R.E.P.O delivers the laughs

R.E.P.O delivers the laughs

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In this 4 player game, you and your friends try to recover artifacts to reach a set amount. But the artifacts you collect don’t always cooperate. In fact, they can turn into monsters, explode, or latch onto your face and cause you to projectile vomit on your teammates.

Choosing something: the 37% rule

Choosing something: the 37% rule

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It was the year 1960 and a brainteaser was formulated as “The Secretary Problem”. You need to hire a secretary; there are n applicants to be interviewed. You meet each of them in a random order. You can rank them according to suitability, but once rejected an applicant they cannot be recalled. How can you maximize the probability of picking the best person for the job? 

Other versions of this include the “fiancé problem” (same idea, but you’re looking for a fiancé instead of a secretary) and the “googol game” – in which you are flipping slips of paper to reveal numbers until you decide you’ve probably found the largest of all.

The answer is… surprisingly predictable, it turns out.

“This basic problem has a remarkably simple solution,” wrote mathematician and statistician Thomas S Ferguson in 1989. “First, one shows that attention can be restricted to the class of rules that for some integer r > 1 rejects the first r – 1 applicants, and then chooses the next applicant who is best in the relative ranking of the observed applicants.”

So, when faced with a stream of random choices and wanting to pick the best, the first thing you do is reject everyone. That is, up to a point. Once you reach that point, just accept the next applicant, suitor, or slip of paper, that beats everything you’ve seen so far.

The statistics are fascinating; and it says that you reject the first 37% of applicants and then take the next one that’s better than what you’ve seen in the rejected pool.

This works if it’s apartments, job candidates, or potential life partners.

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Local resources for Portland renters

Local resources for Portland renters

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Did you know if your landlord raises your rent more than 10% in a year or issues a no-cause eviction that you’re entitled to $2,900 for a studio single room occupancy unit, $3,300 for a one-bedroom unit, $4,200 for a two-bedroom unit, and $4,500 for a three-bedroom or larger dwelling unit?

If they enter your unit without 24 hours notice, you are entitled to an entire month’s rent?

Here’s some collected resources and info that I’ve collected over time:

Climb high on Xenon gas – Climb Everest in 3 days

Climb high on Xenon gas – Climb Everest in 3 days

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Don’t have time for pesky weeks of acclimatization when you want to climb Mt Everest? How about doing the whole thing in under a week. All through the wonders of Xenon gas.

A small group of Furtenbach Adventures clients plan to fly to Kathmandu this spring and try out a new climbing method. After arriving, they will receive xenon therapy in a clinic before flying to Everest Base Camp for an immediate summit push. The plan is to climb Everest in three days, with full oxygen and sherpa support.

How? Xenon, an inert gas occasionally used as an anesthetic, has been observed to have the side effect of radically increasing the body’s production of EPO (erythropoietin, a hormone that regulates a healthy level of red blood cells). Xenon helps red blood cells multiply without acclimatizing or injecting a synthetic version of the hormone. Furtenbach became a believer in xenon therapy after it was suggested by Michael Fries, a German anesthesiologist. It was tried by Furtenbach to great success on a climb of Aconcagua in 2000. Medical studies show it doesn’t have any of the harmful side effects of other similar medications.

The hope is to reduce HACE and HAPE deaths, reduce the dangerous up and down traversals through the Khumbu ice sheet, as well as reduce the life-threatening effects of frostbite and high altitude degradation. It is causing a stir in the climbing community that believes this just reinforces the idea of a more tourist-like behavior of bagging a summit for Instagram over demonstrating real climbing skills or embracing the hard-fought values of the climbing community.

The method may be fast, but it won’t be cheap. Furtenbach will charge his xenon climbers $154,000. Xenon gas treatment is extremely pricey: A 30-minute session costs $5,000 per person.

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Russian and Chinese software and hardware to be banned from all US vehicles

Russian and Chinese software and hardware to be banned from all US vehicles

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During the rulemaking process, the Bureau of Industry and Security found that certain technologies originating from China or Russia present an undue and unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.

“Cars today aren’t just steel on wheels – they’re computers,” outgoing Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a news release Tuesday. “They have cameras, microphones, GPS tracking, and other technologies that are connected to the internet. Through this rule, the Commerce Department is taking a necessary step to safeguard U.S. national security and protect Americans’ privacy by keeping foreign adversaries from manipulating these technologies to access sensitive or personal information.”

The software bans will apply to Model 2027 cars, while the hardware bans will apply to Model 2030 vehicles.

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