Nicolas Bourbaki and The Traveling Wilburys

Nicolas Bourbaki was basically the mathematics version of The Traveling Wilburys.

RIP Sinéad O'Connor (1966–2023)

Sinéad O'Connor has died.

She was only 56. But, to be honest, I am surprised that she lasted this long. She seemed to always be struggling.

You can read more about her in her Wikipedia entry.

What Have People Been Googling Since the Election?

This probably says a lot about my sense of humor, but I think the funniest state googling lead, hands down, is Mississippi (especially in the context of what everybody else is asking about). People in that state have googled "3 Doors Down" more than any other state.

(Tip of the cap to George Takei.)

RIP Leonard Cohen (1934–2016)

Singer–songwriter (and poet) Leonard Cohen, who was extremely influential, has died.

His music provides appropriate overtones these days. Here is Everybody Knows.

A Temperature Scale with a Negative Slope

Yes, really. The Delisle (°D) temperature scale has a negative slope. (The original version of the Celsius scale did as well.) Check out Wikipedia's comparison of temperature scales.

I just tweeted about it.

Delisle (°D): because we like temperature scales with a negative slope (cue Tom Jones): https://t.co/znCcYoJR0s pic.twitter.com/m5M5nmnyZa

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) February 15, 2016

I started going down the rabbit hole earlier today because of today's XKCD.

John, Paul, George, and Yoda

Hell yes!

This shirt is awesome!

The Gaming Graveyard

Yup.

Posted by Guinevere on Sunday, July 13, 2014

(Tip of the cap to some musician who goes by the stage name of Guinevere and to somebody --- I didn't catch whom --- shared Guinevere's post to one of the Dragon*Con groups (I forgot which one) on Facebook. I tried to find a Wikipedia link for the musician Guinevere, and I am amused that Wikipedia's disambiguation page for Guinevere also includes a certain panther from Forgotten Realms.)

Quote of the Day: Sweatpants Edition

Today's quote was apparently uttered about half a year ago by Christine Klymko (just after I left a room), who repeated the line today for my benefit: "On a scale from Mason Porter to Kanye West, what kind of sweatpants were they?"

Weird Al and Weird Mason

I have pretty much the same hair as Weird Al Yankovic. Just sayin...

New to the Blogroll: Bruggebrain

Through the magic of e-mail signatures, I noticed that my doctoral student Birgit Brüggemeier has a blog. She studies neurogenetics, and is working on an awesome project. You can read about what she studies on her page.

At some point, I should also delete the blogs on the blogroll that are no longer being updated, but for now I'll let you --- dear reader --- scroll just a little bit more. That is what Janis Joplin sang about, right?

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.)

Game Soundtrack: A Violin Rendition of Super Mario Brothers in Real Time

Some people are so talented that they can play the Super Mario Brothers soundtrack (overground, underground, and underwater --- and the sounds for things like coins, character death, super shrooms, etc) in real time while somebody else is playing the game. Now that is impressive!

(Tip of the cap to Jimmy Lin.)

Me and Paul Simon Down at the Widnes Railway Station

I came back from Widnes this morning for the outreach session. I noticed a plaque about Paul Simon there, and it turns out that this experience has --- without any intention at all --- given me something in common with Paul Simon! :)

Quoting from the wikipedia entry: "Widnes Railway Station is one of two stations where Paul Simon reputedly composed the song "Homeward Bound", the other being Ditton railway station. It is uncertain exactly where the song was written: in an interview with Paul Zollo for SongTalk Magazine, Art Garfunkel says that Simon wrote the song in a train station "around Manchester"[6] while in an earlier interview for Playboy Magazine Simon himself mentioned the train station was at Liverpool.[7] It is likely, however, that it was written at one of the two Widnes stations during a long wait for a train, as Simon was traveling back from Widnes, where he had been playing.[8] A plaque commemorating this claim to fame is displayed on the Liverpool bound platform of Widnes railway station.[9] Simon is quoted as saying "[i]f you'd ever seen Widnes, then you'd know why I was keen to get back to London as quickly as possible."[10]"

I just bought the song. I don't remember it, but it's really good (not terribly surprising for a Paul Simon song).

Sometimes, I can't help myself.

At Somerville's SCR leavers party, one of our physics fellows (who is from Poland) was talking about Chopin wanting his heart removed after his death (well, it's actually a bit more complicated than this) to be returned to Poland. Naturally, my immediate reaction---which I couldn't hold in---was to bring up the song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Did I mention that I'm awesome?

Quote of the Day

I found a fabulous quote in an article on cnn.com about attempts to defy Ireland's new blasphemy law:

The 25 "blasphemous" quotations include the words of Jesus, Mohammed, Mark Twain, Salman Rushdie and Bjork.

I simply love the fact that Bjork is being included in this company.

Update: Tom Lehrer is on the list, too! Hell yes!

Is Sammy Sosa going the Michael Jackson route?

Take a look at the pictures in this article. Despite what Sammy Sosa claims, the 'before' and 'after' shots immediately make me (and, I would think, lots of people) think of Michael Jackson. Well, part of me also thinks of Nai Chang Yeh, but that's a story for another day.