B A R E L Y B A D  W E B  S I T E  
   Dan Quayle's Flag       North of Canada etc.   

 

Stuff

This page leads you to a veritable olio of stuff I hope will entertain you.  Or at least some of it.  Or at least some of you.

Immediately below is a list of what's immediately below the list immediately below.  Also, see the sidebar at right.

  
     z_bullet_blty_16384.gif (1493 bytes) You can read about Dan Quayle and the flag, then you can relax.
     z_bullet_blty_8192.gif (1493 bytes) You can read about crossword puzzles.
     z_bullet_blty_4096.gif (1493 bytes) You can read about IRC (and 20 Questions and Charades).
     z_bullet_blty_2048.gif (1493 bytes) You can read about some words.
     z_bullet_blty_1024.gif (1493 bytes) You can read about an unfair Mensa test.
     z_bullet_blty_512.gif (1493 bytes) You can read about how to best the lotteries.
     z_bullet_blty_256.gif (1493 bytes) You can read about an odd poem.
     z_bullet_blty_128.gif (1493 bytes) You can read about being a claims adjuster.
     z_bullet_blty_64.gif (1493 bytes) You can read about logical fallacies.
     z_bullet_blty_32.gif (1493 bytes) You can read about a few Wes I like.
     z_bullet_blty_16.gif (1493 bytes) You can't yet read about my take on religion.
     z_bullet_blty_8.gif (1493 bytes) You can't yet read about my take on capital punishment.
     z_bullet_blty_4.gif (1493 bytes) You can't yet read about my take on boxing.
     z_bullet_blty_2.gif (1493 bytes) How many U.S. states are north of Canada?

  The bullets above change colors irrandomly.  Let me know what the pattern is.

 

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Quayle's Flag

Here are a few pages about Dan Quayle and burning his flag I insist you find interesting.

Choose one of the two links below:

respect Quayle  I respect his flag, and I want to read more about it.
Quayle  I want to read more either way.

 

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Crossword Puzzles

I've been working crossword puzzles for a few years now, and awhile back I decided I had something to say about them, so I wrote it down.  Then I realized my handwriting is kind of hard to read, so I typed it out for this Web site.

OK by me.  If you promise not to drift off into other subjects, I want to read the essay on crossword puzzles.

 

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IRC

IRC is short for Internet Relay Chat, the worldwide chat room.  If you've never heard of IRC, get started here.  If you are an IRC pal of mine, hi.

Okey doke, tell me more about Internet Relay Chat (and the game of 20 Questions and the game of Charades).

 

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Words

Not a few words about a few words, in one long page.  You'll find one or two places where (not when) I have not finished, and I've left them in, which I wouldn't normally do, because I need your help.

 

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Unfair Mensa Test

If you're more intelligent than 98% of humans you can join a club called Mensa.  I tried to join by paying nine bucks to take a pre-qualifying test, and I concluded that the test is illegitimate.  Do you agree?

Show me the unfair Mensa test.

 

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How To Beat the Lotteries

Betting the lottery requires a knowledge of fundamental probability theory, and I know all you need to know.

I want to learn it.

 

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Odd Poem

You can read a poem I wrote.  It's the only poem I ever wrote, for reasons that will quickly become obvious.

OK by me.  I want to read the poem.

 

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Stories of a Claims Adjuster

Even if you don't read any of these other stories so far, at least try this one.

 

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Logical Fallacies

There are many ways to make mistakes in logic, and most of them have names and understandable explanations.

As I see it, we humans should never fall prey to logical fallacies.  The less we do the better, and it's useful to know which ones are available to trip us up, to make us make mistakes.

And, to be frank, how to use them to get our way.

 

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Web places I like

So far there are only a few I can recommend, but I have not surfed the Web much.  If there are any you think should be added, just let me know.

  • "Car Talk" is a funny weekly radio show.
      
  • The Onion is a funny online newspaper.
      
  • How to Be Persuasive.  This'll take you a few minutes to read from beginning to end, which you should do.  Or way more than a few if like me you find yourself laughing really hard for a long time each many times.  My sides literally hurt the next morning.
        
  • For several months in this space prior to February of 2001 I linked to a hilarious but harmless page at a site called Christian Web Site Designs.  Then it disappeared, which was too bad.  Then I discovered how to resurrect it.
      
  • Darwin Awards is a justifiably well-known Web site you should peruse or at least know about.
     
  • Snopes is pretty good at answering whether something you heard is true. 
     
  • Straight Dope is a trove of useful and sometimes weird information in the form of questions asked by random people and answered by Cecil Adams, once a week since 1973.

 

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North of Canada, etc.

Bar bet.  This is a simple exercise in eidetic memory, specifically your memory of the hundreds of times you've seen maps of North America.  Here's the question:

How many U.S. states have any portion of their borders north of the southernmost part of Canadian land?

(This is not a trick question.  For example, it's not like Canada owns some unheard-of territory in the South Pacific.)

OK, tell me the answer, but do not digress.

If your name is Alex who worked for Habitat for Humanity KCMO and if you lost five bucks on this bet, now you know the reason is that the person you bet against just happens to be the person who knows -- better than anyone else on the planet, apparently -- what the answer is.

 

  

  

Three Noises

Because this is an extremely multimedia site, you can listen to three noises here -- a one-second buzz, a cute and a cuter.

OK by me.  Let me hear the three noises.

 

 

One Animated GIF

This is such an extremely multi-media site that we also bring you an original animated gif.

I was tickled by the realization a few years ago that the word "rotator" is spelled the same backwards as forwards.  If I were better at building animated GIFs, the one below (which is supposed to be two gears rotating against each other) would be much more impressive.

 

rotator1.gif (8,065 bytes)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click  ?  at the top of any page to see all the nifty navigation aids, including Search Site and Site Map.

 

 

 

 

 

Outline of  
Stuff  

Home
Stuff
  Three noises, etc.
  Quayle's flag
  IRC
      20 Questions
      Charades
  Words
  Unfair Mensa test
  Beat the lottery
  Odd Poem
  Claims adjuster
  Logical fallacies
  Web sites I like
  North of Canada
Crossword essay
Fun Pix

B A R E L Y B A D  W E B  S I T E  
   Dan Quayle's Flag       North of Canada etc.