www.straightdope.com/columns/000310.htm
And now you know why I changed my sig line! I knew more than two weeks ago that Cecil would answer my question because JillGat let me know and she emailed me a copy of the finished column.
I HAVE REACHED THE INNER CIRCLE!
When all else fails, ask Cecil.
Hey Jab that’s great. But when I click your link I get a 404. Have you been censored already?
“You can be smart or pleasant. For years I was smart.
I recommend pleasant.”
Elwood P. Dowd
The link is: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000310.html
Congratulations 
BTW, which one is yours, Japanese soldiers or jeep?
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
The Japanese soldiers. I had a vague memory about seeing them surrender long after the war was over, but I couldn’t be sure if it was a real event or an episode of some TV series.
My apologies, PUNdit. All I did wrong was leave off the “l” in “html.”
When all else fails, ask Cecil.
I swear to God that I saw a documentary on Japan’s “stay-behind soldiers”, over the weekend on the History Channel, but I can’t find a lising for it on their homepage or in the TV guide.
Assuming I’m not imagining things, this show stated that Onoda and a private who returned from an island in Indonesia were the last to be discovered. Cecil says he has definite knowledge of a soldier who surrendered in the Philippines in 1980. Who was he and why didn’t the show mention him?
Also, I wonder how many of these soldiers were really abiding by the Bushido code. Sounds like a pretty good alibi for a deserter shacking up with a Guamanian or Filipino girlfriend.
Cecil furnished a link to a weblist of holdouts. The 1980 holdout is listed as Fumio Nakahira.
rocks
Yea! to Jab1! Good idea! But I truly miss seeing your old logo - it was the best, give Cecil a few weeks of glory and change back to the fish!
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
Congrats Jab. I’m still trying to break into that circle myself. Not long ago I submitted a question to the master that I thought was worthy of his brilliance only to haw his assistant e-mail me back that he was currently researching it. In other words, while my question was worthy and not yet answered, someone else had beat me to it.
Sigh Oh well, maybe I’ll get a “simalarly from…” credit.
-Paul L.
Yikes. Looks like I can’t even spell “have”.
No wonder…
-Paul L.
So “jab” = Jack A. Biggs, then?
-andros-
Yup. Middle name is Autry, as in Gene Autry. It was also my father’s name. My grandparents liked Gene Autry.
The Chandler wobble, huh? Sheesh! by comparison, the Coriolis force is People magazine material.
Seriously: congrats, rocks!
RTFirefly
Thanks. I can appreciate jab1’s OP. What kind of mathematician are you?
rocks
Uhhhhh, guys…
My question is the one for March 10, about Japanese soldiers. Methinks thou art responding to the March 17 question, which is not yet online, and which I have not yet even read, let alone asked. And didn’t Cecil already answer a question about the Chandler wobble? Is this an update? I have only a vague understanding of the Coriolis effect. It’s what makes hurricanes rotate counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, right?
Go to the third post, the one by Gr8Kat, and click on the link provided. My question is the first of the two Cecil answered last week, not this week.
RM Mentock: I am Jab Jr. (I was and still am called “Jay” by all my relatives. It’s better than “Junior!”)
When all else fails, ask Cecil.
Oh, geez, I’m such an idiot. I just now clicked on the “rocks” link. Mentock asked about the wobble. And Firefly was asking YOU what kind of mathematician you are!
I haven’t had enough caffeine yet…
When all else fails, ask Cecil.
And now my question is in the Archive. Fame IS fleeting, isn’t it?
And now, I FINALLY got it: Mentock asked Firefly, “what kind of mathematician are you?”
Some days, my learning curve declines.
When all else fails, ask Cecil.