This is totally awesome.

Animals, appearing in the Tube maps.

Enjoy.

Last night I took a quiz.

for the curious amongst you this is my 10 minute MSPaint recap of said quiz..

That right there is, I’m reasonably sure, the correct way to solve that problem. It’s simple, elegant, the length of the beam cancels itself out, all of the given values are used. The method is accurate.

The problem is that at a real test you’re given a time limit. You’re stressed so you’re not thinking clearly and you tend to dive into problems instead of thinking about them carefully and rationally. My answer on the quiz was completely wrong, a disaster.

Granted, I still did a moment analysis around point P. But I included the mass of the beam in my spring analysis. UGH. and then I got the spring constant of the spring (k) confused with the spring constant for the whole system. This is such a foolish mistake! And it’s exactly that - a foolish mistake. While I respect that mistakes result in wrong answers and wrong answers result in space shuttles breaking up in re-entry, being tested in such a manner still seems silly. When given a job at work that requires ANY equation, I dig through it systematically and always verify my results with known experimental results to make sure it makes sense.

If given this problem in real life, I’d take a lot more than 20 minutes to make sure that it was perfect. Of course the other side of the argument is that if I truly had a mastery of the content, than I would have swept through the problem quickly on my first try - regardless of the environment or a time limit.

Maybe my complaint isn’t the method of quizzes. It’s simply that I’m really sick of school.

MikeDiDonato.com readers? Meet Jess (she’s on the left - I believe that’s her Ukrainian ’sister’ on the right)

Jess is in the northwest corner of Ukraine right now with the peace corps teaching and spreading good cheer.

Specifically she’s teaching children and trying to connect this little Ukraine village to the rest of the world. In her words: “I run two clubs that are English based and focus on the comparison of and contrast between Ukrainian and American cultures.”

One of the methods she hopes to use to connect her little Ukrainian village to the rest of the world is the Internet.

Right now she’s working to throw a Halloween party with candy-grams and more in order to raise money for that triumphant internet connection and she needs our help. Or specifically, our candy. Would you be able to send a small bag of candy to Ukraine? For both the good of the little kids and the good of the tiny town?

Little Ukranian kids:

Here’s Jess’s comments on how to send help:

Should you decide to send: Sending things to Ukraine is a pretty easy process. The difficulty is the five-minute customs declaration process at the post office. When sending something, if possible, sending it in a flat envelope will be best. If this is not possible, a box is fine also, but keep the size of the box relative to the items so they don’t shake around. The potential detour point is Ukrainian customs. These guys are pretty random with what they withhold at the office for pick-up, what they open up for inspection, and what they let through. The easiest way to prevent all of this is to write on the customs form indicating what you are sending. In this case, I absolutely recommend that you are sending “Donated School Supplies” or “Donations for Orphans”, or something that is going to instill guilt in the hearts of anyone who may think to take it. School Supplies is legit and the least transparent. And seriously underestimate the value of the items you are sending. Never EVER value it over $100. Something of “value” will almost guarantee it opened or stolen. So in short, you are sending donated school supplies that are valued at less than $10 to…me.

Via USPS is an ok method and here is where you send it:

Park, Jessie
Chaikivka Street, #45
C. Altinyvka
Krolevci Reón
Cumska Oblast
Ukraine 41346

This is Mike D. again. I have a lot of readers in unique places. If we could get little packages to arrive for the Ukrainian kids from all over the place, what a great worldly gesture that would be. Please help! Feel free to e-mail questions to me and I’ll pass them to Jess.
MikeDiDonato AT gmail D0T com

If you can, try and send something small out within the next week. The party to bring internet and candy to the people (does anything sound more awesome?) is going down in early November and I guess it takes about two weeks for candy supplies to arrive. Let me know if you can help!