variable-change-movie-21

The Movie 21, Variable Change, and Monty Hall

Richard CummingsEntertainment, Featured Posts, Movies, My A-Musings 102 Comments

The movie 21 introduced many to the concept of variable change. But what is variable change? Stay tuned for a lively discussion! During the movie 21 (read my 21 movie review here), we are introduced to a seemingly simple example of probability often referred to by three different names: Variable change, the Monty Hall Problem, and/or conditional probability.  The scenario …

Is Amazon Prime Worth It?

Richard CummingsA Rich Idea: Question and Answer, Featured Posts, technology Leave a Comment

amazon-prime-reviewQuestion: I am wanting to know if Amazon Prime is worth it.  I keep getting these offers to join Amazon Prime and it seems like kind of a good idea.  I would like to understand it a little better and would like to here from someone who uses it to know whether they think Amazon Prime is worth it.  If you have time to answer my question, that’d be awesome!  Many big thanks, Jeannie, Charlotte, NC

facebook-addiction-signs

10 Signs You Are Addicted To Facebook

Richard CummingsDaily Dalliances, Featured Posts, Society 3 Comments

Are you addicted to Facebook? Ooops, forgive me, what addict knows of their addiction? Well, as expressed in the 12 steps of addiction recovery, the first step is admitting your problem. Facebook addicts have modified the traditional AA twelve steps recovery program by substituting the word “Alcohol” with “Facebook” as you see in this modified Facebook addiction declaration example below:

What is “Molly”?

Richard CummingsA Rich Idea: Question and Answer, Featured Posts, Society Leave a Comment

If you have ever heard people talking about something called “Molly”, you certainly may wonder “what is Molly?” I have just returned from the Electric Forest Music Festival where the question was not “what is Molly?” but rather “do you know where I can get some Molly?” Why would people be asking this at a music festival, you ask. Well, …

beauty-of-socialist-sweden

Is Sweden A Socialist Country?

Richard CummingsEconomics, Featured Posts, Politics 2 Comments

This morning I was investigating whether Sweden is a socialist country.   Why?  Well, having just seen many accusatory commentators on Fox News claiming that we are “becoming a socialist country like Sweden”, I decided to put on my investigative cap and do some research. The first question that came to my mind was:  Is being like Sweden a bad thing?

useless-information-search

The Usefulness of Useless Information

Richard CummingsFeatured Posts, My A-Musings 1 Comment

I was searching for information today and discovered that people prefer useless information to useful information. Huh? Yes, that’s right.  There are more searches on the Internet everyday for the term “useless information” than for the term “useful information“.  Don’t believe me?  Check out this chart.

ikea-down-comforter-allergy-free

Are IKEA’s Down Alternate Comforter Allergy Free [and hypoallergenic]?

Richard CummingsA Rich Idea: Question and Answer, Featured Posts 1 Comment

Today, we are going to be answering the question: “Are IKEA’s Down Alternate Comforter Allergy Free?” This is very important because we sleep for 1/3 of our lives and we need to know that our comforter will not cause us discomfort — that would be a somewhat ironic. So I will put on my investigative hat and determine for you …