Category Archives: From My Collection
In the last post, I mentioned a simple logic puzzle that I’d stumbled over while wandering around the interweb. Start with four glasses, in a row, all upright. The goal is, through a series of moves, to turn them all upside down. On each move, you flip three of the four glasses — up if down or down if up.
The goal is to end up with all four glasses upside-down in the least number of moves possible. It’s not hard to find the solution by trial and error, but it turns out there’s an underlying trick that not only solves it but solves it regardless of the number of glasses (where each move flips N-1).
Bonus: these solutions even look pretty — or at least symmetrical.
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11 Comments | tags: fun with numbers, logic games, logic puzzle | posted in From My Collection
I was going through old files I’ve kept around for too long and found a collection of images a friend sent me years ago. We met in college and have been friends since. She ended up working in advertising, plus her husband had a graphic design business, so she was pretty attuned to and interested in the world of visual arts and advertising.
And she had a great sense of humor. The images in the post are all (as far as we know) actual ads from a bygone era. An era that had its features, but which I think most are pretty glad is bygone.
Caveat lector: In my case, these led to tears of laughter, but for some they could lead to gnashing of the teeth. Try to see it as a sign of how much we’ve grown.
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13 Comments | tags: funny images, humor, laugh | posted in From My Collection, Life, Society
Going through some old files for a project I’m working on this week I found a few old gems worth sharing. This one is really short, a quick pop quiz to start the week. Here is a sentence:
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF-
IC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
Now count the number of F’s in that sentence. Count them only once! Do not go back and count them again. See below for answers after you have counted.
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16 Comments | tags: alphabet | posted in From My Collection
1In the beginning was the plan. 2And then came the assumptions. 3And the assumptions were without form. 4And the plan was completely without substance. 5And darkness was upon the face of the workers.
6And they spake amongst themselves, saying “It is a crock of shit and it stinketh!” 7And the workers went to the planners and sayeth “It is a pile of dung and none may abide the odor thereof!” 8And the planners went to the supervisors and sayeth unto them “It is a container of excrement and it is very strong such that none may abide by it!” 9And the supervisors went to the managers saying “It is a vessel of fertilizer and none may abide its strength!” 10And the managers went to the directors and sayeth “It promoteth growth and it is very powerful!” 11And the Vice-President went to the President and sayeth unto him “This powerful new plan will actively promote the growth and efficiency of the department!”
12And the President looked upon the plan and saw that it was good.
13And the plan became policy.
Here endeth the lesson!
4 Comments | tags: funny, humor, lesson, man with a plan | posted in From My Collection
Long-time readers of this blog know I very rarely re-blog. Occasionally something strikes my fancy so hard, I have to (if nothing else) mention it and post a link to it here.
Derek Lowe, a chemist who also writes In the Pipeline, a great chemistry blog, recently posted something striking:
…a new analysis of clinical trials for pain medication shows that the placebo effect in [the area of pain relief] has been getting stronger. The same also seems to be true for antipsychotics and antidepressants, but this effect seems to be mainly (or only) visible in large-scale US trials…
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1 Comment | tags: belief, chemistry, Derek Lowe, drug trials, In The Pipeline, medical trials, pain relief, placebo, power of will, USA | posted in From My Collection, Science
I don’t often crack up over internet gags, but when I do I crack up over ones like this:
As an added bonus, back in June (during their slump) I wrote a little blues tune for my Minnesota Twins…
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9 Comments | tags: Darth Vader, funny, funny images, humor, Minnesota Twins, puns, Twins 2015 | posted in From My Collection, Writing
Recent careful analysis of the early images from Pluto have turned up results that are astonishing and yet, perhaps, not surprising:
This explains a great deal…
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6 Comments | tags: dogs, humor, New Horizons, Pluto | posted in From My Collection
This blog is nearly four years old (I started on July 4th, 2011). This post makes it exactly 500 posts here on Logos Con Carne. To commemorate it, I’m giving myself the 500 Odometer Award (which I built myself from various electrons I had laying around).
As part of the party, this post consists of miscellaneous odds and ends that have intrigued me lately. I’ll leave it to you to decide which are the odds and which are the ends.
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22 Comments | tags: All of Me, Comic Sans, George Winston, Jon Schmidt, light, light speed, Linus and Lucy, Minnesota Twins, Monty Python, NASA, SDO, skydiving, The Piano Guys, Tom Scott | posted in From My Collection, Life, Music, Science, The Interweb, Writing
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