Arithmetic Borrowing

I saw a TV documentary about a special school, for teenagers who get into trouble and got sent to this school by a judge. These kids already reached high school age but still don't know their basics, such as arithmetic.

There is a teenager kid who asks the teacher: how do you do this subtraction! There is nothing to borrow! The problem is 505-27.

Of course, first step is to line them up vertically and right-aligned (already done for the student). Kids should know why we should stack them up (do you know why?)

My dad used to help me with arithmetics, he would say, 5 - 7, not enough, what do you do? you BORROW. Then what is 15-7?

When I was about 6, I get confused. Ok, It is STILL 5-7 in the ones place, dad!

Then he told me a rocking technique:

Dad: never mind the 5 for now. Use 10. What is 10-7?
Me: Ok I can do that: that's 3.
Dad: Add that 3 into the 5 that you ignored before: what do you get?
Me: I get 8.
Dad: That's it! 15-7=8.

Dad would proceed with the rest of problem:

Dad: Ok, that's the one's digit, what about the rest? see you borrowed 1 from 50. How much left?
Me: 49.

Dad: so you have 49-2, what do you get?
Me: 47. So the answer is 478.

* * * * *
Thanks Dad.

What dad actually did was this: Let's say we want to subtract digits y from x, and that there are previous digits to borrow. It is then 10+x-y = 10-y + x.

10-y will be easy to do, and guarantee no borrowing.

Dad was using the associative property of addition and subtraction.

Borrowing actually never took place. It is conversion. 505 was turned into 490 + 10 + 5.

As a kid, I was already uneasy to borrow something and never return it.

Shame on you, governor

Recently, news is all about the whereabouts of the SC governor. He simply disappeared for a day, his aides say he is in Appalachian mountains after some rough political fights but actually in a secret "exotic" trip to Argentina. Now we know: he has an affair.

It is irresponsible to walk out of a job, especially an public office.
It is irresponsible to your spouse and your kids to have an affair. Yikes, there SO MANY high office guys with affairs. Your affair is your business, but it is still shame on you because you are a public figure!
Only way to top that irresponsibility is to have an affair AND walk out of your job.

The republicans need a better candidate for 2012.

Marriage just work like this: you cannot have another woman after that. Don't like the rules of this game? Then don't get married in the first place.

Tossing out Green Onions

I mourn for the death of my batch of green onions that I bought about a week ago.
They don't stay fresh for long in the fridge, even if you put in the "keep fresh" drawer in a plastic bag.

Green onions always come in batches wrapped by rubberband, maybe 6 in a batch.
Yikes, Dominicks is outrageous expensive* at $1.50 even if you have that "fresh card".
Not all my recipes require green onions, and maybe I use at most 1 in a dish.
I don't cook enough green onion dishes in a week, inevitably the green onion grow old and I found myself tossing them out.

Why green onions have to come in batches? When can't I buy 1 piece at a time.
Does that rubber band anger environmentalists yet?


*I don't understand why Dominicks is still in business at outrageous prices.
Often they put a red sign saying discount prices but at the automatic cashier it is the same pre-discount outrageous price and of course there are no sales clerks that you can actually talk to.

H1N1 at Level 6

So I have heard that H1N1 reaches Level 6, the highest level of warning of a pandemic that WHO can give. Oooh should you be alarmed.

Nope, I don't see much difference here in Chicago, nobody seem to actually care a bit. After a week or so nobody even mention it.

Look folks, statistics say there are thousands of cases worldwide.
But most seems to be treatable and not so deadly for now. (Yikes, what if that Tamiflu stops working when the virus adapt to it?)

But my question is this. What are you going to label something even more serious, like the black death or chicken pox and other deadly things before?

Pehraps H1N1 can be much more serious if WHO didn't start labeling it such way...

However, WHO can you rely on for help? Only yourself: clean your hands often.

No Justice

I saw an Red-Eye article that says most of the disputed parking tickets are simply thrown out.

People get ticketed even if there are still time in the already expensive meters and no way to fight back.

Thankfully, didn't happen to me yet. The poor guy even contacted the alderman and of course no response.

Ok it is just $50 bucks, so nobody cared. But 1 unjustified dollar is 1 dollar too many.

America has declined to the point where justice no longer exists.

Surrounded by ads

The mobile phone market has fierce competition? How they compete? with Ads.
On CTA trains, riders are surrounded by ads of Verizon, Cricket, US Cellular. Each company buys ads for the entire car, to ensure you are surrounded. Ads are even at the ceiling! There is no escape unless you look down or play games on your phone.

Of course each company boasts best value, best service, etc. Customers deserve proof. Is there a Consumer Report or something that objectively compare head to head with features, services, price, annoyance of spokeperson icons, etc?

Here is what customers want:
1) COVERAGE. I used to have Verizon and I can't get calls in Chinatown, COME ON. Even if they improved it now, it is too late, I switched.
2) PRICE.

Chinese Cars Coming to America?

News says GM selling Hummer to Chinese Company.

Almost EVERY product you buy in America is made in China. Don't believe me? look around, find the label of your shirts, labels under your office supplies. What about cars? Today we have Japanese and Korean cars, why not Chinese cars? Will one day American's roads be saturated with Chinese cars?

Americans must come forward to make a car that Americans (and everyone else) want to buy! This means: cool design, fuel efficient, low maintenance. Combine all 3 car companies! Get the best engineers to do a joint design! Have a nationwide contest of car design! We need more positive energy into the auto market, instead of bankrupt, bankrupt, bankrupt.