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Zimbabwe has  231,000,000% inflation.

The wikipedia article on the  Zimbabwean dollar reads like a Keystone Cops comedy.

A Reuters article reads “The country’s largest bank note, a 100 billion Zimbabwe dollar bill introduced on Monday, cannot buy a loaf of bread…”

On July 24th 2008, a “Second” 100 billion ZWD note could buy 3 eggs.

Of course since then the currency was devalued by 8 decimal places. And continuing inflation has moved things along another 6 decimal places. Their currency has been devalued a couple times.

A little quick math (that’s probably wrong, I’m no wiz at such things) tells me that 1 US Dollar could buy  32,145,960,000,000,000,000,000 (yes, 3.2 x 10^24) “First” Zimbabwean dollars from back in 1983.

(that number calculated from here. Here’s the ratios: First ZWD:Second ZWD = 500,000:650. Second ZWD:Third ZWD = 758,000,000,000:1,780. Third ZWD:current US dollar = 98,300,000,000:1)

Thanks for the pointer Trav and thanks for providing my RDA of absurdism Mr. Mugabe.

update 11-2-08: Hey would you look at that. Someone on Wikipedia made a chart  for the most part agreeing with my 3.2×10^24 estimate. :-)

update 11-13-08:

Take a look at this screenshot I took of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe  I took today.

First, ask yourself how you would pronounce the word “Wiktionary”.  Ok, now proceed.

In April I commented in the Wiktionary wiki about…. well, I’ll let you read:

(archive)

There is quite a  consensus  that the pronunciation for “Wiktionary” in the logo of this site is not definitive. Why then is this contentious pronunciation displayed on every page of the site? A look through the archives of the  discussion rooms,  FAQ  and  entry discussion  shows that the issue appears time after time without any resolution. This has caused me to lose faith in the process Wiktionary’s Administration uses to agree on subjects. Since I cannot trust Wiktionary, I will not be using Wiktionary. For the betterment of all, I hope this issue is resolved. I will check back in 6 months. —Gadlen  22:58, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

The responses were… well, less than compelling.

Apparently everyone is perfectly happy that the logo of this wordie website is an incorrect pronunciation of the name of the site.

Feh.

Sure, encyclopedias are more exciting than dictionaries but it’s interesting to compare the popularity of the two sites…

wikipedia  Active users  157,889

wiktionary  Active users 995

For posterity, here is the rest of the discussion from above:

Continue reading ‘How to Pronounce “Wiktionary”’ »

Silly, isn’t it?

This forklift video helped with my training. (no really, watch the video!)

On Saturday. It was great fun! I rode (well, almost) a unicycle for the first time. I learned some “claymotion” juggling moves”, and got to see some really amazing acts at the show in the evening. It felt good seeing the acts here because I knew that they knew they were “among friends”.

Take a peak at the fun sign they put on the bathroom door.

And  Charlotte even won a door prize! She won a set for 35 juggling rings! And she had been mumbling about how it didn’t matter what she put in for, should doesn’t ever win anything. Well that’s not true anymore! We’ll just have to put this prize in the closet next to the Lady Ada Mini-POV kit she won at Instructables last year :-)))

Berkeley Juggling and Unicycle Festival website

The Berkeley Unicyclists

At the Saturday night show was:

Kevin Axtell  – who f’ing rocked.

Baby Doll – who has a terrific act and is certainly not just another hooper. Professional, fun, good choreography and sexy too :-)

Pink Man – who is wonderfully insane

A young juggler named Noah who can juggle balls behind his back and clubs behind his back via his legs… wow! (he’d throw them down through his legs and they’d wrap and he’d catch them at his shoulders or somesuch)

John Foss  –  a class act!

the  Humboldt Jugglers  – had such a tight act… it was beautiful seeing the four of them work together.

The Stanford Juggling Research Institute

Dan Holzman,  Matt Hall,  Curt Carlyle,  Iman Lizarazu, and  Mountain Mischief,  Ashley Foster…

Oh and thanks to Marc Hertlein who invited me!

Just before I left to visit family, Charlotte and I made it to A Taste of Greece at Annunciation Cathedral. Man, galaktoburikos (spelling?) is an incredible desert! And tiropita! Wow.

Kaiju Big Battel is coming to San Francisco November 19th!

A little east coast craziness added to this west coast insanity.

I’m not sure if I’m going. I’m miffed that the Ticketmaster service fee costs fully 40% of the ticket.

Update 12-1-11: This program is permanently on hold as I don’t have AT&T residential service anymore.

Here’s how to save $25 on your new AT&T wireless service.
It’s called the AT&T Refer-A-Friend program. You can see the program here. AT&T will give each of us a $25 gift card when you sign up. Here’s exactly what to do:

1. Sign up for AT&T wireless just like normal
2. Email me at “Lee at Lee dat org” telling me you signed up
3. I will send you a Refer-a-Friend email from AT&T
4. Fill out the Refer-a-Friend form on the AT&T website and tada, we both get $25 from AT&T in about 2 months.

It’s all got to happen within 30 days of you signing up for service so don’t delay. You can read up on all the details but all the important bits are right here.

Whudya say?

For my birthday, Charlotte got us tickets to see Laurie Anderson in Berkeley on Friday Oct 24th! Wee!

Update 11-1-08:  

:-)

until now (via slide show):

holy crap.

Spinning Wheel by Blood Sweat and Tears

What goes up must come down
spinning wheel got to go round
Talking about your troubles it’s a crying sin
Ride a painted pony
Let the spinning wheel spin