A novel use for a social media tool

Posted on April 1, 2007 Written by 6 Comments

CUPERTINO, California (AP) – An online tool to help you get pregnant? Surely, do not let the April 1 dateline fool you.

While dating and romance sites have helped bring couples together for years, there is now an online service that can actually help existing couples find the right time to conceive. Which is not at all what the creators had in mind.

Twitter.com is the breakout web community of 2007. Based on a simple premise, “What are you doing right now?”, hundreds of thousands of “Twitterers” have been sharing their most mundane thoughts and actions for the past several months. Earlier this year attendees at the influential South By Southwest Conference in Austin spurred the site to a new level, bringing together a massive community of users.

It was exactly the sort of data pool Dr. Phil Larkin needed to test his theory.

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Million Dollar Language

Posted on March 16, 2007 Written by Leave a Comment
AmSouth Contest

“Why use a 50-cent word when a 5-cent word will do?” That advice needs to be adjusted for inflation, because we live in the age of Million Dollar Language.

I saw a billboard on the way in to work, highlighting a contest being run by a local bank. Being the stickler for language that I am, something caught in my frontal lobe and wouldn’t rattle out:

“Someone could win one million dollars.”

AmSouth ContestThe contest is called the “Make Life Interesting Sweepstakes,” by AmSouth/Regions (the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of bank mergers; two great banks that couldn’t bear the thought of being someone else’s minor appendage, so they joined forces like the last two good looking people from the shipwreck.)

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The M in GMA

Posted on February 22, 2007 Written by Leave a Comment
numerology.gif

…does not stand for “mathematics.”

I was watching “Good Morning America” this morning, and heard two different math-related gaffes that made me scowl. Sadly, our habits as passive listeners mean that a great number of other mistakes might be sliding under our collective radar.

The first was a simple mis-reporting of a statistic. Chris Cuomo (designated newsreader) was reading an item about illegal immigration. Apparently, the latest statistics from the Border Patrol indicated that fewer people were crossing illegally into the United States. The proof, as read by Cuomo, was a stat indicating that the number of illegal immigrants caught was down 27-percent from last year. Pardon me for being a stick in the mud, but couldn’t that also be an indication of other things?

  • Migrants are picking less-monitored locations?
  • Border Patrol agents are lazier?

Just off the top of my head. There might be others.

The second math error involved probabilities… [Read more...]

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Let’s Make a No Deal

Posted on January 8, 2007 Written by Leave a Comment
Mandelbrot set

Here’s a puzzler for you.

Let’s say I have two tiles: one painted blue on both sides, and the other painted blue on one side and white on the other. I mix them up out of your view, then randomly place one on the table. You look over and see a blue-sided tile face up. What are the odds the other side is also blue?

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1 vs. 100 vs. intelligence

Posted on January 5, 2007 Written by 1 Comment

(subtitled: “How to avoid making a fool of yourself on national television”)

I really just wanted to kill some brain cells while straightening up the living room the evening. I certainly had no intention of blogging tonight. But then I saw something so stupid, I couldn’t let it go. And then it got worse. When I first heard about the concept behind “1 vs. 100,” I thought it sounded novel and fun. But that was before I felt like throwing a brick at my screen. Tonight, I found a true sign of the Apocalypse in the things Americans know and don’t know. The NBC television network has succeeded in creating a show that unlike Jeopardy doesn’t make you smarter; it just makes you feel smarter. (Apparently, years of finding new ways to wince at home video crotch shots has taken a toll on Bob Saget.)
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