Drunken Pumpkin

It’s ironic that at age 32, at probably the greatest moment of my career, with The Godfather having such an enormous success, I wasn’t even aware of it, because I was somewhere else under the deadline again.

~ Francis Ford Coppola

The Decision at Age 32 That Made Me Rich by Gary North

In 1879, at age 32, Edison successfully perfected the incandescent lamp, making it practical for commercial use. Although a British scientist named Swan originally came up with the idea of using scorched cotton thread (carbon) filament for a light bulb, no one could keep the bulb burning for very long. The problem was that the filament or glowing element would quickly burn out. Edison tried other substances, but soon used the carbon filament. His method succeeded because he was able to maintain a good vacuum.

He also invented the Edison dynamo—his version of a device for creating a steady supply of direct current (DC) electricity. Along with his engineers, Edison developed a system of distribution and regulation of electric current. Again, this was for the sake of commercial interests.

~ excerpted from School-For-Champions.com

The Washington Post has a list of 81 service members, aged 32, who have died during Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom

Born out of wedlock and orphaned at the age of 10, Alexander Hamilton immigrated to this country from the Caribbean island of St. Croix at age 15. He emerged as George Washington’s trusted aide within five years, and our nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury by age 32.

excerpted from NYHistory.org

ChateauClassic.com has a list of eighteen 1975 vintage wines while WhiskeyMag.com has 22 whiskeys that are considered vintage at age 32.

Pspxworld.com maintains a list of mathematics text books available free online.

Mkaz.com, MathOpenRef.com, and FrontierNet.net all provide Javascript programs for graphing linear equations.

And my favorite, VisualStatistics.net provides extremely well structured tutorials in all things relating to statistical analysis as well as tutorials on the use of SPSS (the leading software package for statistical analysis)

And to answer your question, yes, I am the sort of person that keeps these kinds of links in my Favorites folder.

Naturally, the common people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

Hermann Goerring, Nazi Reich-Marshall, spoken at the Nuremburg Trials

I found this bit of weirdness on Etsy. If you’ve never been to Etsy, think eBay with crafts. Usually, incredibly expensive crafts.

My wife knits a lot. And I’m rapidly discovering that there is abundantly more math involved in manipulating yarn than one might suspect. If only they had told us that in High School math class. That’s just one of many things that Math can be used for that seems to have slipped my teachers minds. Have you ever noticed that Math teachers always expound on how important that a good foundation in mathematics is, but never seem to be able to give any actual examples.

I think this week we should try to come up with real examples of math being used. The store doesn’t count, because we all know that one. But who knew that calculus would make crocheting easier?

Stayed tuned, it’s Math on a rampage week at Drunken Pumpkin.

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Do not do unto others as you would they should do unto you; their tastes may not be the same.

The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.