When I lived there, people though I was just celebrating St Patricks day year round. Talk about a tramp!!

James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher.

By adding proper punctuation that sentence is grammatically correct.

No, sir. You are not correct in this. The best way to describe this is through using chaos theory, which states that the final result is drastically effected by initial conditions in a random occurance.

One monkey at some time is going to randomly press a letter that cannot work next to each other, say QQ, and the likely hood of another monkey doing that will be the same. In an infinite amount of monkeys, each monkey will press QQ in rapid succession, thus not allowing any sort of proper work bieng able to be completed. And this goes on if you were to think of even 26 monkeys matching the letters of the alphebet. The chances of any one monkey punching in a sequence of two letters, many of which don't work is going to be 26x 26.

And yes people, mathemiticians are hard-core nits. Just one number in a calculation is able to upset a whole generation of mathematics. They have to be careful of that.

######

Worthless factoid:

The number "0" did not appear in print until sometime during the middle ages.

When airplanes first came out, women were not allowed to wear high-heels on flight, for the points were able to punch holes through the metal floors. A heel presses down with approxamately 2,000 lbs of pressure.

I don't think the monkeys could manage a sonnet, but I'm prejudiced.

Even with the correct punctuation, try explaining what it means.

The word "evolution" does not appear in Darwin's "Origin of Species." However, the word "evolve" appears once; it is the last word of the book.

James and John both wrote papers (or something).

James included the phrase "had had" at one particular point, while at the same point, John included just the word "had".

James's phrase "had had" was better received by the teacher.

the word "blackmail" originally meant rent paid in goods or labor (reditus nigri); the opposite is blanche firmes or reditus albi, which means "white rent" or rent paid in money (silver).

That still makes no sense to me, and the first clause looks like it has a comma splice in it.

Yes, I like that.

That certainly helps.

That is one durable and clever monkey.

I am not a physicist or a mathematician. I thought that chaos theory is only applicable to dynamical systems that are deterministic.

I think we need a veterinarian in here to straighten this whole thing out.

An infinite number of Loungers in an infinite number of Lounges couldn't figure this **** out.

And....you have solved it.

Lightning strikes the earth about 4 or 5 times every second.

So you're saying someone who reads the Lounge could figure this out?

Philosopher Jeremy Bentham's remains are on display at University College in the Regent's Room. He is dressed in the same clothes he wore when he died. Although the skeleton, padded with straw is there, the head is made of wax.

Additionally, Bentham also wears knitted underpants, unusual in that day since most men simply tucked the tails of their shirts between their legs.

Using an America Flag, a box of matches, and some elementary probability and trigonometry one can calculate pi to as many decimal places as you have patience for.


Then there is the coincident birthdays problem that some may be familiar with – given 24 people it is more than 50 % (54/100 to be precise) that any two will have coincident birthdays. This does not fit with common-sense perception of probability but that is not my fault. It is the fault of the lackluster and mundane school systems and the idiotic pedagogues that infest them.

If for some odd reason you will not take my word for the above (I’m frequently misinterpreted or misunderstood on these forums) or have doubts to the validity of the above claims, please see the book 1,2,3, …..Infinity, by George Gamow, which I’m just about to finish reading. In case Mr. Gamow is unknown to you he was a brillant physicist that help formulate the theory of the Big Bang and the stellar evolution of stars.


As to whether the above is pointless or not, I leave to the reader.

-Zeno

According to my Philosophy teacher, the reason the head was removed (and put in storage, or some such) was that there was an ongoing war between UCL and King's College students, and the latter would make it their mission every year to somehow remove the head and hide it jauntily about London.

Even if that one isn't true, I want it to be.

Not pointless at all, Z.

I know 100 sucker bets, and I've made more money with this one than the other 99 combined. It's so counter-intuitive, the mark just cannot resist the urge to bet on the wrong side of it, even though the voice in his head is screaming, "Don't bet him, there must be a trick or something!"

Pointless knowledge about George Gamov (pronounced GAM-ov): he published one of his seminal papers with his student Ralph Alpher. Another physicist, Hans Bethe (BAY-teh), was listed as a second author on the paper even though he made no contribution to the work whatsoever. Instead, the two physicists simply wanted a paper published by Alpher, Bethe, and Gamow.

how exactly do you make bets with this one???

Boy, was I hoping you'd ask!

Imagine you're watching a game in the sportsbook.

ME: What would you say, there are about 30 people here?

MARK: That sounds about right.

ME: What odds would you give me, that I could find two people here who share the same birthday?

MARK: What?

ME: I say that there are at least two people here who share the same birthday. Not necessarily the same YEAR, just the same month and date, like "March 27". What odds would you give me?

MARK: I don't know. 1000-to-1?

ME: Aw, come on. It's only 365-to-1 that you and I have the same birthday. Give it some thought.

MARK: This is a set-up, right? You've already asked everyone their birthdays?

ME: I assure you, except for my own, I don't know anyone's birthday.

MARK: (Looks skeptical)

ME: OK, forget these people. ANY group of 30 people. You can name 30 famous people, and we'll look up their birthdays. What price would you give me, if I say we find a match?

MARK: (quickly divides 365 possible birthdays by 30 in his head, comes up with about 12-to-1) I'd give you 3-to-1.

ME: You're way off. I'm actually a 4-to-1 favorite.

MARK: How can that be? That doesn't make any sense!

ME: I don't know the math behind it, but they say that with 23 people, it's about even money, and I'm a big favorite with 30.

MARK: Bobby, you must be wrong about this. I'll bet you $5, even money.

***

I actually had this exact conversation one slow day in the sportsbook with Andy, the ticket writer on the next stool. He insisted I must be wrong, and wanted to bet me $100. I insisted we keep it friendly, and we bet $5. When the supervisor heard the story, he wanted $5 on it, as well.

The subject came up when a secretary came up to us and asked for our birthdays. When I saw that a list of birthdays was being compiled, and I knew that we had about 30 people working in the race/sportsbook, I was reminded of this old gag.

We bet $5, and sure enough, there was a match. Lynette and Jackson were both born on July 11th.

Andy refused to pay. He was certain that I must have seen the entire list of birthdays before offering the bet.

I was a little insulted, but it was a natural thing for him to assume. I agreed that sample could be thrown out, and we'd use 30 people who were strangers to me, and he could pick them.

This was pre-internet, and our only resource that listed anybody's birthday was a thick, hard-bound copy of The Baseball Encyclopedia, a book that had been collecting dust in the office for so many years, nobody could remember how it got there.

I invited Andy to write down the names of thirty famous baseball players, and I'd look up their birthdays. He wrote down the names of legends, guys who were certain to be mentioned in a baseball encyclopedia: Ruth, Gehrig, Cobb, Aaron, etc. I only made it about 12 names down the list before finding a match: Jackie Robinson and Ernie Banks, January 31.

Andy shocked me by again refusing to pay. He said it was obviously a set-up, that I would know he would use those two guys when asked to name thirty great baseball players.

Now I don't blame Andy for being suspicious--he had spent the last two afternoons listening to my extensive knowledge of sucker bets and con jobs, and it's probably hard to trust anyone who is so versed in how to steal--but this accusation was outrageous. Forget the fact that it's absurd that I would base a bet on such a longshot prediction--I'm an honest guy, and I deeply resented the accusation of doing something underhanded for $5, especially when I told him about the gaffe up front!

I'm riled, but I don't care about the $5...oops, make that $10, because the supervisor, after hearing both sides of the dispute, said simply, "If Andy's not paying, then I'm not paying."

I offered to throw out that trial, and let Andy pick thirty different players. I suggested he pick more obscure players, players I wouldn't "know" he would pick. The book listed more than just Hall of Famers, it seemed to list every man who ever played a single game in the majors.

Andy was from Texas, and he front-loaded his list with Texas Rangers from his childhood. Again, I barely made it one-third the way through the list before finding a match: Mike Hargrove and Toby Harrah, October 26.

Incredibly, Andy again refused to pay. This time, he said, I "knew" that he would stock his list with Rangers from the 1970s. As ridiculous as his protests sound, he genuinely meant them.

"Bobby, I've been listening to these stories from you all week. You're a cheater and a conniver," he said with a smile on his face. He was shocked that I would take offense to such insult. He thought he was merely pointing out the obvious.

At least I would get some vindication from collecting from the supervisor, right?

"If Andy's not paying, I'm not paying," he said simply.

Now I'm hot. I stop talking to each of these guys. They really don't see how they've insulted me.

About two weeks later, one of the guys brought in some Upper Deck NBA cards, and left a few opened packs on the desk. Thumbing through them, I saw that they each had the player's DOB on them. I told the supervisor, "Pick 30."

He did. Again, we quickly found a match.

He pulled out his wallet, and paid me $5.

I emerged from the office, holding the $5 bill high over my head with both hands, cheering loudly. I immediately showed Andy.

Andy was shocked. He charged into the office. "You paid him??"

"It works every time he does it!", explained the super.

Andy reluctantly dug into his pocket for a five, but had nothing smaller than a ten. That's ok, I've got change.

I took a victory lap around the sportsbook, with that Hamilton hoisted high overhead like the Stanley Cup.

(Later that year, I finally joined in one of the office's fantasy leagues, because it's all anyone would talk about at work, and I didn't want to feel left out any more. My hockey team was called The Connivers; my baseball team, The Charlatans.)