April Fooling: 2019 Edition

It is April 1st in some timezones, so I'll be starting a round-up of some of the jokes that I see.

Eve Armstrong has posted a fake paper on arXiv. (While I am sometimes amused by the April Fool's Day papers that appear on the arXiv, what I don't understand is how some of them get to go on the arXiv, while a few of my real papers have actually been rejected from the arXiv.)

Theresa May looks set to become the next Cambridge vice-chancellor after stepping down as Prime Minister. (Tip of the cap to Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb.)

Here is a summary of some of today's pranks. I like the new depicted 50-pence coin. :) The bottom of the article includes a gallery of famous hoaxes (including some great ones), but sadly they missed out on Sidd Finch.

A Two-Sentence Paper in Physical Review

Yes, that's right: the entire paper is two sentences. There are various short abstracts (with a couple that consist of just one word) — such as those described here, here, and here — but this is the first time that I have seen an entire paper that is this short.

The shocking discovery of the shortest article ever published in Physical Review (1951), a serious physics journal. Two sentences. Moreover, the article relates 6*pi^5 to the ultimate structure of physical reality. pic.twitter.com/Gs1ERmLjXu

— Cliff Pickover (@pickover) March 31, 2019

Visual Illusion: Starry Night Edition

Very cool!

Stare at the white dot for 10 seconds, then look at Van Gogh's Starry Night below. pic.twitter.com/GDECuOrdau

— Universal-Sci (@universal_sci) March 27, 2019

What Happens in Lake Arrowhead Stays in Lake Arrowhead

Today I'll be heading off to Lake Arrowhead for a few days for the "Data Analytics for Climate and Earth (DANCE):
Causality, patterns and prediction" workshop. I can DANCE if I want to. (I can leave my friends behind.)

A Mathematical 'Table of Ease' from 1557

Note: "squares of zenzicubes"!

From Recorde's 'The Whetstone of Witte' (1557). "The fruitful table, which may be called the table of ease".

There are some awesome words in this table. Check out number 16. And 'squares of cubicubes'. pic.twitter.com/mhGOTD0LFB

— Jo Morgan (@mathsjem) March 21, 2019

Matrices of Chocolates (and Delicious Missing Data)

Hmmm... this seems like a great way to demonstrate linear algebra and matrices. And then to demonstrate matrices with progressively more missing data... (Delicious missing data.)

A rectangular Hankel chocolate box. You need O( log( m + n ) ) time to eat it. pic.twitter.com/jkhYQSb9mT

— Daniel Kressner (@_kreda_) March 20, 2019

What Happens in Tarrogona Stays in Tarragona (2019 Edition)

Today, I'll start my plane journey to Tarragona for the 2019 Complenet conference. This will be my first time at Complenet.

My assigned duties at the conference are threehold:
(1) give the first invited talk;
(2) chair one of the sessions;
(3) and help keep track of which talk first uses the Karate Club network (because the Karate Trophy will be present, and the person who holds it can't attend all of the talks because of conference organizing duties)

Customizable Ducks in \Latex

Here is another of today's discoveries in my efforts to figure out how to incorporate emoji into \latex.

There is a latex package to get all sorts of fancy duck emoji in latex: https://t.co/T0Ah9MsquA pic.twitter.com/dmmstJkfH5

— DynamicalSystemsSIAM (@DynamicsSIAM) March 14, 2019

Emoji and \Latex: Bowser, Peach, Mario, and the Dynamics of Love

Today I was figuring out how to successfully put emoji into equations in \latex (I'll have a cool example in my talk at @CompleNet on Monday), so I decided to take @stevenstrogatz's "dynamics of love affairs" example and make it Mario-themed.

See also: https://t.co/7AlMv4fDdj pic.twitter.com/3sVVAhAYSI

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) March 14, 2019

Update: I should have zoomed in more to show a higher-quality screenshot. Here is one, where you can see that the graphics are rather clear.

Snarky Network-Science Venn Diagram: Version 1.0

And here's Version 1.0 of a Venn diagram for network science.

I'm sure that this one too can be improved. (I think this one needs more significant improvement than my mathematics one.)

Update (3/12/19): Franklin Kenter pointed out correctly to me that a four-set Venn diagram requires three dimensions, so let's say that what I drew is a "Venn-like" diagram, given that I am missing some of the intersections. (My positioning of the different sets was one that gave me the intersections that I wanted.)

Snarky Mathematics Venn Diagram: Version 1.01

This is my Version 1.01.

I'm sure that it can be improved.

(I was, of course, inspired partly by this Venn diagram.)

Update: One of my friends caught a grammatical error, so I fixed it for Version 1.01. That is the only difference between Versions 1.0 and 1.01.

Update (3/12/19): Franklin Kenter pointed out correctly to me that a four-set Venn diagram requires three dimensions, so let's say that what I drew is a "Venn-like" diagram, given that I am missing some of the intersections. (My positioning of the different sets was one that gave me the intersections that I wanted.)

Life Imitates Jurassic Park

Naturally. That had to be done. ;)

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should... https://t.co/oBKYZ9Ilsh

— Jeff Goldblum (@jeffreygoldbIum) March 9, 2019

(Tip of the cap to Richard Prather.)

"How do You do Math so Well?"

Yes, YES, and YES!!!!

(Tip of the cap to UCLA mathematics.)

Academic Paper on Evil Laughter

With this new study, soon they'll take over the world!

(Also, Evil will always triumph, because Good is dumb!)

Dystopian Lego Art

If anyone asks you if dystopian LEGO art exists, the answer is yes

by Filip Hodas pic.twitter.com/0EqUbj87xx

— Scott Kerr (@scott_kerr) March 6, 2019

Beautiful Geometric Art by Saskia Freeke

Saskia Freeke has been creating and posting daily geometric art on Twitter, and I particularly like the one that she posted today.

Go and check out her work!

Geometric Shapes / 190304#processing #creativecoding pic.twitter.com/Wru3fMRHUq

— Saskia Freeke (@sasj_nl) March 4, 2019

What Could Possibly Go Wrong (1840s Edition)

Wow.

Also, look at the follow-up tweet in response.

(What could possibly go wrong? 1840s edition)

Alas, I have no idea how this romantic gesture worked out for him. (Oxford Chronicle 1841, via @_newspapers) pic.twitter.com/neklN6DmhH

— Undine (@HorribleSanity) March 3, 2019

(Tip of the cap to Sydney Padua.)

Ancient Doodles Around the World

This, along with Stonehenge, is another thing that I would do just to mess with people if I had a time machine.

Oh wait...

Mysterious ancient symbols found throughout the world. Source: https://t.co/vzCu3a0mYC pic.twitter.com/gJ7bJku9c2

— Cliff Pickover (@pickover) March 3, 2019

(Tip of the cap to math prof.)

Dividing By Zero on a Mechanical Calculator

Divide by zero on an old mechanical calculator!https://t.co/AALw5IRyYP

— Michael Fogleman (@FogleBird) March 1, 2019

(The Pet Shop Boys would be proud.)

Highlighting Lead Junior Scientists in SIMODS

For the journal SIAM Journal on the Mathematics of Data Science (SIMODS), one of the things I did as a member of the editorial board was to suggest (based on having seen this in the journal Biology Open and really liking the idea) to our Editor-in-Chief (Tammy Kolda) that we could highlight lead junior authors with a Q & A once their articles are published. Tammy supported the idea, so we're doing it; and today the first such profile appeared in SIAM News online.

Course Nomenclature in our Imminent Data Theory Major

The UCLA mathematics department has a course called "Math 142: Mathematical Modeling", and my new lower-division mathematical-modeling course for our new Data Theory major was thus given the label "Math 42".

Given such an opportunity, I needed an appropriate name for the course. pic.twitter.com/mUGK1th012

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) March 1, 2019