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Here we see an illustration of the Stanley Burrell (better known by his stage name, MC Hammer) Intersect.  The intersection point itself is indicated by the green circle;

The point where the plot intersects the x-axis is that at which one’s legitimacy is such that the probability of quitting drops to 0.  We may also see from this graph that one’s legitimacy need not be complete for one to be too legitimate to quit.  Indeed, one need only be 84% legitimate to guarantee no probability of quitting.

There are even odds of quitting, therefore, as low as 42% legitimacy.

Ironically, despite the fact that the intersect bears his name, MC Hammer’s failure not to quit demonstrates his legitimacy was lower than stated in his well-known lyric.

Have been following, with much chortling, the misuse of Amazon’s comment system to leave comments about unlikely or everyday items. Two in particular; a jug of Tucson whole milk, and a black Bic ballpoint pen.

As of this writing, the milk has 975 reviews, the pen a more modest 72, but in both cases they are all completely silly. There are numerous haiku, a video of a cat animated to deliver a glowing review in rhyme, a couple of noir vignettes, an awesome review of the pen in HP Lovecraft’s overwrought trademark style and a great deal of other wit. A couple of my favourites are the aforementioned Lovecraft review, and one for the pen where the author complains that it did not come with any instructions, had built in obselescence in the form of the ink running out, and failed to mention that extra compatible hardware (paper) had to be bought to make it effective.

The quality of these is also surprisingly high; I think perhaps that the cerebral silliness of using a reviews system in this way is a bit rarified, or perhaps it is just one of those situations where limitations seem to inspire creativity in themselves. Also, I just have a soft spot for misuse of content delivery systems for humerous or subversive purposes. I still remember a fairly crap adventure game from 20 years ago on the Amiga that was unique in that it ran using the software installation system as its engine.

Here’s the article …

The more-or-less inevitable outcome of which is something like this …

I present to you a new design based on the old ‘Shen Long’ myth, and the subsequent EGM April Fool’s article.

 Enjoy!