Redskins kicker John Hall is freaking awesome. You generally don’t see a kicker getting rough like he does. Earlier in the season I remember seeing him completely level a guy on a kickoff return. And now from yesterday’s game recap:
…kicker John Hall elbowed Cardinals defensive end R-Kal Truluck, forcing Truluck to sit out the second half with a bruised jaw.
Violence in sports is so much fun.
Woo and I type at 65 words per minute. How fast do you type?
I read at 253 words per minute. How fast do you read?
Wow, this article just really gets me pumped up and makes me want to do math.
Pierre de Fermat, a famous number theorist of the 17th century, rarely published his work – instead, he would often write comments in the margins of books. In one margin Fermat proposed that xn + yn = zn has no non-zero integer solutions for x, y and z when n > 2. However, rather than providing a proof, he only offered this taunting sentence: “I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this margin is too small to contain.â€
…
“It was so indescribably beautiful,†said Wiles about the moment he solved the problem. “It was so simple and so elegant, and I just stared in disbelief for twenty minutes.†Thus, in 1994 the final proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem was complete, weighing it at 200 pages, more complex than most people can understand.
That second paragraph I quoted is what really gets me pumped up. The “beautiful”, “simple”, and “elegant” part is something you can really appreciate when you love math.
One red paperclip is an amazingly entertaining and creative website. It documents the efforts of one man to start with a red paperclip, and trade up to a better item. He is attempting to continue this process until he ends up with a house. He currently has a snowmobile out of the deal.
You may want to start reading the website from the beginning so it makes more sense. Click on the links on the left of the site to progress through the trades.
I happened to stumble upon this story. It isn’t for the faint of heart. Let’s just say you won’t ever catch me swallowing my gum.
Today, it was announced that Wikipedia is restricting article creation to registered users only. Many might choose to argue one position or the other on this issue. I happen to not feel strongly either way. However, I find the process by which it was decided to be questionable.
A week after being contacted by John Seigenthaler Sr. about an inaccurate article, Jimmy Wales (the founder of Wikipedia) made the change to an official built-in policy of Wikipedia. He logged on to the Wikipedia chat to discuss the change, but it is clear that this was not required prior to making his decision.
Wikipedia is:
a multi-lingual Web-based free-content encyclopedia. It is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing articles to be changed by anyone with an internet connection and added by anyone with a Wikipedia member account.
wikipedia.org
Because of its very nature, it is clear that Wikipedia should not be considered to be owned or controlled by one man alone. Yet this is exactly how some high-level decisions are made.
Of course, this situation would be different if elections were held for every position. Currently, only two of the five members of the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation (the parent organization of Wikipedia) are elected. Jimmy Wales is on the board, but also has additional arbitrary powers over the direction of Wikipedia.
A rudimentary search turned up no substantial results with discussion about the decision making processes and leadership of Wikipedia. This discussion must take place. If it does not take place now, the possibility exists that our community will devolve into something which few of us find acceptable.
Essentially, what is needed is an official handing over of the community to the community. The new structure should also be decided upon by the community. Wikipedia should not continue to run with arbitrary processes governing its decision making. Jimmy Wales may be a “benevolent dictator”, but we cannot rely on his or his successors’ benevolence indefinitely.
Only Alyssa and I will get this . . .
I have written the following letter to Postmaster General John Potter as a follow-up to the letter I sent to the Pine Street post office in San Francisco, to which I have not received a response.
2 December 2005
Postmaster General John E. Potter
U.S. Postal Service
475 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20260Dear Postmaster General Potter:
First of all, I am writing this letter directly to you because I was unable to find a general mailing address for the USPS on the usps.com website. I find this a bit ironic.
On November 2, 2005, I sent a letter (included in this mailing) to my local post office, located at 1400 Pine St. San Francisco, CA 94109-9991, concerning a customer service complaint. I have not yet received a response, which only further adds to my evidence of shoddy customer service at this location.
I understand that the USPS is not motivated by profit, and therefore it may be more difficult to motivate managers to provide good service to the customers. This is the reason I am writing – in the absence of feedback in the form of rising or falling profits, managers have to receive feedback from the customers as far as their performance is concerned.
I hope you will take action to improve the customer service skills of the employees at this location. I would like to hear back from you or someone at my local post office with details on what actions are being taken to improve customer service.Sincerely,
Stuart Matthews
2240 Larkin Street
Apartment 103
San Francisco, CA 94109
**** Original letter to SF post office omitted from this post, because it can be found by clicking here. ****
I have many quirks, some bordering on being obsessive-compulsive. One of my quirks is that I am rather anal about hyphen usage (and to a lesser extent, grammar in general). On that note, I admit that I don’t have perfect grammar. But I do have a great desire to learn how to write and speak clearly.
So it is with deep regret that I annouce that one of my heroes, Ralph Nader, has written an article titled “The Corporate Controlled Media”. Let’s just hope we can blame his webmaster.
Having said that, I just read the article, and I suggest you do the same. Another great read.