Planet-Wide Panic!

Woof! Woof!...
I'm barking at the moon, do'ya mind? Okay, so my bark isn't very loud, and the moon has been hiding recently anyway. Well, on to today's topic: Planet-Wide Panic! I'm the kind of dog who likes to hide from the news, it's rather depressing, and I prefer my jaunts through the park, and my cookies and milk (cookies courtesy of the rabbits). But the scary facts just keep popping up in the newspaper.

Just today I read 3 articles, that when added together paint a very alarming picture for our future. The first article outlines what would have to happen to create a world-wide food shortage. The surprising thing is, it wouldn't take much. Just 3 natural disasters happening in close succession of each other just might do the trick. Specifically, the article outlines a wind-blown wheat rust in Russia, a heat wave in South America, and a warm El Nino. We've been having warm years lately, as well as El Nino's off and on, so this is a very real possibility. The second article takes a look at water on planet Earth. Most of the water we have is salt water, and not really drinkable unless you are willing to freeze and thaw it (as Captain Cook discovered). Our underground fresh water reserves are being drained faster than the Earth is replenishing them. Someday, our fresh water may run low enough we have to begin nationally rationing water, or find a new source. Getting nervous yet? There's more.

If you haven't lived under a rock, you've heard California is going through year after year of drought. This year is looking worse. According to numbers, the snowpack in the Sierra mountains, usually at 100% for a regular year, stands at 0% of that total. This year is the third driest year observed in California, at a little over 5 inches of precipitation, less than half of the average (13 inches). June 1 of this year, California instituted a 25% mandatory water reduction restriction, a goal they are struggling to reach. In terms of records, the last time California saw a similar scale drought was over 1000 years ago! And, according to NASA, the state would need about 11 trillion gallons of water to make up for the shortfall!

Any one of these articles is alarming, but all three read on the same day can really make one uneasy. I hope the rabbits can find a way to save our planet, I've given them a 12$ budget, 3 days, and a new game of Parcheesi (theirs has worn out) as incentive to find a way to fix our planet. We'll see what they come up with.

Notes on Primes

Good Morning, and happy Friday!
My weekly blog post this week will steer back towards mathematics!
I recently made some quick notes on prime numbers and thought I would share them with you.
Enjoy!

Practical uses of prime numbers...

Well to begin with, there aren't that many. Prime numbers have many interesting uses in mathematical theory, but out in the real world, they are mainly used in programming, random number generators, and especially cryptography.

Programming uses prime numbers to check for mistakes in code, create random samples and random numbers.

Random number generators use prime numbers to search for and find random numbers to generate / compile data.

Cryptography goes back a long time. Spies would use all sorts of ways to encrypt data, from using dictionaries, to random books, to codes number sequences. Currently, RSA and other encryption systems use large primes and prime factorization (I'll get to this in a bit) to create really difficult codes to break. Since we do not even know all the prime numbers in the world, it is extremely hard to break RSA encryption.

Prime factorization is a principle key in mathematics. The fundamental theorem of algebra states:

Every integer greater than 1 is either a prime, or the product of prime numbers, and this product is unique, up to the order of the factors.

Euclid stated this theorem in his book Euclid's Elements. The idea that any positive integer is either prime or a product of primes is sort of baffling! In a sense, to think that every number is directly related to prime numbers seems to suggest a great significance to these numbers, but we haven't really done that much with them over the years.

Me personally, I think that God just loves numbers. :)

-SheepDog-

Bunny Apocalypse

So I had a special request to create a how-to on surviving the zombie apocalypse, but then realized I have already written this blog last October (titled AAaaaah! Zombies!). So I decided to address a much more serious threat: Bunnies. *Nods seriously* Bunnies are slowly taking over my life, as well as the world. How do we survive when they have control of the Earth? Well, as the Bunny apocalypse approaches, here are some things to think about:

Over the years, Bunnies have been mistreated. They have been used as bait in greyhound racing (see sgt. Bilko), as rocks (Open Season) as gas masks (again, Open Season), Poor Rabbit has all his honey stolen by a bear, more than once I might add, and every year, the Easter bunny has all his eggs stolen by the world! Well the rabbits have finally had enough. They have finally assembled a team of elite bunnies in strategic positions throughout our industries, preparing for years for their chance. Here is a list of their top operatives:

Energizer Bunny……….Demolitions Specialist

Trix……….Food Service Specialist, and special ops manager for kid strike division

Harvey……….Invisible Pookah, Special Weapons and Secret Ops Division

Happy Bunny………. Known as stinky bunny. Nuclear Weapons

Bugs Bunny……….HR Specialist, tracks meetings, minutes, and carrots

Thumper……….Creative Operations

Cadbury Bunny……….Secretary to the Easter Bunny.

Rabbit……….Mastermind

As near as I can tell, this is what will happen:

Stage 1: Planning Stage

The bunnies need plenty of time to prepare for their strike. For their coup to be successful, they need a plan of attack. This will be well thought out, and utilize every weapon they have available. They will need a large army, and the technology to run multiple strikes simultaneously across the world. They need to have planted seeds of dissent among us humans so we will fight each other rather than our common enemy.

Stage 2; Initial Strike

The bunnies prefer covert warfare. Likely, we will not even notice the initial strike until it is too late. Harvey will infiltrate the highest levels of government and plant ideas among our leaders by day and night until he drives them mad, or they begin to listen. Meanwhile, Bugs Bunny, already stationed in Hollywood, will be slipping in strategic scenes in upcoming movies to make us sympathetic to their cause. The Energizer Bunny has already planted the idea of running off of batteries (lithium ion, and rechargeable cars) to us humans. These batteries are all wired to a master control system, giving the Bunnies a direct line to many cars, generators, and power plant reserve systems. Finally, Trix has diverted most of the world’s breakfast cereal to their headquarters in Australia. Soon, we will be without breakfast.

Stage 3; Darkness

Once stage 2 is complete, the bunnies will cause a major blackout across the world. All reserve systems and batteries will shut down, and any remaining power will be cut off by Thumper’s crew using an army of EMP Pulse drones across key cities of America and the rest of the world. In darkness, with no food for breakfast, and with our cell phone batteries dwindling, we will have precious little time to react as Harvey rises with a new world order plan in the UN Summit.

Stage 4; Light, then unconditional surrender

Harvey’s new documents will outline a restructuring of nearly every modern government, and in return, power will be restored to the world.

Stage 5; Contingency Plan

Bunny’s are relatively peaceful, but they have some plans in case their initial strike fails. Stinky Bunny has a back-up fleet of drones, filled with stink bombs designed to enforce the new world order.

So, how can we prepare against this? The bunnies are upset, but not quite to the breaking point according to recent biased polls (the 3…4...5… however many bunnies are in my apt. right now). They have a list of demands we must meet:

1)      The cookie jar must always be full.

2)      Never complain about their loud music or all night Parcheesi parties

3)      If they invite another bunny to join, always say yes.

4)      Join their pinochle parties

5)      They want iPads

6)      And cookies. Did they already mention this?

7)      Most importantly, don’t throw them at cars.

Good luck surviving the bunny apocalypse!