Absolute Randomness?By: Yuping Liu
Does a lottery machine truly makes random numbers? No, I don’t think so. I don’t think absolute randomness is possible anyhow. Why? Because everything that happened depends on something else that happened before. So no, absolute random does not exist. First of all, what is absolute random? To me, it is something that happens without anything happens before hand. But if nothing had happened, nothing would happen because there won’t be energy for things to happen. Think about it, if you put an apple on the table and take out all of the environmental variables. Which means no gravities, no frictions, no winds, no lights, no anything. The apple would just sit there, nothing “random” would happen to it. But only under one circumstance, only if the apple even exist. Because without anything, there won’t be anything to make an apple with. So if this is true, randomness would mean that randomness is the state of nothingness. But that contradicts the meaning of the word random, which is something that happens without something that happened before hand. Thus means that randomness is undefined, its not nothing, nor its anything. Maybe you are trying to prove me wrong by saying that the first thing that happened before anything happened is the absolute randomness. Maybe you are right, it should exist. But can you tell me, what is it? What is the first thing that happened? If you can even answer that question, what had caused the thing that happened you just told me? That would make your answer like PI, it never ends, there is always something, you can’t reach the end. So if you can’t reach the end, can you even say that there is an end? So if there isn’t an end, there is no end. And if there is no end, can you tell me what is the first thing that happened, which doesn’t exist? There, my point made, there is no absolute randomness. Nothing will ever be true random. Anything that was claimed to be random always have some starting number that was use to make something “random” out of it. For example, a random number generating program depends on a number that was inputted into it. Maybe you are saying that a computer aren’t able to produce a random number because it is a deterministic machine. Well then how about flipping a coin? You do agree that we are not deterministic (although we still depends on something), right? The side the coin will land on depends on how much force you put into flipping it, your technique of flipping it, how fast the coin rotates, and more. But why would you be flipping a coin in the first place? Because you are trying to prove me wrong. But why are you trying to prove me wrong? Because you read this article I wrote. Why….. Can you see now what I mean by randomness couldn’t happen? Right now you might be wondering what can you do with this thing you just learned from my point of view? Well, you can think that you wasted your time reading this piece of crap that doesn’t help you with anything and forgetting it. Or you can have a discussion about absolute randomness with your friends and wins the argument. Or agree with me and know that there will be no true random and go on with your life.

IJrdn

http://blitzgame.darkbb.com/forum.htm

Thank you,

IJrdn

IJrdn

Where do you find it, if you have an older garage door and hadn’t done anything with it, you should be able to find it on the side of the door. If you had recently installed a new one it should be on top of the door in the center.

When that spring breaks, the garage door will not be able to open. The spring pulls on the door to help you lift it, so with that broken, opening bigger garage doors might not be possible.

Heres how a broken spring looks like.

(http://www.garagedoorplano.com/images/brokenspring.jpg)

One little thing that you can do to help prevent it from happening, apply WD-40 to it every year.

Although it will break finally, but if you take care of it, it will last longer and save you some money. It cost 160 dollars to fix mine, so take care of it.

IJrdn

First of all, how do Breathalyzer work? Understanding how it works is not really important, so if you are not interested just skip this paragraph. Before knowing how this thing works, you have to know that alcohol is not digested or changed in anyway upon ingestion. So armed with this knowledge, lets get right into how the thing works. When your blood flows across your alveoli (lungs’ air sac) the alcohol that’s in your blood will evaporate. The evaporated alcohol concentration is related to the concentration in your blood, the ratio is 2100:1 (that is 2100 ml in air equals 1 ml in blood). So when you blow into the Breathalyzer, the evaporated alcohol that’s in your lungs will come right out with mostly carbon dioxide. When this air gets into the Breathalyzer, sensors in it will pickup the level of concentration of alcohols in that “bubble” of air. Since we know that the concentration ratio is 2100:1, the Breathalyzer will perform some sort of basic math to calculates your Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC). For most states its 0.08, which means 0.08g of alcohol per 100 ml of blood. Most states’ legal limit is 0.08%. Ok now you know how it works, lets go on to is it really worths it to buy your own?

I have to point out that at first, this article doesn’t advocate drinking and driving. So if you are drinking, you better don’t drive at all. But then what is the point of discussing is it really worth it to buy a personal Breathalyzer? If you do drink and drive, having a Breathalyzer with you is better than nothing. Although this doesn’t mean that its safe to drive. According to informations I found on the internet, there are 2 types of portable ones, fuel cell and semiconductor.

Fuel cell ones gives reliable reading but it comes with a price. So if you really don’t want to spend a lot just to see if you are over the limit, because you can always call a friend in advance to tell him to drive you home if you know that you are going to be drunk, the semiconductor ones that are right for you. Although its not really reliable, but it give you some ideas to see if you are over the limit or not.

I Amazoned personal Breathalyzers to see if the price of the Breathalyzer and the reliability of it is related. It turns out the more expensive the device the rating is better and more reviews for it. But for the most, a Breathalyzer that is over 40 dollars generally gets better ratings and reviews.

Don’t drink and drive, it doesn’t matter if you are over the limit or not. You are still putting you and others in danger.

IJrdn

reference:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/automotive/breathalyzer2.htm

http://www.martinrothonline.com/personalhealthmonitor/Articles/breathalyzers_guide.htm

Do we really have too much homework? Or is it just because we whine about it too much? In my opinion, it depends. Are you going to get anything good out of an hour of bookwork? I don’t think so. But in the other hand, I have heard many complains about too much math every night. Too much? Why? Because I don’t understands it or I already know this stuff! To me, if you understands it, you probably won’t complain about it because you know it so it wouldn’t take up much of your time. So when you do hear your kids complaining about too much science or math homework, most of the time it means that they are going to need help on that subject or that particular section they are learning.

However, there are two types of homework that exist out there. Quality ones and the horrible ones, there are no in between ones. So next time you hear your kids complaining about too much homework, read it and see which type it is. And listen to your kids, don’t just read it and say “do your homework and stop complaining.” HELP us when we needed and all I want is someone to agree with me!

In general, quality homeworks need you to think about the problem and some research. Bad ones just require you to copy sentences off of the book. Wow, we can “learn” so much by copying words down!

IJrdn

Some links (not reference):

>Too Much Homework

http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2009/03/25/do-your-kids-have-too-much-homework/

http://www.physorg.com/news4333.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31910894/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/

http://www.greatschools.org/students/homework-help/homework-is-too-much.gs?content=251

>Not Enough Homework

http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/education/x313664188/Dad-says-not-enough-homework-assigned

http://school.familyeducation.com/parents-and-teacher/special-education/42537.html

http://missourifamilies.org/features/parentingarticles/parenting20.htm

After the incident, Nigerian government said that they will co-operate with the US government to identify the identity and the motive of Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab. Investigators believed that he received explosive from Yemen.
The suspect later said that the powder explosives were strapped around his leg and was mixed with chemicals using a syringe to cause an explosion, which, failed to go off properly.

No one except the suspect had been injure. He sustained a third degree burn on his legs.

IJrdn

reference:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8430699.stm

“It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase,” said Peter Smith, a passenger from the Netherlands. “First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke.” (reference)

This whole mess happened when Flight were preparing to land in Detroit and according to USA Today, it began with a pop and a puff of smoke which sent passengers to subdue the terrorist. Also, according to USA Today, there were one passenger that were climbing over other passenger and got himself burned (it didn’t say how bad).

Afterward, the suspect, a Nigerian man, were taken to the front seat with his pant cut-offed and legs burned. That suggested that the explosive were strapped on his legs. The explosive were apparently mixed after he got on the flight instead of mixed beforehand. That lead me to believe that this man had received extensive training on mixing explosive together but I don’t know how he was able to light it.

Due to this attempted act of terrorism on Flight 253, more stricter security measures were put on airline travel, said the White House.

IJrdn

reference:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-12-25-airliner-disturbance-detroit_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip (Flight 253)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-12-25-taliban-video_N.htm (Captured American Soldier)

Although for beginners to Twitter to increase their number of followers looks hard, it certainly did to me, its actually not that complicated. Remember, what people do care about is not what you are doing right now, is what would interest other people. Do you really like looking at other people’s profile just to see what they are doing? Its not about that, and by the way, its not about how much twits you posted, its about the quality of your twits that counts.

With that in mind, lets get down to business. First, it depends on what you want to twit about, you have the freedom to choose. But remember to make it interesting, like current events, what’s happening in Hollywood,  electronic news, or w/e. Just make it interesting, what’s interesting? What do you like to read about. Remember to hash tag what you are going to twit about. For example, #09memories (12/25/2009 trending topics) I really love this year! Lol, that was bad.

Remember to look at bottom right hand corner for trending topics and put the exact word into your twit and encourage other people to re-twit your twits.  Although this is barely 10% of the ways you can increase number of followers on your twitter account, but its enough to get you started. If you want to read more about it, go down to the reference link on the bottom of the text and choose one.

IJrdn

reference:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/25/kevin-rose-10-ways-to-increase-your-twitter-followers/ (How to Get More Twitter Followers: Some Methods That Work)
http://collective-thoughts.com/2008/02/28/how-to-use-twitter/ (How to Increase Your Twitter Following 438% in 30 Days)
http://www.doshdosh.com/how-to-get-more-twitter-followers/ (Kevin Rose: 10 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers)