The Saturday Morning Blogger – Random Thoughts

James Barrington

How do computer programmers tell a random number generator to really be random? Is there a pattern to the randomness? Why don’t they repeat the same number three times in a row from time to time – just to be random?

Who decided that cutting grass with a lawnmower to make it all a uniform height was more attractive than letting it grow naturally? After we all became sheep and followed that pattern, local governments legislated that grass could not exceed a certain (arbitrary) height. Wouldn’t sheep be better lawn mowers? After all, they cut it and fertilize it all in one pass…

I’m convinced that it’s pure economics that lead fashions to change. After all, why else would someone tear out perfectly good carpet to replace it with a hardwood floor… or vise versa. Such dynamics lead men’s neckties to go from narrow to wide, bright prints to plaid or stripes, and long to short. Such dynamics lead women’s shoes to go from high heels to flats and women’s dresses from unbuttonable rows of buttons down the back to virtually nonexistent fronts that make women self-conscious about their exposed cleavage while insisting on wearing plunging necklines. Economics must be the most obtuse and ridiculous form of political correctness rooted in personal greed of the guardians of the economy…

City dwellers look at the suburbs and long for the uncrowded streets and slower pace where they can raise their children without fear of gangs and crime. Then they moved to the suburbs in droves, bringing with them their vices and the congestion and filth they lived in while a city-dweller. In the meantime, the pollute the atmosphere with exhaust fumes and drive up the price of gasoline because of their long commutes with other lemmings, just like them, who didn’t really flee the city so much as expanding its corrupting influence. Meanwhile, their kids find new friends from whom they can buy their drugs and with whom they can vandalize public and private property. Then they all wonder why nirvana wasn’t everything they expected it to be. Who knew?

Are prime numbers more random than even numbers? Is five a random number of paragraphs?