28 December 2011

A Question of Scale

nano- or micro- ?

They are called "nanoblock", but the smaller-print description below says "micro-sized building block". Which is it, 10-9 or 10-6? Make up your mind, there are three orders of magnitude difference between nano- and micro-! (That's a factor of a thousand, stupid. And factor means that you multiply not add, you idiot.)

It is no wonder that neither the electorate nor those they have elected to represent them can reliably distinguish between millions, billions, and trillions in our national budget/debt. I guess this is what you get when you spend an order of magnitude more on wars than you do on schools. Oh well, Happy New Year. I hope that November can restore some measure of sanity on Capitol Hill.