xkcd

mathmannix

My Dad still makes fun of how I pronounced Monopoly the first time (with mo, no, po all rhyming with no). I'm still trying to learn where the syllables and stresses are in Aeropostale. I don't think I've ever said it out loud, because I know I'm probably wrong, but I've always mentally pronounced t...

mathmannix

Ditto, I also really thought I posted in here before. Oh well... I'm a bit fuzzy on the exact rules, but if we're going with "first pet specifically assigned to be mine" then I'd be Midnight Foxwood or Pumpkin Foxwood . There were two at the same time. (No points for guessing their colors....

mathmannix

Now I look at these prices these appetisers seem really cheap (even though they seem more like bar snacks than appetisers), was that normal in 2007 or are US restaurants just cheap compared to western Europe? Well... CPI for the Boston area shows July 2007 (when this comic came out) to have a (some...

mathmannix

Do children really ask "Why is the sky blue?"? I mean, sure this sounds like a typical question a precocious child might ask, and my own personal children are probably too young to wonder something like that, but in my experience, children generally accept things you tell them, until thing...

mathmannix

/skj/ is a pretty complicated consonant cluster. There are no perfect comparisons to lend one particular pronunciation more weight ("Cuba" is a Spanish proper noun, "CUNY" is an acronym and not widely known, neither starts with an s, and "skew" is spelled with a differ...

mathmannix

OK, let's say that Helena's daughter Marie Louise had married and had two sons, neither of whom had hemophilia. How could I calculate her probability, because it changes her mother's probability? It would change all the probabilities, of course. Helena still originally had a 50% chance of inheriting...

mathmannix

So then can I say that there's a 1/32 chance that her daughters were carriers?
But it doesn't change the sons' probabilities of having gotten it to 1/32 because that would be circular, so they're still at 25%?

mathmannix

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this one. It should be a straight-up probability question. It is about the probabilities of Hemophilia (or Haemophilia, or Hæmophilia) inheritance. For those who don't know, Hemophilia is an X-linked recessive genetic mutation; Females (XX) who have one def...

mathmannix

sonar1313 wrote:
StCredZero wrote:Superman, as portrayed in various Justice League animated shows, is often seen flying in groups of superheroes.

Yeah, but that would be like a flock of birds consisting of a goose, a duck, a swan, a robin, a blue jay, a mockingbird, etc.

Pfft, Robin doesn't fly.

mathmannix

The problem, in this case, aren't the units, but the use of volume at all. "3 cups apples" WTF? Even measuring things like flour is hopelessly inexact. And i don't want to press butter in a measuring cup, and scrape it out again, ffs. Yeah, it is weird with things of different densities. ...

mathmannix

The names for volumes used mostly for recipes (or to give a sense of scale to those familiar with following recipes) aren't that bad once you get to know them. For reference: 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon, 2 tablespoons = 1 ounce, 8 ounces = 1 cup, 2 cups = 1 pint, 2 pints = 1 quart, 4 quarts = 1 gallo...

mathmannix

Why would someone in New Mexico care if you messed with Texas? (If anything, I would think they would approve.)

mathmannix

Following the pattern I want to see in the first two trilogies and Episode 7,
(and retitling Episode 2 in my head to "The Clones Attack Now"),
I suggest

The Empire Rises Again.

edit:
ooh, followed by

Rebound of the ~~Ewoks~~. Gungans.

mathmannix

Since you mentioned it starts on a Monday, I bet it would take me a few days to even notice. I'm really not that consistent a person; some mornings I get to work by 7:45, other days not until about 9. And I'm always forgetting what day it is, unless it's Friday like today. (It IS Friday, right?) Unl...

mathmannix

Forgetting of course the fact that R2 could have told Luke at any point in the original trilogy that Vader was his father... (I don't doubt that perhaps someone among you who knows Star Wars better than I may prove me wrong, but...) I never really thought R2-D2 (or any astromech droid) was really t...

mathmannix

I don't think this needs to be spoilered.
Did it bother anyone else that Dantooine wasn't even mentioned, much less shown as the location of the [former] rebel base?
(Unless I missed something; there WERE a lot of planets thrown into the movie and I've only seen it once so far!)

mathmannix

bass42 wrote:Hi, 2017 here; you'll have to excuse the screaming, you'dn't believe me if I told you who's gonna be president..

to be fair (and without really wanting to drag a political debate into this), there was going to be a whole lot of screaming either way.

mathmannix

did anybody else think the objection was going to be about either
(1) his use of mixed tenses? "The data prove that..."
or
(2) the fact that he said that the data "prove[s]" rather than "indicate[s]" or something similar?

mathmannix

Does it introduce new setpieces (e.g. no death star, millenium falcon) and a plot of their own? Huh, that actually brings up an issue I hadn't thought about. If a new viewer watched all -eight- movies in SW universe chronological order, seeing the Death Star for the first time in IV is completely s...

mathmannix

I don't think I've said this before (here), but one of the weirdest things I've always found to be true about this election is this: Bill Clinton was born in August 1946. George W. Bush was born in July 1946. Donald Trump was born in June 1946. They're all almost exactly the same age. (And of course...

mathmannix

Did anybody else think Skrillex was a Pokémon?

No?

Me neither then...

mathmannix

So, we have a non-English/non-Japanese character being used, so that native English speakers know how to pronounce an abbreviation that's gone from English-to-Japanese-to-English. And most people still say it wrong, even with the "help", since it should be poe-keh-mawn, not POE-key-mawn. ...

mathmannix

So now I guess the guy in the house is constantly racking up Pokeballs?

mathmannix

wouldn't "simple division" indicate it would take 6.3 x 10³¹ fireflies?
3.8E31 / 0.0006 = ?

mathmannix

I wonder if there are any languages where instead of just singular and plural, there's a third form for two of something. It seems like a common trope for three or more to be treated as significant, so it's logical that that might carry over into language. Yes, Arabic has this. (Possibly all Semiti...

mathmannix

Jumble wrote:The UK's new Foreign Secretary, ladies and gentlemen....

You guys should make him the Prime Minister. I always liked how David Cameron has royal ancestry, and this Johnson fellow is descended from George II.

mathmannix

Thank you Deva, helpful as always!

mathmannix

Hey Y'all. When I was a kid (in the 80's), we had a swing like this on our swingset in our back yard: http://i.imgur.com/VnpZ4sC.png (FYI, we called it a teeter-totter, but to many people that term means a see-saw, i.e. a wooden board that pivots vertically in the middle. My sister and I were always...

mathmannix

room bloom

location carnation

mathmannix

Yes. (They are at least perfect rhymes to me, although apparently they have different IPA spellings. So.)

mathmannix

Yay.

king's sword

mathmannix

liar fryer?

mathmannix

seemly unseamly

...

(okay, that's not a word, but I wanted to use it anyway.)

mathmannix

SirGabriel wrote:figure out what kind of junk I'm talking about

hauls balls?

mathmannix

SirGabriel wrote:truck junk

lugs drugs?

mathmannix

BTW, HELL to the NO on putting Wilson on any currency (Wilson was actually on a very high denomination bill used in the Treasury system, I believe). Wilson was a fan of "Birth of a Nation", signed off on the income tax and Federal Reserve system, got us into WWI after campaigning on NOT g...

mathmannix

The only non-President currently on a bill is Alexander Hamilton (on the $10 bill), but he was the first Secretary of the Treasury and the founder of the nation's financial system, as others have pointed out, so he deserves to stay. The other non-President currently on currency is the Native Americ...

mathmannix

well, was there a walnut in the ball?

mathmannix

Oops, you're right. Yeah, the key on Supergirl could have just been regular gold (or something cheaper like lead) and it would be too heavy for a normal human to lift. No need for it to have been made of dwarf star material...

mathmannix

On the other hand, Andrew Jackson was a stone cold badass. The man won a duel against a superior marksman by devising the "let him shoot first and miss so I can take my time aiming strategy." Naturally, no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but Jackson still won by employing the ...

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