A Wassermanian–Faustian Bargain

Earlier today, I was looking for 'balance' in "Social Network Analysis" by Wasserman & Faust, but instead I found the 'beast'.

(I suppose that social network analysis is sometimes a Wassermanian–Faustian bargain.) pic.twitter.com/cm4jZiupeW

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) August 13, 2018

Awesome Acknowledgements

The Science Easter Eggs blog illustrates a paper with a spectacular Acknowledgements section. (One of the authors also has the daycare that he currently attends listed as his affiliation.)

Google + Star Wars

Yup, there is some cool stuff in the Google–Star Wars mash-up.

Omar Vizquel and Asymptotic Scaling

I think I just found my new favorite Wikipedia easter egg: "Little o" redirects here. For the baseball player, see Omar Vizquel.

Yes!

New to the Blogroll: Easter Eggs in Scientific Papers

There is a new blog called Easter Eggs in Scientific Papers. Most of the good ones that it's discussed so far are incidents I already knew about, but it's still good to collect them in one place, and I'm sure that there are plenty of good ones to come. (I should remove some of the blogs that are never updated from the blogroll, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.)

(Tip of the cap to Petter Holme.)

Exploring the World of xkcd

Wow, today's xkcd is awesome! I haven't explored all of it yet --- and maybe I haven't gotten anywhere close to all of it? --- but I'll have to stop now because I urgently need to get some things done. Still, this is awesome! [Maybe today was not the optimal day for this particular one to come out, but that's hardly the worst problem in my life. I'll just have to look at it more later. :) ]

Update: This particular xkcd is not only awesome but also supremely evil, especially for those of us with OCD.

Spinal Tap's IMDB Rating Goes to 11!

The maximum possible rating for the IMDB entry for "This is Spinal Tap" is 11. I never noticed that before. That is awesome (and, in retrospect, not surprising at all)!

I am watching that movie for the second time tonight, as a friend is coming over with the video for us to watch it. (I first watched the movie when I was in college.) I believe that we first talked about doing this on Spinal Tap Day (11/11/11). By the way, the reason I am looking up the movie is that I wanted to check how long it lasts. I'm a bit stressed about work, so I am pondering getting a bit of work done when the movie is over.

Why Not?

Go to the Matlab command line and type 'why'. Then do it several more times. (For bonus points, find a clever way to use this command as part of a loop or some other series of commands.) I wonder how long this Easter Egg has existed? I only just found out about it today. Maybe I'm easily amused, but (a) I think this is awesome and (b) there must be some clever thing that one can do with this. :)

(Tip of the cap to whoever posts things for Matlab on Facebook.)

One Does Not Simply Google-Map into Mordor

Wow, this is awesome! Way to go, Google!

(I checked Google Maps myself and verified this easter egg. I approve!)

Facebook + Konami Code

For all of you old-school Konami/Gradius fans out there who have Facebook accounts: Log into Facebook and type the usual Konami code (up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-b-a-[enter]) and then scroll up to the top of the page. While the effect isn't that interesting, Easter Eggs like this just warm my gaming heart...

(Tip of the cap to Samuel Lee.)