Today is e-Day. It celebrates the mathematical constant “e” that has a value equivalent to 2.7182818. It is called e for Euler's number after the Swiss mathematician. Three statisticians go out hunting together. After a while they spot a solitary rabbit. The first statistician takes aim and overshoots. The second aims and undershoots. The third shouts out "We got him!"
..........And if you have a son, send the bastard out to sea.........Oscar Brand …..Bell Bottom Trousers
Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth. --Muhammad Ali
It is a cloudy Friday morning. The temperature is hanging around freezing but the sun is blocked and that gives the morning a somber grayness. Puck is not yet out of bed. The house is absolutely quiet except for keyboard clicks and my slurping of Moose Munch..sweet, spicy Moose Munch..smooth, creamy Moose Munch. Out my window I see no movement, no wind blowing the willow switches, no waving grass; wait, now a lone robin is skibbling across the neighbor's lawn looking for breakfast. My living room is cozy and warm. It smells of stale incense and fresh coffee, comfortable and homey. Ah, what a charmed life I lead.
(Your weekend)In(e) = fun ePistliers
First Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Time to get up and get going. Today's bad decisions aren't going to make themselves. --Barbe Bandu
"A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems" (P. Erdos)
..........where the whiskey drowns and the beer chases my blues away.........Garth Brooks …..Friends In Low Places
Trivia Questions: Happy Ballet Day !
^ When and/or where does ballet come from?
^^ Any idea when and/or where the first ballet school opened?
^^^ How many kinds (not brands) of ballet shoes are there anyway?
^^^^ How many of the 10 most famous ballets can you name?
^^^^^ Know which is the oldest ballet company in the USA?
Big Hello: Bondjoû – Walloon (Canada) https://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/hello.htm
Second Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: I'm not a hot mess; I'm a spicy disaster.
Fake Library Statistic of the Week: 23% of librarians have answered a reference question in a public restroom not at a library. https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts
How many mathematicians does it take to change a light bulb? One: she gives it to three physicists, thus reducing it to a problem that has already been solved. ...Explanation: Mathematicians try to reduce an unsolved problem to a form which has already been solved. Once that's done it's considered complete, as the previously derived formula is taken as written. There are many light bulb jokes about physicists. Finding several are left as an exercises to the reader.
..........My father makes books on the corner, my mother makes second-hand gin.........Oscar Brand …..How the Money Rolls In
Moonbeam: But there's nothing half so sweet in life as love's young dream. --Thomas Moore
Naturally Occurring Mandala of the Week: Brazil Nuts
Next Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: There are 3 guys on a boat with 4 cigarettes, but they have nothing to light them with. So they throw a cigarette overboard and the boat becomes a cigarette lighter. --50NOG
Week of the Week: Publicity for Profit Week (2-8) --The entire North American sales force of Frisky Dog Food was gathered together for their national sales convention at Miami Beach. In the great auditorium the marketing director was giving a performance that any revivalist would have been proud of. Using the old pattern of call and response, he was really working up the spirits of his sales team. “Who’s got the greatest dog food in North America?” the marketing director asked. “We have!” the audience replied. “And who’s got the greatest advertising campaigns?” “We have!” “Who’s got the most attractive packages?” “We have!” “Who’s got the biggest distribution?” “WE HAVE!” “Okay. So why aren’t we selling more of the product?” One bold voice from the crowd replied: “Because the darned dogs don’t like it.”
Old mathematicians never die; they just lose some of their functions. / Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things. -- J. H. Poincare
..........For a moment all the world was right.........Garth Brooks …..The Dance
^ Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century. Noblemen and women were treated to lavish events, especially wedding celebrations, where dancing and music created an elaborate spectacle. Dancing masters taught the steps to the nobility, and the court participated in the performances.
Almanac: It is Friday, February 7, 2020. The moon will be full (Snow) on Sunday and is in Leo. It is Ballet Day, Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, Bubble Gum Day, Charles Dickens Day, * "e" Day (math), Girl Scout Cookie Day, Wave All Your Fingers at Your Neighbors Day, and Wear Red Day (for heart health) In Grenada it is Independence Day (1974).
Among those born on this day were Thomas More (1478), Anna Ivanova Romanovna (1693), William Boyce (1710), Ann Radcliffe (1764), John Deere (1804), Charles Dickens (1812), Frederick Douglass (1817), William Higgins (1824), Ernst Franck (1847), Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867), Eubie Blake (1883), Sinclair Lewis (1885), David Ignatow (1914), Eddie Bracken (1920), Oscar Brand (1920), Fuzzy Smith (1928), Gay Talese (1932), Dan Quisenberry (1950), James Spader (1960), Garth Brooks (1962), and Chris Rock (1966).
On February second Michail Romanov became czar (1613), Dicken's Sketches by Boz was published (1836), Monopoly was invented (1935), shoe rationing began in the US (1943), MacArthur returned to Manila (1945), the blockade of Cuba began (1962), Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali (1964), Yasser Arafat became president of the PLO (1969), Swiss women finally got to vote (1971), and Duvalier fled Haiti (1986).
Night Sky, 2/7: Have you ever closely compared the colors of Betelgeuse and Aldebaran?
Can you detect any difference in their colors at all? Normally, when Betelgeuse is the brighter
of the two, I can't. But now that Betelgeuse is fainter, to me it looks distinctly redder.
Finding Betelgeuse & Aldebaran http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/sky-at-a-glance/
Max Picture of the Week: Max and his super bowl krewe
This Week: Saturday, February 8 – Laugh and Get Rich Day & Opera Day
Sunday, February 9 – Autism Sunday & National Pizza Day & Read in the Bathtub Day
Night Sky, 2/9: The red supergiant Betelgeuse in Orion's shoulder has always been slightly
Max Picture of the Week: Max and his super bowl krewe
This Week: Saturday, February 8 – Laugh and Get Rich Day & Opera Day
Sunday, February 9 – Autism Sunday & National Pizza Day & Read in the Bathtub Day
Night Sky, 2/9: The red supergiant Betelgeuse in Orion's shoulder has always been slightly
variable, but for more than a month it's been in an unusually low dip. And no, this does not
mean Betelgeuse is about to go supernova. It's a massive star "close to the end" of its
10-million-year lifespan — but that's on an astronomical timescale! Expect to wait maybe another
100,000 years for it to violently gulp down its core and blaze, for a few weeks,
as bright as the Moon.
Monday, February 10 – Clean Out Your Computer Day & Meal Monday & Tu B'Shvat
Tuesday, February 11 – Get Out Your Guitar Day & National Inventors Day & Satisfied Staying Single Day
Wednesday, February 12 – Darwin Day & NAACP Day & Paul Bunyan Day
Night Sky, 2/12: Look due east, not very high in early evening, for twinkly Regulus.
Monday, February 10 – Clean Out Your Computer Day & Meal Monday & Tu B'Shvat
Tuesday, February 11 – Get Out Your Guitar Day & National Inventors Day & Satisfied Staying Single Day
Wednesday, February 12 – Darwin Day & NAACP Day & Paul Bunyan Day
Night Sky, 2/12: Look due east, not very high in early evening, for twinkly Regulus.
Extending upper left from it is the Sickle of Leo, a backward question mark. "Leo announces
spring," goes an old saying. Actually, Leo showing up in the evening announces the cold, messy
back half of winter. Come spring, Leo will already be high.
Thursday, February 13 – Galentine's Day & National Cheddar Day & World Radio Day
When a statistician passes the airport security check, they discover a bomb in his bag. He explains. "Statistics shows that the probability of a bomb being on an airplane is 1/1000. However, the chance that there are two bombs at one plane is 1/1000000. So, I am much safer..."
..........She was the queen of the Chamorros, the Mariana's pride.........Oscar Brand …..Didn't She Ramble
^^ In 1661, King Louis XIV established the world's first ballet school, the Academie Royale de Danse in Paris.
'Nother Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Lazy is such an ugly word. I prefer selective participation. --Submitted by sw of ks
Moonbeam: A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and vice. --Ann Radcliffe
Late Night Snacks of the Week: A story that Trump completely made up dominated cable news for the next day. All they really want to do is repeat his insults all day. After the 2016 election, CNN’s Jeff Zucker admitted that amplifying everything Trump said all day was harmful but still, they can’t resist that sweet Trump juice. --Trevor Noah / Adam Schiff has spoken about the damaging implications of Trump getting away with it saying that Trump could move full-time to Mar-a-lago and let Jared Kushner run the country. Wow, not even in Adam Schiff’s worst nightmare scenario, do Eric and Don Jr get any responsibility. --Stephen Colbert / He genuinely thinks stealth means invisible. His brain is only capable of thinking in cartoons. He actually believes the military has developed the same technology as Wonder Woman. --Seth Meyers / In fairness to the president, why should we expect him to deliver the State of the Union when he doesn’t even know the state of Kansas City? --Jimmy Kimmel
Not So Late Night Snacks of the Week: The impeachment of Donald John Trump was rolling along to its inevitable end with first his acquittal and then the president shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die...Because now he can. But then the news came out that John Bolton, his former national security adviser, had written a book titled "The Room Where It Happened" - because if you don't think being a warmonger was bad enough, he also makes gratuitous "Hamilton" references. --Peter Sagal Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me 2/1/20
If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do you no harm. --Muhammad Ali
An engineer thinks that his equations are an approximation to reality. A physicist thinks reality is an approximation to his equations. A mathematician doesn't care.
..........Well it's bulls and blood. It's dust and mud.........Garth Brooks …..Rodeo
^^^ There are 1) Split Sole Shoes – the harder pad on the bottom of the shoe doesn't extend over its entire length 2) Full Sole Shoes – the sole running the full length of the shoe 3) Pointe Shoes – support the feet and ankles while the dancers is standing on the toes.
Worthless Fact of the Week: Shoe Rationing. On February 7,1943, the United States instituted rationing of leather shoes to begin on February 9. Each man, woman, and child could purchase up to three pairs of leather shoes a year, using designated stamps in War Ration Book One, and later in Books Three and Four.
Wicked Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress. --John Adams Submitted by jd of ks
Weird Word of the Week: Gibus – a top hat whose crown can be folded flat to make it easier to carry when visiting the theatre. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gib1.htm
Wacky Uses for Common Products: Keep your car door open without wasting the battery. Wedge a Wilson Tennis Ball into the door jamb to depress the interior light switch. http://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/wilson.html
Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them, they translate it into their own language, and forthwith it means something entirely different. -- Goethe
...........Is it tougher to toot or to tutor two tooters to toot.........Oscar Brand …..Limericks
^^^^ Most Famous Ballets: 1) Swan Lake 2) Nutcracker 3) Giselle 4) Romeo and Juliet 5) Don Quixote 6) Cinderella 7) La Bayadère 8) Coppélia 9) The Sleeping Beauty 10) La Sylphide ~~Three of these I had never even heard of
Penultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: When life knocks you down, roll over and look at the stars.
Science Fiction Convention of the Week: Foolscap (7-9. Seattle) ...one of the best ... a small convention of creatives and we know you’ll enjoy it. Saturday night the Foolscap Cabaret will turn the Commons into a variety show. https://www.foolscap.org/
Actual Science Convention of the Week: International Conference on Kinetic-Molecular Theory (6-7, Amsterdam) Any object in motion has a kinetic energy that is defined as one-half of the product of its mass times its velocity squared. https://waset.org/kinetic-molecular-theory-1-conference-in-february-2020-in-amsterdam
Puck the Brave Episode of the Week: Here's our fearless Puck staring intently in the Case of the Green Eyed Monster.
A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there. (Charles R Darwin)
..........Sometimes the best cowboys ain't cowboys at all.........Garth Brooks …..The Girl Is A Cowboy
^^^^^ The Atlanta Ballet was founded in 1929 as the Dorothy Alexander Concert Group, during the 1940 it became known as the Atlanta Civic Ballet. It is still dancing today as Atlanta Ballet.
Month of the Week: February is Love The Bus Month --Do the Lawrence buses run on time? No, they run on diesel. / A bus is a vehicle that runs twice as fast when you are after it as when you are in it.
Final Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: I've been diagnosed with a chronic fear of giants...feefiphobia
Today's Peace of History, February 7, 1991: The Reverend Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sworn in as Haiti's president after winning the country’s first-ever democratic election. Haiti had achieved its independence from France in 1804 but had a long succession on unstable governments, as well as significant U.S. control in the first half of the 20th century, including military occupation from 1915 to 1934.
Classification of mathematical problems as linear and nonlinear is like classification of the Universe as bananas and non-bananas.
..........It would be twice as filthy and ten times as long.........Oscar Brand …..Roll Your Leg Over
Masthead of the Week: Friday ePistle February 7, 2020, eUler's ePistle. Mathematically defined peace and laughter. Online at: http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/ Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. 2511 Morningside Dr. Lawrence, KS 66047
Moonbeam: I think all bullets should cost five thousand dollars...You know why? Cause if a bullet cost five thousand dollars there would be no more innocent bystanders. Yeah! Every time somebody got shot we’d say, ‘Damn, he must have done something ... he’s got fifty thousand dollars worth of bullets in his ass.’ And people would think before they killed somebody if a bullet cost five thousand dollars. ‘Man I would blow your head off…if I could afford it.’ --Chris Rock
Cost of War:
As of 2/6/20 Military Costs of War since 2001: $2,999,263,541,284.
As of 1/30/20 Military Costs of War since 2001: $2,997,352,557,516.
As of 2/6/20 Homeland Security Costs since 2001: $947,645,191,315.
As of 1/30/20 Homeland Security Costs since 2001: $946,346,476,118.
As of 2/6/20 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $740,982,598,676.
As of 1/30/20 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $739,350,095,619.
As of 2/6/20 Veterans Care since 2001: $324,041,541,862.
As of 1/30/20 Veterans Care since 2001: $323,670,440,369.
As of 2/6/20 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $5,011,933,019,554.
As of 1/30/20 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $5,006,720,543,374.
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/
Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong. --Muhammad Ali
..........When there's shelter over the poorest head.........Garth Brooks …..We Shall Be Free
Philosophy is a game with objectives and no rules. Mathematics is a game with rules and no objectives.
Famous Last Words: ...and we saw no more of the Prisoners' Van. --Charles Dickens Sketches by Boz
Last Laugh:
Thursday, February 13 – Galentine's Day & National Cheddar Day & World Radio Day
When a statistician passes the airport security check, they discover a bomb in his bag. He explains. "Statistics shows that the probability of a bomb being on an airplane is 1/1000. However, the chance that there are two bombs at one plane is 1/1000000. So, I am much safer..."
..........She was the queen of the Chamorros, the Mariana's pride.........Oscar Brand …..Didn't She Ramble
^^ In 1661, King Louis XIV established the world's first ballet school, the Academie Royale de Danse in Paris.
'Nother Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Lazy is such an ugly word. I prefer selective participation. --Submitted by sw of ks
Moonbeam: A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and vice. --Ann Radcliffe
Late Night Snacks of the Week: A story that Trump completely made up dominated cable news for the next day. All they really want to do is repeat his insults all day. After the 2016 election, CNN’s Jeff Zucker admitted that amplifying everything Trump said all day was harmful but still, they can’t resist that sweet Trump juice. --Trevor Noah / Adam Schiff has spoken about the damaging implications of Trump getting away with it saying that Trump could move full-time to Mar-a-lago and let Jared Kushner run the country. Wow, not even in Adam Schiff’s worst nightmare scenario, do Eric and Don Jr get any responsibility. --Stephen Colbert / He genuinely thinks stealth means invisible. His brain is only capable of thinking in cartoons. He actually believes the military has developed the same technology as Wonder Woman. --Seth Meyers / In fairness to the president, why should we expect him to deliver the State of the Union when he doesn’t even know the state of Kansas City? --Jimmy Kimmel
Not So Late Night Snacks of the Week: The impeachment of Donald John Trump was rolling along to its inevitable end with first his acquittal and then the president shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die...Because now he can. But then the news came out that John Bolton, his former national security adviser, had written a book titled "The Room Where It Happened" - because if you don't think being a warmonger was bad enough, he also makes gratuitous "Hamilton" references. --Peter Sagal Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me 2/1/20
If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do you no harm. --Muhammad Ali
An engineer thinks that his equations are an approximation to reality. A physicist thinks reality is an approximation to his equations. A mathematician doesn't care.
..........Well it's bulls and blood. It's dust and mud.........Garth Brooks …..Rodeo
^^^ There are 1) Split Sole Shoes – the harder pad on the bottom of the shoe doesn't extend over its entire length 2) Full Sole Shoes – the sole running the full length of the shoe 3) Pointe Shoes – support the feet and ankles while the dancers is standing on the toes.
Worthless Fact of the Week: Shoe Rationing. On February 7,1943, the United States instituted rationing of leather shoes to begin on February 9. Each man, woman, and child could purchase up to three pairs of leather shoes a year, using designated stamps in War Ration Book One, and later in Books Three and Four.
Wicked Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress. --John Adams Submitted by jd of ks
Weird Word of the Week: Gibus – a top hat whose crown can be folded flat to make it easier to carry when visiting the theatre. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gib1.htm
Wacky Uses for Common Products: Keep your car door open without wasting the battery. Wedge a Wilson Tennis Ball into the door jamb to depress the interior light switch. http://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/wilson.html
Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them, they translate it into their own language, and forthwith it means something entirely different. -- Goethe
...........Is it tougher to toot or to tutor two tooters to toot.........Oscar Brand …..Limericks
^^^^ Most Famous Ballets: 1) Swan Lake 2) Nutcracker 3) Giselle 4) Romeo and Juliet 5) Don Quixote 6) Cinderella 7) La Bayadère 8) Coppélia 9) The Sleeping Beauty 10) La Sylphide ~~Three of these I had never even heard of
Penultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: When life knocks you down, roll over and look at the stars.
Science Fiction Convention of the Week: Foolscap (7-9. Seattle) ...one of the best ... a small convention of creatives and we know you’ll enjoy it. Saturday night the Foolscap Cabaret will turn the Commons into a variety show. https://www.foolscap.org/
Actual Science Convention of the Week: International Conference on Kinetic-Molecular Theory (6-7, Amsterdam) Any object in motion has a kinetic energy that is defined as one-half of the product of its mass times its velocity squared. https://waset.org/kinetic-molecular-theory-1-conference-in-february-2020-in-amsterdam
Puck the Brave Episode of the Week: Here's our fearless Puck staring intently in the Case of the Green Eyed Monster.
A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there. (Charles R Darwin)
..........Sometimes the best cowboys ain't cowboys at all.........Garth Brooks …..The Girl Is A Cowboy
^^^^^ The Atlanta Ballet was founded in 1929 as the Dorothy Alexander Concert Group, during the 1940 it became known as the Atlanta Civic Ballet. It is still dancing today as Atlanta Ballet.
Month of the Week: February is Love The Bus Month --Do the Lawrence buses run on time? No, they run on diesel. / A bus is a vehicle that runs twice as fast when you are after it as when you are in it.
Final Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: I've been diagnosed with a chronic fear of giants...feefiphobia
Today's Peace of History, February 7, 1991: The Reverend Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sworn in as Haiti's president after winning the country’s first-ever democratic election. Haiti had achieved its independence from France in 1804 but had a long succession on unstable governments, as well as significant U.S. control in the first half of the 20th century, including military occupation from 1915 to 1934.
Classification of mathematical problems as linear and nonlinear is like classification of the Universe as bananas and non-bananas.
..........It would be twice as filthy and ten times as long.........Oscar Brand …..Roll Your Leg Over
Masthead of the Week: Friday ePistle February 7, 2020, eUler's ePistle. Mathematically defined peace and laughter. Online at: http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/ Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. 2511 Morningside Dr. Lawrence, KS 66047
Moonbeam: I think all bullets should cost five thousand dollars...You know why? Cause if a bullet cost five thousand dollars there would be no more innocent bystanders. Yeah! Every time somebody got shot we’d say, ‘Damn, he must have done something ... he’s got fifty thousand dollars worth of bullets in his ass.’ And people would think before they killed somebody if a bullet cost five thousand dollars. ‘Man I would blow your head off…if I could afford it.’ --Chris Rock
Cost of War:
As of 2/6/20 Military Costs of War since 2001: $2,999,263,541,284.
As of 1/30/20 Military Costs of War since 2001: $2,997,352,557,516.
As of 2/6/20 Homeland Security Costs since 2001: $947,645,191,315.
As of 1/30/20 Homeland Security Costs since 2001: $946,346,476,118.
As of 2/6/20 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $740,982,598,676.
As of 1/30/20 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $739,350,095,619.
As of 2/6/20 Veterans Care since 2001: $324,041,541,862.
As of 1/30/20 Veterans Care since 2001: $323,670,440,369.
As of 2/6/20 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $5,011,933,019,554.
As of 1/30/20 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $5,006,720,543,374.
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/
Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong. --Muhammad Ali
..........When there's shelter over the poorest head.........Garth Brooks …..We Shall Be Free
Philosophy is a game with objectives and no rules. Mathematics is a game with rules and no objectives.
Famous Last Words: ...and we saw no more of the Prisoners' Van. --Charles Dickens Sketches by Boz
May Peace be your multiplicand
And Joy be your product
prairie mama
christine
Last Laugh:
