Well, it happened again. For seven straight World Cups, the Mexican national soccer team was good enough to advance from group play, but not good enough to win the first game in the knock-out round (Round of 16). Thus, the curse of the "fifth game" (quinto partido) lives - once again, Mexico played four games … Continue reading Quinto Partido

We've been debating getting a second car. On the plus side there's convenience. On the minus side is cost (cost of the car, insurance, maintenance, etc). But what about the environmental cost/benefit? Is it a plus or a minus to have a second, presumably more efficient, car? Current situation: Chrysler Town & Country ramp van. … Continue reading Go Green?

Back in the 80s TV shows used 1-900 numbers as a way to poll audiences. As discussed in this article from 1987: The ballots are cast by calling numbers with a 900 prefix; the opinion calls are counted rather than answered. To vote for the Denver Broncos, viewers dial one number. To vote for the … Continue reading The Serious Undecided

Today I read about an LAX to Tokyo flight that turned around after four hours because one of the passengers was unauthorized. He had a ticket and boarding pass for a different LAX to Tokyo flight, and somehow got on the wrong plane. The airline talked about an  “out of the abundance of caution and … Continue reading You can be too careful

Back in the 80s I remember watching a TV commercial for Bayer aspirin. I only saw it once, but it stuck with me because of its deceitful use of numbers. Thanks to the miracle of the modern internet, it only took a few minutes to find it: Did you notice the trick? The four choices were … Continue reading Tricks with polls

A year ago we took a trip to London, and hopped over to Paris for 4 days in the middle. While planning the trip (Spring of 2016), the terror attacks in Paris of the previous November were pretty fresh in everyone's mind. More than one person asked me if I was worried about terrorism. Before … Continue reading Should I be worried?

This comes up frequently on message boards where video games are reviewed. When a game doesn't live up to their standards, gamers often complain about the cost of the game. Rarely do they complain about the time spent. They'll often play a game for 40 hours or more, then give it a lukewarm rating and … Continue reading Time versus Money (gamer edition)

I recently finished up a jar of peanut butter. I did a pretty thorough job of scraping out the last bits, but there's always some left. That got me thinking. So I weighted the jar (with the last little bit of peanut butter), then gave it a good washing and let it dry, and weighed … Continue reading Yeah, but what about the jelly?

In 1966, motor vehicle fatality rate in the US was 5.5 deaths per 100 million miles traveled. That year, Congress passed the Highway Safety Act, the Department of Transportation was created, and the first Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard was released, mandating seat belts. Over the next 51 years, cars have steadily become safer for a … Continue reading A success story we take for granted