My searches, other searches

What I typed...

"How can I meet"

What Google suggested...

"How can I meet Justin Bieber"
"How can I meet a girl"
"How can I meet One Direction"
"How can I meet Theresa Caputo"

What I was actually searching for...
"How can I meet a dolphin?"

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What I typed...
"Different types of"

What Google suggested...
"Different types of weed"
"Different types of braids"
"Different types of birth control"
"Different types of flowers"

What I was actually searching for...
"Different types of dolphins"

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I was re-reading an old Madeleine L'Engle book with a dolphin in it. Also, Theresa Caputo is apparently the star of TLC's Long Island Medium.

Google Search Terms

It's time again to share my recent Google search terms.  You'll see a theme or two develop:

• dogtoberfest
• puppy video
• origins of universe
• how many galaxies are there?
• when will new parks and rec be on hulu?
• how many hairs are on a greyhound?

Searches

A list of what I've googled recently:

define pointy
lucy grealy
spector afro
is waterslide one word or two?
does lupin die in harry potter?
netherlands
espn 360
stream world cup
random number generator
univision

I just started reading As Seen On TV by Lucy Grealy (hence my googling of her name).  I found the book on a table of free stuff in one of the university buildings where I work.  It's great, though sad - particularly since my googling revealed that she'd died in 2002.  Truth and Beauty by Anne Patchett is about their friendship.  I'd heard of that book when it came out in 2004, and had taken notice of it because of its title: I had hoped it was about particle physics, as truth and beauty were original suggestions for the names of the top and bottom quarks.  Finding out it was about friendship instead of physics made me lose interest.  Now, after falling into this awesome collection of Lucy Grealy's essays, my interest in Anne Patchett's book is rekindled.  I'll have to seek it out.

By the way, it's "water slide," two words.

The Prisoners' Dilemma and Google Search

I'm about a third of the way through A Beautiful Math.  I just read about the Prisoners' Dilemma, which I've certainly heard about before but never really understood.  Here's the setup:


Two people are arrested for bank robbery, and interrogated by the police separately.  If they both rat on each other, they get 3 years each.  If one of them rats on the other and the other says nothing, the rat goes free and the quiet one gets 5 years.  If both of them keep their mouths shut, they each get 1 year.


My first thought is that they both have to both keep their mouths shut; it seems like the best thing to do.  But A Beautiful Math (which, for the record, is kind of a stupid name) is making a point about equilibrium.  Each of them keeping their mouths shut is not a stable situation.  Maybe they'll each do it this time, and next time, but at some point one of them is going to want to rat on the other, and that guy could end up doing 5 years.  The stable decision (and therefore the best one) is to always rat on your partner, because regardless of what your partner does, your situation is optimized.  


Let's look at it from one prisoner's perspective.  Say Person A rats Person B out.  If B also rats A out, A gets 3 years, and if B doesn't rat A out, A goes free.  However, if A stays quiet, he's taking a risk that B could rat him out and get him 5 years.  Maybe B will stay quiet and things will work out for A, but maybe it won't.  Ratting your partner out is the stable, sustainable solution.


My second point today: looking at my google search history is somewhat amusing.  I think I will share it from time to time.  Here's my current one:

• What are some common verbs?
• Translate spoorloos
• Dutch conjugate bark
• words that rhyme with liz
• mad rollin dolls [the local roller derby league]
• is fred schneider gay? [he is.]