Jumping in Puddles

Albums of the Year 2011

This year has been a truly excellent year for music, with loads of great records, brilliant singles and some fantastic gigs. Here are my top ten albums of 2011; each one is a gem.

My Album of the Year

Bon Iver  Bon Iver

The Rest of the Top Ten

(in no particular order)

Burst Apart The Antlers
The Rip Tide Beirut  
Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming M83
Tamer Animals Other Lives
Zonoscope Cut Copy 
Slave Ambient The War on Drugs
I Am Very Far Okkervil River
Barton Hollow The Civil Wars 
Into The Murky Water The Leisure Society

Why not sample them all through a nice, easy Spotify playlist?

Tuesday Teaser #36

Look at the diagram below:

The problem is this: can you draw a continuous curve, without taking your pen off the paper, that crosses each line once and only once? So, for example, one attempt might look like this:

Unfortunately, this attempt misses one line, which I’ve highlighted above.

Hint: If you need a hint, notice the similarities with the very famous Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem.

Answer: Tuesday Teaser #35

In order to answer this teaser, we need to calculate the probability of the three man jury coming to the correct verdict.

In order to come to a correct verdict, two of the three must independently reach the correct verdict. This happens when either:

• The two “serious” jurors come to the correct verdict; or
• The two “serious” jurors disagree, but the “flippant” juror comes to the correct verdict.

The first case has probability p*p = p^2. The second has probability 1/2 * [p(1-p) + (1-p)p].

Summing the totals, the total probability becomes p, exactly the same as that of the one man jury. This seems like a curious result given that the one man jury intuitively feels as though it should be more serious (and hence reliable) than the three man jury.