The Copernican Formula

I read this in the nyTimes about the Copernican formula. Fancy pants scientists J. Richard Gott III has used it for estimating how long Broadway plays will last, how long leaders stay in power, and how long human beings will continue to toast delicious beverages. It gives a pretty wide interval, but its also right 95% of the time. I’m going to apply it to something useful.

This is our 73th post, but we don’t know much else about the number of posts Chin Chin will have when this crazy run is over. We’ll assume we aren’t in the first 2.5% of our posts, which means we’ll write fewer than 73*40 = 2,920 Let’s also assume we aren’t in the last 2.5% of our posts, so we should have at least 73/40 posts left, we’ll round up to 2. Put it all together and you’ve got 95% certainty that you can happily expect between 2 and 2,920 more awesome posts.

I propose a toast to the many remaining toasts presented by Chin Chin.

To Infinity And Beyond…

On this day in 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their first steps on the moon. We haven’t been back since, but here is a list of things that you can thank the space program for: lightweight compact discs, microcomputers, enriched baby food, ribbed swimsuits, pool purification, golf ball aerodynamics, portable coolers/warmers, solar energy (though we should probably just credit them with harnessing solar energy, not inventing it), breast cancer detection, automated urinalysis (could have done without that), invisible braces, studless winter tires, and advanced lubricants. Find a more complete list here.

Cheers to the final frontier!