August 2009
2 posts
“Fire” Jimi Hendrix Experience...
Wikipedia Unusual Articles →
Whoa, there goes an hour and a half.
July 2009
1 post
June 2009
3 posts
FML
9AM linear algebra final today. Set my alarm to 8AM, but then forgot to turn ON the alarm. Woke up at 9:45. Professor laughed at me when I ran in late.
I don't know whether to be very angry or very...
So my linear algebra class/textbook started very well, but has sort of spiraled into a muck of ambiguous expectations, longwinded lectures, and general fail. However, MIT puts all of their courses online, including video lectures, practice exams, and textbooks online for free. So I’ve been studying for my Northwestern linear algebra class which functionally costs around $5,000… by...
James Purnell knifes Gordon Brown →
Article not nearly as exciting as headline.
May 2009
2 posts
“Midnight William Elliott Whitmore Ashes to...
Historical Tweets →
April 2009
8 posts
“My Old Lady” The Alternate Routes...
Bo Diddley’s real name was Ellas McDaniel. Why would you ever change a name that good?
But I guess Bo Diddley is alright too.
Robots will kill us all
So first, this happened:
Robot develops hypotheses, tests them, and makes scientific discoveries without human involvement
Harry and I were saying a few days ago when this story came out that the whole “robots taking over the world and enslaving humans” trope is pretty silly. Why would robots want to kill us? What motivation could they have for destroying all humans?
Well…
...
There is someone next to me in the Unicorn complaining loudly about the difficulties of being a double major in oboe and statistics.
Hegelbabble
I have come to the conclusion that Hegel was playing a big prank on the rest of the academic world, but died before he could reveal that he was just spouting gibberish. This is absolutely incomprehensible. You have as much context here as anyone - this is the opening of a chapter in Reason in History called “The Idea of Freedom.” These terms with capital letters - Spirit, Freedom,...
“The organic individual produces itself; it makes itself actually into that which...”
– Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, “Reason in History”
I have so little idea what this means.
Guardian switches to Twitter
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/01/guardian-twitter-media-technology
As a Twitter-only publication, the Guardian will be able to harness the unprecedented newsgathering power of the service, demonstrated recently when a passenger on a plane that crashed outside Denver was able to send real-time updates on the story as it developed, as did those witnessing an emergency landing on New...
March 2009
7 posts
The Continuing Story of Maurice Clarett
2002: After a fantastic high school career that lands him on the top of recruiting lists, Maurice Clarett is a young college football star at Ohio State, leading them to a national championship with one of the best freshman seasons in history. Clarett is heralded as an incredible talent, and comparisons with Hall of Famers already occasionally pop up.
2003: Clarett runs into trouble with the law...
“I got my ears pierced at a really nice place, it’s like where Christina...”
– Tiffany
“Science is done by the seat of your pants. It isn’t the leap of logic,...”
– Michio Kaku, on Einstein
The Great War
[This is a very long post. Sorry. I have a lot more I want to say, and I’ll probably cover it later.]
Reading about World War I is depressing in the most literal, real sense of the word. I was in a great mood today until I read the chapter on WWI in my history textbook. The levels of death and suffering are truly unimaginable.
British, French, and German commanders all wanted to be the...
February 2009
10 posts
“Time travels in divers paces in divers persons”
– As You Like It, Act III, Scene 2.
I guess Einstein was 300 years late to the whole relativity thing.
"123 people" yourself →
ctecs:
underthebark:
This website is supremely interesting… it’s a search tool, like Google, but in a more targeted, detailed way. On 123 People you can type in your name and get a conglomeration of all the links, photos and phrases tied to you on the internet - all things that are publicly available. The result is a packaged, digitalized reflection of your public person, up to this point in...
TV Tropes →
This is wonderful. It’s a taxonomy of tropes (not just TV). Wonderful examples are the pages on
- Book Dumb: “Making your child character Book Dumb is seen as a great way to appeal to the masses (because You Suck) without having to show them being outsmarted by other characters on a regular basis”
- Open Heart Dentistry: “When a character is shot or has some other lethal...
“Profligate scofflaws” is a wonderfully sonorous pair of words.
January 2009
19 posts
Maths
I keep finding entertaining names for curves. It seems that the best way for a mathematician to be remembered is to stake a claim to some mathematical function or formula and squat on it, and then come up with a particularly silly name.
These are my favorites:
The Witch of Maria Agnesi y=1/(1+x²)
Maria Agnesi was an 18th century Italian mathematician. She found this curve and wrote about it,...
Dan: I really thought Xbox360s could play Xbox games before you told me.
Spencer: Yeah, only certain games work.
Dan: ... that's lame.
Spencer: Well, Barbie Horseland Adventures works...
Dan: Can we get that?
Spencer: No.
Dan (quietly): I'm getting it. I don't need your permission...
“The Obama Effect”: Test-Taking Performance Gap... →
9/11 Families Outraged by Obama Call to Suspend... →
Only Fox could make this story so ridiculously lopsided. This article is unbelievable. Why didn’t it include any of the points and quotes in, say, this AFP article?
Dan: Orange juice is pretty expensive. Maybe we should just get Orange Drink.
Spencer: What?
Dan: You don't know Orange Drink?
Spencer: No.
Dan: I had it at Sean's once. It's water with sugar and orange food coloring. They sell it at 7-Eleven. It comes in a little packet. There's also Purple Drink, and -
Spencer: Wow. We need that.
Dan: Yeah, those are the entire ingredients. Actually, it might be high fructose corn syrup but -
Spencer: Oh, well yeah.
Dan: Yeah, you know.
...
Dan: I think if you drink it, you just get diabetes.
“You know in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory how he reaches into the TV and...”
– Christina
“There are other ways to do THAT, but there’s no other way to get the...”
– Harry
Yikes
40 seconds of water, 15 minutes of shivering this morning. Turns out a cold shower when it’s -12 outside is not fun. At all.
You really start to appreciate hot water when you don’t have it for two days. I’m smelly.
Oh good.
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHICAGO IL 424 PM CST WED JAN 14 2009 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT CST /1 AM EST/ TONIGHT... ...WIND CHILL WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM CST /1 PM EST/ FRIDAY... A WIND CHILL WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM CST /1 PM EST/ FRIDAY. A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT CST /1 AM...
“You have to let it go. Even hard news sources, credible news sources — the...”
– Sarah Palin
“Knowledge is an attitude, a passion. Actually an illicit attitude. For the...”
– Søren Kierkegaard
Bonedigger, bonedigger!
There are little bits and pieces of songs and movies and books all stuck in my head. They’ve been there for some time, some longer than others, and I’m not sure why these lines are so sticky. Right now, it’s: -Paul Simon saying “And all along and along there were incidents and accidents, there were… hints and allegations.” -The Dude saying “Far out, man,...
1 tag
“Dancers at the End of Time”...