From the page: In 1999, UC-Davis civil engineer David Phillips was grocery shopping when he noticed something peculiar. Healthy Choice Foods was offering frequent-flyer miles to customers who bought its products. But a 25-cent pudding would bring 100 miles ââ,¬â the reward was worth more than the product itself. Recognizing a good thing, Phillips bought 12,150 servings of pudding for $3,140, claiming he was stocking up for Y2K. Then he enlisted the Salvation Army to help him peel off the UPC codes, in exchange for donating the pudding. He mailed his submission to Healthy Choice, and to their credit they awarded him 1.25 million frequent-flyer miles, enough for 31 round trips to Europe, 42 to Hawaii, 21 to Australia, or 50 anywhere in the United States. There's no downside. Phillips also got Aadvantage Gold status for life with American Airlines, which brings a special reservations number, priority boarding, upgrades, and bonus miles. And he got an $815 tax writeoff for donating...
- Ankesh
The contents of any one panel are dependent on the contents of every panel including itself. The graph of panel dependencies is complete and bidirectional, and each node has a loop. The mouseover text has two hundred and forty-two characters.
- Ankesh
The Game Theory Joke It was a party and the host was getting worried-there were too many people and not enough refreshments. She was sure that not all of these people had been invited but didn't know how to tell which ones were the crashers. Then her husband got an idea.... He turned to the crowd of guests and said, "Will those who are from the bride's side of the family stand up please?" About twenty people stood. Then he asked, "Will those who are from the groom side of the family stand up as well?" About twenty five people stood up. Then he smiled and said, "Okay, now all of you who stood up-get out! This is a birthday party."
- Ankesh
From the page: "de-fen-oil-painting-village There are more than 5,000 artists in De Fen Oil Painting Village in China who create knockout copies of popular original paintings day in and day out. Each of them earns close to $300 a month. At this rate, theyâÂll have to work for 8,330+ years to make as much money as an original Van Gogh painting sells for."
- Ankesh
Letter from Richard P. Feynman To Arline Feynman, October 17, 1946 D'Arline, I adore you, sweetheart ... It is such a terribly long time since I last wrote to you - almost two years but I know you'll excuse me because you understand how I am, stubborn and realistic; and I thought there was no sense to writing. But now I know my darling wife that it is right to do what I have delayed in doing, and what I have done so much in the past. I want to tell you I love you. I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead - but I still want to comfort and take care of you - and I want you to love me and care for me. I want to have problems to discuss with you - I want to do little projects with you. I never thought until just now that we can do that. What should we do. We started to learn to make clothes together - or learn Chinese - or getting a movie projector. Can't I do something now? No. I am alone without you and you were the "idea-woman" and general...
- Ankesh
From the page: "The AGC had the equivalent of just over 67Kb of operating system in ROM and just over 4kb of RAM. And that was enough to put 12 men on the moon."
- Ankesh
From the page: "In his 2005 article, Hirsch introduced the h-index (named after himself, of course). The key was focusing not on where you published but on how many times other researchers cited your work. In practice, you take all the papers you've published and rank them by how many times each has been cited. Say paper number one has been cited 10,000 times. Paper number two, 8,000 cites. Paper number 32 has 33 citations, but number 33 has received just 28. You've published 32 papers with more than 32 citationsâÂ"your h-index is 32. Or to put it more technically, the h-index is the number n of a researcher's papers that have been cited by other papers at least n times. High numbers = important science = important scientist."
- Ankesh
Shows how corrupted Indian politics is. When 80% of Indians earn less than $2 a day - how can 543 members of the government be worth $600 million in total? And this is only the declared assets by 543 folks! A lot of their moolah is hidden! (Safe estimate - treble their declared assets...)
- Ankesh
From the page: "Remember Dennis Rodman? For years, Dennis was a first class basketball player putting up impressive rebounding numbers on the scorecard. But he didnâÂt receive much publicity and hardly any endorsement contracts. That all changed when he coloured his hair red. By being bold and different, he instantly stood out from the rest of his mates. And made a fortune for himself endorsing products.
- Ankesh
This is an awesome book and now its available for free! You should allocate 60-90 minutes everyday over the next 12 days to read it. (Don't even try to read the entire book in one day - it needs time to sink in and for you to do the exercises Barbara teaches.)
- Ankesh
From the page: "The dumbest kid in the world A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer, âÂoeThis is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you.â The barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, âÂoeWhich do you want, son?â The boy takes the quarters and leaves. âÂoeWhat did I tell you?â said the barber. âÂoeThat kid never learns!â Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store. âÂoeHey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?â The boy licked his cone and replied, âÂoeBecause the day I take the dollar, the game is over!â"
- Ankesh
From the page: "Fashioned as an athletic wristwatch it uses kinetic energy as a clean power source. Although it does function as a regular watch, it also constantly keeps pulling in air through the intake vents collecting CO2, and expels new clean air via the exhaust vents."
- Ankesh
"A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River..." Funny tragic true story.
- Ankesh
One morning during the First World War, people across Germany wake up to the news that the city of Antwerp in Belgium has been conquered. Readers of the Kolnische Zeitung newspaper are greeted with the headline: "Upon proclamation of the fall of the city of Antwerp, bells were rung" - explaining the celebration church bells they'd heard across Germany the day before. French newspaper Le Matin writes their report based upon the Kolnische Zeitung headline. Le Matin's article claims: "According to the Kolnische Zeitung, Antwerp's clergy was forced to ring the church bells when the fortress was taken." The London Times repeats the report from Le Matin: "According to Le Matin, taking its information from Koln, priests in Belgium who refused to ring church bells upon the fall of Antwerp was removed from office." A fourth report in Italy takes its information from the London Times. Italian newspaper Corriere de la Sera claims: "According to the Times, citing information from Koln (via...
- Ankesh
Genius! Read the entire series of letters - its hilarious! From the page: "I am possibly the least competitive person I know and am in fact the current national loser in the 'Who is Least Competitive Championships' where trying to win will make you lose. Trying to lose makes you win which makes you lose. Not trying at all makes you lose which makes you win which makes you lose."
- Ankesh