Posted by Dad on May 22nd, 2009 in Math Riffs, Off Topic!5 Comments
As I type this, the calm clicks of the keys are punctuated once a minute by a sound I can most accurately ascribe to an evil, mutant cricket. It is the smoke detector at the top of the stairs, warning me that its battery is low. It has, in fact, been warning me quite urgently and persistently since 3:22AM this morning. I do not believe the timing is random, and I suspect it is actually, motive unknown, part of a sinister plan to do me in.
Having invested our full share to inflate the housing bubble, our home meets all of the recent building codes pertaining to fire safety. This includes a full complement of hard-wired smoke detectors — one in each bedroom, at the top and bottom of any stair way and in locations within hallways whose precise specification eludes me. The net result of this is that we have no fewer than nine smoke detectors in the house. I discern at a minimum that the authors of the current building code possess significant stock holdings in smoke detector companies, even if they are not fully complicit in the threats against my life.
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Posted by Dad on February 9th, 2009 in General, Off Topic!6 Comments
Here’s an interesting diversion that Johnson Controls posted on their web site recently… It’s borderline being a game, but it’s a great engineering and physics exercise for both parents and kids. It unfortunately just killed an hour of time that I should have been working on the mean/median worksheets here.
Coconut Run Physics Simulation
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Posted by Dad on February 6th, 2009 in Off Topic!3 Comments
Okay, so maybe a bit off math topic, but sometimes you have to just share the word. Recently, having digested Dr. Mark Hyman’s UltraMind Solution
, readers with similar literary tastes will understand being scared witless with regard to silver amalgam fillings, tuna fish and mercilessly mercury-laden air. Scared, mind you, not just for me and my mouth (which doubtlessly financed my childhood dentist’s second and third homes), but also because said mercury exposure could lead to cancer, heart disease, MS, ALS, ADD, poor spelling, and (in less severe cases) back-talking among my young brood. Symptoms are already on the rise here and it’s a Dad’s duty to be proactive, which involves testing any prospective remedies.
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