If I had a minute for every hour I've wasted, I would have all the time in the world.

Jack Johnson's song says, "If I had a minute for every hour I've wasted, I would be rich in time" but I thought "all the time in the world" made it that much more interesting a conundrum. And so crazy how true.

Mars as big as the moon? Rediculous.

My mom just sent me an email which claimed that on August 27^th, mars will be in opposition to the Earth and as a result will appear the same size as the full moon.

The truth is, around this time is when Mars is closest to Earth and will appear like the undisputed champion of the sky in terms of brightness.

The truth also is that if one eye was in a consumer telescope and the other open toward the moon the two orbs would appear to have a similar diameter.

Mars will pass more than 55 million miles from Earth, which the email also referred to (with different but similar numbers), but could it appear the same in size? Let's do the math.

The moon's diameter is 3,474 miles.

The moon's distance from Earth is 238,857 miles.

Mars' diameter is 6,749 million miles.

In order for Mars to "appear" the same size as the moon, it's distance would have to be calculated like this: MarsDistance = MarsDiameter * ( 1 + (MoonDistance / MoonDiameter))

The result would require Mars' distance from Earth to be 473,919 miles from earth.

In short, since Mars is roughly double the size of the moon, its distance would have to be roughly double from the earth to appear the same size as the moon.

	Mars	Moon
diameter	6,794	3,474	miles
actual distance	55,000,000 (est)	238,857	miles
needed distance	473,920		miles

 

The email was right that the Moon would pass closest around August 27^th, and that it would be more than 55 million miles from Earth. Where it is wrong is that it would appear the same. It would need to come 54,500,000 miles closer than that to even come close.

I am no specialist, but I would imagine we would have all kinds of gravimetric issues on Earth if anything the size of Mars ever passed that close to us. But that is just my speculation.

When you Google this it's clear that this email started innocently (that the telescope and naked eye would make the Moon and Mars similar in size) but was lost as it was passed along. The email can be traced back to 2003.

Nonetheless, don't miss out on looking for Mars this month – it's the big red star (not to be mistaken for the moon)!

Follow the Flights of September 11, 2001

Follow the Flights of September 11, 2001

This is a pretty cool presentation of the real time flight patterns of the 4 planes hijacked on 9/11. It's neat, it's interesting, and it's spooky.

How to Argue Effectively

This short tutorial was introduced to me by Chuck Whitlock, who has memorized most of these techniques - using them sparingly. I am not sure where this originally came from, but it's a beauty.

[smile in advance, it gets you in the right mood] 

I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me. You too can win arguments. Simply follow these rules:

Drink Liquor

Suppose you are at a party and some hot-shot intellectual is expounding on the economy of Peru, a subject you know nothing about. If you're drinking some health-fanatic drink like grapefruit juice, you'll hang back, afraid to display your ignorance, while the hot-shot enthralls your date.

But if you drink several large martinis, you'll discover you have STRONG VIEWS about the Peruvian economy. You'll be WEALTH of information. You'll argue forcefully, offering searing insights and possibly upsetting furniture. People will be impressed. Some may leave the room.

Make things up.

Suppose, in the Peruvian economy argument, you are trying to prove that Peruvians are underpaid, a position you base solely on the fact that YOU are underpaid, and you'll be darned if you're going to let a bunch of Peruvians be better off.

DON'T say: "I think Peruvians are underpaid." Say instead: "The average Peruvian's salary in 1981 dollars adjusted for the revised tax base is $1,452.81 per annum, which is $836.07 before the mean gross poverty level."

NOTE: Always make up exact figures. If an opponent asks you where you got your information, make THAT up too. Say: "This information comes from Dr. Hovel T. Moon's study for the Buford Commission published on May 9, 1982. Didn't you read it?" Say this in the same tone of voice you would use to say, "You left your soiled underwear in my bathroom."

Use meaningless but weighty-sounding
words and phrases

Memorize this list:

• Let me put it this way
• In terms of
• Vis-a-vis
• Per se
• As it were
• You have issues
• Reality is
• Qua
• So to speak

You should also memorize some Latin abbreviations such as "Q.E.D.", "e.g.", and "i.e." These are all short for "I speak Latin, and you don't." Here's how to use these words and phrases. Suppose you want to say, "Peruvians would like to order appetizers more often, but they don't have enough money."

You never win arguments talking like that. But you WILL win if you say, "Let me put it this way. In terms of appetizers vis-a-vis Peruvians qua Peruvians, they would like to order them more often, so to speak, but they do not have enough money per se, as it were. Q.E.D." Only a fool would challenge that statement.

Use snappy and irrelevant comebacks.

You need an arsenal of all-purpose irrelevant phrases to fire back at your opponents when they make valid points. The best are:

• You're begging the question.
• You're being defensive.
• Don't compare apples to oranges.
• You're being so linear.
• That's such a slippery slope.
• What are your parameters?

This last one is especially valuable. Nobody (other than engineers and policy wonks) has the vaguest idea what "parameters" means. Here's how to use your comebacks:

      You say:   As Abraham Lincoln said in 1873...
      Your opponent says: Lincoln died in 1865.
      You say:   You're begging the question.

      You say:   Liberians, like most Asians...
      Your opponent says: Liberia is in Africa.
      You say:   You're being defensive.

Compare your opponent to Adolf Hitler

This is your heavy artillery, for when your opponent is obviously right and you are spectacularly wrong. Bring Hitler up subtly. Say, "That sounds suspiciously like something Adolf Hitler might say," or "You certainly do remind me of Adolf Hitler."

What is Pascal's Wager?

If you dabble in Christian Philosophy you will come across Pascal's Wager. You have likely thought it without knowing it was formally named. Its power is probably in its simplicity.

Blaise Pascal died in 1662 at the age of 39. Aside: Niklaus Wirth's 1970 PASCAL computer language was named after Blaise Pascal since he invented the adding machine three hundred years earlier.

His French, Catholic theology reflected the 17th century Jansenists who themselves reflected John Calvin, a Protestant reformer.

Pascal, in his posthumous writing Pensées, rejected today's wildly popular Natural Theology (theologia naturalis) which seeks a proof of God through reason and evidence, not revelation.

He believed "there is a God, and there is a corruption of nature which makes men unworthy of him." Reason, to Pascal, only demonstrated man's own finiteness.

Nonetheless, you'll see here in a second that his Wager is a matter of pure reason. Nobody is pure anything, are they?

So, Jerry, what's the Wager?

What Pascal demonstrates is not that God exists, but that man ought to believe in God's existence. Though this may sound in conflict, the reasoning is simple and clear.

Pascal's Wager opposes the finite loss inherent in believing in God's existence versus the infinite loss supposed in the denial of God. In other words, the Christian may be right, but if he is wrong he only loses the opportunity for a wild life. The atheist may be right, but if he is wrong he forfeits eternity. That is the wager.

The obvious problem that even Pascal recognized was that the wager did not necessarily lead to the Christian God. Nonetheless, that's Pascal's Wager. It's a decision most believers have made subconsciously without knowing Pascal ever existed.