So this is one of those “what are the odds?” situations that I seem to have from time to time. It is time to pay my property taxes, and so with the twice annual tears in my eyes I went to the website of the Los Angeles County Treasurer and Tax Collector to hand over the loot electronically. There’s some entering of data to indicate to the site precisely what property is in question, but before proceeding you’re taken to a page with a captcha (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart). Here it is (click for larger view.):
The random word I had to type was “boson”. Isn’t that odd?!
For those of you who don’t know, this is a term in physics -my field- for particles that have integer spin (in the appropriate units). The photon, the particle of light, is one of the most familiar, with spin one. A “fermion”, by contrast, is a particle with half-integer spin. The electron, with spin one-half is I imagine the most familiar example.
This reminds me of the time, on the last day of the year 1992, when the McCaffrey’s supermarket in Princeton was closing early for New Year’s Eve, and I was one of the last customers out of the store – I was about to pay the checkout bill when I realized that the amount due was $19.92! I was delighted by this, as you might imagine, and so I pointed it out to the sales clerk, who if I recall correctly simply looked at me like I was an idiot, singularly unimpressed and clearly wanting me to leave so she could go home.
(While we’re on the subject of unusual happenings, I’m reminded of that other singularly rare event from last year: That time on a plane trip when that beautiful woman sat next to me (never happens on plane trips) who furthermore turned out to be interested in the mathematics I was doing (definitely never happens), and who turned out to be a circus performer – an acrobat (yeah, what are the odds?).)
Anyway, I don’t know to say. It seems like a remarkable coincidence to me! If I see “fermion” in a captcha any time soon, I’d know something was seriously suspicious…
-cvj
I love it! You got “boson.” Perfect! Ever since I started studying particle physics, I have always loved that word. Kind of like “bozo” and “moron” except it is completely the opposite. I can’t get over that. I wonder how many people know what a boson is. And even knowing what it is, I have to ask myself…do I really understand what it is? A boson is difficult to conceptualize. Especially the graviton variety.
Jude… that was amazing! Thanks. It’s made me reassess my entire dating life… 😉
-cvj
so since it was boson, looks like you don’t get any exclusions on your taxes.
e.
Today, I saw this:
http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics2/trn/
And thought of this post.
It’s a little weird to navigate, but interesting and probably worth it (that’s for you to judge, of course).
stevem – (for your eyes only): – check the codebook (if you still have yours). I believe that I should worry only if it came up “fermion”. Then the team would have to split up and move away from each other, awaiting further instructions. But for “boson”, I think we’re ok…
-cvj
Chances of that being a coincidence? Zilch! I warned you man. I warned you. Remember? Now they are on to us. If you had taken the cash like I said, put it in 10 large suitcases driven out to the desert and stashed it or buried it somewhere until things cooled off then everything would be fine. But no, you would’nt listen. Now we are really in it.
Spyder, this is a fascinating possibility!
-cvj
It was over at Cosmicvariance.
The interesting thing about coincidences is not that they happen, but our reaction to them. Of the many things that happen to you in a day, it would be remarkable if at least one of them was not somehow remarkable. For the clerk in the store in Princeton you were probably about the third or fourth to ring up that amount on her shift.
While it is entirely possible that i read about this new captcha word generator here in your amazingly diverse posts, if i did not, then i would like to share it.
Now i wonder if perhaps LACO has opted into using reCAPTCHA and you were helping digitalize a physics book????
Coincidence frequently seems as though it has meaning. It’s sort of like the phenomenon of learning a new word, then suddenly encountering it everywhere, or maybe like the Ted talk given by Rives, “Is 4 a.m. the new midnight?” I recognized boson, which is slightly miraculous considering that I’m not a scientist. I hope they stick that word on http://www.freerice.com I need to get a score higher than 48 (50 is theoretically possible). You pay your property taxes twice a year?
I like those newer captchas where you have to select which image is a bunny (the others are kittens, say). This makes me think that there should more captchas that are specialized…. for example, a scientific website could have one where it shows you two (or more) sine waves slightly out of phase, and then asks you for the number of intersecting nodes that are visible.
Hell, why stop there…. my website will ask you to identify exp[i*pi]. I mean, you wouldn’t want anyone who didn’t answer “-1” snooping around your site anyway, right?!? 😉