The Science of Sir Mix-a-Lot

Well, I hope that the scientific article that describes this study has an allusion to Sir Mix-a-Lot. If I were a coauthor on the article, it certainly would have.

(Tip of the cap to Erik Bollt.)

"You Don't Want to Go There."

Overheard in the elevator: "You don't want to go there." --- referring to floor 11 (where the mathematicians are) and filled with much fear and trepidation, and also a bit of disdain.

The two of us in the elevator destined for floor 11 stayed quiet. Sometimes it's not even worth starting.

Modelling Human Butts

The Improbable Research Blog has highlighted an abstract on modelling of human buttocks. This was presented last December at the 7th Australasian Congress on Applied Mechanics, and surely this is a very important topic in mechanics. And if you look at the first reference in the bibliography, you'll notice that it is my Dong et al. :)

Man Versus Machine: Who will lose on Jeopardy (baby)?

Oh, I am really looking forward to this: Just like the famous chess match between Man and Machine from many years ago, there is going to be a computer contestant on Jeopardy this week. The two humans are the most successful contestants in the show's history. The Jeopardy-playing computer, named Watson, was decided at IBM. The game show also discusses Watson on its web page.

I haven't actually read the two web pages yet --- I'm going to dinner soon and I'm trying to write this quickly --- but this sounds sweet!

(Tip of the cap to Tim Chartier.)

Update (2/17/11): The machine won.