Weird

What A Way To Go

I guess that this is a case of the fan hitting the sh1t.

Gilroy police Sgt. Kurt Svardal said authorities have no idea where the plane was from or where it was going. The aircraft came pretty much straight down into a holding tank filled with raw sewage at a sewage treatment facility. It was too dangerous for even a dive team to go into the water and check for bodies or the tail number of the plane, which would indicate who owned it and where it was from.

The tank is about 20 feet deep and will have to be drained before police can determine if anyone is inside.

Don’t sign me up for that accident investigation. Reportedly, a very large number of last words from pilots on voice recorders is “Sh!t!” There’s no voice recorder on this plane, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the pilot used that word, in this case literally.

War Commentary

Finally, Some Action?

I’d sure like to think that this is true:

North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Il and his generals inspect a Korean People’s Army Unit in this photo released by the Korean Central News Agency on December 6. According to the report, intelligence activities against the Kim regime also are being considered. The Chinese military intelligence service, known as 2 PLA, “is toying with the idea of a palace revolution that would kick out the ‘Kim dynasty’ and replace it with ‘pro-Chinese generals,'” the report said.

Long overdue, if so. That wouldn’t be great for the North Koreans, but it has to beat the current situation. I suspect that the Chinese are getting pretty upset now, because they don’t want Japan to start to build up a nuclear arsenal.

Weird

Hug A Muslim

…for Rudolf:

A Jersey Evening Post journalist is making a late bid to reach the top of the charts this Christmas by dressing as a reindeer and urging the nation to “hug a Muslim”.

In the video, Lewis, who has no previous musical experience, sings: “Turn to the person next to you now and give them a hug. Muslim, Hindu, Christian or Jew

General

What Does Your Robot Head Look Like?

Today’s Woot offering is pretty funny:

If the scientist is going to use a home entertainment projector for the head, which one would we prefer him to use?

Woot feels the answer might be the InFocus IN72 Home Entertainment Projector. First of all, just look at it. This thing has awesome robot head written all over it. Not since HAL has there been such a perfect anthropomorphic design, allowing you to choose between:

a) breaking the ranks of soldiers by causing them to flee before your electronic snarl as you march on your state capitol or the state capitol of others.
b) breaking the ranks of soldiers by inviting them to stop and enjoy high quality movies or television in your new living room theater.

Also, the thing has sold out already, and it’s not even 10 AM on the east coast.

General Science

Yes, It’s Right

Phil Bowermaster is wondering if there’s something dodgy about the math here.

No, this is in fact a standard technique for determining the sum of an infinite series, which is in fact what 0.999… is (it could be expressed as the sum, from n=0 to infinity, of the expression 9 times 10 to the minus n). Perhaps, as one commenter notes, it’s the word “precisely” that’s hanging people up, but certainly that number is equal to one, whatever modifier you want to put on it or leave off.

[Update in the afternoon]

I’m not sure I follow the commenter’s objection. He claims that no matter what you start out with as “a” you get a=1. I don’t see that.

Try it with two, as suggested.

a = 2
10a = 20
10a – a = 20 – 2
9a = 18

Ergo, a = 2.

In fact, do it with 1.999…

a=1.999…
10a = 19.999…
9a = 18
a = 2

As I said, it’s a standard technique for expressing repitends as whole numbers or fractions.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!