The Billiards Paradox

I just read an interesting restatement of the Grandfather Paradox:

Imagine a pool table with a wormhole on it. The wormhole loops through time and space such that if you shoot a billiard ball into one end, it comes out the other end a second or so BEFORE it enters. So you'd see it emerge before it enters, and for a second or two, there are two of the same ball on the table. (We're ignoring whether this violates conservation of mass/energy.)

Now imagine aiming the ball at the wormhole so that when it comes out of the wormhole, it hits the version of itself rolling towards the wormhole, and deflects that one so it never enters the wormhole! Which means it doesn't come out of the wormhole, so it isn't deflected, so it does enter the wormhole, and it does deflect itself...and so on.


Yes, that's the kind of thing I find interesting.

Lesser Known Knights of the Round Table

Lesser known knights of the round table:

The one who drank too much: Sir Ohsis

The one who ate only meat: Sir Loin

The one who was always trying to please everyone: Sir Vial

The one who was always talking: Sir Rocco

The one with chronic dry skin: Sir Haira

The sweet one: Sir Up

The one with more than he needed: Sir Plus

The one who always wanted more: Sir Charge

The one who was always to stand in for others: Sir Rogate

The really strange-looking one: Sir Real

The one who watches everyone: Sir Veillance

The one who was afraid of actually fighting anyone: Sir Render

The mellow, laid-back one: Sir Furdude

And the sullen, angy one: Sir Lee

Grrrr

There are few things worse than having to wipe piss off a toilet seat before you can sit down.

One of them is realizing you didn't look closely enough before you sat down.

Guys are pigs.

And yes, I'm a guy. What's your point?

Reading

I've been an avid reader all my life. I don't even remember learning to read, I learned so young (my parents taught me to read before I even started school). I don't remember reading the "See Spot Run" type of books at all.

The first books I remember reading were the Lensman books by E.E.Smith, followed by "anything I could reach standing on the floor" (Mom kept the child-rearing books on the top shelf). Reading has always been my primary form of entertainment, almost exclusively science fiction.

And I read a lot. My reading speed on entertainment material is about 600wpm and I would have guessed that I read an average of 20-30 books a year. But this year, I've been tracking my reading on Goodreads. And I'm currently at 110 books this year! That's 15 books a month! And that doesn't even count short stories, or the nine that I gave up on and didn't finish!

I never had a grasp before on just how much I read. Wow.

Reading in the tub

I like to sweat out a cold by soaking in a VERY hot bath for an hour or more at the first symptoms. I find that knocks it down to one or two days, tops.

And, of course, I like to read while I'm in there. Probably not a surprise to anyone who knows me. I've done it for many, many years, and only dropped a book into the water once.

But I do my reading on electronic devices these days, and dropping one of those in the water even once is not acceptable.

So I was thrilled to discover that my tablet works just fine sealed inside a zipper freezer bag. Now I don't have to find a hardcopy in my collection to read the next time a cold virus tickles my throat.

marco, no polo

The kids in the complex were playing "Marco, Polo!" in the pool this afternoon.

At one point, I heard, "Marco!...Marco!...MARCO!...Where the hell is everyone?"

Seems the rest had quietly left the pool and were hiding behind the bushes.


Now that's funny!

It's ALIVE!

CLEAR!

CLUNK!

We have a pulse! I think...yes...okay, back off, it's stirring. Let's see if it survives any longer this time.

So, after two years, I feel like posting to this thing again. No promises how often I'll post, but we'll see.