xkcd

mathmannix

Well, it actually seems very similar to me in theory to the idea of a LEGO movie. I imagine people who "grew up" playing with emoji (I don't think this has actually happened yet) might love the movie. The big difference here seems to be that, outside of people who love LEGO's, most people ...

mathmannix

One thing I would like to know: how much does altitude affect eclipse length time? (Because obviously as you approach the moon, the eclipse time approaches two weeks or so.) Would being on a high-altitude airplane increase totality by a few hundredths of a second? I mean, sure, I'm probably being ov...

mathmannix

My two cents: I think longer names are primarily used in order to distinguish names that are the same when shorter. So "The" Bach has to be Johann Sebastian Bach because he had relatives named Johann Nicolaus Bach, Johann Christoph Bach, Johann Snagglepuss Bach, etc... and when you click o...

mathmannix

I think that would better describe San Francisco...

mathmannix

Pi is exactly 3. See the bible, Kings 7:23 for proof. Actually, the established Rabbinical interpretation is that the "error" is due to the difference in the inner and outer circumferences (the difference being the thickness of the rim) of a very large bowl (about 15 feet across.) And of ...

mathmannix

rhomboidal wrote:Russell's teapot really raises a profound question: Will it make hot tea or iced tea?

Khan wrote:It is very cold in space.

mathmannix

Potatoes are dubious as a vegetable, they're mainly a source of carbohydrates. And containing a vegetable does not make it a vegetable, especially if it's wrapped in a carbohydrate heavy source. It would be more adequate to count it as a complete meal (although with too little vegetable and lacking...

mathmannix

Oh, wait. 7/11 doesn't have any fruits and vegetables. Ours sells bananas (a dollar a banana!) and samosas, which I guess are vegetableish. But this probably varies by region. Samosa as in deep fried pastry? You count that as almost a vegetable? Umm, yes? They have vegetables in them. Potatoes and ...

mathmannix

Morgan Wick wrote:Relevant

Ahh yes, Dilbert was much funnier in the first couple of years / books, before it became all office "humor", all the time.

mathmannix

treblemaker wrote:They all look like weather balloons to me.

They all look like mimic octopodes to me.

mathmannix

keithl wrote:Oh, wait. 7/11 doesn't have any fruits and vegetables.

Ours sells bananas (a dollar a banana!) and samosas, which I guess are vegetableish. But this probably varies by region.

mathmannix

Jorpho wrote:Title Text: They say you can't argue with results, but what kind of defeatest attitude is that? If you stick with it, you can argue with ANYTHING.

Firefox says "deafeatest" is spelled wrong. Think it'll get fixed?

It's "defeatist".

mathmannix

You can get them at Panera's with whatever you want in them. I like the broccoli cheese soup.

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!

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