Surviving Random Variables

Beyond training in martial arts I don't engage in high risk activities as I have in my youth. I bought a motorcycle last week as a primary means of transportation. I wasn't really in the market for a motorcycle but one became available and I had to jump on the "opportunity". "One mans opportunity is another mans crisis"... and that's how the saying went on a sunny afternoon while I innocently waited at a stop light... BAM. I get rear ended by a white woman in a mini-van while she's text-ing.

Being the skeptic sort I get uneasy when streams of bad things happen. Especially when they happen to me. I pride myself in my level of self control and when control starts slipping away I'm forced to reassess my wits. It blows my mind how so many people get away with living"normal" lives without having seemingly a particle of control in their entire body. You know the type and perhaps you're one of "them". They walk across busy highways oblivious to traffic and go unharmed. They jump off of high mountains and buildings and remain unscathed. They lick the floors of public urinals and never get sick. To me they are the only "real" proof of god or a higher power and he is definitely on "their" side.

I am living the opposite reality of "theirs". I'm bound by Murphy's Law. Anything that can go wrong will... in SPADES! This has taken me aback for many years. But as I approach "old age" I've come to realize the concept of random variables. Wikipedia reads: " a random variable can be thought of as a quantity whose value is not fixed, but which can take on different values". This certainly explains the value of insurance companies. They make their living off of random variables as most Americans do I suppose.

So it seems as if I am pushing the boundaries of chance but I'm actually a victim of random variable. I've done everything in my power to prevent being a victim of circumstance but no one can control the Random Variable. Luck is your best friend when it comes to the random variable. Gives new meaning to my Grandmothers saying "if it weren't for bad luck you'd have no luck at all".

So living a life of having to survive an onslaught of random variable (and I have plenty of eye witnesses) has at least made me prepare for it. And when you prepare for a random variable it doesn't surprise you as much as it catches you off guard. And when you neglect to prepare for a "known random variable" you really can't whine too much. You knew the unknown was bound to happen. I'll have to resort to another age old saying. "Expect the best but prepare for the worst". Perhaps it should replace "In God We Trust" on the dollar bill. "In Random Variables We Fear" doesn't really flow now does it?

Write On... Z

Historical Perspective on Hand Dryers

I was channel surfing and stopped a few minutes to watch The Glass Menagerie. It was filmed in 1950. The play was written by Tennessee Williams in 1944. In one of the scenes Kirk Douglas washes his hands and dries them with an electronic hand dryer. I was startled to see a gadget being used 60 years ago that is still in use today.

There's not a lot of information on Frenchman Alexandre Godefoy but he did invent the first hair dryer in 1890. Harry McLeckie from Chicago invented the hand dryer in 1948. Again not much

to be found on him either. McLeckie's device looks like a smaller version of Godefoy's contraption. Another point of interest is women back in 1890's used vacuum cleaners to dry their hair. They just switched the hose around like a shopvac and used the exhaust to blow rather than suck.

Of course we all know old Danial Hess of Iowa invented the vacuum cleaner in 1860. However our propensity to suck has no limits and many people after him invented new ways to suck and obtained patents as well. The vacuum pictured is from 1910.

These inventions seem to be spaced by the length of a lifetime. I wonder if one person had to die before another could take the idea and profit from it. Hummm?

I'm not sure if the hand dryer in the movie was a "plant" or a "product endorsement". It was only 2 years old at the time the film was made so it must have caught peoples attention as a new fangled device. When we watch it today the hand dryer doesn't register in the same manner.

There are a good deal of things that must not register when we watch old movies. Things that were new and exciting 50 years ago are taken for granted now. It might answer to why old films have a limited audience. They don't get the same excitement level of being exposed to new THINGS.

The conventions of the story haven't changed too much either. Granted the MTV generation has all but killed holding a camera shot for more than 2 seconds. But human drama hasn't changed face over the past 100 years of so.

Observation: The more things change the more they stay the same. Slow progressive evolution. Spiral advancement through time and space. Man am I hungry.