Myths and hoaxes

A coworker and I were just discussing the direction of water flow in toilets. He didn’t know that the oft-repeated grade school tale of southern hemisphere toilets swirling in the opposite direction is a myth. See http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html.

www.snopes.com is a great resource for other myths. Teeth do not dissolve when soaked in a soft drink. (My 2nd grade reading teacher actually tried that! Now I know why it didn’t work.) Nova does not mean “doesn’t go” in Spanish. Poinsettias are not poisonous.

Final Exam

I have my EMIS 8363 Engineering Finance final exam in 1 hour. The professor allows open book, open notes, and a calculator or PDA or laptop to be used during the exam. (No internet connection allowed!)

I see two ways to properly study for this exam:

  1. Pore through massive amounts of material and work lots of practice problems.
  2. Skim everything and concentrate on just knowing where everything is in the notes and textbook.

Given that I am an “efficient engineer” (per David Russo) I have chosen door number 2.

I don’t know how well I’ll do. I just want to get it over with.

Time for Marie Callender’s Country Fried Chicken meal. (Ugh.)