Pi With Your Breakfast

This NY Times piece should have ruin on Pi Day, but it is packed with timeless insight.

Comments

[Clarice]

That reminds me--Nothing strikes me as more useless than people trying to memorize the longest string of numbers that constitute pi.

[Sue]

Tom,

Did you catch http://gawker.com/5507891/nyt-fooled-twice-on-april-fools-day>this?

The paper of record fell for two blogs' April Fools' jokes—one required a retraction and one went so far over their heads, the Times sent a publicist to quell an "inaccurate" story. Update: Prankster tells all.

[Clarice]

BTw, I think that article is the simplest, clearest explanation of pi I've ever seen. I sent it to my son to use it to explain pi to my grand daughter when she's older.

[narciso the harpoon]

They can't really be that stupid not too know
what a Mathematical constant, is can they: yes they can

[Captain Hate]

Nothing strikes me as more useless than people trying to memorize the longest string of numbers that constitute pi.

More useless? I submit Michael Steele in the LUN.

[Old Lurker]

I thought we decided last month to simplify things by deeming pi to = 3.0

[narciso the harpoon]

True OL, but it wasn't unanimous. You forget Capt, that Pi actually serves a function

[narciso the harpoon]

So we are supposed to ignore the fact we have 700,000 more discouraged workers than last yeat

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.htm

[Sue]

I should read all of your threads before asking if you saw something. ::grin::

[Charlie (Colorado)]

That reminds me--Nothing strikes me as more useless than people trying to memorize the longest string of numbers that constitute pi.

Personnel vetter in the Obama White House.

[MikeS]

All this effort to determine an exact value for Pi seems irrational.

[Jack is Back!]

The answer can be found here:

h(x)=ln(x)/x

Simple.

Isn't Pi the measurement used to fit FLOTUS' belts? Or is that Pie?

[Ranger]

Isn't Pi the measurement used to fit FLOTUS' belts? Or is that Pie?

Posted by: Jack is Back! | April 05, 2010 at 10:43 AM

Hmm... If it is Pie, then she hasn't been giving up that little bit of her's that she thinks everyone else should so that those without can have more. Deep down she must be a believer in the "make more pie" school.

[Jane]

Daddy is the Pi expert.

[Danube of Thought]

I've always thought calculus was the great divide in the study of math--it puts the mind to a different kind of test than anything that comes before it.

Years ago I read that every student at Notre Dame must take and pass the freshman calculus course in order to remain in school. If that's true, it likely accounts for their inability to win a national championship in football in the past quarter century.

And we can be assured that those knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing goons playing under the hoop for Duke have not mastered calculus.

[Old Lurker]

"that Pi actually serves a function"

Oh come now. Congress could just deem the relationship between the radius of a circle and its circumference to be consistent. What's not to like about that? Obama can make it work, right?

[Clarice]

Another great story, daddy!

[MarkO]

Hey. The manual said there would be no math.

I read today that the Butler team warms up with calculus exercises. I just don't know how a group of basketball "bigs" named Miles and Mason Plumlee can strike fear in anything except an 18th century novel.

If Duke loses I'll have to go into some sort of witness protection program.

[BumperStickerist]

Calculus in 20 minutes -- all that's missing is "are you getting this, camera guy?"

I wish teh interwebs were around when I took Calc.

-

as for "Pi" - when I ask my kids what Pi is, if they give me a value starting with 3.14 ... or 22/7ths, I deny them Xbox360 access. If they answer that Pi is a ratio, then they get ice cream and firecrackers.

.

[Danube of Thought]

Appears the oaf Shuster is in big trouble, which is unambiguously excellent news.

[Paul Zrimsek]

Paul Krugman's next column will explain that pi equals 3 when you're in a liquidity trap.

[Rick Ballard]

"So we are supposed to ignore the fact we have 700,000 more discouraged workers than last year"

That's an easy one to ignore, Narciso. The fact that there were 1,695,000 more people unemployed this March than last March and that 134,000 of that increase occurred in March is a little tougher to ignore.

S'all good though - things are getting worse at a much slower pace. Aside from average income. That's getting worse at an accelerating pace. But that explains why the savings rate is dropping so precipitously, so it's all good!

Somewhere.

[narciso the harpoon]

Moving from the Titanic to the Lusitania, I guess. He's just one step ahead of Rick Sanchez

[Jane]

Years ago I read that every student at Notre Dame must take and pass the freshman calculus course in order to remain in school.

This is a true story that I am not proud of.

Years ago I decided to get my MBA. So I applied, got in and started night school. Everything went fine until the second (or third) term when I had to take mandatory calculus (or was it statistics? It's all the same to me.)

At that point I was 13 years post my last math class, which I took in the 9th grade and which was called "algebra/geometry" for kids too stupid to understand either.

So calculus class begins. I'm in the second to last row - gawd knows why I remember that. At any rate the professor had the thickest accent I've ever heard. He was absolutely incomprehensible - and he's filling the blackboard with all sorts of calculations which are as Greek to me as his speech.

At some point I started to giggle at the surrealism of all this, and to my embarrassment he heard me and turned to me and said: "You should not laugh, this should be common knowledge to you."

It wasn't even in the stratosphere of common knowledge. And as a result, I ended my quest for an MBA shortly thereafter.

DOn't tell anyone.

[Clarice]

I plan to take that online course. I really had a deficient math background and not understanding calculus is something I don't like.

DoT what wonderful news that it.."unambiguously good" as you note. Next crazy legs Matthews.

[Clarice]

Some more good news via Drudge

15.2%: HIGHEST UNEMPLOYMENT FOR YOUNG SINCE 1948...

[DrJ]

Really, Clarice? I love calculus, but for me the real fun started after two or three years of it. I can't imagine starting from scratch, but go for it! Then Physics probably will make more sense to you too!

[narciso the harpoon]

I took an Operations (scheduling) course, that was so torturous, with six different variables in a single equation,well I can see how KSM survived waterboarding

[Clarice]

Well, I have to order the course and figure out when to try it but even if I don't get it all, if I have to take another LSAT maybe it'll help me figure out those questions about cars or trains or whatever traveling at different rates of speed from different directions.

[JM Hanes]

This really took me back! In our household, we were not just scolded for shouting at each other in disagreement, we were not allowed to use certain "tones of voice" -- except at the dinner table where we could argue about anything and everything, and did. We took turns fetching dictionaries or glossaries, in vain appeals to authority of one kind or another when the going got rough. If the issue was political or socially controversial, raised voices and logical fallacies were the order of the day.

The sum of an infinite series eventually became a running family joke. It was a team sport, with my father, the M.I.T. trained chemical engineer, leading the calculus forces, and my mother, the actress provocateur, taking infinite half steps to the wall with the insurgents. Good times!

Even though I can't recall the source of acrimony during the Iran hostage crisis, I do remember once standing up in outrage, leaning over the table, and shouting (!) that I couldn't believe I would ever hear my own father saying what ever it was that I couldn't believe he was saying. When I finally ran out of breath, I noticed that my very reserved, brand new sister-in-law was looking on in horror, clearly wondering what kind of asylum she had checked into.

A decade later, my son posed the question of whether or not your fingers actually touched when you put them together or if there weren't some distance between them at the atomic level which prevented them from combining.....

As for calculus itself, it was an optional course which, alas, I dropped just under the two week deadline when I realized that I would have to keep up on a daily basis, instead of just cramming for the exam.

[Clarice]

Well, if that's how you spent your dinners, no wonder you are so slender, jmh.

As for the latter bit, I, too, confess a marked distaste for courses which required daily effort instead of overnight cramming.

[Soylent Red]

pi equals 3 when you're in a liquidity trap.

It only equals 3 when calculating your profit to earnings ratio. Using any other number will cause you to wrap your Lexus around and olive tree.

[Soylent Red]

Also, OT...

Does anyone own a Kindle or the similar device Barnes and Noble sells?

If so, how does it work and did you do any comparisons before purchase? I need to get one of these things and I'd like some first hand knowledge. Thx.

[JM Hanes]

Clarice:

I just look thin on the Internet.

[jean]

I have a Kindle 2 and love it.I get blogs and books on it.I have lent to a 13yr old and an 80yr old and they both loved it and got their own.

[Clarice]

My husband got the kindle as a birthday present last year. He wasn't sure about it at first, but he loves it. It's great when traveling..think of all that extra book storage space you can forget about.

[jean]

Oh my friends say "don't take them to the beach".You spend too much time protecting them from the sand.

[Old Lurker]

Soy, I was an early adopter of the Sony eReader...and I love it. It and the Kindle were the only players a couple of years ago, and I looked at both and went with the Sony. There are more variables today, but FWIW, here was my logic:

The displays were identical - same screens, same patents, same look...so no difference at all in seeing/reading.

The Kindle connects to Amazon via cell phone technology (free), which means the download is direct from Amazon to the reader from anywhere there is service. To make that happen, there was a small keypad at the bottom of the device.

The Sony uses a delivery mechanism like Apple's iPod: First download from Sony to a computer, then sync your reader to that computer.

Amazon had more titles, but Sony had gazillions too so I gave that a toss-up.

In the end I liked the cleaner look of the Sony (no keypad), I always am within reach of a computer so did not see that as a negative, and I do like to assume each device would fail and enjoyed the knowledge that all my books lived on, and were backed up from, my desktop.

In the end, I read a lot of "guy junk" like cotton candy, and I travel a good bit. Not lugging books around has been wonderful. My reader has 50-75 books on it at any time. I use the Sony store like I used to use Amazon: see a title I like, move it into my shopping basket. At some point in the future buy them all as a batch.

Now were I buying today, I am aware those two and others are into the feature game which would take more study. So far, I just use it for books. Were I interested in periodicals for it (WSJ, eg), then I might consider the one stop connection more useful.

Early reviews of the iPad as a reader are very interesting.

[Old Lurker]

Jean, I disagree with that beach warning. JOMers recall I spend every August on Nantucket and in the past would have Amazon send my saved up basket of (guy junk) to Nantucket - usually about 25 books which I would read on the beach.

First, the way the screen works, the brighter the outside light, the brighter the screen so it is VERY easy to read in the sun. Second, I never have had a single problem with sand. Note the Sony does not have a keypad thus has very few places for sand to make mischief.

Not lugging that stack of books each August is reason enough for the purchase.

[jean]

OL thanks I was just repeating what friends had said.I don't sit on the beach(Too much sand).Glad to know my Kindle will work there.Now when they clear all the sand off the beach I can go and read.

[Sue]

Good grief. Go find the video (you can see it Ace's) of Obama throwing out the 1st pitch. It's worse than the last one.

[Old Lurker]

"I don't sit on the beach (Too much sand)."

Truth be told, I don't disagree with that. But I learned right away when the daughters were brand new that Dads were expected to on the beach and on duty.

Fair enough, I admit, but the girls used to imagine the perfect beach setting for Dad. I think they had it designed as an astroturf carpet, an umbrella with roll down clear plastic sides, an air conditioner, and a sherpa to lug it all to the dunes.

[Sue]

"A little high and outside," Obama remarked after his pitch.

Yeah. A little high and a little outside. The catcher had to jump to catch it. He needs to stop throwing out first pitches. He's awful.

[jean]

OL that sounds like a beach I would like.I would also like a private restroom.ANN I did see that pitch.My kids at 10 would have know enough to be humiliated by such a throw

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

It's amazing what qualifies as news.

[Paul Zrimsek]

Obama blamed the high, wide pitch on unnamed Tea Partiers who he claimed had been spitting on the ball.

[peter]

Egads, what a sissy. (LUN)

[Old Lurker]

Gag me.

And we thought there was a difference between the parties.

Quote from Newsmax: "Steele, who attributed his problems to 'unnamed Republicans who don't like me,' was asked if he felt he has a smaller margin of error than others because he's black. 'The honest answer is yes. It just is,' the former Maryland lieutenant governor said. 'Barack Obama has a slimmer margin than others.' "

[Danube of Thought]

those questions about cars or trains or whatever traveling at different rates of speed from different directions.

Algebra should do the trick.

I've thoroughly enjoyed my Kindle, especially the automatic download from Amazon--takes about 30 seconds to download a novel, and most are $9.95, though I just downloaded an Anthony Trollope for free. I got it because it allows me to enlarge the font to where I can read it comfortably, which I no longer can do with normal printing.

My stepson got an I-pad the other day and I'm going to get one as soon as the 3G models come out. My understanding is that its library is 60,000 books, whereas Kindle has 250,000.

[JM Hanes]

jean:

"I don't sit on the beach(Too much sand)."

Kindred spirit! I hit the beach for a dawn walkabout, and then hit the shady, screened in, porch. I love the coast, but give me those New England rocks.

[narciso the harpoon]

Wth, was that, lets go back to the videotape

[Strawman Cometh]

I saw that, OL. Who do we call to get Steele removed?

[JM Hanes]

Jeez! Michael Steele, playing the race card. Don't that just beat all? If he wants to grade himself on the Obama curve, I'd have to give Obama credit for trying to undercut the other guys' party, not his own. American Crossroads can't get their website up fast enough for me.

[PDinDetroit]

"A little high and outside," Obama remarked after his pitch.

Maybe he should try rolling it to home plate instead. Remind me again, how was he at bowling?

[Clarice]

Looks like the press is starting to realize they were had about the tea party:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304017404575165793481404002.html#printMode>a strange new respect

[Clarice]

Anytime you're free DoT you can show me how to work out the time/distance problem. You can never tell when I'll be tested on it again.

[jimmyk]

Oy, he really does throw like a girl. What an embarrassment. (As if he wasn't already.)

[peter]

Ras at only minus 7 today. Best in two months. Grrrrrrrr

[Clarice]

Peter, BBall and Easter..fuggedabout it

From Insty:

RICK MORAN: Media’s Tea Party Narrative Just Jumped The Shark. “Gallup actually gives better numbers for party affiliation than the GOP leaning Winston Group; 48% Republican and 43% independent with 8% self identified Democrats. And did Gallup really measure 32% of all Democrats in America supporting the tea partiers? Ooops. There goes the narrative.”

[daddy]

If I can foolishly make some probably erroneous long winded comments, which you guys probably all know way better than me anyway...

Not to get too Biblical or anything, but there is a supposed value for Pi in the Old Testament, which at various times can lead to heated cockpit arguments depending on who you happen to be flying with.

In First Kings 7:23 we learn all about King Solomon's bathtub.

"He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it"

As I heard it once heatedly discussed in the cockpit, the aggressive atheist/agnostic trying to attack the literal Fundamentalist came out with "Why does it say here in the Bible that Solomon's round bathtub is 30 cubits in circumference but 10 cubits across. Isn't that bogus math in the Bible, thus proving your Bible is bogus?"

Initially the Fundy's rejoinder was that "maybe it wasn't perfectly round", countered by "But it says it was circular in shape---is the text flawed?"

This led to "Well maybe the lip extended inward over the edge making it exactly equal to 10 cubits, allowing the math to work."

This was guffawed and argued etc, until they finally arived at the ultimate question where all these sort of arguments eventually lead to; "Could God have changed the value of PI through history? Did every circle always have to have a value of PI equals 3.141592...or could God because he's God create a perfect circle with a Pi ratio value exactly equal to 3 to 1?"

This broke down into "Yes he could, because God is the creator, he is not the servant of Math, Math is the servant of God, so God could have made a perfect circle with a 3 to 1 Pi Ratio."

The other guy is on the side of "Math is the Master and God has to play by Math's rules, therefore if there is a God he isn't omnipotent and the Bible is flawed."

Thus nastiness and anger flourished in the workspace to no good result, which is why I try to prevent such conversation and stick to other topics, and especially long for the days when you could bring along a copy of Playboy and pass it around without fear of the Equal Opportunity Nazi's castigating you for such sensible literature.

Anyhow, If I understand it correctly, the above argument of who's in charge, God or Math, is a recapitulation of Al Gazhili's argument that in my view was so detrimental to Islamic Science. In about 1100 he argues very effectively and persuasively, like the Fundamentalist in this case, that God has no limits. He could make it 3 to 1 at any instant, and in fact at every instant is recreating the entire Universe, and our meager powers of perception are faulty when we accept the Aristotle's and Science of the Greeks based on 'Cause and Effect'. Cause and Effect thinking does not exist in reality, because it places limits on God the Creator. He just appears to our foolish minds to generally act in Cause and Effect simply because he chooses to do so, but it's really bogus and offensive to God to think he is subject to such a thing, therefore quit teaching such 'Cause and Effect' Science nonsense to the masses and instead turn away from Science and toward all you can really know about God, which comes through memorization of the Koran and Mosque lectures and Sufi sort of ecstasies etc, but get Science the heck out of here. Thus a large scale mental brake is placed upon Islamic Science---not everywhere (ala the courtyards of Islamic Spain), but in large areas of the Islamic world, and naturally such thinking is welcomed by many hard line leaders of the Mosques intent on controlling the thoughts of large masses of the population.

Anyhow, thats my current perception of philosophically why Islam didn't run the table scientific revolution wise when they had the whole thing laid out for them plus the brand new Hindu numbers 0- 10, and why Acquinas should get big kudo's for convincing the Church in the 1200's to allow in re-translated Aristotle. He figured it would be a 3rd way to learn about Gods creation, along with Scripture and Revelation, thinking incipient science in future would help buttress the truth of the Bible, not question it. At least that's my muddled current understanding.

As for me, I like Galileo's statement best: "The Bible doesn't teach us how the Heaven's go, but how to go to Heaven.

Please take all that with a big grain of salt and would love to have some recommendations for decent reads that might show my errors and educate me better about it all.

The more interesting question for me anyway about Solomon's bathtub comes from First Kings 7: 26:

"It was a handbreadth in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held two thousand baths."

It held 2,000 Baths? Does this mean it was the same bathtub water 2,000 straight times before they drained and refilled it? Yuck.

[Jack is Back!]

Kindle Rocks!

Got mine for Christmas and have not read a paper book since then. Have read everything from "Courting Disaster" to Randy Wade White's latest Doc Ford "Deep Shadow". Only thing I have a concern about is you don't get great photos, diagrams, visuals like you get with certain historical or non-fiction books but I can get over that. Had a problem with ordering The Corner blog. I would never synch and send me the daily edition. I went two weeks without it being updated. Finally, I gave up on that and said I would just resort to the laptop for the blogs, mags and papers.

Jane, sounds like you were taking Stats as precursor to Econometrics in your MBA class. Nothing like someone with an ESL instructor trying to explain linear regression and least squares to returning students. Not fair.

[Old Lurker]

Well Daddy, the answer is obvious. Cubit was the distance between body parts as I recall. Maybe one guy's cubit was used for the diameter and another guy for the circumference? Or, not recalling which body part was involved, maybe one was measured on a very cold day...or after using the tub with some of the slave girls?

[Charlie (Colorado)]

My stepson got an I-pad the other day and I'm going to get one as soon as the 3G models come out. My understanding is that its library is 60,000 books, whereas Kindle has 250,000.

There's a Kindle app for iPad.

[Clarice]

daddy, it's always safe to claim a mistranslation and suggest one must go to the original for accuracy.

I think those who have re the Ark have made a persuasive case that it was some sort of elemental capacitor. I always thought so when as a kid I read in Mr Garfinckel's Hebrew class that the soldier who touched the ark to keep it from falling died. Either God was a very perverse being or the ark had some electrical charge which when touched inside the moleskin covering was dangerous.

[Danube of Thought]

The change in the Raz index has come entirely from an icrease in Strong Approval from the leftists.

[Frau Ostermontag]

"Well, if that's how you spent your dinners, no wonder you are so slender, jmh." Uh, Clarice, it did not work out that way for me. And yes, jmh, is slender and *tall*. I think if you stood on my shoulders, you might look directly in her eyes.

I love my kindle and have the IBD on it for my husband although we both read the articles. I started reading so much and so quickly that I finally bought a novel by Halldór Laxness to slow me down. It worked.
I cannot see how the iPad would improve my life. My needs are fairly simple.

[narciso the harpoon]

Actually jimmyk you can't even really say that, in the LUN

[daddy]

Feynman on Calculus:

Algebra for the Practical Man:

My cousin, at that time, who was 3 years older, was in high school and was having considerable difficulty with his algebra and had a tutor come , and I was allowed to sit in a corner while (Laughs) the Tutor would try to teach my cousin algebra, problems like 2x plus something. I said to my cousin then, "What're you trying to do?" You know, I hear him talking about x. He says, "What do you Know, -2x + 7 is equal to 15." he says "and you're trying to find out what x is." I says, "You mean 4." He says, "Yeah, but you did it with arithmetic, you have to do it with algebra," and that's why my cousin was never able to do algebra, because he didn't understand how he was supposed to do it. There was no way. I learnt algebra fortunately by not going to school and knowing the whole idea was to find out what x was and it didn't make any difference how you did it---there's no such thing as, you know, you do it by arithmetic, you do it by algebra---that was a false thing that they had invented in school so that the children who have to study algebra can all pass it. They had invented a set of rules which if you followed them without thinking could produce the answer: subtract 7 from both sides, if you have a multiplier divide both sides by the multiplier and so on, and a series of steps by which you could get the answer if you didn't understand what you were trying to do.

There was a series of Math books, which started Arithmetic for the Practical Man, and then Algebra for the Practical Man, and then Trigonometry for the Practical Man, and I learned trigonometry for the practical man from that. I soon forgot it again because I didn't understand it very well but the series was coming out, and the Library was going to get Calculus for the Practical Man and I knew by this time reading the Encyclopedia that calculus was an important subject and it was an interesting one and I ought to learn it. I was older now, I was perhaps thirteen; and then the calculus book finally came out and I was so excited and I went to the Library to take it out and she looks at me and she says "Oh, you're just a child, what are you taking this book out for, this book is a book for Adults." So this was one of the few times in my life I was uncomfortable and I lied and I said it was for my father, he selected it. So I took it home and I learnt calculus from it and I tried to explain it to my father and he'd start to read the beginning of it and he found it confusing and it really bothered me a little bit.I didn't know that he was so limited, you know, that he didn't understand, and I thought it was relatively simple and straightforward and he didn't understand it. So that was the first time I knew I had learnt more in some sense than he.

[Clarice]

You mean 2x +7=15 (not-2x) don't you, daddy? Or have I gone somletely aroud the bend. (And I love Feynman, too.)

[Clarice]

**completely around the bend**(LOL)

[daddy]

Sorry Clarice, I touched the keyboard with the moleskin covering off:)

[Clarice]

Well, I'm grateful there's another explanation that doesn't involve my being demented.

[Sue]

My grandfather used to try to help me with my algebra. He would look at the problem and tell me the answer. He would then say don't ask me to explain to your teacher how I got there. I just know that is the answer. He was right. It was the correct answer. But I had to show the teacher how we got it. ::sigh:: I did not inherit his mathematical skills.

[Porchlight]

Obama's ego knows no bounds. Here are his remarks on his carpy first pitch:

“You know what breaks your heart on these; you’re down there practicing, throwing a punch, throwing strikes. Heat. Come out here, the thing slips out of your hand a little bit. It’s heartbreaking.”

The president predicted that if he had a whole inning, he’d “clean up”.

What a jerk. Can't he just make a joke and goof on himself a little? Oh yeah, he might accidentally insult Special Olympians.

[Old Lurker]

Might have told this story before. My wife is...is it left brain or right brain?...but she is terrible at math. Her dad was an (West Point) engineer, and insisted on teaching her nineteen ways to solve every problem...using salt and pepper shakers and other dinner table props. Always ended in tears with her crying "I just want to know ONE way to do the stupid problem."

To this day she hates Salt & Pepper shakers.

But she loves calculators.

[Old Lurker]

So where's the baby, Porch???

[bgates]

"A little high and outside," Obama remarked after his pitch.

No, buddy, you were a little high at Columbia.

And possibly Springfield.

That pitch was unemployment-high. Deficit-high.
"The country's on the wrong track"-high. "Number of allies slighted for no good reason, or even a bad one"-high.

That pitch was so high it could shove Michelle out of the way to get to a bag of Cheetos.

It was "amount of fees, duties, and other bullshit synonyms we're all going to have to pay next year so you can keep saying "I didn't raise anybody's taxes," like anybody believes a damn word out of your damn lying mouth", high.

That pitch was so high...
How high was it?
That pitch was so high, Doc just gave it a spot in the band - and it doesn't even have an instrument. (Hiyo!)

After the pitcher jumped up and caught the ball, he asked it, "so do you think you'll vote for Obama again?" And it said, "Hell, I was high, I'm not stupid."

[Porchlight]

Taking his/her time, OL. Fine by me! :)

[MaryW]

Daddy,

Don't forget to add in the grout. Without grout everything leaks. There also had to be some angle cuts in order to create that circle.

[Ignatz]

--Might have told this story before. My wife is...is it left brain or right brain?...but she is terrible at math.--

It's right brain, OL.
I'm fine with geometry or anything that involves spatial visualizing, but abstract math is a veritable Burmese tiger trap for me.

LOL, bgates.

[caro]

I notice he lost the mom jeans.

[Old Lurker]

I'm wired the same way as you, Iggy. So how my daughter can do Calc IV in college did not come from me, nor would I have thought Mrs. L. Hmmm.

[Old Lurker]

Porch, after cleaning behind the kitchen appliances, I am told clorox and an old toothbrush works well on grout behind tilets.

[Old Lurker]

...toilets...geezh

[Clarice]

From your mom, OL..It skipped a generation.
BTW do you really clean behind your kitchen appliances?

[laura]

Make a paste with oxyclean and brush it on. Then just leave it alone for a couple hours.
The oxyclean takes the scrubbing out of it and gets the grout a lot cleaner.

[Old Lurker]

"BTW do you really clean behind your kitchen appliances?"

That's a joke, right? Only crazy pregnant ladies do that, ever.

[Porchlight]

Hey, if a sentimental borderline hoarder like me can get the nesting urge to the point where I am willing to give up vintage dresses I've owned for twenty years in order to organize the closet, then cleaning behind the kitchen appliances cannot be far away.

And I was eyeing the bathtub grout angrily the other day, so thanks for the tips!

[Old Lurker]

"I was eyeing the bathtub grout angrily the other day"

So what's with Mr. Porch? Not good for anything?

[Clarice]

OL, good thing you came clean about that cleaning regime..

[Danube of Thought]

I think we got some people here who are quite sick.

[Clarice]

DoT, that Taranto business about the press beginning to backstroke from the meme about the racist, homophobic knuckle dragging tea partiers is the best news of the day.

[Porchlight]

So what's with Mr. Porch? Not good for anything?

Well...I am loath to say anything but...all the cleaning and organizing seems to have fallen to me. Strangely enough. :)

[Soylent Red]

Thanks all for the Kindle advice. Going to a top o' the line one on payday. Does anyone know if they make cases to protect the screen from crushing/scratching/schmutz?

[Porchlight]

More re: the first pitch - comment from HotAir which I can't confirm:

Levin just played a funny clip. Obama visited the broadcast booth at the game and could not name a single White Sox player when asked who his favorite player was when he was younger.

And he still calls it “Cominskey.

What a buffoon.

NebCon on April 5, 2010 at 6:18 PM

[Jane says obamasucks]

BGates,

can I repost that at You Too?

[narciso the harpoon]

Are we sure he's from Chicago,

[sbw]

Soylent, what do you mean by top of the line? The big one?

Ask yourself two questions. How will you carry it? How will you connect?

I have a Kindle 2 and like the pocketbook size. Get the standard Amazon, flip top black leather case to protected it. It clips on and folds back all the way to read. I like my Kindle very much.

The big kindle is more recent, but what does it give you? Harder to carry. You aren't often reading newspapers.

If I were getting big, I'd consider the iPad over the Big Kindle. Just toyed with one today. Serious applications. Visible in the full sun.

The Kindle connects by computer or cellphone wireless. It was a gift, thankfully. Too expensive for me. But the classics were what I wanted and easily available on the Kindle. I like the screen better than the Sony.

If carrying is a real problem, the iTouch--the size of the iPhone-- with Eucalyptus gives you very readable classics in the palm of your hand.

so, pay attention to your environment before you pay attention to the technology.

[Melinda Romanoff]

narciso-

Cominsky, Alinsky, whatever...

[bgates]

Jane, go 'head.