Uncle Ed's Rule of Thumb:
Never use your thumb for a rule!
"The only difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist is the later leaves the hide" Montimer Caplan :-)
If you don't know any Japanese now, in the next 10 minutes you can learn how to say about one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) different things in Japanese !!! Keep reading :-))
By the way in any country if you learn the basic phrases like "good day" "Thanks", "Please", "where is?", "how much?", "how far?" ... then together with your number knowledge, it takes you quite a long way, interacting with people. A a much longer way than you think! I tried this in many countries, as I was fortunate once, to travel around because of work:
Japanese have easy number system. If you know the numbers from 1 to 10, then you know all numbers up to 99. For example, "Twenty" is "two-ten", thirty is "three-ten" and "sixty five" is "six-ten-five" and so on. I have an easy way of remembering the Japanese names of 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. ITI-NI-SAN-U-GO-ROKU-SICHI-HYCHI-KU-JU. This is like "It is Nissan you go, rock you sitting high-chin cool Jew". That is:
One = Iti (Similar to "It is" without emphasizing the s)
Two = Ni (pronounced as how you say "Nil" without the l)
Three= San (2 and 3 together sound like the car Nissan, So far 1,2,3 is IT IS NISSAN)
Four = U (same as "you")
Five = Go (exactly "go", So far 1-5 says IT IS NISSAN U GO)
Six = ROKU (sounds like "Rock you")
Seven = Sichi (sounds like "sitting" without the g)
Eight = Hychi (sounds like "high chin")
Nine = Ku (like "Cool" without the l)
Ten= Ju (The closest word I can think of is "Jew")
So now twenty is Ni-Ju (simply two ten) and 22 is Ni-Ju-Ni, 23 is Ni-Ju-San, thirty is San-Ju, 55 is Go-ju-go, 97 is ku-ju-sichi or cool Jew sitting :)) and so on. Easy huh? (cool Jew like Einstein) Now if you want all the Japanese numbers up to 100,000,000 all you need to know is 100, 1000, and 10,000. For example 100 is "hiyaku" or "yeah cool". So if you want to say 629, it is Roku-Hyaiku-Ni-Ju-Ku OK? Now you know all numbers of Japan up to 999. Now try to say Nine Hundred Ninety Nine in Japanese. Easy and fun.
Now lets add two more words "Sen"=1000 and "man"=10,000.
There is no word for a "million" in Japanese. A million is "100" "10,000", so it is "yeah cool man" :)) OR "hiyaku man", and 5million5 is eh? go! yeah cool man go!, what is 5million605? :-)) A hundred thousand is "ju man" (ten 10,000) or hiyaku sen (100, thousands). Thats it! now in this way you can say all numbers up to 100million-1. By the way, 100million is "Oku" (wow cool!). So now by just adding "Wow COOL!" you know how to say all numbers upto 999,999,999,999. What is it? Ku-hiyaku-ku-ju-ku-(OKU) Ku-hiyaku-ku-ju-ku-(HIYAKU-MAN) ku-hiyaku-ku-ju-ku-(SEN) ku-hiyaku-ku-ju-ku! Try to say it, nice and fast :))
Mexico should export at least one "r" for Japan. People in Mexico say "terrrrrrrible" using 7 r's whereas in Japan they have to use the letter "L"!!!!! This is not fair.
In Czech republic they say "strch prst zkrz krk, mlc" to say "Insert your finger through your throat and be quiet" Look, English uses over 15 vowels while the Czechs have 0! As a fair minded man of eastern African accent, I say this is horrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible:))
Why do we have five fingers?
A friend answered my questions from point of view of "Mother Nature Solution":
A fundamental object in our 3-dimensional world is a cube, which has 6 sides. In order to keep the cube from moving away in any direction we need to hold it from five sides while gravity takes care of the 6th side:)) Well, I would like to shake hands with someone in a d-dimensional space, if d >3 :)).
: Then what next? Analyze them and realize how bad you can be at times :-)) In fact, most of the time the way I know I have a theorem to prove is when I have a counterexample for every tiny weakening of my hypothesis.
A mathematician and a physicist discuss about their profession: The Physicist says "The virtue of Physics is that it has to do with the physical world". Replies the mathematician "The virtue of Mathematics is that it has NOTHING to do with the physical world" :)
-- a friend's story
REMARK: Well "Mathematics is the queen of all sciences" (physical or not). What my friend means is Mathematics exists independently. It is for us to discover. But of course Mathematics has changed the world so much, that no science would have been possible without it. In fact, the origin of mathematical concepts in our mind is the real world. I doubt if the ancient geometers would ve been able to conceive the notion of a circle, triangle, a straight line etc. without seeing some object that LOOKS like it. Of course, I stress "looks like" because there is no true physical circle, nor a line!! No matter how high tech you may use, you can not create an object that is a TRUE circle. It is only in our head. In fact, we can not even create a "point". No matter how small object you use, that small object is infinitely many times bigger than a "point"! Hence, what my friend really means is the "concepts" of mathematics should be abstract! Totally independent of any physical object. That is the only way you can avoid the flaws of our world. The physical world is an illusion. BUT is it not ironic that this illusion is our very source of understanding the perfect ideal world? You see that mathematical abstraction returns and actually changes the world. Of course, this two-way interaction between the real world and the pure ideal math world is in itself interesting.
get up one time more than you are knocked down
The nice thing about Windows is - It doesn't just crash, it displays a dialog box and lets you press 'OK' first.
(Arno Schaefer's .sig)
Q: What s the difference between a Mac and an Etch-aSketch?
A: You don't have to shake the Mac to clear the screen.
The best way to accelerate a Macintoy is at 9.8 meters per second^2.
Q: Why did the programmer call his mother long distance?
A: Because that was her name.
Creditor: A man who has a better memory than a debtor.
A topologist: one who can not tell a donut from a coffee cup.
A graph theorist: one who can not tell K4 from Mercedes-Benz.
A mathematician: a blind with dark glasses in a dark room searching of a black cat that is not there:
A consultant: Someone who'd rather climb a tree and tell a lie than stand on the ground and tell the truth.
Another dictionary: A consultant is one who takes your watch and tells you what time it is.
It is Texas law that when two trains meet each other at a railroad crossing, each shall come to a full stop, and neither shall proceed until the other has gone. Well well, this may not be impossible. One of them can be gone, it just can not proceed. Gone backwards or sideways be fine.
If students were given a plus for sense of humor, they probably will work harder!
The importance of the question, ``what guides 10 seconds old babies to suckle their mother's breast? is perhaps comparable to question of the origin of the universe itself. It is more amazing to see a minute old calf in the woods (with no mid-wife assistant) which stands on her own feet and goes directly to the mothers breast, while the mute mother simply licks her new baby!
The abc of intelligent life is to see every human as yourself! The abc of savagery is the opposite!
An excitement plan for the humble: I found a way of making each of my next days be more n more exciting by a simple method. Find something that you can not do, or you can do just a little bit. Be it on a musical instrument, or physical challenge like push up or whatever. Everyday improve it by a small very very small amount. Calculate where you will get within a 1month, 3months, 6months. Do it! In the meantime search for new things to continue this habit!
Thank goodness that no pain no gain, or else Hitler would've been a nuclear scientist!
Front and back of the same coin are the racist and the terrorist! You cant pick one and leave the another.
A cow knows that the enemy is not another cow of another color but a predator that could be of same color.
Those who try to adjust facts to fit their view than to adjust their view to fit the facts are not very smart!