I believe that, more so than most branches of science, people have problems with physics. I see it every time I tell people I have a degree in physics when they ooh and aah at my clearly superior intellect. For some reason, the world seems to believe that physics is Hard. I don't fully understand this, but while I was browsing at Barnes and Noble I found a book that demonstrates an interesting point.
A series of books are available at your local book store (unless you live in St. George where all book stores suck) titled "[Science] Demystified". I saw "Physics Demystified" as well as "Biology Demystified" and "Calculus Demystified" today. I fully support the idea that any of these topics can baffling. What concerned me, however, was something that was written on the cover of "Physics Demystified". It's one of those things like "474 full color images" or whatever they say to convince you that the book will be easy to understand and interesting. Their most important selling point that they wanted to get across to the world about their book was: "LOTS of illustrations to relate PHYSICS to the REAL WORLD".
And that, right there, is why people don't understand physics. Because they don't know what physics even is. It would be like making "Auto Repair Demystified" and claiming that it has "LOTS of illustrations to relate AUTO REPAIR to FIXING CARS". Physics is nothing more than a quantitative description of the real world. You don't need to relate it to the real world. It is the real world. Physics is about describing how things happen. You throw a ball up, it comes back down. (Unless you can throw it up at 11km/s.) Can anyone tell me how throwing a ball up relates to real life?
Sunday, December 23
Sunday, December 16
95% Doesn't Cut It
At work, sometimes we talk about "six sigma". This is a statistical term that is fairly easy to understand. Assuming that processes exhibit random variation through a normal Gaussian distribution, the standard deviation (represented by the Greek letter sigma) is basically a measure of how wide the variation in your process is. One standard deviation is about 70%. The standard deviation measures how far from the average you must extend boundaries to cover 70% of the product. If my process is good to 1-sigma, then 70% of my product will fall within the specified limits.
I read a bit of a six-sigma book which points out that for most processes, 70% isn't very good. If 70% of the rulers in your ruler factory come out 13" long, not 12", you won't be in business for long. Two-sigma get you up to 95%, and three-sigma is 99.7%. 99.7% sounds really good, but it turns out that for some things, it really isn't. If the electric company gives you power for 99.7% of the year, then you will go about 26 hours and 17 minutes of the year without power. If a burger joint finds a way to ensure that 99.7% of it's burgers are e. coli free, dozens of people can still get sick in a single day. "Six-sigma" in business generally means producing less than 3.4 defects per 1,000,000 products.
I bring all this up, because our newspaper delivery person needs to learn that 95% isn't cutting it. Yesterday we had no paper by 10am, so we had to call them and have one sent over. Today, we were missing parts of our paper. 3 or 4 times over the last year we've received the Tribune instead of the Desert News. About once a month we receive no paper at all. We're even on our second carrier. Growing up, I never really kept track of when the paper came or anything but I never remember it being an issue at all. Every day the paper was simply there, and I took it for granted.
So, if you get the paper, and your carrier does a good job, appreciate them, because you could live in St. George.
I read a bit of a six-sigma book which points out that for most processes, 70% isn't very good. If 70% of the rulers in your ruler factory come out 13" long, not 12", you won't be in business for long. Two-sigma get you up to 95%, and three-sigma is 99.7%. 99.7% sounds really good, but it turns out that for some things, it really isn't. If the electric company gives you power for 99.7% of the year, then you will go about 26 hours and 17 minutes of the year without power. If a burger joint finds a way to ensure that 99.7% of it's burgers are e. coli free, dozens of people can still get sick in a single day. "Six-sigma" in business generally means producing less than 3.4 defects per 1,000,000 products.
I bring all this up, because our newspaper delivery person needs to learn that 95% isn't cutting it. Yesterday we had no paper by 10am, so we had to call them and have one sent over. Today, we were missing parts of our paper. 3 or 4 times over the last year we've received the Tribune instead of the Desert News. About once a month we receive no paper at all. We're even on our second carrier. Growing up, I never really kept track of when the paper came or anything but I never remember it being an issue at all. Every day the paper was simply there, and I took it for granted.
So, if you get the paper, and your carrier does a good job, appreciate them, because you could live in St. George.
Friday, December 14
Creeque Alley
Last night one line sent Shannon and I on a music history adventure. Shannon knew exactly one line from a song: "John and Mitchy were were gettin' kinda itchy" and I new one line more: "Everyone's gettin' fat, except Mama Cass".
It turns out the song is Creeque Alley by the Mamas & the Papas and has a wealth of stories hidden in it's lyrics. We already knew that Papa John and Mama Michelle were married, but that was about it.
As I started reading the lyrics, I wasn't sure they were talking about anything interesting until I reached the line: Sebastian and Zal formed the Spoonful. And I thought, 'These people they're singing about in the song, could they be the ones who formed The Lovin' Spoonful? It turns out that the song is about John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky who were in a band called The Mugwumps along with Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot. It turns out I know who those people are! They're Mama Cass and Papa Doherty! So half of the Mamas & the Papas and half of the Lovin' Spoonful were in a band together.
The song also makes several references to McGuinn and McGuire. Roger McGuinn was in the Byrds and Barry McGuire was a solo folk rock singer. The Mamas and the Papas certainly knew the Byrds, because Mama Michelle had an affair with one of the Byrds members.
Eventually, we discovered www.creequealley.com which has a bunch more information. We thought it was interesting, at least. Hopefully this post makes some sense, as I've written it one sentence at a time over the entire day.
It turns out the song is Creeque Alley by the Mamas & the Papas and has a wealth of stories hidden in it's lyrics. We already knew that Papa John and Mama Michelle were married, but that was about it.
As I started reading the lyrics, I wasn't sure they were talking about anything interesting until I reached the line: Sebastian and Zal formed the Spoonful. And I thought, 'These people they're singing about in the song, could they be the ones who formed The Lovin' Spoonful? It turns out that the song is about John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky who were in a band called The Mugwumps along with Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot. It turns out I know who those people are! They're Mama Cass and Papa Doherty! So half of the Mamas & the Papas and half of the Lovin' Spoonful were in a band together.
The song also makes several references to McGuinn and McGuire. Roger McGuinn was in the Byrds and Barry McGuire was a solo folk rock singer. The Mamas and the Papas certainly knew the Byrds, because Mama Michelle had an affair with one of the Byrds members.
Eventually, we discovered www.creequealley.com which has a bunch more information. We thought it was interesting, at least. Hopefully this post makes some sense, as I've written it one sentence at a time over the entire day.
Wednesday, December 12
South of Timbuktu
Shannon, Alex and I were recently discussing Christmas songs about animals. Alex had just introduced us to "Dominick the Donkey"and of course there is "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and I guess "Christmas Don't be Late" might count [make sure to watch this video, as it's both informative and weird], because it is sung by chipmunks, at least. But some of you out there already know where I'm going with this. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to mention "Santa's Using Zebras Now". For those who don't know, this is a piece of piano sheet music that's been floating around the Blockburger home for decades now.
"Santa's Using Zebras Now" is about a kid in Africa that writes Santa a letter, but when Santa tries to go down there to give him presents, the reindeer revolt because it's too hot. (Apparently, until 1968 Santa just ignored much of the African continent.) So, Santa starts using zebras south of Timbuktu. Not surprisingly, neither Alex nor Shannon had heard of this song, so I set about googling it. As it turns out "Santa's Using Zebras Now" turns up only 17 hits on the whole internet. Maybe someone else does know the song! But no, they don't. The #1 hit on google turns out to be my cousin's blog. His last name isn't Blockburger, but he is from the Blockburger side of the family. But it's not even him that is writing about it, the reference to the song is found in a comment posted by "Cousin S" who is my sister. It turns out that the Blockburgers are the world's leading scholars on "Santa's Using Zebras Now". [And with any luck, this blog post will soon be the number 1 result on google.]
And now, for all you non-Blockburgers out there, I present perhaps the only audio copy of this song on the internet, brought to you by Mrs. Anderson's 2nd grade class: "Santa's Using Zebras Now".
"Santa's Using Zebras Now" is about a kid in Africa that writes Santa a letter, but when Santa tries to go down there to give him presents, the reindeer revolt because it's too hot. (Apparently, until 1968 Santa just ignored much of the African continent.) So, Santa starts using zebras south of Timbuktu. Not surprisingly, neither Alex nor Shannon had heard of this song, so I set about googling it. As it turns out "Santa's Using Zebras Now" turns up only 17 hits on the whole internet. Maybe someone else does know the song! But no, they don't. The #1 hit on google turns out to be my cousin's blog. His last name isn't Blockburger, but he is from the Blockburger side of the family. But it's not even him that is writing about it, the reference to the song is found in a comment posted by "Cousin S" who is my sister. It turns out that the Blockburgers are the world's leading scholars on "Santa's Using Zebras Now". [And with any luck, this blog post will soon be the number 1 result on google.]
And now, for all you non-Blockburgers out there, I present perhaps the only audio copy of this song on the internet, brought to you by Mrs. Anderson's 2nd grade class: "Santa's Using Zebras Now".
Saturday, December 8
Rebecca
Wombsly will never be named Rebecca. Why? Not because it's a bad name, but because the name 'Becky' makes Shannon think of broken eggs. Odder still, there's no reason for such an association, at least as far as Shannon can remember. Her only explanation is to say "Beck-ee. Beck-eee. Doesn't that make you think of broken eggs?"
Monday, December 3
Another one for the List
What do the following things have in common?
Peas, Refried Beans, Kiwi, Fish and Canned Chili.
Answer: I'm apparently allergic to all of them. Shannon made Chili-Mac for dinner last night. Mac-n-Cheese, a can of Chili and a can of corn. It's tasty. And it makes me ill. It wasn't the first time it had ever happened, but I'd never been quite 100% sure that I was feeling ill because of the food. As of last night, I am officially declaring Chili-Mac off limits, and I'm fairly certain that it's the chili. (Makes sense w/ the refried beans, too.)
As if my eating habits weren't weird enough without all this being forced upon me.
Peas, Refried Beans, Kiwi, Fish and Canned Chili.
Answer: I'm apparently allergic to all of them. Shannon made Chili-Mac for dinner last night. Mac-n-Cheese, a can of Chili and a can of corn. It's tasty. And it makes me ill. It wasn't the first time it had ever happened, but I'd never been quite 100% sure that I was feeling ill because of the food. As of last night, I am officially declaring Chili-Mac off limits, and I'm fairly certain that it's the chili. (Makes sense w/ the refried beans, too.)
As if my eating habits weren't weird enough without all this being forced upon me.
MWC Commentary
This post is a bit about the Mountain West Conference which we can all get behind, even Tyler and Sabrina.
First off, BYU is getting rather messed over with having to play a pretty sad UCLA team in the Las Vegas Bowl. I realize that UCLA beat BYU earlier in the year, but I think that anyone who has followed their seasons since that point would recognize that BYU has improved over the seasons whereas UCLA had the bottom fall out. It turns out that this year the #1 MWC team is simply better than the #5 Pac10 team. But wait . . .
Last year the #1 MWC team (BYU) was loads better than #5 Pac10 (Oregon) as they throttled them so badly that the commentators even quit paying attention to the game.
The year before that the #1 MWC team (TCU) was so good they didn't even go to the Las Vegas Bowl. (They went to the Liberty Bowl or something like that. I don't recall the results.)
The year before that the #1 MWC team (UofU) was so good that they went to the Fiesta Bowl and beat the pants off Pitt.
Let's face it, the #1 MWC team is simply better than #5 Pac10. Our conference needs something better. Note, that I am not arguing that the MWC is better than the Pac10. I firmly believe that it is not, but we are worthy of something better than what we're getting.
Switching topics slightly . . . I was looking at college football stats the other day and noticed that while BYU is statistically in the lead in the conference in many categories, we are 7th in pass defense. That's not so good. But then, I noticed that we are 41st nationally. Ahead of BYU in the conference we have Utah (15th nationally), New Mexico (22nd), UNLV (23rd), Colorado State (30th), Wyoming (31st), and TCU (34th). Apparently the general idea that the MWC (as the true present day embodiment of the WAC) is a conference where everyone gets together an throws for 400 yards and 5 TDs on each other is not true at all. Rose Bowl bound Illinois (77th) and #6 Missouri (100th) are the teams giving up the big passing numbers these days.
First off, BYU is getting rather messed over with having to play a pretty sad UCLA team in the Las Vegas Bowl. I realize that UCLA beat BYU earlier in the year, but I think that anyone who has followed their seasons since that point would recognize that BYU has improved over the seasons whereas UCLA had the bottom fall out. It turns out that this year the #1 MWC team is simply better than the #5 Pac10 team. But wait . . .
Last year the #1 MWC team (BYU) was loads better than #5 Pac10 (Oregon) as they throttled them so badly that the commentators even quit paying attention to the game.
The year before that the #1 MWC team (TCU) was so good they didn't even go to the Las Vegas Bowl. (They went to the Liberty Bowl or something like that. I don't recall the results.)
The year before that the #1 MWC team (UofU) was so good that they went to the Fiesta Bowl and beat the pants off Pitt.
Let's face it, the #1 MWC team is simply better than #5 Pac10. Our conference needs something better. Note, that I am not arguing that the MWC is better than the Pac10. I firmly believe that it is not, but we are worthy of something better than what we're getting.
Switching topics slightly . . . I was looking at college football stats the other day and noticed that while BYU is statistically in the lead in the conference in many categories, we are 7th in pass defense. That's not so good. But then, I noticed that we are 41st nationally. Ahead of BYU in the conference we have Utah (15th nationally), New Mexico (22nd), UNLV (23rd), Colorado State (30th), Wyoming (31st), and TCU (34th). Apparently the general idea that the MWC (as the true present day embodiment of the WAC) is a conference where everyone gets together an throws for 400 yards and 5 TDs on each other is not true at all. Rose Bowl bound Illinois (77th) and #6 Missouri (100th) are the teams giving up the big passing numbers these days.
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