Working

Working for a living in today's businessocracy has become an ugly and stupid game, upgraded from a merely unpleasant game.

Statics

Statics is the branch of physics concerned with physical systems in static equilibrium, that is, in a state where the relative positions of subsystems do not vary over time, or where components and structures are at rest under the action of external forces of equilibrium. When in static equilibrium, the system is either at rest, or moving at constant velocity through its center of mass.

By Newton's second law, this situation implies that the net force and net torque (also known as moment) on every body in the system is zero, meaning that for every force bearing upon a member, there must be an equal and opposite force. From this constraint, such quantities as stress or pressure can be derived. The net forces equalling zero is known as the first condition for equilibrium, and the net torque equalling zero is known as the second condition for equilibrium.

Three things to remember:

• At its most basic, Moment = Force * Distance


• Moments about a point net to zero, and


• You can't push a rope!

What is this all about? Statics is a part of Physics, but my high school included it in Grade 13 Trig. I never know what hit me - but my mark in Trig was well on its way to netting to zero.

Random Numbers

Robert R. Coveyou of Oak Ridge National Laboratory once titled an article, "The Generation of Random Numbers is Too Important to be Left to Chance."

Bread and Circuses

First, we suffered through a decade of who smokes the biggest cigar.

Now, everybody plays poker and , even better, watches televised poker or Celebrity poker. Personally, I'm looking forward to watching Celebrity Solitaire, which promises to be even more exciting.

Wait ... this just in: Celebrities smoking cigars while playing Celebrity Freecell.

A dream come true!!

Books

Reading some excellent books:

• Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell


• Body of Secrets by James Bamford


• Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz by Edward B. Burger & Michael Starbird

World Baseball Classic

Congratulations to winner Team Japan and runner-up Team Cuba.

The rules need tweaking, but the baseball was great.

Team Japan manager Sadaharu Oh:



So, if Team Japan are the World Champions, what is the status of the Chicago White Sox, and their 2006 counterparts?

Final Four

I thought it was a comic book. Who knew?