[kenrexford]

Anyone else ever notice that the stock market is so volatile, and the internet news service so quick but not quick enough, that invariably when you check to see which way stocks are headed, and then google the news on the issue, the news is quite often opposite of what is happening?

I mean, stocks go down, then stock go back up, then the news says it's going down, then stocks go back down and the news catches that it went up, then its goes back up as the news says it is going down. And so on.

The other thing that is weird is the weather radar channel. It scans through the northwest part of the state (where I live), then the center of the State, then the southeast corner, then regional, then national, then back to the northwest corner of the State, and so on. A loop. However, EVERY SINGLE TIME that I switch to that channel to get a quick look at the radar, it is on the center of the State. Law of averages would seem to kill that result, but I always end up at that spot. Pisses me off.

[Phil]

Ken Rexford Fooled by Randomness.

[kfay]

Ohio sucks!

[Gerben42]

Whatever, don't look so often...

[kenberg]

I solve this problem by only rarely looking at stocks (putting on a seat belt after a crash seems pointless) and checking weather only when my wife tells me I must. But the one that gets me, here in the general D.C. area, is that I often seem to be sitting still on I-95, Maryland side, listening to someone on the radio tell me how smoothly traffic is flowing in Virginia. And for that matter, they are sometimes telling me how smoothly traffic is flowing in Maryland. Life is tough, but kick back and relax, it will be over soon.

[kenrexford]

kenberg, on May 21 2010, 11:42 AM, said:

I solve this problem by only rarely looking at stocks (putting on a seat belt after a crash seems pointless) and checking weather only when my wife tells me I must. But the one that gets me, here in the general D.C. area, is that I often seem to be sitting still on I-95, Maryland side, listening to someone on the radio tell me how smoothly traffic is flowing in Virginia. And for that matter, they are sometimes telling me how smoothly traffic is flowing in Maryland. Life is tough, but kick back and relax, it will be over soon.

That's just DC for you. I mean, traffic is NEVER moving smoothly in the DC area, but in DC everything is spin.

What I loved about DC traffic, by the way, is how the lines on the road are ignored. Ever notice how there are a ton of circles where the lines ostensibly tell traffic which lane to stay in, and yet EVERYONE (except the random idiot from out of town) merges one lane right or one lane left at some point? There might be three lanes all veering one lane right or one lane left in unison, collectively ignoring the lines on the road. Cracked me up when I lived there.

[kenberg]

My favorite story on driving in D.C.
I was totally confused trying to get from wherever I was to somewhere else. I asked a cop. He scratched his head a bit and then:
You see that No Left Turn sign?
Yes
Go down there and hang a left. [Further directions were given]

It worked.

[Fluffy]

kenrexford, on May 21 2010, 02:58 PM, said:

The other thing that is weird is the weather radar channel. It scans through the northwest part of the state (where I live), then the center of the State, then the southeast corner, then regional, then national, then back to the northwest corner of the State, and so on. A loop. However, EVERY SINGLE TIME that I switch to that channel to get a quick look at the radar, it is on the center of the State. Law of averages would seem to kill that result, but I always end up at that spot. Pisses me off.

This is the most typical case of Murphy's law you can encounter, where you only notice the bad results and the good ones go unnoticed.