New Meme: #distractinglysexy

The new meme #distractinglysexy is a fantastic response to Tim Hunt's stupid comments.

"All Possible Humanities Dissertations Considered as Single Tweets"

The New Yorker has very kindly presented all possible humanities dissertations considered as single tweets. I am highly amused. :)

(Tip of the cap to Bruno Gonçalves.)

"Biology, With a Beat"

The option of submitting a biological music video instead of taking a final for Caltech's Biology 1 class this year is very clever. I would love to try something like this in a class that I teach. I approve!

Topps Baseball Cards of Will Ferrell

In commemoration of Will Ferrell's Spring Training stunt, Topps now has issued Will Farrell baseball cards using designs from years gone by (and one from 2015 for Ferrell's last hurrah with the Dodgers).

"College is Not a Commodity. Stop Treating it Like One."

Former Cornell University president Hunter Rawlings has written a brilliant essay called "College is not a commodity. Stop treating it like one." about what the role of universities (and professors) and, especially, students play in getting the most out of the experience of going to university --- about what it really means to get an education. I can't make the points any better then he did, so I'll simply express my heartfelt agreement and encourage you to read the short essay.

As an additional brief note, it is my role as a professor (and College tutor) to try to put my students in what I think is the best position for them to succeed. This need not be --- and reasonably often is not --- the same as what they think is the best position for them to succeed.

(Tip of the cap to Aaron Clauset.)

RIP Hermann Zapf (1918–2015)

Hermann Zapf, who designed several well-known fonts (e.g., Zaph Dingbats, Palatino) died on 4 June. I don't think I had ever seen his font Zapfino before; it's really nice! I have used Palatino on many occasions.

(Tip of the cap to Jimmy Lin.)

"MuxViz: A Tool for Multilayer Analysis and Visualization of Networks"

One of my papers, which was published as an "advance access" paper last October, finally has its assigned page numbers, so I'm blogging about it. It is software to visualize and do computations for multilayer networks. You can download the software, which was created using R, from this website.

Title: MuxViz: A Tool for Multilayer Analysis and Visualization of Networks

Authors: Manlio De Domenico, Mason A. Porter, and Alex Arenas

Abstract: Multilayer relationships among entities and information about entities must be accompanied by the means to analyse, visualize and obtain insights from such data. We present open-source software (muxViz) that contains a collection of algorithms for the analysis of multilayer networks, which are an important way to represent a large variety of complex systems throughout science and engineering. We demonstrate the ability of muxViz to analyse and interactively visualize multilayer data using empirical genetic, neuronal and transportation networks. Our software is available at https://github.com/manlius/muxViz.

High School Chalkboard Writing from 1917 Unearthed

Some chalkboards with writing from 1917 were recently unearthed (figuratively) during a high school's renovation. They're pretty cool.

"Inelegant Mathematics and Worse Social Science?"

A 1974 article by Hayward R. Alker called "Computer Simulations: Inelegant Mathematics and Worse Social Science?" seems very apt in these days of complex systems, agent-based models, and so on.

It seems that, back in the day, some people that computer simulations would soon reproduce the nuanced behavior of social systems, and Alker pointed out that it wasn't so easy. Quoting Alker: Moral, political, philosophical and pedagogical issues derive from the empirically provisional nature of all simulation versions of frequently controversial social theories, the frequent mystification of mathematical/computerized 'results', and the uneven practical utility and accessibility of social simulations.

At least people don't still make those kinds of mistakes. Oh wait...

What Happens in Singapore Stays in Singapore

This evening, I'll be taking my first trip to Singapore. I'm going to give a talk in a workshop on protein interaction networks, and I also made arrangements to get together with a fellow Lloydie who I have only seen once (in 2007) since 2000. It should be fun!

Major League Baseball's First (Full-Time) Switch-Pitcher of the Modern Era!

Now here is some awesome news: Pat Venditte, the first (full-time) switch-pitcher of the modern era, was called up to the Majors today by the Oakland Athletics. Sweet!

Now you might be wondering what would happen if Venditte goes up against a switch-hitting batter? Well, there is a rule as to how much each of them is allowed to switch during a given at-bat (possibly because of this hilarious incident, which you definitely want to watch). Back when I was growing up, Greg Harris once pitched using both arms in one game, but for Venditte this is a regular thing. So awesome!

(And tip of the cap to Pravesh Patel for the link to the video on YouTube.)

Update (6/09/15): And for his next trick, perhaps Venditte will also try pitching underwater. (Tip of the cap to Jonathan Adams for this link.)

Update (3/19/18): Tony Mullane was a pre-20th century switch pitcher. (Thanks to Tom Maccarone for that information.)

Inaugural Inductees into the World Video Game Hall of Fame

The inaugural inductees into the new World Video Game Hall of Fame are Pong, Pac-Man, Tetris, Super Mario Brothers, DOOM, and World of Warcraft.

The other games that were part of the final field of 15 considered for the inaugural induction were Minecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokémon, The Sims, FIFA, Angry Birds, The Legend of Zelda, Space Invaders, and Oregon Trail.

As a brief note, there are some major factual inaccuracies in the article to which I linked (e.g., the debut of Tetris occurred before the Gameboy version).

"Caltech: Where America Goes to Hide."

Yes, really.

See item #11 on this list of 15 survival tips that we learned from The Rock in the movie San Andreas.

Sadly, the article spelled "Caltech" incorrectly.

Also, "Caltech: Where America Goes to Hide." should be the university's new slogan. That is such an awesome slogan!

(Tip of the cap to whoever posts to Facebook for California Institute of Technology.)

Rewrite the Future: Marlins Versus Cubs Edition

The Marlins' Rewrite the Future marketing campaign this year, which pays homage to Back to the Future, Part II is awesome! I approve!

In Back to the Future, Part II (which came out in 1989), a fictional American League team based in Miami loses the 2015 World Series to the Chicago Cubs.

What Happens in Pittsburgh Stays in Pittsburgh (2015 Edition)

I am slightly late with this post, given that I just returned to Oxford this morning on a red-eye flight. But I was just at Carnegie Mellon University for a workshop on groups and interactions in data, networks, and biology. This workshop was on the mathematical side of things.

Brief Explanation of Nonlinear and Complex Systems for Non-Scientists

I was asked on Quora to give a brief explanation of "nonlinear systems" and "complex systems" to non-scientists. Here is my answer.

Using Statistical Mechanics to Capture a Skittish Lamb

I wrote a blurb on the Improbable Research blog on a recent paper on the arXiv for how to use ideas from statistical mechanics to capture a skittish lamb.

Awesome Symmetric Plants

These symmetric plants are awesome!

Notes: The web page advertises 25 plants, but they appear to only include 24 of them. Also, the symmetries aren't literally "perfect", though many of them are really damn good. However, while the hyperbole of the title is a bit grating, the plants themselves really are awesome. Naturally, many of the different plants are also have different symmetries. (Tip of the cap to Vinko Zlatic.)

RIP John Nash (1928–2015)

Mathematician John Nash and his wife were killed yesterday in a taxi accident.

Nash won the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for the work in his 27-page PhD thesis that invented the theory of non-cooperative games. Not bad. (As Joe Jewell pointed out, Nash's thesis also only has 2 references.)

Nash had recently accepted his Abel Prize (the mathematics equivalent of a Nobel Prize) for entirely different work.

Sylvia Nasar's 1994 article about John Nash, which is based on her book, is a fascinating read. Nasar's book formed the basis for the movie A Beautiful Mind.

Nash is also one of the people who invented the game Hex.

If you want to read more about Nash, go to FAQ maintained by Princeton University.

(Tip of the cap to numerous people, and thanks to Carlos Castillo Chávez for posting the article by Sylvia Nasar.)

Update (5/26/15): As I suspected, this was the final leg of their journey home after Nash was in Norway to receive his Abel Prize.

Update (5/29/15): Here is an article in the popular press about Nash's work on isometric embeddings.

Awesome Story: 102-Year-Old Women Sets Record for Oldest Ever Doctoral Recipient

This story is a great one: 102-year-old Ingeborg Rapoport has become the oldest ever recipient of a PhD after an old Nazi injustice is righted.

Of course, the reason behind the story is very unfortunate to say the least, but I love the story's ending. This is really awesome.

(Technically, she will be given the doctorate in a ceremony on 9 June. She has already successfully defended it.)

(Tip of the cap to A Mighty Girl.)

Update (6/10/15): Ingeborg Rapoport now officially has her doctorate.

Plot of Ego Versus Number of Academics to Determine What to Call Yourself

Notice where MIT shows up on this plot in the new panel from PhD Comics. ;) I approve!

23 Unusual Ways to Die (Organized by US State)

This IFLS article shows a lovely plot that indicates 23 unusual ways to die, as organized by state in the US. Each state is colored by the most frequent of these unusual ways to die that occurs in that state. Several of the ones at the bottom of the list are particularly fantastic.

An Artist's Recreation of Childhood Drawings

This is really cool: an artist recreated his own childhood drawings in a very realistic way. So cool!

(Tip of the cap to Oleg Kogan.)

What Happens in Snowbird Stays in Snowbird (2015 Edition)

I am at Gatwick Airport amidst my journey to the Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah for the 2015 SIAM "Snowbird Meeting" on applied dynamical systems. I'll be giving a minitutorial talk on network dynamics.

SIAM's third annual workshop on network science is co-located with the dynamical systems meeting, although I am not bothering to go to it. (Among other things, I'll be working on my talk.)

Hell for Different Personality Types

Here is a terse attempt at a summary of the Hells for different (Myers-Briggs) personality types.

Of the descriptions on that page, the one that I would find most Hellish is INTP: "You are eternally condemned to researching an extremely vapid topic using wildly inaccurate methods, mostly involving interviewing people who have no idea what they’re talking about."

Actually, when I take these tests, I get INTP about half of the time and INTJ the other half. INTJ's Hell is "Every time you open your mouth to say something intelligent, something entirely idiotic comes out instead." I think the INTP Hell would bother me more, though.

(Tip of the cap to Anna Iwaniec Hickerson and one or two other people.)

An Application of Network Control

Now this is what control theory on networks has the potential to accomplish. :)

(And only one species was killed off in this compensatory perturbation.)

Calling People Out: The All-Male Panel "Congratulations" Tumblr

I approve of this all-male panel tumblr that offers sarcastic congratulations. (And I am very much in favor of calling people out to try to encourage improving the situation on such matters.)

The David Hasselhoff picture is an added bonus.

(Tip of the cap to NetSci Backstage.)

"Zigzag Hochschild Complex": Mathematical Object or Psychological Disorder?

The Zigzag Hochschild Complex certainly sounds like it could be a psychological disorder, but it is actually a mathematical object.

Cleanliness or Dirtiness?

This post at the Improbable Research blog offers an interesting perspective. Let me quote an author of the studies that the post discusses:

In two studies we investigated the association between physical cleansing and moral and immoral behavior in real- life situations. In Study 1, after a workout at the gym, participants cheated more after taking a shower than before taking one. In the second study participants donated more money to charity before rather than after they bathed for religious purification.

Hmmmm....

A Drone's Eye View of Oxford's Mathematical Institute

The drone's tour of our building would have been much more realistic if it had gotten stuck inside an elevator.

Extraterrestrial Signal or Microwave Oven?

As described today in an article in The Telegraph, an odd "extraterrestrial" signal---which was "detected only during business hours"---that baffled astrophysicists for 17 years has turned out to be due to the facility's microwave oven being opened while it was in use.

Perhaps the astrophysicists' recent paper on the arXiv preprint server said it best: "Subsequent tests revealed that a peryton can be generated at 1.4 GHz when a microwave oven door is opened prematurely and the telescope is at an appropriate relative angle."

Thankfully, there is also good news: now that this mystery has been solved, it turns out that the facility may well also be detecting some genuinely extraterrestrial signals.

Last month, this story was covered in the Improbable Research blog.

(Tip of the cap to Physics Today.)

"Turns Out Craig Counsell Was Actually Best Baseball Player Of Steroid Era"

To go with the Milwaukee Brewer's hiring Craig Counsell as their new manager, we also have a big win from The Onion. I approve!

The Data Science Handbook

The Data Science Handbook looks pretty cool.

(Tip of the cap to Bradley Voytek.)

A "Legal" Definition of "Order Parameter"

Sometimes aggregators are wonderful, like when an online law dictionary includes a definition for order parameter.

Also apparently of interest to people who visit this definition:

1. What Happens If A Person Breaks A Restraining Order?

7. How To File Forms For Temporary Child Custody

10. How To Request Voluntary Deportation

(I skipped a few, of course.)

I suppose power law might be there as well, but I didn't check.

The Health Case for Invading Greece

The new SMBC comic is amusing.

(It also makes a good dig at the US for its invading habits.)

Surreal

The Major League Baseball game in Baltimore today was surreal.

It feels almost like a scene out of an apocalyptic movie (except that the stadium was in excellent condition).

Update: Here are some images from the game.

Tales from the ArXiv: "Finding a Mate With No Social Skills"

Well, the title of this paper says it all, doesn't it?

In fact, there is a wonderful ambiguity in the article title: it can either refer to finding a mate without using any social skills or, more amusingly, to finding a mate who doesn't have any social skills.

If it refers to the latter and people circulate this study widely enough, maybe people like me can finally have some hope? :)

Update (4/30/15): Here is my post on this topic for the Improbable Research blog.

The Physics of Water-Skipping Stones

See my post on the Improbable Research blog.

Playing in an Empty Stadium

Tomorrow's game between the Orioles and the White Sox, which is occurring in Baltimore, will be closed to the public. That is going to be eerie.

(Tip of the cap to The Baseball Project.)

Update: Here is the ESPN.com article about the game.

Are We Living in a Virtual Reality from a C+ Class Project?

At SMBC today, the artist asks whether we living in a virtual reality from a C+ class project.

I am amused.

Donating my GameCube for a Good Cause

I just donated my GameCube and its controllers and games to the Somerville undergrads (aka: JCR), because apparently they were still mostly using a Nintendo 64 for their gaming.

I hadn't used my GameCube in many years (not since I bought a Wii when I was a postdoc at Caltech), and it hadn't occurred to me previously that they might want it.

I am happy to see it get used instead of it just sitting on my shelf and taking up space.

Some people donate money for buildings or scholarships; I donate video games. Somehow, it seems fitting.

Trojan Butterflies

I recently wrote a blurb for the Improbable Research blog on what I like to call "trojan butterflies". As you will see from my blurb and the article to which I link therein, the monicker is apt and the phenomenon is fascinating.

What Happens in The Other Place Stays in The Other Place (2015 Edition)

I made it to The Other Place on the train today. Tomorrow, I'll be giving an invited talk as part of the Launch Conference for the University of Cambridge's SIAM Student Chapter.

The Chapter president did a research project with me as an undergrad, so yet again the alums from my research group are demonstrating how awesome they are. It's great to see Cambridge start a SIAM Student Chapter.

Iowa is #1 in the US in Lost Chickens

Yup, it's apparently true. I guess there is an official way to keep track of lost chickens.

In the map at the other end of the link, you'll see a visualization of one item that each state in the US leads every other state in per capita. Victory!

And given what California leads in, I guess I should point out that I am a Californian.

(Tip of the cap to George Takei.)

Peer Review in Pictures

Yes and Hell Yes!

That's really how it works.

Mmm... Soup Dumplings

I am a big fan of Shanghai Soup Dumplings, and I had a chance to have a bunch of good ones when I spent three weeks in Shanghai five years ago. But, wow, some people have OCD about it.

A Baseball Tirade for the Ages

Reds manager Bryan Price just had a tirade for the ages. (You can also listen to Price's rant on YouTube.)

Also, it makes me nostalgic for Tommy Lasorda's heyday as manager of the Dodgers, though the style seemed much closer to Lee Elia's famous tirade.

Update: Here is Rob Neyer's article about the incident. The article includes links to Elia's tirade as well as one from Hal McRae.

"Extraction of Force-Chain Network Architecture in Granular Materials Using Community Detection"

A new paper by my collaborators and me came out last week in the journal Soft Matter, and the inside front cover picture of the associated issue of the journal goes with our article. Here are the details about the article.


Title: Extraction of Force-Chain Network Architecture in Granular Materials Using Community Detection

Authors: Danielle S. Bassett, Eli T. Owens, Mason A. Porter, M. Lisa Manning, and Karen E. Daniels

Abstract: Force chains form heterogeneous physical structures that can constrain the mechanical stability and acoustic transmission of granular media. However, despite their relevance for predicting bulk properties of materials, there is no agreement on a quantitative description of force chains. Consequently, it is difficult to compare the force-chain structures in different materials or experimental conditions. To address this challenge, we treat granular materials as spatially-embedded networks in which the nodes (particles) are connected by weighted edges that represent contact forces. We use techniques from community detection, which is a type of clustering, to find sets of closely connected particles. By using a geographical null model that is constrained by the particles' contact network, we extract chain-like structures that are reminiscent of force chains. We propose three diagnostics to measure these chain- like structures, and we demonstrate the utility of these diagnostics for identifying and characterizing classes of force-chain network architectures in various materials. To illustrate our methods, we describe how force-chain architecture depends on pressure for two very different types of packings: (1) ones derived from laboratory experiments and (2) ones derived from idealized, numerically-generated frictionless packings. By resolving individual force chains, we quantify statistical properties of force-chain shape and strength, which are potentially crucial diagnostics of bulk properties (including material stability). These methods facilitate quantitative comparisons between different particulate systems, regardless of whether they are measured experimentally or numerically.

X-Ray Images of a Python Digesting an Alligator

These images are pretty cool.

New Prescription-Strength Nature

The sad thing is that I assumed that this video about prescription-strength nature was referring to the journal Nature rather than to actual nature. I think I need to get out more.

(I was also wondering if the prescription-level version had less bullshit than the off-the-counter version.)

Clearly, a parody of this parody video is in order.

Some Awesome Detention Notes

A few of the detention notes compiled here are spectacular --- like the one with a reason that was first listed as 'flying' but was then switched to 'leaping w/ intent to fly'.

The one from 1994 is depressing. Apparently, one should just accept what others say without questioning. (I remember getting into some trouble with teachers in first grade when the answer to subtraction problems like '3 - 5' was officially that there was no answer because one wasn't allowed to do it, but I would insist rather emphatically* that it was '-2'.)

* I.e., I haven't changed.

(Tip of the cap to Maria Satterwhite and George Takei.)

Sociomath Workshop: Best. Google Search. Ever.

I am going to be a plenary speaker at a workshop on "Socio-mathematics" at Imperial College in November. I was curious to see if there is a website, but Google seems to think that other words might be more appropriate.

Thank you, Google.

XKCD's Entertainment Scenery Cheatsheet

I really like today's XKCD. I approve! (Also, it is highly appropriate for the film I saw on Monday.)

Will There Be a Mass Editorial Resignation at Scientific Reports?

Will There Be a Mass Editorial Resignation at Scientific Reports?

There might be.

(And a "Way to go!" and a "Huzzah!" to my colleagues from the complex-systems community for taking this action!)

Stuck in the Middle

IFLS has published a video in a post with the title "How Does The Order In Which You're Born Affect Your Personality?"

The article includes the following line: "Those of us with siblings will have heard it all before - the oldest is the bossiest, the middle child is the most co-operative and laid back, and the youngest is spoilt."

Given that, I am sure that you will be shocked to learn that I was born in the middle. Yup, "most co-operative and laid back"... Describes me exactly. ;)

I thought the tradition was: the oldest one inherits the kingdom/business/etc., the middle one joins the priesthood (or, in modern times, academia), and then you lose count.

By the way, I don't actually care about the video; I just want to be snarky.

Update: After watching the video, let me encourage you not to actually watch it: it's painful. The whole point of my post was the IFLS blurb was good (or at least convenient) excuse for me to be snarky.

Traveling Waves, the Royal Thai Navy, and "The Final Countdown"

The video below shows members of the Royal Thai Navy demonstrating traveling waves (and other wave phenomena) to the glorious sounds of "The Final Countdown" being played by a band!

I think my head just exploded.

amazing parademuhteşem bir geçit töreni

Posted by Mavi Kocaeli on Monday, April 6, 2015

(Tip of the cap to Improbable Research.)

My New Grading Scheme

Hummingbirds in a Wind Tunnel

IFLS has posted an article about hummingbird flight, that includes a really cool video---including of how they adapt to being in a wind tunnel. Very cool!

New Article: "The Tongue as an Excitable Medium"

Yes, really: an article called "The Tongue as an Excitable Medium" was published a few days ago in New Journal of Physics. This title is fantastic on so many levels! The article is about a condition known as "geographic tongue", which the authors of the paper model as an excitable medium, in which they (of course) examine pattern formation. But that's not what you were thinking, is it?

I have written a blurb about the paper for the Improbable Research blog. I'll post a link to it when it's available.

(Tip of the cap to IFLS.)

Update: Here is the published version of my blurb.

"Infinite Moments of Incredible Delight"

I just got a spam e-mail with the title of "Infinite Moments of Incredible Delight" (or something like that), and naturally the first thing I wondered about was which was the first moment that was no longer finite. Of course, it then struck me that that would make a great title for a paper (or section thereof) involving probability theory or power laws.

30th Anniversary of the "Sidd Finch" Prank

This snuck up on me.

Baseball Tonight's Facebook post, which links to this article, brings up (and reminds me of) the Sidd Finch prank from 1 April 1985. It's amazing that that prank is now 30 years old. Sidd Finch had his 168 mile per hour fastball (and various other oddities), and the New York Mets played along with the hoax. So awesome!

April Fool's Day!

I am sure that there will be many gems for April 1st this year, just as there was last year and in previous years. Here is a link to some pranks from 2011 and to April-Foolish arXiv papers from 2010 (here and here). I have more April-Foolish blog entries around here somewhere...

This year, Google got into the act early by letting people play Pac-Man on Google Maps.

Now, CERN has demonstrated that The Force exists. (Now that is a truly fundamental force!) [Tip of the cap to Josie Messa for the "news" from CERN.] And in other news out of CERN, apparently rainbow universes are for real.. [Tip of the cap to Kevin Hickerson.]

And now we have an article in Nature by Bob May and collaborators indicating that dragons might be real after all. The article has been published in Nature, so we know that we can count on its scientific accuracy. [Tip of the cap to Catarina Amorim and another source that I can't recall.]

The journal Science has also gotten into the act, indicate that NASA has found strong evidence at least one Hell (the many-Hells theory is more plausible than the existence of just a single Hell), and it appears to be located on Mercury. Considering the planet's namesake, it kind of makes sense that one might find a Hell there. I really love the article's culminating quote: "Congress told NASA to go to hell, and, by Jove, they made it." [Tip of the cap to Physics Today.]

The BBC has summarized some of the pranks from "Tech sites", and of course technology sites tend to take the lead when it comes to April Foolishness. :) [Tip of the cap to Carlos Castillo Chavez.]

Also, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum unveiled a "limited exhibition" of Wonder Woman’s invisible jet. [Tip of the cap to Foster McLane.]

And the American Physics Society, in their popular blurb, reported on killer app for graphene. It was published in a strange journal called Physical Review Graphene. Choice quote: Markus Merk of the Max Planck Institute for Topological Physics in Dingenskirchen, Germany, who wasn’t involved in the research, said the finding is “Refreshing—and potentially very important.” But he thinks other materials could outperform graphene. “Graphene, unfortunately, has no spin-orbit coupling. But topological insulators do. Using these novel materials could increase the plaque-prevention efficiency of toothpastes by at least 35% at liquid helium temperatures.” I love it!

And the world apparently went backwards over at Google. [Tip of the cap to Jimmy Lin.]

The "Association for Computational Heresy" at Carnegie Mellon University produced an entire conference proceedings with serious realizations of joke ideas and joke realizations of serious ideas. [Tip of the cap to Juegren Pfeffer.]

Meanwhile, in a new paper on the arXiv, some scholars have proposed that we give up not only on Falsifiability (as others have suggested) but also on other 'F' words, such as Fidelity, Factuality, and Frugality. [Tip of the cap to Vinko Zlatić.]

Even DARPA got into the act. They advertised new programs that simultaneously test the limits of technology and credulity. [Tip of the cap to Heather Dean.]

Play Pac-Man on Google Maps

Yes, really: You can now use maps in Google Maps to play Pac-Man. I approve!

In case you're interested, you can try a map near Somerville College in Oxford (and also necessarily near the Mathematical Institute). Or perhaps catching Pokémon is more aligned with your tastes?

Or, if you prefer, you can play a live-action version with smartphones.

(Tip of the cap to Jimmy Lin.)

Update: Here is the post from Google's product manager about the new feature. (Tip of the cap to Mary Radcliffe for this link. Apparently, her husband is the person at Google who created this particular gem.) Ah, I love it when April 1st comes along. :)

Update (4/01/15): the article on CNN.com shows several example mazes from different parts of the world.

Update (4/08/15): Wired.com now has an article about this, which is affectionately called "Pac-Maps". Also, here are the "top" places (which are isolated to just a few cities) to play Pac-Maps. Harvard Square is insane.

Financial Resources and Publishing in Scientific Reports?

As some of you know, I am not exactly the biggest fan of the journal Scientific Reports, which is brought to us by the Nature Publishing Group.

I won't get into my specific grievances here, though the journal now appears to have hit a new low with their pay-to-play peer-review activities (e.g., with authors allowed to pay for a fast-track peer review that uses a different and third party peer-review service rather than normal peer review). As discussed here and here, one editor has already resigned. Good! I hope many other Scientific Reports editors follow suit, and some of my peeps from the complex-systems community are also fighting back: they have sent a letter to the Powers That Be at Scientific Reports. I am sharing this letter with permission.

I hope more editors from Scientific Reports resign and that that forces them to either go under or, better yet, to change to have more reasonable policies on such things. (Ideally, they would also improve other epically bad aspects of their venue, but that is a story for another day.)

Ant Fight Club

In my latest post for the Improbable Research blog, I discuss modeling of combat in ants.

One of the reasons I chose to write about this paper is that it also allowed me to introduce modeling issues (e.g., the choice of a differential-equation model versus an agent-based model).

Next time, maybe I'll even use a Mortal Kombat reference. Finish him!

Interactive Twitter Network from NetSci 2014

I just found Marc Smith's interactive Twitter network from NetSci 2014. Here is a brief description of the network:

"The graph represents a network of 57 Twitter users whose recent tweets contained "netsci", or who were replied to or mentioned in those tweets, taken from a data set limited to a maximum of 18,000 tweets. The network was obtained from Twitter on Friday, 06 June 2014 at 15:22 UTC."

You can find additional descriptions and some basic calculations about the graph on the site to which I linked. You can also download the network data. Apparently, I contributed to this network, especially with my snark. :)

"Gerrymandering Mishap Leaves Nation Without Any Borders Whatsoever"

Yup, The Onion wins again! I approve!

John Nash and Louis Nirenberg Share 2015 Abel Prize

John Nash and Louis Nirenberg have been jointly awarded the 2015 Abel Prize for their work on partial differential equations.

(Tip of the cap to Physics Today for their post on Facebook.)

Learn Anatomy from Dissected Knit Creatures

Here's another really cool thing: knitted versions of dissected creatures.

Now that is sweet!

(Tip of the cap to Leslie Porter.)

Update: Of course, for several years, people have been able to experience the joys of plush microbes (these are especially awesome), plush subatomic particles, and even plush statistical distributions.

Update (3/31/15): I now have a post about this on the Improbable Research blog.

Turning Coffee Into Art

Yes, really. So awesome!

(Tip of the cap to Yves van Gennip.)

How Long Would It Take to Fall Through the Earth?

There is a new paper on estimating how long it would take to fall through the Earth that does better than the standard crude approximation. I think this is very cool, and I definitely suggest taking a look at the other side of the link.

And I am again reminded that I should have found a way to take the course "Order of Magnitude Physics" at Caltech when I had a chance. (But, thankfully, I often get to think that way for my research.) I just did some googling, and I found the material from the 1995 and 1997 versions of the class.

But I still have one question: How can I make sure that I take the correct turn at Albuquerque?

(Tip of the cap to Physics Today for their post on Facebook.)

Skin-Texture-Changing Frogs

This blurb from IFLS describes frogs whose skin can change texture --- not just color! --- based on their surroundings. Now that is damn cool!

The title of the article claims that this is a "shape-shifting" frog, which to me seems like a highly misleading characterization.

Pronouncing Words in the United Kingdom

This poem from a 1906 anthology says it all.

(Tip of the cap to Jonathan Adams.)

Update: Here is another poem on pronunciation in the English language. (Tip of the cap to Martin Gould.)

Google Celebrates Emmy Noether's 133rd Birthday

Mathematician Emmy Noether is the subject of today's Google doodle. I approve!

(Tip of the cap to several people.)

Post-Punk Icons Reimagined as Marvel Superheroes

Several post-punk icons have been reimagined as Marvel superheroes. This is pretty damn cool!

(Tip of the cap to Leslie Porter.)

A Fine-Scale, Historically Awesome, Genetic Map of the U.K.

A new genetic map of the U.K., which is the product of several-years-long collaboration between geneticists, historians, and others. This looks really neat, and I recommend looking at the map at the other end of the link.

The first line of the news article articulates how cool this is: A remarkable new map of Britain shows how the nation was forged by successive waves of immigration from continental Europe over 10,000 years since the end of the last Ice Age.

Again quoting the article: Geneticists and historians collaborated closely on the 10-years project and have been astonished to find that patterns in the DNA of Britons living today reflect historical events going back centuries, and in some cases millennia. Take a look in the news article for some specific examples.

I am sure that there is a ton more than one can do with the data---and of course, I wonder how much one can improve on the analysis (and, without having looked with seriousness at the Nature article, naturally I have no scientific opinion on its correctness). Many of the coauthors are my colleagues at Oxford, so maybe I will eventually have a chance to play with the data? :)

Update: Taking a quick look at the paper, one could certainly try to use more sophisticated clustering methods. Whether that would have any effect on the qualitative conclusions remains to be seen.

NFL Offensive Lineman by Day, Spectral Graph Theorist by Night

John Urschel is not your ordinary professional football player.

He may be an NFL offensive lineman by day, but by night he is a spectral graph theorist (and numerical linear algebraist). His most recent paper, called "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians", has now been accepted for publication in Journal of Computational Mathematics. Urschel announced via Twitter that it had been officially accepted for publication. (Based on my googling, the published version of the paper hasn't yet appeared in the journal.)

You can read a draft of Urschel's paper on the arXiv preprint server. I just wish that he used his current affiliation on the paper. That would have been fantastic.

(Tip of the cap to Francis Su.)

Update: Looking at Urschel's academic website, I see that he has prior publications. His website gives the reference for a paper on celestial mechanics. I also checked Mathematical Reviews (to find an upper bound on his Erdős Number, of course), and I see that he also has at least one more paper on spectral graph theory. (This paper isn't listed on Urschel's Penn State website, which I suppose he is no longer updating.)

Update (3/21/15): I wrote a blurb on Urschel for the Improbable Research blog.

Some Awesome Passive-Aggressive Notes

Here are some awesome passive-aggressive notes.

There is, naturally, an entire web page dedicated to such things.

We also do passive-aggressive notes pretty well in Oxford applied math. For example, take a look here, here, and here.

(Tip of the cap to George Takei.)

Upcoming Movie: "Pixels"

I just saw a trailer for the movie Pixels, in which "real life" video game characters attack the Earth.

The movie looks cheesy and probably deserves its own drinking game (and I could easily see this being horrible), but am I am so going to geek out and watch this! Bring it on!

The movie has a chance to be awesome, but if nothing else it will at least be "awesome".

Star Trekkin' Across the Journal Publications

That's write: The Firm's song "Star Trekkin'" may well be the most quoted song in scholarly journals. I certainly hope it is, because that would be awesome!

And if you are unfamiliar with this song, then you owe it to yourself to watch the music video on the other side of the link.

Over on the blog entry to which I linked above, reader JimBob points to Spock's quote about Organians: "Fascinating. Pure energy. Pure thought. Totally incorporeal. Not life as we know it at all."

And that is really awesome! Because that brings us back to music: "pure energy" is sampled in the song "What's on Your Mind" by Information Society. I didn't realize that that came from the same line as the modified version in "Star Trekkin'".

Visualizations of π

Several of these visualizations of π are absolutely stunning.

Happy epic Pi Day! It is epic because the year is 2015 (so 3/14/15 in US reckoning), so there are two particular times to celebrate: in the morning and evening at 9:26:535....

(Tip of the cap to Andy Sudol for the website with the visualizations.)

Turning Urine to Electricity Using Microbes

Yes, really.

(Tip of the cap to IFLS.)

Ferrell on the Diamond

Will Ferrell played all nine different positions and for ten different teams in spring training yesterday. Although this is a pretty cheesy and is a publicity stunt, I still think it's highly amusing --- and if the publicity stunt is amusing and entertaining, I'll take it. Plus, being traded 9 times in one day is quite an accomplishment. :)

Anyway, the point is to have fun, and I appreciate creative ways to do it. (And if I were given this opportunity, I would do it too!)

Most posterity, I think it's also worth to linking to yesterday's set of box scores.

Update: You can find more details here.

Update: Baseball-reference.com has now posted a highly amusing player page for Ferrell. I approve! Notice the quotations around how he "bats" and also the list of transactions. I approve! (Also see the ESPN.com article about Ferrell's page at Baseball-reference.com page.)

"Network Literacy: Essential Concepts and Core Ideas"

I am happy to announce the availability of a booklet, Network Literacy: Essential Concepts and Core Ideas, that represents the distillation of thoughts, comments, and writings from more than 30 network science researchers, educators, teachers, and students.

We live in a connected age, and the ideas in the network literacy booklet are what we collectively think that every person should know about networks.

Start spreading the news!

Decaf Coffee Only: Fresh Out of One of My Nightmares

This is like something out of one of my nightmares*: I went to our Senior Common Room, and every single one of the espresso pods was decaf (including all of the ones in the stash in the drawer).

* Naturally, only I would have nightmares like this. [#firstworldproblems]

Another Great Baseball Name: Forrestt Allday

Browsing through Spring Training box scores, I have found another great name: Red Sox outfield prospect Forrestt Allday.

I could do this... well... all day. :)

The 'T' in the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam(-Tsingou) Problem

Today is International Women's Day, and today some venues (e.g., IFLS) are posting articles with the theme 'women you should have heard of' (‪#‎womenyoushouldhaveheardof‬), and I would like to contribute one who was intimately involved in introducing (and conducting subsequent studies of) one of my favorite mathematics/physics problems.

The lady in question is Mary Tsingou, and the problem is the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam(-Tsingou) problem.

Seven years ago, Thierry Dauxois wrote an opinion piece in Physics Today about the decades of omission of credit that Tsingou had experience. To quote his abstract, "The computations for the first-ever numerical experiment were performed by a young woman named Mary Tsingou. After decades of omission, it is time to recognize her contribution."

If you look at the original technical report, you'll notice typed text that indicates that the report was "written by" Fermi, Pasta, and Ulam but that "Work done by" credits Fermi, Pasta, Ulam, and Tsingou. Dauxois's paper discusses Mary Tsingou's contribution to the original technical report and advocates renaming the problem as the "FPUT" problem. Tsingou also worked on the FPU(T) problem later---e.g., on "superecurrences" that occur in very long-time calculations. For more information about the FPU(T) problem, see the Scholarpedia article devoted to it, a Scholarpedia article devoted to its mathematical aspects, and an expository article that I coauthored.

Excursion to Bletchley Park: 2015 Edition

Every few years, we take a bunch of mathematics and computer students from Somerville on an excursion to Bletchley Park (home of the U.K. codebreaking during World War II). Today was another one of those treks.

As usual, I took some pictures from today's trip.

And here are my photos from our 2012 excursion.

A Collection of Awesome Historical Snark (and Insults)

This collection of insults of other snark from both the modern era and long ago is awesome. Many of these are awesome (including quite a few that I hadn't seen before), and there are only a few duds. Highly amusing!

(Tip of the cap to George Takei.)

Cartoonifying Instagram Photos

These cartoonified Instagram photos are amazing! (Some of the them are also really funny, and most of the them twist the original scene in an interesting way.)

(Tip of the cap to George Takei.)

Awesome Audi Commerical: 'Battle of the Spocks'

Another of the awesome things that has been circulated amidst Leonard Nimoy's passing is this fantastic Audi commercial from 2013 (or at least the io9 article is from 2013, so I am assuming that the commercial is as well) featuring both Nimoy and Zachary Quinto (who plays Spock in the Star Strek reboot) in a 'Battle of the Spocks'.

There are quite a few great allusions in this commercial.

(Tip of the cap to somebody, but I forgot to scribble down whom.)

Baseball Name of the Day: David Goforth

I saw the last name "Goforth" in the box score from the Brewers' spring training game yesterday, so I felt compelled to figure out the identity of this mystery hurler. It is David Goforth. I can already imagine amusing headlines along the lines of "Goforth and Multiply".

"Bank of Canada Urges 'Star Trek' Fans to Stop 'Spocking' Their Fivers"

This story is absolutely fantastic. As a tribute to the late, great Leonard Nimoy, an apparently large number of Canadian Trekkies (or Trekkers, as I suppose they would prefer) have been 'Spocking' their five-dollar bills. Take a look at the story for some pictures that show examples of Spocking, which I think are rather well done. I think this is an excellent tribute. I approve!

(Tip of the cap to several people.)

You Know What They Say About the Size of a Team's Pitching Staff...

Well, possibly what "they" (i.e., generic unnamed people) are saying is that the teams must be crazy.

As a case in point, consider the following comment (from this blurb): "Citing a need to have more roster flexibility and a desire to not be stuck with only three bench players to start the season, new Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor is planning to start the season with only a dozen pitchers on his staff."

"Only" a dozen pitchers on a 25-man roster ... groan

I didn't mind the 10->11 change too much (though 10 is how things started when I was growing up), but --- really? --- the norm is now even 13 instead of 12?

Movie Science Versus Real Science: Vol. 13

Here is the 13th installment of movie science versus real life. It is so, so true. (Also, this comic strip hits way too close to home.)

(Tip of the cap to Vinko Zlatić.)

Flaccid Mechanics: A Systematic Study of Penis Sizes

Scholars from King's College and other UK institutions have just published a new study with the scintillating title of Am I normal? A systematic review and construction of nomograms for flaccid and erect penis length and circumference in up to 15521 men.

The first sentence of the paper's introduction sums things up rather nicely: "The measurement of penis size may be important either in the assessment of men complaining of a small penis or for academic interest."

My first thought about the article was: But did they also measure elastic constants (to determine stiffness, under the assumption that the object is elastic) and other Lamé parameters?

My second thought was: Up to 15521 men? Where is the uncertainty? Despite the odd article title, this item turns out to have a simple explanation: there were multiple studies and that is the number of men involved in the largest one.

In the authors' own words, their objective was "To systematically review and create nomograms of flaccid and erect penile size measurements." Among other things, their methods included a simulation of 20000 observations of penis size from a normal distribution, though it may also have been interesting to consider a heavy-tailed distribution in case of extreme events.

(Tip of the cap to IFLS.)

Update (3/10/15): Here is the modified version of this entry that I wrote for the Improbable Research blog.

Update (3/10/15): Here is a snarky comment that I wish I had thought of earlier: Remember that "soft matter" is an important subject in condensed-matter physics.

New to the Blogroll: Improbable Research

I probably should have added the Improbable Research blog to my blogroll years ago, but I have a special impetus to do it now: I'm now going to be writing some blog entries for that site.

The people behind that blog, by the way, are the ones who award the Ig Nobel Prize. Unfortunately, I don't (yet) have an Ig Nobel Prize. On the bright side, I am a proud member of Luxuriantly Flowing Hair Club for Scientists.

Additionally, a couple of my papers --- this one and this one --- have been covered by the Improbable Research blog, and Marc Abrahams wrote about them in The Guardian. (I included the links to the Guardian articles above rather than to the associated blog entries.)

I have also performed in a cover of the Improbable Research shows. You can take a look at one of my blog entries from last year for details.

I'm not sure how often I'll write blog entries for Improbable Research --- it essentially depends on my own business and desire to avoid the work I am supposed to be doing --- but I'm certainly looking forward to it! I really like quirky scientific and mathematical (and scientific-ish and mathematical-ish) things, and it will be great to have a wider circulation for my particular brand of snark.

Sierpinski Hamentaschen!

Well, this recipe for Sierpinski hamentaschen is clearly a big win.

This solves the ages-old "hamentaschen problem" of a hamentasch consisting of too much dough and not enough cherries --- here I am assuming sensibility and that one has chosen to make the cherry variety. (Apricot and, to a lesser extent, chocolate are acceptable, as well. If there is a cherry hamentasch available, that is the one I am going for. I think they are best with somewhat sour fruits, although I don't tend to like them with raspberries.)

While you are here, you should clearly also look up the Sierpinski triangle.

Tip of the cap to Karen Daniels.

Update: You may also recall that our very own Mathematical Institute held a mathematical bake-off last fall. You can follow the links therein to pictures from the bake-off and to other mathematical baking awesomeness.

Update (3/05/15): My first post for the Improbable Research blog is about this story. Very timely, too.

Famous Last Words

In a post on Facebook, George Takei took inspiration from Leonard Nimoy's last public words (a Tweet on the 23rd) to post some famous last words by several famous people. There's some really good snark in there, and many of them are rather fitting of the people who spoke them.

RIP Leonard Nimoy (1931–2015)

In terms of famous people with whom I feel a connection (to them and/or their portayed characters), today's news really hurts: Leonard Nimoy died today. I am sure many of my fellow nerds/geeks feel the same way. Nimoy is best known, of course, for playing---and often reprising---the character Spock as part of the original "Star Trek" crew. The character of Spock, and several aspects of that iconic character that originated with Nimoy (see the obituaries to which I linked to see the origin of a couple of the things that Nimoy brought to Spock) has had a huge impact on popular culture. But as you can from his Wikipedia entry, he had a very long, successful, and varied career.

The CNN article about his death has some nice pictures and nice tidbits.

In addition to Spock, another more recent way in which I will remember Leonard Nimoy is through his voice acting in Civilization IV when one discovers a technology. (Tip of the cap to Travis Hime for the URL with the clips from Civ IV.)

I would also like to include a very nice quote from Nimoy (which appears in the CNN.com article) in which he describes a visit to Caltech: "I had an embarrassing experience once, many years ago," he told The New York Times in 2009. "I was invited to go to Caltech and was introduced to a number of very brilliant young people who were working on interesting projects. ... And they'd say to me, 'What do you think?' Expecting me to have some very sound advice. And I would nod very quietly and very sagely I would say, 'You're on the right track.' "

(Tip of the cap to a large number of people.)