JoeSchmuckatelli

I think it's been answered - taking skill out, leaving the coin flip - the answers above seem correct (given my little experience with game theory/ probability math). Thus I don't think 'every possible pairing' is required. I've seen the formulas above before. I'm just not competent enough with probability math to figure it out on my own, and thus appreciate the help!

Thanks! 10 pitches is what they had set up. Probably no relevance to the overall problem but it was present, so I included it. ... I know I specified removing skill - but as an aside, I learned that there are people who take Corn hole very seriously. Watched a couple of people warming up. They had custom shirts and had brought their own bags. Watched them each throw bags 12 times. Only one failed to drop in the hole. Contrast this with my wife and I who were excited to keep any single bag on the board at all!

In a sixty-four team double-elimination Corn Hole tournament playing 10 matches at a time... How many possible games are there before a winner will be declared? (In my case, the answer was 'two' to find the first loser - but theoretically, if skill wasn't an issue... How many games might we have been required to play?

Still my favorite anti - smoking ad

Shrug - there's quality of life as well. He enjoyed smoking. Look - I'm not recommending smoking ... but it should be acknowledged that the anti smoking crowd has overstated their case. I've also told my kids that of the two, I'd rather them smoke than vape. Vaping destroys lungs much faster

...and it's not universally harmful, nor fast acting. Case in point - my grandfather who started smoking at 9 did not die until he was in his 80s.

Well played. Semantics aside; https://www.uhhospitals.org/blog/articles/2019/12/vaping-may-be-more-dangerous-than-cigarette-smoking-studies-show

Please don't go retrograde - let my sleeping dogs lie! Uh... Nicotine does have some beneficial properties. Unlike vaping, incidence of short term death from moderate use is quite low.

Photon Cannon balls? The above was caused by one of the first confirmed alien incursions

Dear God... How did I miss this absurdity? Please tell me this is some kind of fiction?

Very lax border security back then.

Don't forget water levels. We all know water levels never change. They're just waiving 'trees' at you to disguise the fact that they've found evidence of Mermaids.

Grin - it's the start of American history, and summer is barely over. It either indicates my baseline for instruction... Or easily as plausible, they're playing 'mess with the new guy' Thankfully, I'm an old hand at both games.

First 'week' as teacher-of-record as a high school teacher. (Half week, actually, given it's the start of the year) Notable discussion: whether Columbus made his first trip to the Americas before or after 1625.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oldest-lakeside-village-europe-lake-ohrid-albania-treasure-trove/ 8,000 year old village found beneath lake waters.

Which they can do at altitude over the Gulf, IIRC

That is interesting. Although, with a permanent lunar base they could do something interesting with a very large ground based horizontal centrifuge and give people a couple of hours of 1g. IIRC a 225 foot radius 'room' would only need to spin at 2 rpm. Given that would be something like 1.5 to 2 blocks wide, maybe a 'train' of rooms?

This has been fun to watch. I couldn't possibly do what you've attempted... But I really appreciate the writeup!

This stuff is so big... That it looks small.

Edit - tone of my response may seem combative... It's not intended to be. I echo a lot of your past posts on the overreacting that happened during and since - but I did want to address the specific point about Covid loss of smell and taste being distinct from other respiratory illness I've experienced

My experience was distinct. I've had the generic cold 'can't smell or taste' thing - which, if you will excuse the expression - is a complete horsepuckey comparison to what Covid did to me. My covid loss of smell and taste was akin to a true disability. I literally lost two of the traditional five senses. It's surprising what losing something you take for granted does to you With taste - it was completely gone. I had 'mouth feel' heat and cold sensation - but the normal nerve input from having food in the mouth was simply, interestingly and maddeningly absent. I could tell the difference between the way a piece of chicken felt from the way a pea felt, and know if the bite was too hot or not - but there was zero flavor. Some sensation of flavor came back within a relatively short time - ten days or two weeks, IIRC. It wasn't a cure, so much as a process. Smell was also completely gone, but recovery took a longer time - and given that smell is a core component of taste - food remained unpleasant for a long time. I recall saying everything reminded me of rotting cucumbers even months after I 'recovered'. Salt came back first, along with the capacin heat from pepper sauce (the heat, not the flavor). Week to week my brain began to distinguish different flavors. Smell? It took most of a year - and I would not call myself 'cured' in the sense of having returned to pre-covid ability. I got Covid in early '21 and in late' 22, I recall my kids and wife complaining about the pungent reek from a bunch of stoned Spring Breakers - and I was oblivious. There simply wasn't any sensation at all that there was anything to smell. So to compare what I experienced with any of the previous colds or flu's (I've had various A & B strains) is completely spurious.

That was surprisingly maddening for me. I remember being fascinated by the loss of sensation in the early days - but after months it gets old. Then the phantom smells - where you can't tell if the house is on fire or something else. Not being able to smell dog farts tho? That's a win!

Supercapacitor... Cement? https://www.sciencealert.com/electrified-cement-could-turn-the-foundations-of-buildings-into-giant-batteries *Right now, these cement capacitors are relatively small, with enough power to light up a few LED lightbulbs. The materials used are cheap and abundant though, and in theory the process should be able to scale up relatively well. Next, the team wants to make one of these devices that's about the size of a car battery. A house with a foundation made of the supercapacitor cement could store enough energy to power that house for a day, the researchers suggest – and the energy could be produced through renewable sources such as solar or wind."

Whelp, that's one way to get rid of the surplus.

DNA of Enslaved Maryland Ironworkers identified as ancestors of 41,000 people - also provides a link to the parts of Africa they originally inhabited https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/dna-enslaved-iron-workers-maryland-reveals-links-40000-relatives-rcna98198