The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

No CBO Score For ObamaCare, But Here’s A Cunning Plan

Posted on | March 17, 2010 | 28 Comments

by Smitty

Via Drudge (the only site faster than Insty), The Hill reports that the CBO couldn’t muster the pixie dust to polish the numbers into something that could pass muster, as if integrity, the Constitution, or common sense mattered fig #1 to this atrocious Congress.

My best suggestion is to make enough rounding errors with them big digits that they still appear to be in base 10 when converted to base 16, i.e., no A-F appearing. Dead giveaway, for that fraction of the population that takes any of this crap seriously.

Converting everything to hexadecimal affects an apparent shrinkage, perfectly appropriate for this game of rectal-pluck limbo.

We all know it’s pure hooey, anyway. Like the 72 hour bit (which could be made into 48 hours by a base 16 conversion, see?) I mean, really: what legitimate analysis can occur in that amount of time, should a flaw be discovered?

Anyway, don’t say I’m not trying to be a Helpy Helper-person in these complex, trying times.  If hex doesn’t work, all that’s left is unicorn math.  Go, go BHO!

Category: Health Care, humor

Comments

28 Responses to “No CBO Score For ObamaCare, But Here’s A Cunning Plan”

  1. Jeff Weimer
    March 18th, 2010 @ 2:31 am

    I’m probably the only guy who reads this blog who understands what you just said.

    One theory: They could have been talking in Octal the whole time. That would come out to 58 hours, and no pesky letters to eliminate.

    There are 10 kinds of people in this world; those that understand binary, and those who don’t

  2. Jeff Weimer
    March 17th, 2010 @ 9:31 pm

    I’m probably the only guy who reads this blog who understands what you just said.

    One theory: They could have been talking in Octal the whole time. That would come out to 58 hours, and no pesky letters to eliminate.

    There are 10 kinds of people in this world; those that understand binary, and those who don’t

  3. Adobe Walls
    March 18th, 2010 @ 2:38 am

    @ Jeff or Smitty;
    As one who doesn’t speak binary (I took French 1 three time and I don’t speak French either)could someone translate to English please.

  4. Adobe Walls
    March 17th, 2010 @ 9:38 pm

    @ Jeff or Smitty;
    As one who doesn’t speak binary (I took French 1 three time and I don’t speak French either)could someone translate to English please.

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  6. Jeff Weimer
    March 18th, 2010 @ 3:22 am

    Hexadecimal (base 16) and Octal (base 8) are both related through binary – they are simple notations for long strings of binary numbers. Each number in Hexadecimal has 4 binary digits (0000), and Octal has 3 (000).
    Just like we count from 0-9 and move place to the tens, octal counts 0-7 and moves to 10. Hexadecimal counts 0-15, with the numbers after 9 replaced with the first 6 letters of the alphabet A-F before moving place to 10. So a decimal 10 is 12 in octal and A in hexadecimal. And it would all be 1010 in binary. 20 decimal would be 24 octal, 14 hexadecimal and 10100 binary.

    Converting to and from decimal is odd. Each binary digit you see is expressed as a power of 2. The far right digit is 2 to the first power, and each digit to the left is at a power double the previous, so to the 2nd, then 4th, then 8th, then 16th, then 32nd, and so on. To figure the Decimal notation, add the power number for every 1 in it’s binary place. So, binary 0001110100010001 in decimal is 1+16+256+1024+2048+4096=7441.

    Converting from octal to hex is easy, just use binary notation and change the digit breaks – octal only goes to power of 8 (3 binary digits) and starts over with the next 3, and hex only goes to power of 16 (4 binary digits)

    So the same decimal 7441 (binary 0001110100010001) is expressed in octal as (001)=1(110)=6[2+4](100)=4(010)=2(001)=1 or 16421, and in hexadecimal as (0001)=1(1101)=D[8+4+1](0001)=1(0001)=1 or 1D11

    Confused more, yet?

  7. Jeff Weimer
    March 17th, 2010 @ 10:22 pm

    Hexadecimal (base 16) and Octal (base 8) are both related through binary – they are simple notations for long strings of binary numbers. Each number in Hexadecimal has 4 binary digits (0000), and Octal has 3 (000).
    Just like we count from 0-9 and move place to the tens, octal counts 0-7 and moves to 10. Hexadecimal counts 0-15, with the numbers after 9 replaced with the first 6 letters of the alphabet A-F before moving place to 10. So a decimal 10 is 12 in octal and A in hexadecimal. And it would all be 1010 in binary. 20 decimal would be 24 octal, 14 hexadecimal and 10100 binary.

    Converting to and from decimal is odd. Each binary digit you see is expressed as a power of 2. The far right digit is 2 to the first power, and each digit to the left is at a power double the previous, so to the 2nd, then 4th, then 8th, then 16th, then 32nd, and so on. To figure the Decimal notation, add the power number for every 1 in it’s binary place. So, binary 0001110100010001 in decimal is 1+16+256+1024+2048+4096=7441.

    Converting from octal to hex is easy, just use binary notation and change the digit breaks – octal only goes to power of 8 (3 binary digits) and starts over with the next 3, and hex only goes to power of 16 (4 binary digits)

    So the same decimal 7441 (binary 0001110100010001) is expressed in octal as (001)=1(110)=6[2+4](100)=4(010)=2(001)=1 or 16421, and in hexadecimal as (0001)=1(1101)=D[8+4+1](0001)=1(0001)=1 or 1D11

    Confused more, yet?

  8. Jeff Weimer
    March 18th, 2010 @ 3:25 am

    Oh, and if you understand all that, you’ll get my joke.

  9. Jeff Weimer
    March 17th, 2010 @ 10:25 pm

    Oh, and if you understand all that, you’ll get my joke.

  10. Adobe Walls
    March 18th, 2010 @ 3:28 am

    That your valiant effort was doomed says more about me than about you. Thank you for the effort.

  11. Adobe Walls
    March 17th, 2010 @ 10:28 pm

    That your valiant effort was doomed says more about me than about you. Thank you for the effort.

  12. Jeff Weimer
    March 18th, 2010 @ 3:40 am

    The hard part is going from decimal to binary. That takes math.

  13. Jeff Weimer
    March 17th, 2010 @ 10:40 pm

    The hard part is going from decimal to binary. That takes math.

  14. Paco
    March 18th, 2010 @ 3:45 am

    “My best suggestion is to make enough rounding errors with them big digits that they still appear to be in base 10 when converted to base 16, i.e., no A-F appearing.”

    Uh huh. Let me study on that a minute…

    “In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal (also base 16, or hex) is a positional numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16. It uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols 0–9 to represent values zero to nine, and A, B, C, D, E, F (or alternatively a through f) to represent values ten to fifteen.”

    Hmmm…m’yes…Well, let me think on what Jeff Weimer up there has to say…

    “Hexadecimal (base 16) and Octal (base 8) are both related through binary – they are simple notations for long strings of binary numbers.[Yawns, looks at watch] Each number in Hexadecimal has 4 binary digits (0000), and Octal has 3 (000).”

    Oh. Right, right. That.

  15. Paco
    March 17th, 2010 @ 10:45 pm

    “My best suggestion is to make enough rounding errors with them big digits that they still appear to be in base 10 when converted to base 16, i.e., no A-F appearing.”

    Uh huh. Let me study on that a minute…

    “In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal (also base 16, or hex) is a positional numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16. It uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols 0–9 to represent values zero to nine, and A, B, C, D, E, F (or alternatively a through f) to represent values ten to fifteen.”

    Hmmm…m’yes…Well, let me think on what Jeff Weimer up there has to say…

    “Hexadecimal (base 16) and Octal (base 8) are both related through binary – they are simple notations for long strings of binary numbers.[Yawns, looks at watch] Each number in Hexadecimal has 4 binary digits (0000), and Octal has 3 (000).”

    Oh. Right, right. That.

  16. Dan Collins
    March 18th, 2010 @ 3:59 am

    I see lots of things break lots of places before Drudge or Insty get them.

  17. Dan Collins
    March 17th, 2010 @ 10:59 pm

    I see lots of things break lots of places before Drudge or Insty get them.

  18. Jeff Weimer
    March 18th, 2010 @ 4:04 am

    Chris hit me right in the geek spot, and Adobe Walls asked a question I could actually answer.

    Wanna hear how to convert from decimal to any base using long division? It can do it, I can do it, I really can!

  19. Jeff Weimer
    March 17th, 2010 @ 11:04 pm

    Chris hit me right in the geek spot, and Adobe Walls asked a question I could actually answer.

    Wanna hear how to convert from decimal to any base using long division? It can do it, I can do it, I really can!

  20. Paco
    March 18th, 2010 @ 4:16 am

    Jeff: Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind.

  21. Paco
    March 17th, 2010 @ 11:16 pm

    Jeff: Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind.

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  23. Jeff Weimer
    March 18th, 2010 @ 4:36 am

    Paco,

    Now you’re just teasing.

    Here’s a link to a site that can explain that better without me taking up so much of Smitty’s bandwidth. http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-from-Decimal-to-Binary . They give you two ways – subtraction and division. The great thing is is that you’re using the remainder – and you start from the bottom.

    The trick is to not think of hex or octal numbers like one thousand eight hundred thirty-four, but as one eight three four base 8 for example. It really does lessen the confusion.

  24. Jeff Weimer
    March 17th, 2010 @ 11:36 pm

    Paco,

    Now you’re just teasing.

    Here’s a link to a site that can explain that better without me taking up so much of Smitty’s bandwidth. http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-from-Decimal-to-Binary . They give you two ways – subtraction and division. The great thing is is that you’re using the remainder – and you start from the bottom.

    The trick is to not think of hex or octal numbers like one thousand eight hundred thirty-four, but as one eight three four base 8 for example. It really does lessen the confusion.

  25. Finrod
    March 18th, 2010 @ 5:10 am

    I’ve been using this trick for a long time; I’m only 29 in hexadecimal.

    If you still don’t understand, try listening to Tom Lehrer’s New Math, which involves subtraction in base 8. “Base 8 is just like base 10, really, if you’re missing two fingers”

  26. Finrod
    March 18th, 2010 @ 12:10 am

    I’ve been using this trick for a long time; I’m only 29 in hexadecimal.

    If you still don’t understand, try listening to Tom Lehrer’s New Math, which involves subtraction in base 8. “Base 8 is just like base 10, really, if you’re missing two fingers”

  27. Jeff Weimer
    March 18th, 2010 @ 5:23 am

    I’m younger than you, Finrod, I’m only 27! or 00100111! or 48! Or…I’ll let you figure out base 10.

    You can thank the Navy that I can think in Binary. I lived in base 8 or 16 for about 8 months after boot camp.

    And yes, I still managed to get laid.

  28. Jeff Weimer
    March 18th, 2010 @ 12:23 am

    I’m younger than you, Finrod, I’m only 27! or 00100111! or 48! Or…I’ll let you figure out base 10.

    You can thank the Navy that I can think in Binary. I lived in base 8 or 16 for about 8 months after boot camp.

    And yes, I still managed to get laid.