Wednesday, November 17, 2004

I have begun using the "Next Blog" button that Blogger provides, looking at some of what else is out there. From time to time (roughly on every tenth blog), I leave a comment, as brainhell. Some of those bloggers come here and comment in return.

I believe that Blogger does not truly take you to a random blog when you press this button. It usually tends to take you to recently-updated blogs (though not always). And, while usually it takes me to a blog I have never seen before, there are some blogs it takes me to frequently. An example is a sports statistics blog. No idea why. Maybe you can pay Google (which owns Blogger) to "pump up" your blog? I wouldn't be surprised.

Now here are some responses to recent comments I have been receiving:

I feel that the most unfortunate result from the turf war that happened at hatter89.blogspot.com was that your comment on cats and toast was overlooked, as I had not the chance to comment on it. I am sure we are all very pleased to have this conundrum cleared up. Just one little thing: what if it was a big bit of toast?
mstrhenryjgolding | 11.16.04 - 12:35 pm | #

mstrhenryjgolding,

If it were a big bit of toast then I would expect to see some effect on the cat's rotation. The term 'big' is ambiguous, and we don't know whether you mean it to refer to the mass of the toast while the dimensions remain the same, or whether you mean that the mass and dimensions both scale up. At the point where the mass of the toast is a significant fraction of the mass of the cat, I would expect that the cat might blow the landing and wind up on its side, or even it's back. Once the toast outweighs the cat, then we might expect jelly on the floor, except that, if we assume that the toast retains typical toast density, then, in order to outweigh the cat, the piece of toast becomes quite large -- and aerodynamic effects do too. The density of a cat is greater than the density of toast, so we then have a case where the center of gravity of the ballistic object is forward of the center of drag along the vector of its motion. This is an aerodynamically stable configuration, and would tend to place the cat's feet on the floor first. The density of the jelly may be equal to or greater than that of the cat, so if enough jelly were on the toast, then these effects might cancel out. But given the typical jelly thickness, this would be a very large piece of toast relative to the cat. If the piece of toast were to be several multiples of the cat's mass, then clearly the toast lands jelly-side down. But in no case does the cat-toast system 'hover,' as some have suggested.

Thank you for the comment on my blog. If you go to her website, I think the song may be on there. Listen to it, I think it could change your opinion. If not, that is the beautiful thing about music as well. It affects everyone different.y.
vegasgustan | Email | Homepage | 11.17.04 - 1:54 am | #

vegasgustan,

I found the lyrics but not the song. And the site made me think that only her latest album is on iTunes. I went to iTunes thinking I would set up an account and buy the song (for 99 cents), but, unlike so much that Apple does so well, the account setup screen actually would have required me to think. I pressed the cancel button. I concur with you, though, lyrics can be great when sung. Just look at "Two Tickets to Paradise." ;-)

I'd like to ask your permission to place a link on my blog to yours as it is one of the best i have seen, a truky well written blog,

Regards,
Bryan
The_Hatter | Email | Homepage | 11.17.04 - 8:55 am | #

Bryan,

Gladly granted. And thanks for the compliment. You're the second person who asked permission. Maybe that's the etiquette I should follow, because I have been linking to other people's blogs without asking them. I just assumed that since anyone can read on the web, anyone can link to what they read.
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