Monday, April 20, 2015

Pizza Calculator

https://stephenwetzel.github.io/pages/pizza.htm

A while ago made a table of the common pizza sizes so that we could better compare pizzas.  The problem with that was that it was difficult to compare deals of multiple pizzas of different sizes.

I made a quick javascript calculator that lets you enter the number of pizzas, the size, and the total price and then tell you what the price per standard pie or slice is.

I expect this to be quite popular at parties, as all good parties have the phrase "just go to my github page" at some point.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

The Star Wars Saga: Introducing Machete Order

http://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2011/11/11/the-star-wars-saga-suggested-viewing-order/
Next time you want to introduce someone to Star Wars for the first time, watch the films with them in this order: IV, V, II, III, VI

As I mentioned, this creates a lot of tension after the cliffhanger ending of Episode V. It also uses the original trilogy as a framing device for the prequel trilogy. Vader drops this huge bomb that he's Luke's father, then we spend two movies proving he's telling the truth, then we see how it gets resolved. The Star Wars watching experience gets to start with the film that does the best job of establishing the Star Wars universe, Episode IV, and it ends with the most satisfying ending, Episode VI. It also starts the series off with the two strongest films, and allows you to never have to either start or end your viewing experience with a shitty movie. Two films of Luke's story, two films of Anakin's story, then a single film that intertwines and ends both stories.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

The Theory of Interstellar Trade

https://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/interstellar.pdf

This paper extends interplanetary trade theory to an interstellar setting. It is chiefly concerned with the following question: how should interest charges on goods in transit be computed when the goods travel at close to the speed of light? This is a problem because the time taken in transit will appear less to an observer traveling with the goods than to a stationary observer. A solution is derived from economic theory, and two useless but true theorems are proved.