Numbers

Younger daughter asked me the other day "Who invented numbers?". And I thought for about a tenth of a second and said "The arabs", which isn't all that true but it seemed to satisfy her, and - now that I think about it - is a pretty good answer to any question of this type.

She thought for a moment, then asked a follow-up question: "Daddy, did they have numbers when you were little?"

Remix

At the gym I go to they play a lot of music which is remixed and updated versions of 80s songs. At first I thought that what this meant was that all popular music these days is just remixed versions of old songs (which span me off into a "kids these days.. so unoriginal" bender), but then I realised that the gym's a controlled environment, and that a remixed 80s song allows them to cater for a wider age range. People like me recognise the original, the younger crowd like the remix sound. Everyone's a winner, right?

They were playing a remixed version of "Another Brick in the Wall", that loathsome Pink Floyd song, which actually sounds even worse than it did back in 1979. And what struck me is that among the things the song rails against (education, thought control, whatever) is.."dark sarcasm in the classroom". Dark sarcasm? My heart bleeds.

Useful.

Concentration.

Lovely review in the Wapo of a book called "Rapt", whose thesis is that noone concentrates on anything any more. (See also the mythology around multi-tasking. I don't think you can do two things at once if one of them requires much mental effort. And don't get me started on the connection between this and the gender sterotype....)

Anyway, the reviewer says:

Spending an hour doing just one thing -- such as reading a book or practicing a musical instrument -- may soon be the equivalent of wearing spats

Note.

Note to self: If I ever go out drinking again with Neighbor Girl and her friends, I have to make sure I don't have to do anything the next day except lie in bed and recuperate.

Rewrite...

It's so perfect.

SGT Joey

These nigerians are getting lazy. I got this spam today, which I reproduce in its entirety. Nothing about plane crashes or someone's uncle who was finance minister. Just this:

I am SGT joey, with the USA Army in Iraq, we have 20,000,000.00 USD and we want to move the funds out, you will be entitled to 8 Million, respond for details.