Bronx vs. Brooklyn

A young man lives in Manhattan near a subway express station. He has two girl friends, one in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx. To visit the girl in Brooklyn, he takes a train on the downtown side of the platform. To visit the girl in the Bronx, he takes a train on the uptown side of the same platform. Since he likes both girls equally well, he simply takes the first train that comes along. In this way he lets chance determine whether he rides to the Bronx or to Brooklyn. The young man reaches the subway platform at a random moment each Saturday afternoon. Brooklyn and Bronx trains arrive at the station equally often - every 10 minutes. Yet for some obscure reason, he finds himself spending most of his time with the girl in Brooklyn: in fact, on the average he goes there nine times out of ten. Can you think of a good reason why the odds so heavily favor Brooklyn?

:) Yeee, it's not a morally right scenario, but the reason is a good one.. I like the riddle..

Can you make a phone call from a black hole?

In the past few weeks I discovered an important statistical rule: If the half of the questions get their reasonable answers, the proportion between answers/question gets even smaller. I have no theoretical proof of this rule, but empirically everyone is sure about the correctness.

So, back to the answer.. No, you can't make a phone call from a black hole. But you can theoretically send an sms to somebody you definitely appreciate, just in parts of the second before you vanish forever. (although the concept of "forever" needs also discussion) :)
Here's the proof: NakedScientists Podcast

And just to fill the hole between two points in time, 1 more brain teaser:

Why does a mirror reverse right and left instead of up and down? (lol)
:)

have fun,
z

afterlife

Finally,

yesterday night I finished playing "World of Goo" :) Amazing play. I particularly like the graphics, how the physics machine behind worx and the challenges, of course. Here some screenshots:







Near a month late, the BBC pearls for December 2009:

• Zulu king wins South Africa bull-killing case
• Reading while rolling Cuba's famous cigars (and imagine reading while smoking the Cuba's famous cigars)
• Fast forward to the past
• Singapore birds sent to market party (the same procedure for the cockroaches may increase the degree of socializing them... just a suggestion)
• Rising seas "clue" in sunken world of Orkney (why do I have the feeling, they are solving the wrong problem?)
• Unholy row over New Zealand Mary and Joseph billboard
• Christkind (Father Christmas, Santa Claus, the spirit of Christmas, Christ itself... and now, the Christkind.. the whole family invades!)
• Switzerland geologist on trial for 'causing quakes' (he must have escaped from the forces and hidding himself in Haiti.. it's not funny! serious!)
• "Boat" could explore Saturn moon (it is not actually a boat.. and it won't actually swim in water.. but journalism, you know..)
• Man jailed for eating rare tiger (I just couldn't make reference to the article from November: "Two man jailed after beating crocodile with bamboo sticks"..)
• Swedish Christmas straw goat burnt
• HP computers are racists
• The official choir of the European Organization for Nuclear Research is to record a song dedicated to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
• "Oldest duck" Edwina dies aged 22 (poor Edwina...)

And as we mentioned the afterlife... Since we all know that it is a cubicle, hopefully this cubicle is equipped with a Mac and fast Internet connection.. Pray..

Sincerely mines,
z

Clockwise Operetta

Last week I bought the best game ever! :) From the same team as Samorost, but this time entitled Machinarium. Really interesting stuff with wonderful graphics and magic soundtrack!



z in love tick tick tick

Oh! :) It was wonderful! ("Splendid! Splendid!" as John Cleese says..)