Archive for category pop
Baking bread breaks up boredom of being home bound, but baffles many
Market research firm Nielsen reported sales of baking yeast surging by over 600% when the coronavirus cooped up most of America in March. It seemed like a good idea to pass the time. However, as I can attest, getting a loaf to rise can be frustratingly hit-or-miss. The Wall Street Journal described botched breads as “hockey pucks”—my words exactly when describing too-frequent failures with machine-made bread.
“We’ve all decided to bake bread, but a lot of us are ending up with hockey pucks.”
Annie Gasparro and James R. Hagerty, “We’re All Baking Bread Now (And Many of Us Are Failing at It)”, Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2020 (updated web post)
It turns out that multifactor design of experiments (DOE) provides an ideal way to troubleshoot baking problems. See in this show-and-tell* how I successfully applied DOE to rise above (pun intended) the hockey pucks. that provided.
All the best for your baking. We all need some levity nowadays, which can be accomplished with the proper leavening (dough!). Enjoy!
*Published by Quality Progress: “Augmented Ruggedness Testing To Prevent Failures”, Vol. 36, Nº 5, 2003, pp. 38-45, and posted by them for subscribers-only in this archival site.
Pi day—tau be or not tau be, that is the question
Posted by mark in pop, Uncategorized on March 14, 2020
Math-savvy pizza and pie shops around the world will be celebrating this afternoon of 3/14 at 3:14 pm to honor the mathematical constant pi.
Rounding pi to 3.14 suffices for most rational people, but those of you who are trained matheletes might like to carry this never-ending irrational number out to 100 or a 1000 decimal places. If so, knock yourself out at this post by math.com. You might as well quit at this point because the record is now 50 trillion digits, held by cybersecurity analyst Timothy Mullican who used 303 days of computation to complete this calculation, which he detailed here.
A good way to build up your chops on pi is to memorize a ‘piem’, that is a poem in which the length of each word represents a number, for example, “Now I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics.” See a much longer (101 digits!) piem sung by musician Andrew Huang and many other amazing feats related to pi in this article by Andrew Whalen posted today by Newsweek.
Sadly, some mathematicians are reigning in the pi parade by insisting it be doubled to the constant tau.
“To describe 3/4 of a circle in trigonometry, you would say 3/4 tau radians. But in the pi world, that’s 3/2 pi radians. ‘Blegh!’ says Prof. [Bob] Palais [Utah Valley University]. ‘People are so ingrained that they don’t even see how stupid it is.’”
For Math Fans, Nothing Can Spoil Pi Day—Except Maybe Tau Day
Wall Street Journal, 3/14/20
You’d best circle (ha ha-math joke) June 28 to celebrate Tau Day, even though that’s no reason to eat pizza or any other kind of pie.
Permanent calendar proposed to eliminate leap day
Posted by mark in pop, Uncategorized on February 29, 2020
“Those born on Feb. 29 know they exist, but the computer at the DMV is skeptical.”
Subheadline for the Wall Street Journal article today about how Leap-Year Babies Fight a Lonely, Quadrennial Fight for Recognition
Today being a day that comes only every four years is special—even more so now that my niece delivered a leap-year baby girl. Unfortunately, this precious little leapling (“LL”) faces a lifetime of calendar kerfuffles with computer systems that do not compute February 29th birthdays. However, a solution is at hand: the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar (HHPC). By HHPC’s reckoning this special day is March 2nd and comes again on Saturday next year and every year thereafter—no need for LL’s parents to wait four years to celebrate her first birthday.
Being that my birthday would always fall on a Monday, I cannot build much enthusiasm for the HHPC feature of any given date always falling on the same day (LL lucked out, though). Other off-putting days are Independence Day being on a Wednesday and Halloween being eliminated due to October ending at 30 days. But the weirdest aspect of HHPC is the “Xtr” week every 6 years. This year of 2020 features an Xtr, for example. Minnesotans do not need 7 more days of winter!
PS. Watch the video to see what would happen, if we did not add a day every 4 years: Eventually summer would become winter!
Experiment provides fetching evidence about wolf puppies
Posted by mark in Nature, pop, Uncategorized on January 21, 2020
Swedish zoologists reported this month in iScience that Intrinsic Ball Retrieving in Wolf Puppies Suggests Standing Ancestral Variation for Human-Directed Play Behavior. This counteracted widely-held beliefs that wolves do not socialize with humans. It may suggest that ancestors of dogs were primed for domestication.
Given the small sample size—only 13 wolves—I am not so sure. But I always feel better after encountering puppies like Flea pictured in Gizmodo’s engaging report on the Swedish study. I look forward to more rigorous research on wolf puppies and hope to be picked as a tennis-ball tosser.
“When I saw the first wolf puppy retrieving the ball, I literally got goosebumps.”
Christina Hansen Wheat, a co-author of the study and a researcher from Stockholm University.
A century after prohibition began, Minnesota still limits beer
Beer and statistics are a pairing that began in the early 1900s with Gossett and his work at Guinness brewery to develop the t-test. Fisher’s landmark book The Design of Experiments featured an innovative arrangement of beer-destined (presumably) barley in field trials at the Rothamsted station in 1927. George Box, who invented response surface methods in 1951, gained further fame by hosting Monday night beer sessions that inspired adoption of statistical methods by budding scientists. Therefore, beer is a suitable topic for a blog on statistics, particularly one that maintains a wry tone. That’s my position and I’m sticking to it.
Today Utah increased their allowance for alcohol content in beer, leaving my State of Minnesota as the last in the nation to limit grocery stores to 3.2 percent by weight (equivalent to 4% ABV—alcohol by volume—the standard measure reported by modern brewers). Minnesota did loosen up restrictions on microbreweries to allow food trucks. The State also eliminated the ban on selling liquor on Sunday. However, it’s annoying that beer (other than the 3.2 swill), wine or other alcoholic beverages cannot be bought when shopping for food.
It was a Minnesotan, Andrew Volstead, who authored the Act that enforced of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the sale and drinking of alcohol. The Volstead Act passed on October 28, 1919 when the Senate overrided President Wilson’s veto. The Cullen-Harrison in 1933 led to the legalization of 3.2 beer on April 7th–now known as National Beer Day. Later that year the 21st Amendment repealed prohibition, but many States held on to 3.2 beer as a compromise for those like Volstead who remained committed to temperance.
I look forward to the day when Minnesota opens up the sale of “full point” beer and 3.2 becomes a relic of the last century. Nevertheless, it’s good to remain mindful of the effects of higher ABV beer on the brain, which I’m reminded of by this tableau of favorite coozie, can and bottle on my desk at home. (My granddaughter Laine taped up the warning sign.) Not finding Brain’s Bitter (Cardiff, Wales) or Skull Splitter (Orkney Islands) readily available, I am currently drinking Founder’s Mosaic Promise—a single-hop ale at 5.5% ABV brewed in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s tasty! Cheers for real beers!
Excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.
– Cliff Clavin, Cheers
Taking a shot at ruggedness testing with water pistols
Posted by mark in pop, Uncategorized on September 26, 2019
Being on the committee for ASTM International (formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials) Standard Practice for Conducting Ruggedness Tests, I am a big fan of applying multifactor design of experiments (DOE) to systems before they go out to the field. For example, most homes in Florida feature stucco exteriors, which in some cases cannot withstand storm-driven rain from pushing moisture into the walls. Black mold can then build up to toxic levels before being discovered by home owners.
A less alarming, but still troublesome, combination of wind and rain is being combated by the trustees of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece Hill House in Glasgow, Scotland. The house, battered by rain every other day for 115 year, now soaks up water “like a sponge”. To keep it from dissolving “like a sugar cube”, National Trust Scotland (NTS) built a chainmail box around the home in June. They’ve scheduled a Douse the House this Saturday for visitors to test the ruggedness of the new exterior by shooting it with water pistols—”the bigger the better”! The experiment takes place at 2.30 pm and entry is free.
NTS’s Douse the House organizers had best beware of Mark Rober and his Guinness World Record sized Super Soaker. That might turn out to be a destructive testing device, even with chainmail as the barrier.
Stupid dad jokes work with a little help from prearranged laughs
“Why don’t you hear a pterodactyl go to the bathroom? …(dramatic pause)… “The P is silent!”
I had to laugh out loud at this dad joke reported by Scott Simon of NPR in this June 15 Weekend Edition.
I came up with a good one myself the other day while helping my daughter Carrie fill up tires on a new bike carrier that she bought for my grandson. To be sure of enough pressure, I “aired” on the high side. Explaining this to her, I held up my arms and fingered air-quotes when I said “aired”. Carrie gave me an eyebrow-raised, squinty-eyed, pursed lips look, from which I could tell that she was greatly amused.
Nothing will deter me from telling my awesome dad jokes. However, I wish they would elicit more guffaws than groans. Fortunately, neuroscientists at University College London (UCL) have come to my rescue with advice on how to generate LOLs from puns and other forms of high humor dispensed by dads like me. The trick is to play a sound track of genuine laughter just after telling the joke. (It turns out that Hollywood knew what they were doing by dubbing in laugh tracks.) As reported in “Modulation of humor ratings of bad jokes by other people’s laughter” (Current Biology, July 22, 2019), the UCL team provided empirical evidence that adding laughter indeed increases how funny a joke is perceived to be.
Despite all this attestation from Hollywood and neuroscientists, I remain skeptical of laughter being infectious. Although I always laugh loudly after every one of my dad jokes, I keep getting these weird looks a la Carrie. Or when I attempt to lighten things up with my wife, it generally elicits only the standard “very funny, Mark”. (She knows that this is the only way to get me to temporarily cease and desist on humor.) Although I enjoy laughing at my own jokes, it seems that I need an outside source of chuckles to keep the guffaws going.
Central Casting in Hollywood supplies professional laughers at $100 per hour, but that’s too pricey. For now, I might keep this canned laugh track handy on my smartphone hidden in my back pocket. If that doesn’t work, I can always dig out my flatulence-simulating whoopee-cushion. This never fails to get attention!
P.S. Little known fact: The first dad joke on record is “Cleopatra walks by and Julius sees her.” An alternative version is “Look! Cleopatra walks by. Julius, seize her!” Now, play the laugh track. These puns are hilarious!
Pop tops collected for charity and for the fun of counting
When my oldest grandchild Archer reached the age to walk rather than be pushed around the neighborhood in a stroller, he noticed lots of shiny tabs laying on the road. Knowing full well that these have no special scrap value than the can itself, I encouraged him to pick these up for the reduction in litter. This became a fun game for a few years. I’d keep some tabs in my pocket and surreptitiously toss them out for the joy of discovery, us having picked all the streets clean already.
When Archer outgrew the tab game, I continued to collect them for Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC)—them being happy to play along for the easy money from clean and closely-packed aluminum. Yesterday, after popping off tabs for 5 years or so, I emptied out my bottle (pictured) at the Minneapolis chapter.
Here are some interesting statistics on pop tabs that I gleaned from the internet:
- They were invented in 1974.
- There are 1,267 in one pound.
- The value of scrap aluminum ranges from 30 to 40 cents per pound.
- The Minneapolis RMHC started the Pop Tab Collection program in 1987, which then spread nationwide–they have raised more than $800,000 for their chapter alone since the founding.
Before turning in the tabs, I ran a contest with 24 of my relatives at our annual reunion last week. I started it off with my guess of 1500, which evidently biased the estimates because they came out to very near that value on average. Using the new histogram feature Design-Expert® software version 12, I produced the graphic shown. The program’s diagnostic tools revealed a nearly normal distribution other than one overly high guess from one of my brothers-in-law, who incorrectly extrapolated how many beverages I drink from observation of the quantities being consumed at the reunion.
The actual count was 1838. The winner guessed 1858 for first prize of ten dollars. Archer, now 8, helped me count, came in second and won two dollars plus another dollar for assisting. He was thrilled.
I’m starting up a new collection now. It’s a bother to bend them off the cans before I crush them but it’s a habit that provides a very small measure of satisfaction every time I drop one in the bucket.
Over half of all children have below-average reading skills
Posted by mark in Education, leadership, pop, Uncategorized on June 24, 2019
Yes, you read that right—this statistic was cited by Eugenia Cheng last weekend in her column for the Wall Street Journal on why Averages Aren’t Always What They Seem. In this case, a small number of excellent readers skews the distribution to the right.
But none of this applies to my offspring, them being in the Lake Wobegon region where all the children are above average.
I would never admit it, but deep down I realize that I’ve succumbed to the superiority illusion, aka the Dunning-Kruger effect. As advised in this June 3rd post by Forbes you’d best be careful not to be taken in by individuals who consistently overestimate their competence due to this cognitive bias.
Steve Carell took the superiority illusion to an absurd extreme as the manager Michael Scott in the “The Office” television series. It’s funny unless you are subject to someone like this.
“The knowledge and intelligence that are required to be good at a task are often the same qualities needed to recognize that one is not good at that task—and if one lacks such knowledge and intelligence, one remains ignorant that one is not good at that task.”
— David Dunning, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan
“Stupid people are so stupid they’re unable to grasp the fact that they’re stupid.”
— Letter to Editor of Oroville Mercury Register, 6/23/19
Park in the first open spot or chance one opening much closer?
Posted by mark in pop, Uncategorized on June 6, 2019
Up until a few years ago when going to an event with limited parking, I always took the first opening available. But then one of my buddies told me how he prays for a closer place and one always opens. I thought about that and came to an epiphany that, as a general rule, one may as well try for a parking spot as close as possible to the destination. That’s been working for me ever since.
This strategy is now validated by researchers who evaluated three alternatives: meek, optimistic and prudent. They mathematically disrespect the meek driver parks at the first available spot that is behind the most distant parked car.
“The meek strategy is the most stupid strategy.”
Professor Sidney Redner, Santa Fe Institute—co-author of Simple Parking Strategies, Apr 14, 2019
However, the optimistic driver (like my prayerful friend) who goes for the closest spot, bypassing any gaps before the destination, pays a big penalty if they fail–going all the to the back of the parking line and being late for their even. It is better to be prudent—the middle strategy—by parking at the first gap.
Being methodical and frequently searching for parking at sporting events, I am very appreciative of this analysis. It reinforces my new-found faith (thanks to my friend) that the meek do not inherit the earth, at least not a good place to park your car.