Nearest-Neighbor Coupling (aka: Best. Bathroom door sign. Ever.)

I think you're just going to have to look at the picture for this one. I approve!

Taking the word "cougar" to the next level

According to this CNN report, a 107-year-old woman fears that her 37-year-old husband (who is apparently her 22nd husband!) doesn't love her anymore and will leave her.

According to an online slang dictionary, cougar is "the word used for a middle aged woman who hits on twenty-something men at university pubs". Well, I think it's used more generally than that; I wanted to check the urban dictionary site, but Somerville blocks that one. I do think that it typically refers to middle-aged women who go after younger men (though I initially thought it referred to men who went after much older women), so I guess we might have to come up with another word for this situation. Unfortunately, I don't currently have any suggestions.

So if this woman netted her first husband at age 19, that's about one new husband every 4 years. Raar! (How does one actually spell that?)

The digging minigames in Okami are evil.

Bloody Hell. My wrist is starting to hurt.

Tales from the arXiv: Dickens versus Bulwer-Lyton

The following paper showed up on the arXiv mailing list this morning:

Title: Scientific evaluation of Charles Dickens

Author: M.V. Simkin

Abstract: I report the results of the test, where the takers had to tell the prose of Charles Dickens from that of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who is considered by many to be the worst writer in history of letters. The average score is about 50%, which is on the level of random guessing. This suggests that the quality of Dickens' prose is the same as of that of Bulwer-Lytton. Previously I reported similar results for the case of Modern Art (physics/0703091).



I have several comments:

1. This was posted under 'physics and society'. I looked at the paper. Where is the physics? (I have no issue with applying physics techniques to such things---obviously, because I do that myself quite a bit---but I just see a survey and simple statistics here.)

2. The results are interesting, but in what way does this constitute a scientific evaluation of Charles Dickens. The title is very misleading. I think doing this kind of study is worthwhile, but be careful about what you can actually conclude from it!

3. Statements such as "Edward Bulwer-Lytton is the worst writer in history of letters." are not exactly scientific in nature. That's pure opinion---the bad fiction contest be damned.

Jackpot!

I think for this one the simplest thing to do is just to repost my newest Facebook status update word-for-word:

Mason Porter just received a letter by snail mail, sent personally to him (not a mail merge), addressed to "Sr. Prof. Mason A. Porter". Somewhat intrigued, he opened the letter. Inside were the secrets to nuclear fusion, and apparently his recent expository article on the history of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem was the final piece to the puzzle.

There's nothing else that needs to be said.

The Elements

This is just an awesome taxi. (For an added bonus, take a look at the cab driver and the expression on his face.)

To see what other pictures have recently made the photoblog, take a look here.

Me Being Myself

I just came back from G & D's, the local ice cream place across the street from Somerville. (There are two other locations---both in Oxford---but the one across the street is unsurprisingly the one I always go to.)

Upon entering I noticed a possibly-interesting woman, but then I noticed she was using what appeared to be one of the new (or at least reasonably new) Macintosh computers, and then I found myself to be far more interested in the computer specs than I was in her. What can I say---I have to be me. Then, in another example of me being myself, I immediately sat down somewhere and minded my own business (doing some reading from an issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society that has been lingering for several months). I laughed internally about the relative importance of these things in my thoughts, and I also quickly understood that I was perfectly at peace with this. I suppose I could do with not being so horribly shy, but I have been able to make some really good friends here, so I'm at least mostly (and sometimes---like today---completely) at peace with that as well.

The Physics of Calendars

In 2010, the APS April Meeting will be held in February, which in particular is before the 2010 March Meeting. May I humbly suggest a nomenclature change for these meetings so that such calendar flexibility doesn't come across as retarded? (Or perhaps this is just supposed to be a lesson in relativity?)

(I tried but failed to find a permanent url for the 2010 April Meeting, but I could only find a url for the current April meeting---I write this is in case somebody reads this blog sometime in the future when this link leads to a different APS April Meeting.)

Career hit leaders for each Major League Baseball team

As some of you might realize, Derek Jeter recently tied Lou Gehrig for most career hits by a Yankee. The LoHud Yankees Blog has compiled the career hit leaders for each Major League Baseball team. The thing that really stands out is that the career leader for the NY Mets is Ed Kranepool with a paltry 1418 hits.

(Tip of the cap to Rob Neyer.)

Belated Apology for Alan Turing

The British Prime Minister has issued a belated, posthumous apology to Alan Turing for the inhumane treatment he received due to the apparently awful crime he committed by being gay. I have mixed feelings about how much such an apology helps, because although I'm glad Turing is getting some of his due with this, to me this still feels very much like 'too little, too late'. I wanted to sign the petition to support this, but it was only open to UK citizens.

The Philosophy of Viagra

When I first saw this call for papers on the philosophy of viagra, I thought it was a joke. And then, to my immense amusement, I realized that it was apparently not a joke. (I could make a derogatory joke about philosophers here, but I have both friends and colleagues who are philosophers, so I will resist the urge to do so. Also, there are at least as many derogatory jokes about mathematicians, so I'm not sure if I want to anger any philosophers at the moment.) I'm going to forward this website to AIR now...

Tip of the cap to Thomas Kroedel, a philosopher.

Pretty Pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope

CNN.com has an article showing some really pretty pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope of the Butterfly Nebula.

For some more pretty pictures, here are the results of a Google images search. (Justin: Maybe you have some recommendations on this one for the recent pictures?)

"Communities in Networks"

My survey/review article on community structure in networks finally came out today! I poured what was left of my soul into this one. (Among other things, I devoted a very large fraction of my winter "break" to work on this article.) This paper might well be my best chance in a long time to make a name for myself.


Title: Communities in Networks

Authors: Mason A. Porter, Jukka-Pekka Onnela, Peter J. Mucha

Abstract (arXiv only; The Notices doesn't use abstracts): We survey some of the concepts, methods, and applications of community detection, which has become an increasingly important area of network science. To help ease newcomers into the field, we provide a guide to available methodology and open problems, and discuss why scientists from diverse backgrounds are interested in these problems. As a running theme, we emphasize the connections of community detection to problems in statistical physics and computational optimization.

Awesome Signage

Here is an awesome sign from The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. (As I write this, there are also a couple of other pictures near the top of the blog that are both "awesome" and awesome.)

"We apologize for the inconvenience."

I returned to my flat from lunch and noticed outside the back door that there was an unmanned forklift that had been left on. Thus far, one of my pictures of it will probably make my photoblog today, but in any event it made me think of Hitchhiker's Guide. (I also thought about the fact that maybe forklifts are the new Daihatsus. And on looking at a picture I took, I think that "forklift" isn't actually the correct name for this things. Please remind me what this is actually called.)

Shortly after that, I finally started dealing with some extra-special tax forms that I now have to fill out because my consulting arrangements required me to register as self-employed. A Somerville accountant was kindly helping me with these forms, and we were going through the various line items. Here is a snippet of what transpired:

Accountant: "Charitable contributions? [pauses... looks at me for a minute] Probably irrelevant."

Right.

New batting helmets

The new baseball batting helmets, which offer better protection and which Minor League Baseball players will be required to use starting in 2010, have been the subject of several articles for the past few weeks. Now, courtesy a link that Rob Neyer put on his blog, here is a picture of David Wright wearing one of those helmets. Wright recently came off the disabled list after being beaned in the head and decided to use the new helmets, which look ridiculous (as you can see from the picture) but which offer better protection. Several Major League players have stated they don't want to wear these helmets because of how ridiculous they look despite the extra protection they offer. (If you look through old newspapers, you will find similar comments about things like catching mitts, the original helmets, etc, so it's not like this type of resistance is anything new. Eventually, these helmets---just like those other pieces of equipment---will become entrenched and will be treated as if they've always been around.)

The players should definitely protect themselves better and wear these helmets, but I still can't help snickering whenever I look at that picture of David Wright.

Ill-Conceived Idea of the Day

I think somebody's head is going to roll at Microsoft because this is quite an epic screw-up. Seriously, shouldn't one anticipate the kind of fallout that would occur when something like this becomes public? D'oh!

(Tip of the cap to Christopher Voyce.)

Dodgers acquire Jim Thome and Jon Garland

The Dodgers were quite active while I was asleep, acquiring starting pitcher Jon Garland from the Diamondbacks and slugger Jim Thome from the White Sox just before the September 1st postseason roster "deadline" (which seems to have so many loopholes that it's much less of a deadline than it used to be).

Garland, a starting pitcher, fills a gaping hole on the team. He isn't an ace, but he is useful, and I'm quite pleased about this trade. Thome has had an awesome career, but he can't play in the field at all anymore, and we're reasonably set at first base (where he played for much of his career when he wasn't DHing) with James Loney. (Of course, Loney is going to need to pick up his OPS if he's going to remain our long-term solution at that position.) Thome will be a useful pinch hitter, but the acquisition of Garland is far more important. The Dodgers are currently playing the Diamondbacks, so in fact Garland had the interesting experience of walking from one side of the dugout to the other.

These trades give some very good news (and all the Rockies got was Jose Contreras, who I can't see being particularly helpful given that he usually implodes when he is on the mound these days) and certainly make a lot more sense than the move to get Belliard.

Update (9/02/09): I forgot to point this out previously, but an important comment is that if the Dodgers make the World Series, then Thome will be exceptionally useful to have in the DH spot when we play in American League ballparks.

Dodgers acquire infielder Ronnie Belliard

The Dodgers acquired infielder Ronnie Belliard in a trade with the Nationals. Um, why? What we really need are pitchers. I just don't see the point of this trade.

Pictures from Wroclaw

Here are some pictures from Wroclaw.

Also, here is my photoblog in case you haven't looked at it in a while.