"Ottoman Art" and Movies

Here are a bunch of famous moves scenes cast in the style of "Ottoman art". I can't vouch for the accuracy of the artistic style (in particular, whether it is "Ottoman" per se), but these are still very cool.

(Tip of the cap to Craig Montuori.)

Beach Art

For some really awesome geometric art created on beach sand, take a look at this website.

(Tip of the cap to Greg Stolerman and Susan Schaeffer.)

The Social Status of British Cows

Patrick Stewart explains the different types of moos from cattle based on their social status. As Sir Patrick explains, bovine dialects also depend on political, environmental, and cultural conditioning.

(Tip of the cap to Meredith Alden.)

Data Availability

As Aaron Clauset writes thoughtfully (as usual), PLoS journals have a new policy on the public availability of data sets for papers published in their journals.

I have written a comment on his entry that should appear in a while (once Aaron has a chance to take a look at confirm that I'm not a robot spammer, etc.).

Long, Very Long, and ... What the Hell are You Doing?

Well, I guess I have a well-deserved reputation for writing very long papers.

Ernie Barreto wanted to make sure that I saw this article. I really like the terse commentary that likely ended a certain debate. It's key words are priceless. The others are excellent as well, though I had seen those before. In one of them, Michael Berry told me that his abstract of "Probably not." was "No." at some point but that he and his coauthors wanted to leave some possibility that their conclusions were wrong.

Fun Fact: Version 1 of my thesis was about 400 pages. My committee was (very understandably) not very happy with this --- among other things --- and demanded that I write version 2.0 (rather than 1.1) and that it be less than 200 pages. This was not fun at the time.

Fun Fact 2: One version of one of my papers --- the published version was much terser at 20 pages + 20 pages SOM (mostly a table) --- had a 100-page SOM at one reasonably final point, but then we decided the referees would kill us. So the version (which was desk-rejected, of course) that we sent to Nature had an SOM that was in the 60s or so, though that was regular typefacing and spacing rather than in journal-page format. [Acronym: SOM = Supplementary Online Material]

In progress now: a revision of a now 42-journal-page paper (though a review article), and new papers: a 40+ pager, a 35-pager, a pair of 32-pagers, and a few of them currently in the 20s.

(Tip of the cap to Ernie Barreto.)

"Cross-Linked Structure of Network Evolution"

A new paper of mine was published in final form today. In this paper, my coauthors and I use a structure called a "cross-link" that connects a pair of time-dependent edges based on the similarity of their temporal evolution. In our study, the time-dependent edges arise from similarity of temporal dynamics of different nodes. The basic idea is to try to tease out when sets of edges evolve separately and when there is co-evolution. In this paper, we consider time-dependent networks that we construct from time series from functional brain networks and from output of coupled Kuramoto oscillators. Here are the details of the paper.


Title: Cross-Linked Structure of Network Evolution

Authors: Danielle S. Bassett, Nicholas F. Wymbs, Mason A. Porter, Peter J. Mucha, and Scott T. Grafton

Abstract: We study the temporal co-variation of network co-evolution via the cross-link structure of networks, for which we take advantage of the formalism of hypergraphs to map cross-link structures back to network nodes. We investigate two sets of temporal network data in detail. In a network of coupled nonlinear oscillators, hyperedges that consist of network edges with temporally co-varying weights uncover the driving co-evolution patterns of edge weight dynamics both within and between oscillator communities. In the human brain, networks that represent temporal changes in brain activity during learning exhibit early co-evolution that then settles down with practice. Subsequent decreases in hyperedge size are consistent with emergence of an autonomous subgraph whose dynamics no longer depends on other parts of the network. Our results on real and synthetic networks give a poignant demonstration of the ability of cross-link structure to uncover unexpected co-evolution attributes in both real and synthetic dynamical systems. This, in turn, illustrates the utility of analyzing cross-links for investigating the structure of temporal networks.

A New Rejection Record!

Fastest. Rejection. Ever. (I wonder if this is a new world record?)

Today, Nature Communications desk-rejected our paper 2 hours and 1 minute after we submitted it.

OUCH!

Pictures and Vampires in Paris

Here are my initial pictures from Paris from today and last night. (Most of them are from today.)

Notice the Theatre du Chaos on Rue Henri Poincaré. I approve! The street is a dinky little residential street, and I was very pleased indeed to see this local theatre in one of its corner. It made me really happy.

I just noticed on Google Maps that Paris has a Vampire Museum not far from Rue Henri Poincaré. Too bad I only noticed that after walking all the way back instead of when I was there a couple of hours ago... I think there is a decent chance it's not open today anyway, but let's see if I can figure out from here when it's open. You can also find some information on another page from the Atlas Obscura website

And here is how to make an appointment to visit the museum (it's by appointment only). I have to admit that I am very tempted to do try to make one, but I would rather look around in there without talking to someone while I am doing it, so I'm likely not going to do it. This is the type of thing I'd like to go and do with a friend. :)

What Happens in Paris Stays in Paris

I am making my first ever trip to France (aside from a few hours in an airport for a layover). I am adding a new country early in 2014, and I have at least one more new country for me on the docket for this year.

I am going to Paris to visit Vittoria Colizza at EPIcx Lab.

Headline: Food Banks Attract Poor People

Apparently, some church in Winnipeg didn't get the memo. D'oh!

LinkedIn Fail

LinkedIn Fail: Today I got an e-mail notice suggesting that I should congratulate one of my connections on a professional milestone: "[first name] [last name] is celebrating 7 years at [Institution of Higher Learning]"

Dear LinkedIn: You do realize that that means that this person is still a graduate student at that place, right?

For what it's worth, I would laugh at this out of sheer perversity even if that anniversary were mine.

I ♜ This!

Apparently, about 🎁 percent of Americans suffer from synesthesia. Who knew?

Additional Translation Fails

Translating can be hard, and sometimes things don't quite go right. You can find many of the signs from the above website in one of my previous posts. However, many of the "new" ones are also glorious. It's hard to say which are my favorites in the new list, because several of them are awesome. For example, 'soup for sluts' and a fire extinguisher being labeled as hand grenades are simply excellent! (Those are both on the other list as well.)

(Tip of the cap to Iain Macmillan.)

Pictures of a Bubble Freezing

Here are some pictures of a bubble as it freezes. Awesome!

(Tip of the cap to I Fucking Love Science.)

20 Years Ago Today

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Northridge earthquake, which occurred during my senior year in high school.

It was early morning. I heard the neighborhood dogs all go nuts, then felt everything and saw a wall-covering bookshelf spew many of its books, and was very happy that it occurred while I was in bed instead of next to the bookshelf.

Then I went back to bed.

It's All in the Name

Some scientists have names that reflect what they study. A recent one to make a public appearance is K. Cheeseman, who just published a paper on cheese-making fungi. In this vein, I should also point out that one of my Somerville College colleagues is Charlotte Potts, who studies Etruscan and Italic archaeology and art.

1981 News Report on The Internet

Long before the internet was for porn, the "two to three thousand" residents of San Francisco who owned home computers had the chance to download text from newspapers.

Anyway, watch this old news report from 1981 on electronic newspapers. It is awesome in several respects.

(Tip of the cap to Elizabeth Leicht.)

RIP Russell Johnson (1924-2014)

Russell Johnson, who starred as The Professor on Gilligan's Island, has died at the age of 89.

I briefly tried to find via Google a commercial that Johnson did a couple of decades ago in the guise of The Professor. (At some point in the commercial, he becomes rather indignant: "First they take me out of the theme song and now this!")

Claymation Video for "Re: Your Brains"

Here is a really cool claymation video to go along with the song "Re: Your Brains".

Dodgers Sign Kershaw to 7-Year Contract Extension!

The Dodgers have signed Clayton Kershaw to a very lucrative 7-year contract extension. Yay! Kershaw is the best pitcher in Major League Baseball, and I am very glad that he'll be ours for quite a while. (Given how long-term contracts --- especially to pitchers --- can blow up in a team's face, check back with me on this in a few years. For now, though, I am happy.)