I'm thinking of creating myself a bumper sticker featuring a picture of Mr. Don'T smirking one of his goofier facial expressions, alongside "Show compassion for dementia. But DON'T ELECT IT!" Anyone who wants to copy the idea is encouraged to run with it.
I've never called it by that new name. I still find it grating to the ear. And FWIW the previous name was Washington National Airport, so as far as I'm concerned, it had already been named after a much greater President.
If he were to just guess, the deserted man would have a 2 in 3 shot of living. This is of course NOT the answer. But he knows he has to take two pills a day. The color of the first one doesn’t matter. Then there are three pills left - two are the color he should take to live, one is the color that’ll kill him. So he has a 2 in 3 chance of picking the right one. The next day, he either takes the two remaining pills, or he’s already croaked.
If he guesses, it's only a 50% chance. There are four blind-pick outcomes, two of which are fatal: a red and a blue; a red and a red; a blue and a red; a blue and a blue.
But there are two reds and two blues so there are twice as many red/blue and blue/red pairings as there are same color pairings. You are correct about the number of possibilities, but they are not all equally probable.
Dang, you're right. This is like the Monty Hall paradox: probabilities don't always make intuitive sense. Picking one from a set of four and then a second from a set of three means 12 possible permutations, but in this case only four of them are death.
I’d stay in at the $6.66 price. But could you back off on the White Sox stuff? And I was disappointed to be so thoroughly outvoted on the phone gags. Try not to overdo that, okay?
I don't see the allure in rooting for a historically bad White Sox season, but it did cheer me up that the Sox pounded the Yankees. But then I'm always lifted up by a Yankees defeat.
Hmm. I thought you might have a point and that my knowledge of English was sorely lacking. So I did look up "marooned." The first definition used this example: "A novel about schoolboys marooned on a desert island." So, yes. As to being on a desert island without water, yes, a person can survive without water for an average of three days, but the time it takes to die from dehydration varies depending on several factors. "In a hot environment, an adult can lose up to 1.5 liters of sweat per hour." I still think he'd better think about water before anything else.
I couldn't let this installment of the triweekly celebration of anal retentiveness pass without noting that today is the doubtless grudgingly declared "International Lefthanders Day" for those historically cursed sinistral souls whose very handedness gives us the word "sinister." History is replete, across a variety of cultures, with superstitions, negative associations, and cultural beliefs dealing with the left-handed. In the Middle Ages, it could get you burned at the stake as automatically assumed to be practicing witchcraft or being the Devil's disciple. In Islamic, as well as Hindu and some African cultures, using the left-hand for certain things is considered rude and, moreover, the left hand is generally considered “unclean” and reserved solely for um...“hygienic” purposes. However, for no particular reason other than it being a presidential election year, I note that ten presidents were "lefties," including those who were on the right side of the political spectrum. These include an ambidextrous Jefferson and Garfield, and Wilson, who was forced to learn how to write with his left hand after a stroke. In fact, other than being forced to use their left hand out of necessity, there is research indicating being right brain hemisphere dominant may make the left-handed, if not always more effective leaders, more effective political candidates. So, join me in offering left-handed compliments to the put upon portsiders.
I was too late getting in my guess on the pills thing, so here it is. Around sunset (which a blind person should be able to feel), most of the light is red, and this will be absorbed by the blue pill and reflected by the red pill. So as long as the pills can be taken at sunset, leave them out on a rock and take one warmer pill and one cooler pill on the first day, then you are good for the second day as well.
Unlike the official answer, this works even if it's the kind of pill that you can't break because it has an enteric coating that is meant to let it survive your stomach acid and get released in the intenstines.
Technically it is still "Washington National Airport" but "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport." Speaking of bad ideas for airports, wonder what became of that bill to rename Dulles, the "Donald J. Trump International Airport (and Gift Shop)?" Okay, I added the "Gift Shop" for credibility. Obviously, the members of the party formerly known as Republican who introduced the House bill got tired of playing Fortnite on their phones for a couple of minutes and finally decided to do something to demonstrate they deserved their constituents' votes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
When an opinion piece ("Trump Is Looking Like a Loser Again," Aug. 12) in the Murdoch-owned WSJ leads off with,"We need to talk about Donald," you know there's trouble in paradise.
The riddle should have said that the pills were identical except for color, rather than specify only size, shape, imprint, and smell. Several other ways to distinguish pills—texture, weight, etc.
But that’s not how riddles work. All those conditions you just listed are “maybes”. You still have to account for the possible scenarios in which they turn out to be “aren’ts”.
Well, that’s like just your opinion, man. Seriously, you must think a lot of riddles suck. In the present case, my answer can be inferred because the joke goes out of its way to mention smell, etc exclusively. If the joke had been slightly rephrased as I suggested, I’d agree with you.
The “right” answers given do require assumptions that aren’t stated or even are contradicted in the text.
Original riddle says “To stay alive, the man must take exactly one red pill and exactly one blue pill each day, no more, no less; if he doesn’t do that, he will die.”
Both “solutions” (halving and mixing) require dividing of pills or mixed powders “exactly” in half. Hard to do for the sighted, let alone the blind.
So the solutions require assuming a superhuman halving ability, or that “exactly” in the riddle was hyperbole.
"SELL THE TEAM, JERRY. Sell it to a benevolent local billionaire -- we have a few -- who will see the team's fans as more than just a series of graduated entries on a spreadsheet. Sell it to a consortium of former players. . . "
Just don't sell it to John Henry, founder and the principal owner of Fenway Sports Group (FSG), a global sports, marketing, media, entertainment, and real estate company anchored by three iconic clubs, the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool Football Club, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. None of which he's willing to spend a nickel on. ("Hey, Red Sox, fans, I already got ya 4 World Series -- ain't that enough?" No, it ain't enough -- not enough to make up for 86 empty years.)
And now he's one of the people trying to buy the Boston Celtics and run THEM into the ground. The man does not want to spend a penny on any players -- his whole "empire" (which includes the Boston Globe, by the way) is just some of way of making money by avoiding taxes or something.
That’s very subjective and OK. But I’m a Sawx fan who believes we’re finally building the right way and we have some minor league pieces still to develop.
I also laud in our context here that the Boston Globe is run very benevolently in relation to the Washington Post. We have a Sunday magazine, it covers regional travel and the arts, even Tanglewood and Becket for the symphony and dance. And has a world class sports page.
Haw. You know what I mean. The trading deadline has passed and we are stuck with picking up waived or non-playing pieces for the moment. I think everyone agrees we have to trade a big piece for a big pitcher in the offseason.
Not only would I be willing to pay more for the Gene Pool, I actually did pay an unnecessarily high amount. I won't say what that amount is -- but the raised rate that Gene suggests is not yet there. However, I have now been retired for five weeks now, and I'm not sure I would want to go that high again.
I'm thinking of creating myself a bumper sticker featuring a picture of Mr. Don'T smirking one of his goofier facial expressions, alongside "Show compassion for dementia. But DON'T ELECT IT!" Anyone who wants to copy the idea is encouraged to run with it.
I am with you regarding National Airport. Never have, never will call that airport anything else.
I've never called it by that new name. I still find it grating to the ear. And FWIW the previous name was Washington National Airport, so as far as I'm concerned, it had already been named after a much greater President.
If he were to just guess, the deserted man would have a 2 in 3 shot of living. This is of course NOT the answer. But he knows he has to take two pills a day. The color of the first one doesn’t matter. Then there are three pills left - two are the color he should take to live, one is the color that’ll kill him. So he has a 2 in 3 chance of picking the right one. The next day, he either takes the two remaining pills, or he’s already croaked.
If he guesses, it's only a 50% chance. There are four blind-pick outcomes, two of which are fatal: a red and a blue; a red and a red; a blue and a red; a blue and a blue.
But there are two reds and two blues so there are twice as many red/blue and blue/red pairings as there are same color pairings. You are correct about the number of possibilities, but they are not all equally probable.
Dang, you're right. This is like the Monty Hall paradox: probabilities don't always make intuitive sense. Picking one from a set of four and then a second from a set of three means 12 possible permutations, but in this case only four of them are death.
Believe me, I had to work through that one the hard way ever so many years ago to be able to see this one today.
Sam’s got it right
Had to happen sooner or later.
I’d stay in at the $6.66 price. But could you back off on the White Sox stuff? And I was disappointed to be so thoroughly outvoted on the phone gags. Try not to overdo that, okay?
I don't see the allure in rooting for a historically bad White Sox season, but it did cheer me up that the Sox pounded the Yankees. But then I'm always lifted up by a Yankees defeat.
Hmm. I thought you might have a point and that my knowledge of English was sorely lacking. So I did look up "marooned." The first definition used this example: "A novel about schoolboys marooned on a desert island." So, yes. As to being on a desert island without water, yes, a person can survive without water for an average of three days, but the time it takes to die from dehydration varies depending on several factors. "In a hot environment, an adult can lose up to 1.5 liters of sweat per hour." I still think he'd better think about water before anything else.
I couldn't let this installment of the triweekly celebration of anal retentiveness pass without noting that today is the doubtless grudgingly declared "International Lefthanders Day" for those historically cursed sinistral souls whose very handedness gives us the word "sinister." History is replete, across a variety of cultures, with superstitions, negative associations, and cultural beliefs dealing with the left-handed. In the Middle Ages, it could get you burned at the stake as automatically assumed to be practicing witchcraft or being the Devil's disciple. In Islamic, as well as Hindu and some African cultures, using the left-hand for certain things is considered rude and, moreover, the left hand is generally considered “unclean” and reserved solely for um...“hygienic” purposes. However, for no particular reason other than it being a presidential election year, I note that ten presidents were "lefties," including those who were on the right side of the political spectrum. These include an ambidextrous Jefferson and Garfield, and Wilson, who was forced to learn how to write with his left hand after a stroke. In fact, other than being forced to use their left hand out of necessity, there is research indicating being right brain hemisphere dominant may make the left-handed, if not always more effective leaders, more effective political candidates. So, join me in offering left-handed compliments to the put upon portsiders.
Trump actually has a scary reason for his seemingly senseless harping on fake fake crowd sizes. He’s setting up another fact-free election denial.
I was too late getting in my guess on the pills thing, so here it is. Around sunset (which a blind person should be able to feel), most of the light is red, and this will be absorbed by the blue pill and reflected by the red pill. So as long as the pills can be taken at sunset, leave them out on a rock and take one warmer pill and one cooler pill on the first day, then you are good for the second day as well.
Unlike the official answer, this works even if it's the kind of pill that you can't break because it has an enteric coating that is meant to let it survive your stomach acid and get released in the intenstines.
Technically it is still "Washington National Airport" but "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport." Speaking of bad ideas for airports, wonder what became of that bill to rename Dulles, the "Donald J. Trump International Airport (and Gift Shop)?" Okay, I added the "Gift Shop" for credibility. Obviously, the members of the party formerly known as Republican who introduced the House bill got tired of playing Fortnite on their phones for a couple of minutes and finally decided to do something to demonstrate they deserved their constituents' votes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
When an opinion piece ("Trump Is Looking Like a Loser Again," Aug. 12) in the Murdoch-owned WSJ leads off with,"We need to talk about Donald," you know there's trouble in paradise.
That dogs-as-middle-aged-men thing is truly hilarious.
Well, I’d pay a lot of money to continue to not have to understand what all those acronyms mean or what my responsibilities with them were.
The riddle should have said that the pills were identical except for color, rather than specify only size, shape, imprint, and smell. Several other ways to distinguish pills—texture, weight, etc.
But that’s not how riddles work. All those conditions you just listed are “maybes”. You still have to account for the possible scenarios in which they turn out to be “aren’ts”.
Many riddles and puzzles work this way: albatross soup, dead man with pieces of wood under his bed, etc.
Well, that’s like just your opinion, man. Seriously, you must think a lot of riddles suck. In the present case, my answer can be inferred because the joke goes out of its way to mention smell, etc exclusively. If the joke had been slightly rephrased as I suggested, I’d agree with you.
Fair enough. But if the answer had been “the red pills feel slippery and the blue ones are more chalky”, I’d have felt cheated.
A lot of riddles do suck, as it happens.
Not familiar with those, but if they require assumptions that cannot be known from the text of the riddle itself, they suck.
The “right” answers given do require assumptions that aren’t stated or even are contradicted in the text.
Original riddle says “To stay alive, the man must take exactly one red pill and exactly one blue pill each day, no more, no less; if he doesn’t do that, he will die.”
Both “solutions” (halving and mixing) require dividing of pills or mixed powders “exactly” in half. Hard to do for the sighted, let alone the blind.
So the solutions require assuming a superhuman halving ability, or that “exactly” in the riddle was hyperbole.
You’re assuming the correct answer has to be easy to perform.
"SELL THE TEAM, JERRY. Sell it to a benevolent local billionaire -- we have a few -- who will see the team's fans as more than just a series of graduated entries on a spreadsheet. Sell it to a consortium of former players. . . "
Just don't sell it to John Henry, founder and the principal owner of Fenway Sports Group (FSG), a global sports, marketing, media, entertainment, and real estate company anchored by three iconic clubs, the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool Football Club, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. None of which he's willing to spend a nickel on. ("Hey, Red Sox, fans, I already got ya 4 World Series -- ain't that enough?" No, it ain't enough -- not enough to make up for 86 empty years.)
And now he's one of the people trying to buy the Boston Celtics and run THEM into the ground. The man does not want to spend a penny on any players -- his whole "empire" (which includes the Boston Globe, by the way) is just some of way of making money by avoiding taxes or something.
He better not walk down any street I'M on. . .
That’s very subjective and OK. But I’m a Sawx fan who believes we’re finally building the right way and we have some minor league pieces still to develop.
I also laud in our context here that the Boston Globe is run very benevolently in relation to the Washington Post. We have a Sunday magazine, it covers regional travel and the arts, even Tanglewood and Becket for the symphony and dance. And has a world class sports page.
"I’m a Sawx fan who believes we’re finally building the right way. . . " Rich Hill??? Really???
Haw. You know what I mean. The trading deadline has passed and we are stuck with picking up waived or non-playing pieces for the moment. I think everyone agrees we have to trade a big piece for a big pitcher in the offseason.
Not only would I be willing to pay more for the Gene Pool, I actually did pay an unnecessarily high amount. I won't say what that amount is -- but the raised rate that Gene suggests is not yet there. However, I have now been retired for five weeks now, and I'm not sure I would want to go that high again.