Because humans have such a poor understanding of randomness , it is very difficult for us to produce randomness on our own . Try this yourself . On a computer keyboard , type a long string of random characters . As you type , you will notice that it is difficult producing data that would be considered truly random . Chances are you will have many asdf and uiop sequences in your typing .

To make matters worse , the harder you try to be random , the more predictable you become (e.g.,you might purposely avoid any redundancy or obvious patterns and as a rusult create other predictable patterns ) . Consider the ” guess-which-hand ” game . Put an object in one of your hands , place both hands behind your back , and ask a child to guess which hand the object is in . At that point , their guess will be somewhat random . Play it again and this time their guess is largely based on the result of the last game (e.g., if they correctly guessed the left hand last time , they might try guessing the left hand again next time ) . On the other hand , they might be smarter and expect you to switch so they guess the right hand . Play the game repeatedly and you will see patterns develop in both your selection and the child’s response .

If you give someone a handful of pennies and ask them to spread the pennies out randomly on a table , you will find that at first glance , most people seem capable of arranging the pennies in a manner that looks random . But , often if you look closely , there is some pattern that defines the randomness ( e.g., although the pennis look randomly arranged , the space between each panny might actually be the same ) . In our attempt to create randomness , we will fall back to some pattern .

Our lack of randomness is evident in our passwords . We tend to use words close to our personal lives or our environment . We pick numbers and words that mean something to us rather than selecting from the entire range of avaliable words . We might try to open a dictionary to a random page and pick a word , but even where we open the book or what part of the page we select from has bias .

Many big cities in the western state of California have Spanish names . These include Los Angeles , San Diego , and San Francisco .

One reason is because they were named by Spanish explorers . However , there are other reasons also .

San Diego was the first Spanish settlement in California . Spanish soldiers built a fort there in 1769 . The settlement was named for San Diego de Alcala , a Spanish saint , or holy man . Americans have called San Diego the birthplace of California .

As the Spanish soldiers moved up the coast , they found other places that would made good settlements . One of these is ” Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula .” In English it means ” Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula . “

Porciuncula was a Roman Catholic church in Italy linked with Saint Francis of Assisi . He was the founder of the Franciscan Order of religious workers and priests . Franciscan Priest Juan Crespi gave the area that name . Today it has a much shorter name : Los Angeles or just ” L.A.”

Another city with a Spanish name is San Francisco . The first explorer to give the area that name was , in fact , not Spanish but Portuguese . In 1595 , Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno named part of the California coast ” Puerto de San Francisco . ” Or , Port of Saint Francis . Later , the Spanish discovered the great harbor where the city of San Francisco was later built . A small settlement near the present city was called Pueblo de San Francisco .

After the war between Mexico and the United States in 1846 , Americans called the growing city San Francisco . A small island in the harbor was given the old Spanish name , Yerba Buena .