Certified Brilliant – May Edition

Certified Brilliant, George

Certified Brilliant is something I’m doing in which every day I post something that I found on the internet. To qualify, I must think that it is simply brilliant, epic, and/or incredible. Since I don’t want to have too many posts doing small things, I’ll edit this post every day, adding a new brilliant/epic/incredible thing. Every month I will make a new post and start updating it. My favorite brilliant/incredible/epic thing in each post will be starred.

May 25 – Certified Incredible

do_hard_things

This book. It’s Incredible. The world would be much better if we all did what this book said.

May 24 – Certified Brilliant

Lifting Rocks

Source: http://thedoghousediaries.com/3566

May 23 – Certified Incredible

Blog - Certified Brilliant - Signature

“The Mother of All Signatures”

May 22 – Certified Brilliant

“Think outside the quadrilateral parallelogram”

May 21 – Certified Brilliant

“There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don’t”

May 20 – Certified Brilliant

Blog - Certified Brilliant - xkcd Explorers

Title text: We’re going to have to work together to get over our hangups if we’re going to learn to move on Catan’s hexagonal grid. It’s bad enough that we lost our crew of pawns when we passed within firing range of Battleship.

Source: xkcd.com/839/

May 19 –  Certified Brilliant

My dad left me this note when I turned 16:

Happy Blog - Certified Brilliant - 16th Note Birthday!

May 18 – Certified Incredible <–*Star*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU

May 17 – Certified Epic  <–*Star*

Arctic

S3 Krypton Series

Lunar

Inferno

Buy one here! Somehow, someday, I’ll get one of these…

May 16 – Certified Incredible

Blog - Certified Brilliant - Roundabout

The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England. Also know as the roundabout from “down there”

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)

May 15 – Certified Brilliant

Blog - Certified Brilliant - xkcd Tetris

The comic: http://thedoghousediaries.com/4374

The comic’s sources: http://xkcd.com/724/, http://xkcd.com/888/

You can play the Heaven version of Tetris here: http://www.gudmagazine.com/games/heaven/Heavenx.swf, and the Hell version can be played here: http://www.kongregate.com/games/banthar/hell-tetris

May 14 – Certified Brilliant

$2 Undecillion Lawsuit

What if Au Bon Pain lost this lawsuit and had to pay the plaintiff $2 undecillion?

Find the answer here: what-if.xkcd.com/96/

May 13 – Certified Brilliant <–*Star*

 

Get Real Be Rational

 

~ George

Definition

George, Idea Polish Level: 1

I’m wondering if the following would be possible:

  1. Take any word
  2. Give it a definition
  3. Give every word that you used in the definition you just made it’s own definition
  4. Repeat step three until every word you’ve used has been defined (note, you cannot define a word with itself)

I’m thinking it’s possible to do it if you use looping definitions, like this:

Hello. Hello means Hi. Hi means Hello. Means means equals. Equals means Means.

I’m not sure if that should count though, but if it doesn’t then unless you use a video or some other media you’ll keep defining words with other words until you simply run out of words. Maybe I need a better meaning for what counts as a definition.

 ~ George

Standing Around

George, Idea Polish Level: 1

We were at Disney recently, and Dad said that we could do whatever we wanted. He commented that we could even stand around all day, although that would be a waste of money. So I started wondering, where (on Earth) is the most expensive place to stand? To qualify, it must be a place where people have gone (and survived). The bottom of the ocean wouldn’t count, but the top of Mount Everest would.

~ George

Interesting Observation: Social Norms

George, Idea Polish Level: 3,

Having participated in a discussion about social norms recently, I realized something that I don’t think anyone else there picked up on.

There are way more social norms than we usually think there are. Many things are social norms, even if we wouldn’t think they are. To help identify a few, here’s the definition which I’ll use:

A social norm is something the majority of society does/finds normal

Using that definition, you can find more social norms by realizing a few things about them:

  • Possibly the easiest to realize, something can be bad and still be a social norm (slavery in pre-civil war ear, for example, and smoking nowadays)
  • The next easiest to realize might be that something can be the right thing to do and still be a social norm (not interrupting someone who is talking is the right thing to do, and a social norm; it’s also a social norm to let the other person talk sometimes so that they don’t need to interrupt you in the first place)
  • Less easy to notice, something can be both common sense and a social norm (driving on the right side of the street, for example, is a social norm. Obeying the law is too,  although for some laws (such as the speed limit), it has become the social norm to not strictly obey)
  • Even harder to notice, something can be nearly unnoticeable and still be a social norm (eating 3 meals a day is a social norm, and so is waking up before noon during a weekday)
  • And the strangest of all, something can be “of course you don’t do that” and still be a social norm (of course we don’t randomly punch people in the face, but it’s still a social norm. Not punching someone in the face is, after all, “something the majority of society does/finds normal”)

The last one is the most interesting to think about. There are so many things which are “yeah duh, of course we don’t do that”, which I hadn’t even thought of as social norms. Of course we don’t randomly set fire to forests. Yes, it’s common sense. Yes, it’s the right thing to do. Yes, it seems crazy to even think about doing on purpose. And yes, it’s a social norm.

~ George

Joke – Seeking an Authoritative Opinion

George, Idea Polish Level: 2, ,

If you think of another way to tell this joke, please post in the comments

Imagine… you’ve somehow managed to go back in time with your friend, you’re talking to George Washington (your childhood hero), thinking this is the most exciting moment of your life, and suddenly your friend pulls out two bottles of soft drink and hands them to your idle, saying, “Let’s settle this once and for all. Which is better, Mr. Washington, Coke, or Pepsi?”

~ George

A Buggy Game

George, Idea Polish Level: 2,

(The first paragraph describes what would probably be a child’s game, meanwhile the second would more likely be a teen/adult game. Both could be used either way, though)

I think it would be interesting to have a game which starts out extremely “buggy”, and the goal is to fix the bugs, so that you can play the “real” game. This can involve quests to do something like “Plug-in so and so’s computer” or “Battle the villain until he gives you the code you need to fix the bug”.  Another possibility would be to have the bugs be real monsters, like ants or beetle, which you have to fight. Then, when you destroy the boss bug, you’ll stop glitching.

Or, perhaps you can have the reverse: you start with a bug free game, and through ‘hacking” (real or fake) you make the game more buggy, in ways that allow you to continue the game. For instance, you might create a “bug” which makes you to glitch through walls, enabling you to be able to get through a locked door and continue the quest. Maybe you need two coins to bribe a guard with, but you’ve only got one. So you create a “bug” which if you use it right lets you duplicate the coins. A possible concept is that you could have a room with a bunch of buttons which turn on and off “bugs”, and the player has to figure out how to use the bugs.

~ George

Time-Based Game (Tag?)

George, Idea Polish Level: 2,

What if you had a game which you could only play at certain times a day? Like a game of tag in which you can only tag someone when the last digit of the digital clock (you’d need an official clock) is 7, or perhaps have the game go on for days and you can only tag someone if it’s 8 o’clock (not too early or too late). Or, maybe you don’t even need it to be time based. Perhaps you can only tag someone if you’re outside, or if you’re in the shade, or maybe you can only be tagged if someone around you is wearing a blue shirt! Other games you might be able to play could be the Dart Game, Ninja, or any other similar game.

~ George

Interesting Observations – “Proven Beyond Doubt”

George, Idea Polish Level: 1,

It’s possible for something to be “proven beyond doubt” without actually being true. After all, for a long time entire countries believed that the Earth was the center of the solar system, and it didn’t even occur to them to doubt. This is obviously false today, but in that time and in that place an Earth-centered universe was “proven beyond doubt”. Along similar lines is the phrase “That many people can’t be wrong!”, which, when you think about it and how often that isn’t true, sounds too foolish even to argue against.

~ George