Things I Don't Understand

George Will put this graphic up this weekend on This Week With George Stephanopoulos to show how the current supply of money in the U.S. has taken off. (The source was the Federal Reserve Bank out of St. Louis.) How in the world is inflation not out of control?

I'm Pretty Sure This Is My Third Ex-Wife

Baby, I miss you. (If the video description is correct, it is from Spring Break 2009). Thanks, Keith.

My Crazy Thought On Time

(Edit: The picture is not of a basketball clock. Just demonstrates what a clock depicting hundredths of a second looks like.)

I think about this every time during March Madness, but I've never posted it because it qualifies as Crazy Talk. Several years ago, someone with a big brain figured out that when the scoreboard clock rolled down from "0:01" to "0.00" there was actually still a second left on the clock. So they added tenths of seconds to the game clock. So instead of seeing the old countdown in seconds of 

00:02 

00:01 

00:00 <----horn nbsp="" p="" sounds="">

We now see this: 

00:02.0 

00:01.9 

00:01.8 

00:01.7 

00:01.6 

00:01.5 

00:01.4 

00:01.3 

00:01.2 

00:01.1 

00:01.0 

00:00.9 <-- and="" assumed="" four="" game="" is="" nbsp="" over="" p="" see="" the="" this="" to="" used="" was="" we="" where="" zeros="">

00:00.8 

00:00.7 

00:00.6 

00:00.5 

00:00.4 

00:00.3 

00:00.2 

00:00.1 

00:00.0 <---horn nbsp="" now="" p="" sounds="">

But here's my crazy issue: Once the tenth of a second goes to 0, isn't there a hundredth of a second that needs to be counted off as well? If we added another digit to the clock, and continued the countdown from the last example, we'd see this: 

00.00.10 

00:00.09 <---where horn="" nbsp="" now="" p="" sounds="" the="">

00:00.08 

00:00.07 

00:00.06 

00:00.05 

00:00.04 

00:00.03 

00:00.02 

00:00.01 

00:00.00 

But here's where I really lose my mind. Can't we continue to add a digit every time our clock goes down to all zeros? For example, once the clock reaches 00:00.00, can't we now divide the last unit of time into thousands of a second starting with 00:00.009. And once we get down to 00:00.000 can't we start all over again with 00:00.0009? Does that make sense? It seems like that last second, if we continue to divide it up by adding an extra digit, would never end. My brain tells me that once a second passes a second passes, but it seems like we could always divide the last portion of it up just a little bit more. And, I'll admit, this is my nuttiest post ever. Edit: And this post is about time and the concept of slicing up time. Not about whether anything can possible be done on a basketball court within a fraction of a second. 

Edit: Thanks for (some of) the helpful comments. This really is akin to Zeno's Paradoxes -- something, I'll admit, I had never heard of.

Dallas Observor's Richie Whitt's House Is Haunted

I've always been a fan of Richie Whitt's writing, but he's put up a couple of posts over at his blog which are a bit unnerving. Part 1. (from early March) Part 2. (from earlier today)

Monday Afternoon Pick Me Up

Montage County Jail Makes National News Again With New AP Story

Link. I'm pretty sure all the Montague inmates are still in the Wise County jail.

The Wisdom Of Ann Curry via Twitter

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• The round table discussions on Sunday morning news shows are fairly interesting. The interviews that begin the show, not so much.
• It would be cool if there were a reality show called "Hot Girls In Scary Places." Well, I'll be.
• Baylor got invited to the play in the NIT. That's like being asked out to go to Denny's.
• Fox 4 tells me that Lake Bridgeport is over 9 feet low?
• The driver's license hearings I always go to are always held at 1:00 in the afternoon. But today, due to a weird course of events, they will have a special setting at 10:30 in the morning just for me.
• I watched some of the Will Ferrell's HBO special, "You're Welcome America: A Final Night With George Bush." It was funny but not that funny.
• I just saw on Facebook that a buddy I graduated from high school with is celebrating his 24th wedding anniversary today. That's shocking in at least a couple of ways.
• I bought some black K-Swiss tennis shoes last summer. The moment I walked out of the store I had a little bit of regret and that feeling has never gone away.
• But I saw a stylish black guy wearing the same shoes a couple of months later so that helped.
• Getting on a bus to drive to Austin to "meet with legislators" does not sound like the way I would want to spend my day.
• Last year, the Aggies made the NCAA Tournament as the 9th seed and they played BYU. This year, they ended up as the 9th seed and will play BYU.
• I've never gone anywhere for "Spring Break."

I Knew There Was Something About Madoff That Was Bugging Me

This Is Either The Decatur Walmart At Christmas . . .

. . . or chaos outside of "America's Next Top Model" auditions.

We've Hit The Big Time In A Bad Way

A faithful reader points out that Decatur was referenced in The New York Times yesterday. (Thanks Jake.)

That Sound You Heard Was The Death Star Exploding

Baylor 76 Evil Empire 70 The Bears hit 12 of their last 13 free throws.

Math Question

Just thought about this and need some help from The Big Brains on Brad out there. Baylor and Texas play tonight. Baylor has lost 24 straight times. Let's assume that in each of those games Texas entered the contest with a 90% chance of winning. With that being said: What were the odds that Texas would win 24 in a row? My guess is the equation would be 90/100 to the 24th power. But I have no idea what I'm saying. Edit: Thanks, guys. I chose the 90% assumption for each game in order to see how incredible it is to win 24 in a row (even if one team is an overwhelming favorite each time.)

Say What

From The Today Show this morning.

The last person to see a 5-year-old Florida girl before she went missing — who is also the new teenage bride of the child’s father — acknowledged that there are inconsistencies in the stories she’s told investigators, but was unable to say why her account has changed.

Link and video here.

This Made Me Laugh. Not Really Sure Why.

The Messenger's "Tree v. Jeep" Video From Yesterday

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Convenience stores in the metroplex seem to feel more dangerous these days.
• Had this discussion yesterday: Most, if not all, sin is based in selfishness.
• For some odd reason, it is the Chicago Tribune that reported on a story that is gaining legs: Cops in a small Texas town seizing a ton of property and money from motorists and then taking it, via the state's forfeiture laws, in exchange for not charging them with a crime.
• This happened to 140 people over a two year period which is a shocking number. I bet less than 10, maybe less than 5, forfeiture actions are filed in Wise County every year.
• The Dow is up three days in a row? Economy. Solved.
• Saw a lawyer in a driver's license hearing yesterday in Fort Worth that did not have a clue what he was doing. It's always uncomfortable when that happens because every lawyer in the audience starts looking at one other with cocked eyebrows.
• That Geico stack-of-bills-with-eyeballs is weird.
• I think I saw a story about Texas considering paying students for good grades. ($20 for an A, $10 for a B, etc.) Anybody else ready to give up?
• Update: Forgetting Sarah Marshal didn't do much for me.
• I always expect a convenience store clerk to become overly excited when I pay with exact change. Rarely happens.
• I'm not sure what I think about the overly pillowed bed.
• Lawyer news: A huge firm in Texas has canceled next summer's associate program. I've never heard of such a thing.
• I TIVO'd the Travel Channel's "Bridget's Sexiest Beaches" with Bridget Marquardt last night. It looked like a "Hey, Now" kind of show based upon the previews.
• NFL Draft thought: Everyone always says "Take the best player available." Um, ok. The tricky part is figuring out who that is.
• I really like today's pic.
• Drives me nuts: Driving down the highway in the rain and having someone pass me on the left only to immediately get right in front of me and spraying me with gunk.
• Finally heard a radio interview with the Dallas Mavericks' coach. Sheesh. That guy is a tremendous jerk.
• St. Patrick's Day is coming up. I hope I remember to post my favorite video of "I wanna know where da gold at!"

And You Know What This Means?

It means the Evil Empire is now in the cross-hairs of the Basketball Playing Baptists. Austin, you're on notice. Tomorrow evening in the Big 12 Semi-Finals, we're going to walk all over you like you're a pebble on the Road to Damascus. Get behind me, Satan, indeed! (And you think Baylor is intimidated by having lost 24 in a row to UT? Well, think agai.......woah........24?........Sheesh.....Nevermind.)