Noah Counte

I was reading the news. What a weird world we live in. Here are some odd stories, with some other informative tidbits mixed in, too.

• Bloggers are a threat to US security. This means you, you subversive piece of terrorist trash.
  
  
• If you cook, here's a list of shortcuts you can use to make that gourmet recipe in half the time. Sweet! Clarifying butter wasn't much fun, anyway!
  
  
• There's no one from Utah here, is there? Good, because the smartest people in Utah are in the fourth grade. Here are some kids who have decided that the Colorado Spruce is not a great choice for the state tree. From the mouths of babes... Of course, their plan to replace it with the juniper is frought with controversy.
  
  
• Bored at work? Here are 30 tips to get your head back in the game. A lot of them will work at home, too.
  
  
• Adult store caught selling adult sex toys. Yep, it's Mississippi. The transcript is hilarious. Well, to me, anyway. That's the way I roll.
  
  
• Quadrigamy: when three is not enough. She must be rich.
  
  
• The pain of losing everything you own when a tornado blows through and your house lands somewhere over the rainbow can only be made worse by a bill from your cable company for the cable boxes that you didn't return - because they landed in the same place your house landed, because they were in it when the tornado struck. Not just a bill. A $2000 bill. Yea cable!
  
  
• Those UFO sightings? Seems they may not actually be aliens. No, they might be the government. Seems they have secret programs they don't tell us about.
  
  
• Yale frat boys are always as bright as they'd like you to believe. Although, what could really be considered offensive about calling women sluts? Plenty, it seems.
  
  
• Kid on a rocketsled? You kow this can't end well. Why do we not have a 5 year probationary period on drivers' licenses? We know that kids are idiots - we were those idiots, once.
  
  
• Women's lib has set its slights on Groundhog Day. I'm OK with it. A female can do the work of a man, and only requires 70% of the salary. Plus, she can make dinner when she gets home. I don't know what groundhogs have or dinner, but I bet Ms. G has got it going on in the kithen
  
  
• I suppose you are one of those trendy types who goes to spas for high colonics, right? Better check the water bottle before you yield to the urge.
  
  
• Best for last: Ever been stranded at the airport? A flight was overbooked - or cancelled because there weren't enough people on it? Invoke Rule 240. If the delay or cancellation is not due to weather, they have to - they MUST - find you another flight if one is available. Even if it's on another airline. Cool, huh?
  

I posted a quick note about the birthday paradox on my Tumblr the other day. Essentially, if you go to a party and there are 29 other people in attendence (that's 30 total, including you), you could bet that two of the the 30 would share a birthday and have a 70% chance of being correct. If you went to enough parties and made big enough bets, you could earn a living that way.

So what do you suppose the odds are of having two children on the same day, one year apart? Just to add complexity, why not have them on the same day, at the same time, down to the minute? Well, it happened the other day in Buffalo, NY. I don't know how to calculate those odds, and I can't find anyone else who's done it, either. I did come across a Yahoo! Answers thread in which people wrote about family members being born on the same day.

I was born on the same day as my mom's mother - some fifty years later. My sister was born on my parents' anniversary.