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Friday, February 29, 2008

Business News - 101 Dumbest Moments in Business List from Business 2.0 Magazine

Business News - 101 Dumbest Moments in Business List from Business 2.0 Magazine

Prison Statistics

I think we incarcerate 1% of our population now, for interesting charts, see Atlas Prison Policy Initiative

In unrelated statistics, here are my visitors:

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Eddy Izzard @ Union Square...

... Thru 3/8, 212-505-0700

Monday, February 18, 2008

Paul Volcker is speaking to the RPI-NYC club

On Wed, April 2, 2008, RPI is hosting a reception at 6:30PM on the Floor of the New York Stock Exchange

Shirley Ann Jackson, President, RPI is welcoming Paul Volcker ’05H for an evening of discussion and networking. Paul Volcker was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Mr. Volcker received an honorary degree from Rensselaer in 2005 and his father, Paul Volcker was a member of Rensselaer’s Class of 1911.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Quote of the day (from Cape Cod)

QOTD:

"I'm so miserable without you, it's like having you here."



Today's Link: UES Parking.

There will also be a lunar eclipse on 2/20. It may be visible from NYC starting at approx 8 PM until 12 M. It will get most dark at 10 PM.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Feline ballistics

February 1st, 2008 | by KFC | Tiger leap

Here’s a straightforward question in ballistics: What velocity do you need to launch a 350 pound object over a 12.5 foot barrier that is 33 feet away?

The answer, thanks to Raza Syed, a physicist at Northeastern University in Boston, and a pal is: 26.7 miles per hour at an angle of about 55 degrees.

Now let’s make a few substitutions. Replace 350 pound object with a female Siberian Tiger called Tatiana. And for 12.5 foot barrier 33 feet away substitute the dimensions of the tiger enclosure at San Francisco zoo.

Is this kind of speed possible for a tiger? Apparently yes. Syed says tigers can reach speeds of 35 miles per hour with a run up of only a few feet so this enclosure was clearly no barrier to Tatiana.

After her leap for freedom, Tatiana killed 17-year old Carlos Souza.

The Straight Dope: Who or what are Fig Newton cookies named after?

from: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a980508.html

Dear Cecil: You probably answered this one years ago, but in 1973, I was in junior high. Fig Newton cookies . . . who the heck was Newton? --William Killinger, via the Internet

Dear William: Much as I like Fig Newtons and the other fine products of the Nabisco company, you can appreciate this is not the kind of fact I keep stored in my frontal lobes. I figured I could leave it to Nabisco to keep track. When will I learn?

Visiting the Nabisco Web site (www.nabisco.com), I found the following: "There are two theories as to the origin of the Fig Newtons name. One familiar tale says the gentleman who invented the machinery that makes Fig Newtons Cookies was so proud of his work that he named the cookies after the great physicist, Sir Isaac Newton. The second theory holds that the cookies took their name from the Massachusetts town of Newton, near the home of Kennedy Biscuit Works (forerunner to Nabisco)."

I thought: Theories? We've got a product that sells in excess of 7.2 gazillion a year and the best we can come up with is theories? I decided to see if I could scare up somebody at Nabisco who had a clue.

By and by I reached John Barrows, senior manager for marketing communications. John was my kind of guy. "There is no truth at all to the Isaac Newton theory," he wrote. Fig Newtons had been introduced in 1891 by the Kennedy Biscuit Company, one of a number of regional bakeries that merged in 1898 to form the National Biscuit Company, later known as Nabisco. "The Kennedy Biscuit Company named all their products after surrounding communities, including cookies and crackers called 'Shrewsbury,' 'Harvard,' 'Beacon Hill,' and so on. There is no doubt (in our minds) whatsoever that the Fig Newton is named for Newton, Massachusetts." Studying my map of the commonwealth, all I can say is, thank God Kennedy Biscuit wasn't near Belchertown.


LOLCATS