Category: General

Vexillology is the study of flags. I’ve posted before on this subject, and I again found something interesting. Someone sat down and made a ranking of all the flags of the world (including territories).

The #1 flag: Gambia
Dead last: Northern Mariana Islands (which they describe as being made with clip art)

Minnesota and Wisconsin have horrible flags. Both incorporate the state’s seal as the main element of the flag. As a result, it is impossible to draw. If a child can’t draw it, its a crappy flag.

The Down Jones Industrial Average announced changes today. It happens every few years, and when it does, it always shows some sort of reflection of the state of the economy and by extension, society. ATT, Kodak, and International Paper got the boot off of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. AT&T. 20 years ago, that would have been unthinkable. Now, two of the baby bells are on the DJIA, and Verizon is on primarily because of their cellular service. This is sort of an acknowledgement of the changes that technology brings, and that in a market economy, nothing is forever. ATT and Kodak had been on the DJIA since the 1930’s and International Paper since the 1950’s. Landlines, film, and paper. Replaced with cell phones, pharmaceuticals, and insurance. No heavy industry in the new companies.

Looking at the historical changes in the component companies of the DJIA is really interesting, and a great look at how the economy has changed. The average as we know it began on October 4, 1916 and consisted of:

The “industrial average” isn’t very industrial anymore.

I suppose an update is in order:

• Props to Scott Kurtz for making the Amazon.com Top 100 bestseller list for his latest trade paperback. Scott, no matter what you achieve in life………………I still wont be impressed.
• I finished my second Astronomy midterm. I did better than last time, but not as good as I could have. Dumb mistakes. Most of my reading consisted of keeping the textbook in the bathroom. Its actually not a bad way to study, but more indepth time is needed studying. Because the tests are only a fraction of the total grade, I think i’m doing fine…..so far.
• The second midterm for my Sequences and Series class is a week from today. I feel pretty confident about it, but those are famous last words. I need to crush on it so I can solidify my A and not have to worry about A- stuff.
• The NFL District Tournament is in 27 days, and the state tournament is in 20 days. There is a great deal of overall improvement in the team, but there are still lots of little things to work on. Tim Hogan needs to quit screwing around and actually get working giving speeches. This year is harder than last year, and repeating is harder than winning. Hopefully making this public will serve as some sort of incentive.
• On a related note, we watched an old national final round last night, and the quality of the final rounds we’ve had all year in MN are better than what I saw on the tape. The state could easily produce 3 finalists this year in extemp. If it wasn’t for the no double entry rule, it could be more.
• I’ve got to register for class for the summer session soon. There aren’t many classes offered, but I think I might take 3 courses if the schedule allows it. Physics I, Chemestry I, and differential equations. I’ve had diffeq before, but I think taking it again would be a good idea. My first stab at it and real analysis wasn’t something to be proud of. I’d take a geology course, but they don’t offer a real one.
• More of calculus is coming back to me. Its mostly a matter of exposure. When you are forced to use it, it can come back pretty quick. Trying to remember it without context is pretty hard.
• The april fools joke at Homestarrunner.com is pretty good. It had me for about 1 second….which is sort of how most april fools jokes on the web work.

When you live in a cold weather state, the first day it gets really warm, everyone goes nuts. It isn’t a gradual thing, it just sort of happens on one day. Yesterday was that day. It got up to 69 and *poof* just like that, all the grass on campus was taken up by kids with frisbees and laptops. The motorcycles come out of the garage, people drive with their windows open, and its good all around.

As I write this, its 9am and already 60 degrees outside. We’ve crossed that thin, but very real line, where it doesn’t suck to live here anymore. We also have daylight again, which is good.

Of course, the way this usually works is you get excited, then nature throws one more blast of cold and snow on you just to show you who’s boss.

Sprink break is over and I for one am glad. If you aren’t taking a full course load, and have no place to go for break, then its really not a big deal. I’d rather just not take the break and get done sooner.

My extempers had PETA send me something in the mail. Very cleaver. It will be interesting to see what other lists I get on because of that. They just need to remember that any mischief they do, I can out do them 100 fold. 100 fold I say.