Hollow-een

Why dress up as something I'm not for Halloween when I already dress up everyday?

Our Worlds at Word

A letter to "Henry Flowers" Leopold Bloom:

I am sorry you did not like my last letter. Why did you enclose the stamps? I am awfully angry with you. I do wish I could punish you for that. I called you naughty boy because I do not like that other world. Please tell me what is the real meaning of that word.

--James Joyce, Ulysses

My oath to postmodernism:

I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.

--Vishnu in the Bhagavad Gita

We knew the world would not be the same.

--J. Robert Oppenheimer

We knew the word would not be the same.

Weekly Wikipedia Find: Monty Hall problem

I've been accumulating a lot of cool Wikipedia finds lately, oh boy, oh boy. So instead of presenting you with one of those, I thought I'd bring back an old standby: the thought experiment! Door number three, Monty.

That's right, the Monty Hall problem. This one I actually specifically sought out as I had a bit of inspiration while I was at work. You see, the men's washroom has no urinals. Just three toilets. So when you enter the washroom, all you see is three stall doors. So it's always a bit of a crap shoot choosing. Zing!

So the problem (or "the Monty Hall") is a probability puzzle based on the Monty Hall-hosted game show Let's Make a Deal. It exists in a weird alternate reality where instead of all the doors having an equal probability of 1/3 of containing the choice prize (versus the booby prizes), once you initially choose a door, the knowing host eliminates a dud door, thus creating an existential paradox where you, the contestant, will have a greater probability of winning the prize by switching your choice of doors (the remaining door has 2/3 of containing the choice prize now). The alternate reality in question: ours! Dun dun dun.

Next week: Monsters! of the Deep Sea!

Wikipedia by Week

Week Eighteen: Brown Booby
Week Seventeen: Dieter Dengler
Week Sixteen: New Jerusalem
Week Fifteen: Technological Singularity
Week Fourteen: Numbers Station
Week Thirteen: Culper Ring
Week Twelve: Mary Sue
Week Eleven: Byford dolphin diving bell accident
Week Ten: Deep-sea gigantism
Week Nine: Bloop
Week Eight: Rat king
Week Seven: Gustave Doré
Week Six: Tomorrow
Week Five: Borscht Belt
Week Four: Swampman
Week Three: Chinese room
Week Two: Ambrose Burnside
Week One: Lolita fashion

CBC.ca readers racist, ignorant

CBC.ca has been really going downhill since they enabled comments. Does the fact that its a public broadcaster bring out the "Conservative" (note the capital-C) in people? Like I imagine the same type who watch CBC. I mean I completely support the notion of the CBC, but I barely ever find myself interested to tune in (exceptions include Degrassi High and Jr. High reruns, Kenny vs. Spenny, The Passionate Eye repackaged documentary series, Street Cents, that weird afterschool quiz show, the rare Hockey Night in Canada, and classic movie airings).

But back to their website. If the story is about some kind of minority, you can guarantee a certain kind of comments. Some prime examples have been recents news stories containing Sikhs. Nevermind that nowhere in the article does it mention where the men were born (i.e. if they were foreign-born at all), most of the reader comments are a variation on "go back to your own country if you don't like our rules." Enlightened. Again, this is not some freak incident; this is a guarantee.

Thanks Public Broadcaster.

Bonus CBC thought:

Recently, there was news about a group of kid conspirators planning to "harm" their teacher. Creepy as hell, sure, but the thing that sells it, sending it over-the-top, is the photo of the kids' fun bag. Jesus Christ. When I was in school, when we were mad at a teacher, we would make bad puns at the expense of their names. Eat my cunning wordplay, Mr. Booger. Kids today: it's all bind, torture, kill. Where's the fun?What is that? A mitten?