week I saw this stupid ad on the subway [click to embiggen]:

Aside from the fact that I'm not sure this is a map of Brooklyn:

And that, even if it is, it's a highway map and unlikely to be helpful to two hipsters who got lost walking around Brooklyn streets.

Ignoring all that, when is the last time you saw people walking around carrying a full-size, physical, paper map of where they are? I think most people just pull out their cellphones and use their favorite map 'app'.

I am reminded of this modern superhero, Guy With a Cellphone Man!

Loading Ready Run: The Hero We Deserve

Hello From Yesterday

My normal day to post is Tuesday.  For my brothers it is now Wednesday.  I say for my brothers because I have not lived on the East Coast for almost two months.  In fact I have moved.  I now live in sunny Southern California.

 A picture I took on the way.

I moved to CA for a job with the Navy.  So I now live and work on the West Coast where it is still Tuesday, so happy yesterday to all of you Tommorowers.

The local fauna of Walmarts are somewhat different out here.

I will leave you with a picture of the first things I baked since I moved.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong was amazing, it seemed like there were no suburbs, just skyscrapers and jungle.

Definitely lots of business happening, this was at the LED lighting trade show.

3rd Grade Math Fail

A friend sent me this question from a 3rd grade math assignment:

I'm not even going to start on the stupidity of these sorts of 'plug and chug' assignments. This teacher is teaching something that goes beyond nonsense (just what is a "multiplication sentence" anyway?!?), and is just plain wrong! The phrase 'six times three' means the exact same thing as 'three times six'. Multiplication is (generally) commutative. Furthermore, the following should also be perfectly valid multiplication sentences deserving of full credit:

• 1*18
• 2*9
• (√18)*(√18)
• -18i*Exp[i*pi/2]

No wonder so many kids think they're "not good at math." They're being taught mindless drivel -- that doesn't even have the small benefit of being, at least, correct. And they've certainly never learned math.

New York, Massachubatds

Just following up on Eli's post, here you can see the sweatshirt in its natural habitat.