Mind It!

George Robert Stibitz (April 20, 1904 – January 31, 1995) is internationally recognized as a father of the modern digital computer. He was a Bell Labs researcher known for his 1930s and 1940s work on the realization of Boolean logic digital circuits using electromechanical relays as the switching element.

Born in York, Pennsylvania, he received his bachelor’s degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, his master’s degree from Union College in 1927, and his Ph.D. in mathematical physics in 1930 from Cornell University.

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Analogy : an inference that if things agree in some respects they probably agree in others, drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect; “the operation of a computer presents and interesting analogy to the working of the brain”; “the models show by analogy how matter is built up”

An analogy is a comparison between two different things, in order to highlight some form of similarity. A process of reasoning whereby two entities that share some similarities are assumed to share many others.

It becomes really funny when students are involved. Here are a few worst analogies ever written in a high school essay : (more…)

Billy Bob’s pregnant sister was in a terrible car accident and went into a deep coma.

After being in the coma for nearly six months, she wakes up and sees that she is no longer pregnant. Frantically, she asks the doctor about her baby.

The doctor replies, “Ma’am, you had twins! A boy and a girl. The babies are fine and your brother came in and named them.”

The woman thinks to herself, “Oh no, not my brother… he’s an idiot!”

Expecting the worst, she asks the doctor, “Well, what’s the girl’s name?”

“Denise,” says the doctor.

The new mother says, “Wow, that’s a beautiful name! I guess I was wrong about my brother. I like Denise.”
Then she asks, “What’s the boy’s name?”

“Denephew.”

One dark night in the small town of Garfield , NJ , a fire started inside the local sausage factory. In a blink the building was engulfed in flames. The alarm went out to all the fire departments for miles around.

When the first volunteer fire fighters appeared on the scene, the sausage company president rushed to the fire chief and said, “All of our secret sausage recipes are in the vault in the center of the plant. They must be saved. I will donate $50,000 to the fire department that brings them out and delivers them to me.”

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The Smiths were unable to conceive children and decided to use a surrogate father to start their family. On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr Smith kissed his wife goodbye and said, “Well, I’m off now. The man should be here soon.”

Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale.

“Good morning, Ma’am”, he said, “I’ve come to…”

“Oh, no need to explain,” Mrs. Smith cut in, embarrassed, “I’ve been expecting you.”

“Have you really?” said the photographer. “Well, that’s good. Did you know babies are my specialty?”

“Well that’s what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a seat.”

After a moment she asked, blushing, “Well, where do we start?”

“Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the living room floor is fun. You can really spread out there.”

“Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn’t work out for Harry and me!”

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