Monday, June 9, 2014

Entropy

Entropy


I took Kubota with me to coffee before we went on our Meijer Garden adventure.

I did my best to introduce him to the concept of entropy.  Entropy is similar to irreversibility, chaos, disorder.  Increasing entropy is usually not a good thing.  Some kids take to this concept like a duck to water.  Others....well, they need to have their heads held under water until they either learn to drink the level down or they learn to extract oxygen from the water.

The ice cube in the hot coffee did not do much for him.

Cutting a 2X4 into 16" stove wood started to tickle his neurons.  That makes it unsuitable for building.  It can be stuck back together but it takes much outside effort and finger joints use up length.

Keeping the nuts-and-bolts in separate, labeled baggies by size when disassembling a project beats the heck out of dropping them into the gravel and then looking for them later.

Cooking an egg (you cannot un-cook an egg) got him going.  Scrambled eggs vs. Sunnyside up locked it for him.

I think food is his language of love.  Heck, it is his language of EVERYTHING.

Then, while driving west on US-96 we were passed by a Prius being driven by a seventy year old man.  The vanity plate was "N TRO P"

I asked him to define "entropy" after that car passed us.  He said, "Scrambled eggs."

Mrs ERJ


Mrs ERJ had a banner day.  She did followup on our auto insurance.  We where shocked when the bill went from an annual cost of about $3800 to $7600.  In between jousts with the retirement people, she has been calling the insurance carrier (3 times and counting) and worrying them like a terrier gnawing the gristle end of a bone.

So far she has it worried down to $5500.  $2200 savings is a great day's work.  But $5500 is still an extravagant amount of money when compared to our expected gross income in retirement. 

2 comments:

  1. Whew! 'Dodged that bullet.

    I found this note at dictionary.com regarding cultural notions of entropy:

    "Note: In the nineteenth century, a popular scientific notion suggested that entropy was gradually increasing, and therefore the universe was running down and eventually all motion would cease. When people realized that this would not happen for billions of years, if it happened at all, concern about this notion generally disappeared."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Key word: Gradually

      Moses once asked God if a thousand years were but a single second in the eyes of God. God said "Yes."

      Then Moses asked God if a billion dollars was no more significant than a single penny in the eyes of God. God said "Yes."

      Then, Moses asked God for one of those "Pennies".

      God replied..."Sure Just a second."

      That is why the Fed targets an inflation rate of 2.57%. One penny "becomes" $1e+09 in one thousand years.

      See, you knew there had to be a reason.

      Delete

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