Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Dodgers Clinch National League West!

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With today's victory over the Giants (it was a particularly dominating performance by Clayton Kershaw), the Dodgers have clinched the N...
Sunday, September 27, 2015

Controlling Our Bladders Makes Us Better Liars

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As I describe in my most recent blurb for the Improbable Research blog , a new study suggests that people are better at lying when they are ...
Saturday, September 26, 2015

A Few Good Highlights from #OverlyHonestMethods

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I really like the meme #overlyhonestmethods , and here are a few highlights from it . I especially like the third one: "Reagent becam...
Friday, September 25, 2015

What Happens in the Bay Area Stays in the Bay Area

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I am heading to the Bay Area to hang out with some of my peeps this weekend!

Birds on a Wire

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On the taxi ride to the airport, I saw a set of three power lines that were parallel to each other and arrayed vertically. The bottom one ...
Wednesday, September 23, 2015

What Happens in Los Angeles Stays in Los Angeles (2015 Edition)

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I just arrived at my hotel in LA, where I will based for most of the next week and a half. I'll be giving math colloquia at UCLA and USC...

RIP Yogi Berra (1925–2015)

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Legendary philosopher (and baseball player) Yogi Berra died yesterday of natural causes . Yogi Berra was a legend among legends and was kn...
Sunday, September 20, 2015

Liquid Nitrogen and Ping Pong Balls

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Do you know what happens when you place 1500 ping pong balls in a container with liquid nitrogen? Take a look at the bottom video in this IF...

What Happens in Ann Arbor Stays in Ann Arbor

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My next stop os University of Michigan, where I'll be visiting the Center for the Study of Complex Systems for a few days.
Friday, September 18, 2015

Some Amazing Pictures

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Many of these pictures are amazing and/or gorgeous. (Tip of the cap to George Takei.)

Dumbed-Down Ph.D. Dissertation Summaries

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These dumbed-down Ph.D. dissertation summaries are pretty amusing. If you want to practice doing that yourself, you can use the Up-Goer F...

Computer Scientists Versus Computer Engineers

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Yup, SMBC has illustrated the difference very nicely indeed. Being a student at Caltech was like this. (Bring back the Lloyd Coke Machine...

2015 Ig Nobel Prizes

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The 2015 Ig Nobel Prizes have now been announced. (Georgia Tech people took home the physics prize for their work on urination duration, ...
Thursday, September 17, 2015

Clocks and Bombs

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I like this picture . And, obviously, I am very much in favor of people developing their scientific skills (e.g., by making their own cloc...
Saturday, September 12, 2015

"As Whacky As They Come"

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According to some Reddit user (with a rather unsophisticated handle), I am "as whacky as they come" .
Thursday, September 10, 2015

Pictures from Salina, Sicily

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Here is my 2015 album of photos from Sicily. And, in case you're interested, here is my 2014 album from Sicily .

Utilitarian Judgements

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Today's SMBC is highly amusing. Also, it hits close to home. :)
Thursday, September 03, 2015

Man Shoots Armadillo; Bullet Ricochets Back into his Face

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This is what we call instant karma . I first learned about this sort of thing with bullets and armadillo-like creatures by playing Super M...
Tuesday, September 01, 2015

What Happens in Malfa Stays in Malfa

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I am on the airport and making the circuitous trek to the remote Mediterranean island of Malfa to give a lecture in a summer school on netwo...
Monday, August 31, 2015

Evolution of Ankylosaur Tails

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Some new research has shed new light on the evolution of ankylosaur tails . Ankylosaurus has always been my favorite dinosaur. And, reall...