tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post4322946023392472134..comments2023-10-15T04:23:50.187-04:00Comments on College Misery: Hi. I'm Hiram. I Used to OWN Tuesdays. So Today I'm Baffled By Birthdays.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-42801917630124388972015-02-25T22:14:14.960-05:002015-02-25T22:14:14.960-05:00"[She didn't actually try to use Hitler&#..."[She didn't actually try to use Hitler's birthday, okay?]"<br /><br />Well, that leaves something for the bucket list.Ogre Proctor Hephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17428431147495287413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-40246916019396268192015-02-25T19:47:19.195-05:002015-02-25T19:47:19.195-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Ogre Proctor Hephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17428431147495287413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-73130459213256387782015-02-25T19:46:10.149-05:002015-02-25T19:46:10.149-05:00Children's sermons on birthdays (not just the ...Children's sermons on birthdays (not just the obvious -- Jesus' birthday -- but also the "birthday of the church" -- Pentecost) cause very similar problems. Contingent Cassandrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08161652083031423415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-84555239996246974212015-02-25T19:42:36.166-05:002015-02-25T19:42:36.166-05:00All I have is anecdata: I attended a very small pr...All I have is anecdata: I attended a very small private school for K-8; for most of that time there were 21 students in my class (though the particular people shifted over time a bit); and for most of that time there was another student who shared my (exact) birthday. I'm pretty sure we were the only pair of unrelated "twins" in the classroom (there was also a pair of actual, Contingent Cassandrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08161652083031423415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-54402520888909369082015-02-25T19:39:23.576-05:002015-02-25T19:39:23.576-05:00I resemble that last remark. I found it curious th...I resemble that last remark. I found it curious that Zilog had both big and little endian processors. I never took part in any of the debates, as I was comfortable programming for either scheme.<br /><br />I was about to call you to task for saying "the much more natural DD/MM/YY". To me, there's nothing "natural" about either DD/MM/YY or MM/DD/YY, when YYYY-MM-DD is Ogre Proctor Hephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17428431147495287413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-43481714391972863002015-02-25T19:13:54.565-05:002015-02-25T19:13:54.565-05:00Well, it was a really bad storm.
I am glad you c...Well, it was a really bad storm. <br /><br />I am glad you called me on that. I suspect you are correct and am tempted to run the Monte Carlo simulations to confirm it. If indeed there was spike in births in the 40 +- 2 weeks after the storm, likely it could not be distinguished from typical random noise, certainly not in an individual kindergarten classroom several years hence. Ogre Proctor Hephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17428431147495287413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-83606347867665012452015-02-25T12:58:41.983-05:002015-02-25T12:58:41.983-05:00My lovely spouse is in children's lit and lite...My lovely spouse is in children's lit and literacy, and she has been volunteering as a reader for pre-school aged children in libraries and Head Start programs for years now. One of the major lessons she has learned is that you never, never read a book or do a little song about birthdays with the children, because they cannot control their urge to be the center of attention, and birthdays Dr. Pablitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01642708115085543647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-3113171046776461422015-02-25T09:13:11.057-05:002015-02-25T09:13:11.057-05:00Naw, the spread function in delivery dates is too ...Naw, the spread function in delivery dates is too wide - unless there's literally a million births this year in the affected area, it's unlikely you'd be able to spot it even with a complete statistical analysis.Three Sigmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10822893039310439770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-69667744248511774872015-02-25T09:13:06.781-05:002015-02-25T09:13:06.781-05:00Naw, the spread function in delivery dates is too ...Naw, the spread function in delivery dates is too wide - unless there's literally a million births this year in the affected area, it's unlikely you'd be able to spot it even with a complete statistical analysis.Three Sigmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10822893039310439770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-74502998677863939232015-02-25T09:11:31.242-05:002015-02-25T09:11:31.242-05:00I'm fine with most-to-least significant orderi...I'm fine with most-to-least significant ordering, a-la SQL format YYYY-MM-DD.<br /><br />That's the way I like by endians: big! <br /><br />Anyone who gets that joke has spent way too much time on technical stuff.Three Sigmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10822893039310439770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-60025064675398898852015-02-25T09:07:55.292-05:002015-02-25T09:07:55.292-05:00Why do the American and the International standard...Why do the American and the International standards differ? I count it as legitimate language change, which was studied by the brothers Grimm. They were philologists (who would now be called linguists), working at the University of Heidelberg. Their famous book Grimm's Fairy Tales was a by-product of their research on language. Among other things, they discovered Grimm's law of Froderick Frankenstien from Fresnohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11653942918068535424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-13586402108269236942015-02-25T08:57:42.013-05:002015-02-25T08:57:42.013-05:00As an astronomer, by pure logic I can prove that b...As an astronomer, by pure logic I can prove that both the American standard (mm/dd/yyyy) and the English/Imperial/International standard (dd/mm/yyyy) for writing dates are incorrect. The correct way to write a calendar date is shown on the front cover of any issue of The Astrophysical Journal. This format is: yyyy mm dd.<br /><br />As you can see, this goes from large units at left to smaller Froderick Frankenstien from Fresnohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11653942918068535424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-67032218561587315402015-02-25T08:33:39.563-05:002015-02-25T08:33:39.563-05:00I'll have another go at the "birthday pro...I'll have another go at the "birthday problem" and maybe if I can understand it, others can too. As Nathaniel said, it's easier to pose the question, what are the chances of everybody in the room NOT sharing a birthday. Let's also assume that birthdays occur with equal probability on any day of the year, and it's leap year; I'll explain why later. <br /><br />Adam Ogre Proctor Hephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17428431147495287413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-91313671722623186242015-02-24T23:23:03.031-05:002015-02-24T23:23:03.031-05:00AM, I was born and raised in the States, yet for ...AM, I was born and raised in the States, yet for whatever reason, when I type it's all about "neighbour" and "colour". However, I've never had issues with "centre" or "defence."<br /><br />I've also found that I'm saying "zed" lately instead of "zee."<br /><br />Granted, it's the middle of hockey season and my Mom&#Pat from Peoriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10005657976057072299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-70967060270865463352015-02-24T20:18:35.081-05:002015-02-24T20:18:35.081-05:00Ben, Whirly Ball is Jai Alai played in bumper cars...Ben, Whirly Ball is Jai Alai played in bumper cars with basketball hoops. It is glorious.<br /><br />Sigma, legend has it that 420 is the police code for "possession of marijuana" in California. As you can imagine, anything priced 420, dated 420, or timed at 420 leads to ridiculous giggles.<br /><br />As for the order of dates, I can't help you, as I did my first few years of Academic Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07086078244493768565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-62864500679417668992015-02-24T20:09:29.951-05:002015-02-24T20:09:29.951-05:00My turn to be ignorant: why is 4/20 funny? (And w...My turn to be ignorant: why is 4/20 funny? (And why do Americans insist on doing dates the wrong way around, doing medium significance / least significant / most significant MM/DD/YY instead of the much more natural DD/MM/YY??)Three Sigmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10822893039310439770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-14983665485435041932015-02-24T19:58:24.122-05:002015-02-24T19:58:24.122-05:00Say, Hiram, would you like to play cards? As a sci...Say, Hiram, would you like to play cards? As a science geek I'm not good with human interaction so poker is out, but let's play blackjack, it's fun! Froderick Frankenstien from Fresnohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11653942918068535424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-11483154738048722842015-02-24T19:39:28.236-05:002015-02-24T19:39:28.236-05:00What is whirly ball?What is whirly ball?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-15145597234629197722015-02-24T18:51:54.272-05:002015-02-24T18:51:54.272-05:00Nathaniel, that was true in days of yore when ther...Nathaniel, that was true in days of yore when there was a uniform distribution of birthdays. Now, doctors don't like to work weekends, so there are fewer births on Saturdays and Sundays, and since the flakes tend to be from the same year, you will find certain days not being as often as others. Then there's the born-9-months-after-the-Super-Bowl/first-day-of-summer-vacation/Christmas, etcSuzy from Square Statehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03085856052108645578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-73285924239046789412015-02-24T17:13:33.930-05:002015-02-24T17:13:33.930-05:00Three things:
1. My favorite part of this whole p...Three things:<br /><br />1. My favorite part of this whole post is the first line. "Snowshits." I love it.<br /><br />2. The only birthday I care about is Hitler. Why? It's the cheapest way to get a sustained laugh from my students. Seriously, anytime you mention that 4/20 is Hitler's birthday, they go nuts.<br /><br />3. I have a very good British ex-pat friend now living in Academic Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07086078244493768565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-17115547168551145142015-02-24T14:39:51.762-05:002015-02-24T14:39:51.762-05:00I was with you up until the first percentage sign ...I was with you up until the first percentage sign and then the decimal point!Compound Calicohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00059155949950433688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-6188987802987701952015-02-24T13:57:13.389-05:002015-02-24T13:57:13.389-05:00Yeah- the chance that any single person in the cla...Yeah- the chance that any single person in the class will have YOUR birthday is only about 30 in 365, or about 7%, if there's 30 people in the room. <br /><br />But it's more tricky than that. Probabilities are hard to compute correctly. In this case, it's easiest to compute the chance that NO ONE matches a birthday.<br />Take person p1. They have a birthday. The chance that no one Three Sigmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10822893039310439770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-30130954803251707992015-02-24T13:57:09.868-05:002015-02-24T13:57:09.868-05:00Yeah- the chance that any single person in the cla...Yeah- the chance that any single person in the class will have YOUR birthday is only about 30 in 365, or about 7%, if there's 30 people in the room. <br /><br />But it's more tricky than that. Probabilities are hard to compute correctly. In this case, it's easiest to compute the chance that NO ONE matches a birthday.<br />Take person p1. They have a birthday. The chance that no one Three Sigmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10822893039310439770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-83539992822102831252015-02-24T13:42:51.579-05:002015-02-24T13:42:51.579-05:00I have heard this before and have not one bit of u...I have heard this before and have not one bit of understanding of how it can be true. There are still 365 days in a year, right? Oh, my PhD is in the humanities. College Miseryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01371354682300032653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-60302154974699096922015-02-24T13:39:47.903-05:002015-02-24T13:39:47.903-05:00That was very pedagogical; now they'll all rem...That was very pedagogical; now they'll all remember Steinbeck's birthday (for a week, at least.)<br /><br />I would probably have jumped on the chance to mention the "birthday problem" (in a group of 23 people, there's at least a 50% chance that two share a birthday), just to put them to sleep. Or even better, to ask them to compute the probability for "same birth week&Peter Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00754472537710161295noreply@blogger.com