plays_poorly...

If one of these "perturbations" of the Oort cloud occurs every 32,000,000 years,

Is it possible we are on the verge of another one? Does anyone knoww?

they made you do in high-school algebra ( and chemistry ) were incorrect,

even though the State tests expected you to come up with specific answers?

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This is a serious question, which bears upon only one area of wrong teaching in our schools.

Along the top of Olivander's shop was this date. I have tried to relate this to a historic occasion and have had no luck. I feel that someone with a background like Rowling's would have some tie-in, but I have failed to find it. Please help, if you can.

I want to find if there are two consecutive even integers whose product is 224, and if this can be generalized.

I saw this night before last and almost answered it, but got distracted and lost the question; that'll teach me to bookmark them!

Went out to resolved answers looking for it and found a great number of questions like it or, at least, containing 224; I have to assume that it is an unresolved question floating out there somewhere.

OK, let's set it up. M(M+2) = 224 , or

M^2 + 2M = 224.

Now bear with me; I'm going to digress, but you'll see where I'm going in a minute.

I noticed that 224 is one less than 15^2. This kind of thing stuck in my head when I was doing a lot of sum-and-difference of squares problems.

So if m = 14 (that's one less than 15) then 14^2 + 2x14 = 224....196 + 28 = 224.

So m = 14, and m+2 = 16; 14 x 16 = 224.

Although it's unrelated to the given problem, it seems obvious that there must be just such paired numbers around all the perfect squares.

For example m^2 + 2m = 624 (25^2-1),

which means that m = 24 and m+2 = 26;

24^2 +2x24 = 624

But just to be on the safe side, let's try it with the square of an even number, i.e. 900.

m^2 + 2m = (900-1) ; 29^2 + 2x29 =

841 + 58 = 899, so it would appear to work regardless.

Unfortunately, I don't quite know enough math to prove whether there are are numbers which do not fit this pattern; there may be.

I know that something is going on, because I've had it happen to me.

I know I may sound paranoid, but just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean that someone's not out to get you.

(I sound like Mel Gibson's character in "Conspiracy Theory". And no, I don't own a single copy of Catcher in the Rye"; I've

never even read it. Focus, focus!

But I had had a couple of violation e-mails...hence my screen name...so someone must have been watching me.

One afternoon, I was explaining to potential answerers of a question that it was either a plant for Homeland Security or the

DEA...when suddenly, the page just vanished.

And just this afternoon, I was about ready to finish an answer of about the same type, when they used the venerable "page

has timed out" ploy...perhaps a subtler key to play; either way, you can't get your answer back.

So I am composing this off-line, and we'll see if "this question has been deleted" shows up.

On some questions, the ad expands across the right two-thirds of the page, making it impossible to read the rest of the question...and clicking to get rid of the ad doesmn't help. ?????????????

...and nobody teaches to fill the gap? I subbed a middle school recently, and while the science classes expected students to handle decimals in density calculations, they had not been taught how to do decimals in multiplication and division. Sad to say, it's not just local, but statewide curricula which do this, and nobody goes back to teach them what they missed...nobody has the time, when so much other material must be jammed into young brains.

It's time to do something else, and you can't say anything...especially about some marketing scam...without offending someone, so it's time to go.

...stupid questions again and again, or is this an artifact of Answers which pulls up questions from a somewhat limited pool?

Idiocracy-with Beef Supreme

The Fifth Element-with Gary Oldman, and it's "his favorite".

Space Balls-w. Mel Brooks demonstrating Space Balls-The Flamethrower--"his favorite", too.

The Deal of the Century-w Gregory Hines giving the Chicano guy's car "just a little touchup".

Any more you can think of?

Thr other two users...my wife's and the neutral user...both allow Paint to open, but with my user, I get the following error message:

MSPAINT caused an invalid page fault in

module MFC42.DLL at 0177:5f40f9eb.

Registers:

EAX=00000000 CS=0177 EIP=5f40f9eb EFLGS=00010202

EBX=00680c94 SS=017f ESP=0056f91c EBP=0056f940

ECX=00007fff DS=017f ESI=00691420 FS=220f

EDX=00015f04 ES=017f EDI=0056f950 GS=0000

Bytes at CS:EIP:

89 48 58 8b 45 fc 3b 47 0c 7c cf 33 f6 39 77 0c

Stack dump:

00000001 00680c94 00680c94 00000300 00000008 00691420 0056f998 00680c94 00000008 0056f9a4 5f4666b6 0056f950 00000000 5f49f438 5f49e488 00691320

what is wrong, and how do I fix it? I know Win98 is no longer supported, so please try your best.

I hate it when the predominant theme of the questions is: "Hep me, hep me! My final in chemistry/organic chemistry/ science is in thirty minutes/tomorrow/next week and I need hep!"

These children do not seem to realize that chemistry, math and the sciences (in general) all require that you be capable of doing the work, actually do the work, and remember what you have done. Too many of them have been forced into a course in science either because of state-mandated requirements or simply because their councelors have talked them into it because it will look good on their transcripts...but that presumes that they be capable of and actually do the work... a little point which may be beyond them.

Just like these miscreants who ask all the bomb and poison questions, many of them see no reason for science or math, and feel total disdain for a scientific education which our egalitarian society has felt obliged to spoon-feed them, to our ultimate...if not immediate...regret.

If you know, name the movies and the women.

Also, both women starred in separate movies with Samuel L. Jackson. Name the movies.

Some of you scream " Hep me! Hep me!" and then expect me to do all 25 of your homework problems; those I won't touch with a ten foot pole!

Look at your periodic tables, for God sake!

Read your textbook rather than talk to friends and/or the other sex in class!

Listen to what your teacher says in class rather than (see statement above!).

Read the handouts and worksheets your teacher gives you...although if that is all he/she does, and never attempts to explain anything...no wonder you're frantic!

Imagine how long I have to look just to find a question that doesn't look like it was IM'd by a chimpanzee!

OK, Officer, I'll climb down off of my soapbox now, and let some other nutter have his chance.

People gotta vent, sometime!

Kid: Mommy, Mommy, what's a vampire?

Mom: Shut up, son, and drink your soup before it clots.

Kid: Mommy, Mommy, why am I going around in circles?

Mom: Shut up, son, or I'll nail your other foot to the floor.

It chaps me no end to do a good job on an answer and then have Yahoo time out and request my password so I can continue...and then, when I've put in my password, it says "please enter your answer", becaiuse it has deleted what I was just working on. I get mad enough that, someday, I'm going to just say "The heck with it!" and go do something else with my spare time. I wonder how many others you've lost that way?