A Skirt Made of Rejection Letters

“I just searched for ‘unfortunately’ and ‘we regret to inform you’ in my email.”

Michigan State PhD student made a skirt using rejection letters she received through the course of her doctoral program while defending her dissertation last week.https://t.co/KeziG3GcJc

— hardmaru 😷 (@hardmaru) October 16, 2019

(Tip of the cap to Petter Holme.)

What Happens in Torino Stays in Torino

I am heading to Torino for a workshop on topological data analysis and networks. It's going to be fun!

A Spectacular List of Errata

This is epic.

pic.twitter.com/71VmZY4I0w

— Math Facts (@FactsOfMath) October 8, 2019

(Tip of the cap to math prof.)

Tales from the ArXiv: Awesome First Sentence

The first sentence of the abstract of this paper is wonderful!

In case you're wondering, it is from this song

Charles Babbage and "Street Nuisances"

Wow!

One of my fave things about Charles Babbage is he dedicated 28 pages (!!) of his autobiography to street nuisances, in which he classified:

1) Instruments of torture permitted by the govt to be in
daily & nightly use in the streets of London
2) Encouragers of Street Music
1/2 pic.twitter.com/sUN8g4MskA

— Dr Elizabeth Bruton 🏳️‍🌈 (@lizbruton) October 1, 2019

Cool Art: Geometric Flat Lays from Kristen Meyer

Kristen Meyer's art is really cool!

Prop stylist and designer Kristen Meyer melds quotidian materials into distinctive outlines in her series of geometric flat lays. She gathers crackers, sticks, spaghetti, herbs, and other common raw materials and arranges them in circles and squares https://t.co/8nE9JZAZWx pic.twitter.com/UTip8Onsnf

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 30, 2019

Take a look at her Instagram page. Among her particularly nice pieces is this one.

Dodgers Win Franchise-Record 106 Games!

Today was the last day of Major League Baseball's 2019 regular season, and the Dodgers won their franchise-record 106th game!

Clayton Kershaw pitched a scoreless inning in relief, although his earned run average remained above 3.00 (he would have needed to pitch 3 scoreless innings to get below 3.00), after a Major-League-record 10 consecutive seasons with an ERA less than 3.00. (The number 10 depends on a certain minimum number of innings pitched, so one can quibble with exactly how one should count things.) The second-largest consecutive streak, by Greg Maddux and at least one other, encompasses seven straight seasons.

It was a very nice touch when Madison Bumgarner, in possibly his last game as a Giant, had a pinch-hitting appearance against Clayton Kershaw in the 5th inning.

Also, today was the last game in Bruce Bochy's managerial career. He had announced long ago — before the beginning of the season, I think — that 2019 would be his final season. He'll be entering the Hall of Fame as a manager.

Spaceballs: The Billboard

Wow! This is so awesome!

(Tip of the cap to Jerry Sharp.)

XKCD: Math Work

Today's xkcd is highly amusing.

Fact check: True √

Alexa: Coming Soon with Samuel L. Jackson's Voice

Soon there is going to be the option for Alexa to have Samuel L. Jackson's voice.

The possibilities are glorious.

However, it may still not be as cool as Samuel J. Jackson as the voice of God when reading from the bible.

Headline of the Day: Blasphemy Edition

The headline of this article is worth its weight in gold.

The headline (in the preview, as seen on a Facebook post): Irish police drop Stephen Fry blasphemy investigation due to 'lack of outraged people'

The headline in the article itself is of the same spirit (and still great), but the wording is slightly different.

P.S. Don't ask me how much a headline weighs.

(Tip of the cap to whoever posts on behalf of the Douglas Adams page on Facebook.)

Update: Note that the article is from 2017, so it is not new news.

"Forecasting Failure Locations in 2-Dimensional Disordered Lattices"

One of my papers (which we published in PNAS) now has its final coordinates (volume, page numbers, etc.), after previously being posted in 'advanced access'. Here are some details about the article.

Title: Forecasting Failure Locations in 2-Dimensional Disordered Lattices

Authors: Estelle Berthier, Mason A. Porter, and Karen E. Daniels

Abstract: Forecasting fracture locations in a progressively failing disordered structure is of paramount importance when considering structural materials. We explore this issue for gradual deterioration via beam breakage of 2-dimensional (2D) disordered lattices, which we represent as networks, for various values of mean degree. We study experimental samples with geometric structures that we construct based on observed contact networks in 2D granular media. We calculate geodesic edge betweenness centrality, which helps quantify which edges are on many shortest paths in a network, to forecast the failure locations. We demonstrate for the tested samples that, for a variety of failure behaviors, failures occur predominantly at locations that have larger geodesic edge betweenness values than the mean one in the structure. Because only a small fraction of edges have values above the mean, this is a relevant diagnostic to assess failure locations. Our results demonstrate that one can consider only specific parts of a system as likely failure locations and that, with reasonable success, one can assess possible failure locations of a structure without needing to study its detailed energetic states.

Significance Statement: Disordered lattices are used widely for mechanical applications because they are lightweight and robust. Due to their heterogeneous structure, it is a complicated task to understand and forecast their progressive degradation. To safely use these materials and design structures with optimized mechanical properties, it is crucial to understand where failures occur. We show that a simple test that consists of comparing the importance of a beam with respect to the other beams in a lattice permits a successful forecast of the locations of failures. It allows one to consider only a small fraction of the beams as likely failure locations. Our approach also provides a roadmap for studies of failures in other spatial networks.

Twenty Beautiful, Funky Buildings

These buildings are wonderful!

What Happens When You Finish a PhD in Complex Systems

No cynicism or snark at all. :P

When you finish a PhD in complex systems, they take you to a special room and tell you that people are not actually particles.

After you recover, you’re sworn to secrecy, and you can try to publish papers in Nature again. Either that, or you can now join a sociology department. https://t.co/jXAzDuoJ7o

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) September 22, 2019

(By the way, I have been enjoying various instances of this meme that I have encountered during the last couple of days.)

I Have "NoIDEA"

It turns out that there is a journal called "Nonlinear Differential Equations and Applications". The acronym it uses is "NoDEA".

I feel inspired!

I am going to start a journal called "Nonlinear Integro-Differential Equations and Applications", and its acronym will be "NoIDEA"!

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) September 18, 2019

Journal Idea: "Nonlinear Integro-Differential Equations and Applications" (NoIDEA)

It turns out that there is a journal called Nonlinear Differential Equations and Applications and that the acronym it uses is "NoDEA".

I feel inspired!

I am going to start a journal called "Nonlinear Integro-Differential Equations and Applications", and its acronym will be "NoIDEA"!

A Very Large Roll of the Dice (for a Very Large Fireball)

Last Friday (September 13th), a truck turned too sharply, spilling about 216,000 six-sided dice "onto Interstate 75 in Atlanta in what could be the biggest unintentional dice roll ever."

I love the last line of the article: "The truck was undamaged, having made its saving throw."

Note: It would be quite a fireball to require this many d6 rolls!

Note 2: The article title is annoying, as the "perfect" comment is plain wrong. And the 756,000 number doesn't even come from a role. It is estimate based on an equal probability of each outcome for each die and an estimate of the number of dice.

Update: It occurs to me: I'm going to turn this incident into a problem for my mathematical-modeling course.

New Journal Paper: "The Value of Thoughts and Prayers"

A new study, which was just published in PNAS, is called "The Value of Thoughts and Prayers". It considers the monetary value of thoughts and prayers, as quantified in psychology experiments.

This paper seems very worthy of an Ig Nobel Prize, though just seeing the title of it mostly makes me feel sad, despite its amusing (and 'improbable') nature.

(Tip of the cap to Bruno Gonçalves.)

Pictures from Beijing, China (September, 2019)

Here are many pictures from my trip to Beijing, China in September 2019.

RIP Ric Ocasek (1944–2019)

Ric Ocasek, the lead singer of The Cars, died today.

He was older than I thought, although their debut album is from the 1970s, so this age does make sense. I like several of their songs quite a bit, and my favorite is probably "You Might Think".

(Tip of the cap to Misty Beaird‎.)

Update (9/16/19): There is a nice obituary in The New York Times. (Tip of the cap to Diana Thomas.)

2019 Ig Nobel Prizes

The 2019 Ig Nobel Prizes have been announced. I really like the one for medicine (which was awarded to Silvano Gallus, for collecting evidence that pizza might protect against illness and death, if the pizza is made and eaten in Italy), and the physics one (making Patricia Yang and David Hu second-time Ig Nobel laureates) is a familiar study about why wombats have cubic poo. David Hu and his group regularly do a lot of cool, quirky projects.

Maybe I will get one in one of these years...

Turing Clouds: Some Awesome Mathematical Art

My college friend Blake Jones has written up his efforts (including some awesome videos and stills) about Turing clouds.

Here are a couple of stills from Blake's website.

The site has plenty of videos and stills, as well as some behind-the-hood blurbs with lay descriptions of some of
the math and computer science.

A History of Tetris Randomizers

This article about randomizers in the game Tetris is very cool!

(Tip of the cap to Mike Cook.)

A LaTeX Typesetting Game

I am amused.

Do you love LaTeX? Play the nerdiest game ever: https://t.co/YQLFipwOjU

— Melanie Mitchell (@MelMitchell1) September 1, 2019

What Happens in Beijing Stays in Beijing

I am off to China for the first time since 2010, and this time I'll be visiting Beijing.

Quiz: Guess the Paper Topic from the Last Line of the Abstract

Here is the last line of a recent paper's abstract: Moreover, this work presents a new and computationally non-expensive method to account for shrinkage.

Your job is to guess the topic of the paper. (In case you want to cheat, you can look at the paper.)

RIP KFOG 104.5

It was announced today that KFOG 104.5 is soon going to stop playing its brand of music and will instead simulcast from its sister sports station KNBR.

After KSCA 101.9's brief adult-alternative format died (it too broadcast The Dr. Demento Show) and it was possible to get radio stations from around the country over the internet, I listened to KFOG (which had a similar format, as well as Dr. D) a good amount for a while. Whenever my Mac would die and I didn't have access to iTunes for a while, KFOG was a also a station that I sought out during the dry spells.

Alas, as announced today, KFOG is switching formats after many years. It's a pity. In many ways, it's a natural progression — I, and many others, meet our musical needs differently nowadays — but it still makes me feel a bit sad.

Incidentally, it was through 101.9 and the aforementioned format that I first heard a song by Loreena McKennitt.

Emoji Expression

I think that I was pretty clever with this one. :)

I hope that some of you will be able to figure out the song.

Using emoji:

Relationship status: 👤
Kids: 🙄
Pets: ❌
Favorite color: 🍇
Favorite foods: ☕️🍦🍒
Favorite animal: 🦖🦕
Favorite season: ⚾️
Favorite holiday: 🎲🎮♟
Favorite song:😍🤫
Favorite books:🐉🐲⚔️🗡😈👻👹👾
Favorite sports: ⚾️🏓🎱
Occupation: 👨🏻‍🔬👨🏻‍🏫♾
Most used emoji: 😱 https://t.co/dyTkTjzK2e

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) August 26, 2019

Very Cool Artwork of Light and Shadow

Kumi Yamashita's art with light and shadow is very cool!

The unique light and shadow installations of artist Kumi Yamashita are usually made from ordinary, everyday objects – building blocks, thread, nails, paper cutouts, fabric, and wood, which she then manages to turn into sophisticated imagery https://t.co/OhF8hLF7HA pic.twitter.com/bCRGwq1vMA

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 20, 2019

Cicadas and Amusing Lab Hijinks

I am amused!

A few weeks ago I left a cicada shell on my colleague’s desk to scare her. Today I came in to find this on my desk - our full lab reconstructed in terrifying detail. There’s an Irish one wearing glasses READING MY REVIEW PAPER. I’m simultaneously traumatised and dying of laughter pic.twitter.com/NzF25pBpYe

— Dr Grace Hallinan (@GraceHallinan) August 16, 2019

(Tip of the cap to Lindsey N. Walker.)

Trying to Trademark the Word "The"

THE Ohio State University is apparently trying to trademark the word "the". Oy vey.

I love University of Michigan's response on Twitter.

™ pic.twitter.com/bx2vTBUtst

— University of Michigan (@UMich) August 14, 2019

List: "Critically Acclaimed Horror Film of the 2010s or Your Ph.D. Program"

Well, this list is both amusing and cynical (with several loud rings of truth, unfortunately).

(Tip of the cap to Suzanne Sindi.)

New XKCD: How Many Coins for a Cinnamon Roll?

The latest xkcd is great!

What Happens at WorldCon Stays at WorldCon

I am heading over to Dublin for this year's WorldCon!

My schedule is below.

I'll be presenting a few mathematical and science things at #WorldCon2019 #Dublin2019 (@Dublin2019) in a couple of weeks, my first time presenting at a science-fiction convention!

Here is my schedule.

And the website for my academic friends: https://t.co/J4WQPQ1Q0t pic.twitter.com/Aoh6nDgYy7

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) August 1, 2019

One of my Favorite Oxonian Ironies: 5 Years Ago Today

Oxford is a place of ironies — that's one of its great charms — and one of my favorite ones occurred 5 years ago today.

On that day, an outdoor showing of the movie "Singing in the Rain" was cancelled because of rain. pic.twitter.com/701kNm1Xk4

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) August 10, 2019

Tales from the ArXiv: An 81-Panel Figure

Oy vey.

This figure is from this paper.

Critical-Failure Dice

I need to get myself some of these critical-failure dice, which replace the "1" (for critical misses, of course) in the 20-sided die by the f-word. I want some!

And I especially like the new rainbow version of these dice!

Update (8/05/19): My dice arrived today!

Gerrymandering Fonts

If the exact intersection of your interests is graphic design and a deeply abiding hatred of partisan gerrymandering, then have I got the font for you: pic.twitter.com/w1j6iQvANh

— Morgan Baskin (@mhbaskin) August 1, 2019

UCLA's New Undergraduate Major in "Data Theory"

At @UCLA (joint between the Math & Stats departments), I helped design a brand new, very exciting Data Theory undergraduate major.

Courses: https://t.co/z27ZJybKQj

To look up course identities: https://t.co/cHcYrQzVcH

Catalog listing: https://t.co/MMOfGX4Cf4 pic.twitter.com/ZZA4E1G8tE

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) August 1, 2019

"Callin' Oates"

You can call the phone number in this picture to get your Hall & Oates fix (in an emergency, of course). Oh, wow!

P.S. I called the number. This is wrong on many levels, but fantastic on many others!

(Tip of the cap to Angela Wilkerson Fitch.)

Wikipedia Page: List of Obsolete Units of Measurement

There is a Wikipedia page that gives a list of obselete units of measurement.

(Tip of the cap to John Dudley.)

Tales from the ArXiv: Everybody Loves Coupled Oscillators (and the Michigan Rag)

If this were my study and I were giving a talk about it, Michigan J. Frog would surely make an appearance.

New on arXiv: "Interaction Mechanisms Quantified from Dynamical Features of Frog Choruses" (by Kaiichiro Ota, Ikkyu Aihara, Toshio Aoyagi): https://t.co/TUWa7wbXwB

[a phase-oscillator model of interactions underlying the choruses of male Japanese tree frogs]

— DynamicalSystemsSIAM (@DynamicsSIAM) July 29, 2019

The Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI) Refrigerator is Tweeting Again

It's baaaaaack: the MBI refrigerator is up and tweeting again.

Illustration of a Queuing System

I am amused. :)

Note their little diplomas and numbering.

(From Kleinrock, 1967) pic.twitter.com/EwYSHsUYNz

— Rachel Traylor (@Mathpocalypse) July 19, 2019

The Physics of Paper Springs!

There is a new paper in Physical Review E about the physics of paper springs (i.e., springs that one constructs by folding paper). I used to do that as a kid, and I think it's really cool that there is now a scientific article about it!

The physics of a paper spring https://t.co/5yMjj4uXuM pic.twitter.com/zilPHpOGeS

— Steven Strogatz (@stevenstrogatz) July 18, 2019

"Who is the Most Important Character in Frozen? What Networks Can Tell Us about the World"

Petter Holme, Hiroki Sayama, and I decided to take on the challenge of writing a mathematics paper for Frontiers for Young Minds, a scientific journal for young readers. Only a handful of mathematics papers have been published among their many hundreds of articles. We decided to give an introduction to networks through the movie Frozen and calculation of centralities. Our paper came out today, and here are some details. You can take a look at our paper either at their website or in .pdf form.

Title: Who is the Most Important Character in Frozen? What Networks Can Tell Us about the World

Authors: Petter Holme, Mason A. Porter, and Hiroki Sayama

Abstract: How do we determine the important characters in a movie like Frozen? We can watch it, of course, but there are also other ways—using mathematics and computers—to see who is important in the social network of a story. The idea is to compute numbers called centralities, which are ways of measuring who is important in social networks. In this paper, we talk about how different types of centralities measure importance in different ways. We also discuss how people use centralities to study many kinds of networks, not just social ones. Scientists are now developing centrality measures that also consider changes over time and different types of relationships.

What Happens in Oxford Stays in Oxford (2019 Edition)

I just got to Oxford this afternoon. Naturally, I already someone I knew on the bus from the airport, and I saw someone else I knew very shortly upon arrival.

I am only staying 6 days this time, although originally I had planned to stay longer. The experience getting to Dresden was harrowing, and I decided to blow up my summer plans and return home much earlier. (A roughly 6.5-week trip is now a roughly 1.5-week one, though I will technically still be using the last week of it—but with an extra round-trip flight from Los Angeles.)

What Happens in Dresden Stays in Dresden (2019 Edition)

I am here in Dresden for our workshop on granular and particulate networks.

This is the first stop on my (now significantly shortened) 2019 European summer tour.

Drosophila Karaoke

My students do so many awesome things!

My former doctoral student Birgit Brüggemeier, who got her doctoral degree as part of my group, has a very cool art project called "Drosophila Karaoke Bar" (which, I suppose, is the modern version of of her old Drosophila Disco).

In the installation, visitors can interact with flies by speaking into a microphone. Their speech is then electronically remixed with fruit fly song and played back to flies who visitors watch on a screen. Very cool!

Right now, it is being exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in Vilnius. Later this year, it will be exhibited at Ars Electronica in Linz, which is one of the world's largest media-art events.

Counting Bots with a Math Dracula

I forced a bot to watch over 1,000 hours of Sesame Street and then asked it to write an episode of Sesame Street of its own. Here is the first page. pic.twitter.com/0R2Ww4JkH2

— Keaton Patti (@KeatonPatti) July 2, 2019

(Tip of the cap to Kate Owens.)

RIP Mitchell Feigenbaum (1944–2019)

Mathematical physicist Mitchell Feigenbaum, known for his work on the period-doubling route to chaos in the logistic map and other nonlinear phenomena, died over the weekend.

Here is his wikipedia page.

Update (7/18/19): Today, The New York Times published an obituary of Feigenbaum. The first picture in it is fantastic!

Update (7/23/19): Here is a very nice blog entry by Stephen Wolfram about Feigenbaum, his constant, and other bits of Feigenbaum's history.)

"Multivariate Spatiotemporal Hawkes Processes and Network Reconstruction"

A new paper of mine just came out in final form. Here are some details.

Title: Multivariate Spatiotemporal Hawkes Processes and Network Reconstruction

Authors: Baichuan Yuan, Hao Li, Andrea L. Bertozzi, P. Jeffrey Brantingham, and Mason A. Porter

Abstract: There is often latent network structure in spatial and temporal data, and the tools of network analysis can yield fascinating insights into such data. In this paper, we develop a nonparametric method for network reconstruction from spatiotemporal data sets using multivariate Hawkes processes. In contrast to prior work on network reconstruction with point-process models, which has often focused on exclusively temporal information, our approach uses both temporal and spatial information and does not assume a specific parametric form of network dynamics. This leads to an effective way of recovering an underlying network. We illustrate our approach using both synthetic networks and networks that we construct from real-world data sets (a location-based social-media network, a narrative of crime events, and violent gang crimes). Our results demonstrate that, in comparison to using only temporal data, our spatiotemporal approach yields improved network reconstruction, providing a basis for meaningful subsequent analysis—such as examinations of community structure and motifs—of the reconstructed networks.

Settlers of Combinatorics

And it's still the case that nobody will want your damn sheep!

Want to play every possible game configuration in (Settlers of) Catan? It will take a while. According to Austin, Kronenthal, and Miller's "Settlers of 'Catanbinatorics,'" that's 20,369,419,560 games. https://t.co/LMF8P9Gpfi pic.twitter.com/nzqiPUshVn

— Dave Richeson (@divbyzero) June 25, 2019

"Nonlinear Excitations in Magnetic Lattices with Long-Range Interactions"

A paper of mine appeared in final form a few days ago. Here are the details.

Title: Nonlinear Excitations in Magnetic Lattices with Long-Range Interactions

Authors: Miguel Molerón, Chris Chong, Alejandro J. Martínez, Mason A. Porter, Panayotis G. Kevrekidis, and
Chiara Daraio

Abstract: We study—experimentally, theoretically, and numerically—nonlinear excitations in lattices of magnets with long-range interactions. We examine breather solutions, which are spatially localized and periodic in time, in a chain with algebraically-decaying interactions. It was established two decades ago (Flach 1998 Phys. Rev. E 58 R4116) that lattices with long-range interactions can have breather solutions in which the spatial decay of the tails has a crossover from exponential to algebraic decay. In this article, we revisit this problem in the setting of a chain of repelling magnets with a mass defect and verify, both numerically and experimentally, the existence of breathers with such a crossover.

The Fastest E-Mailer in the West

I sometimes respond to e-mails before they're event sent. :P

If you know me personally and you write to me by e-mail, and I do not respond in some form within a couple of days, I am probably dead. https://t.co/iCcuXGgGca

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) June 25, 2019

Digital Archæoludology: Studying Ancient Games with Machine Learning

Digital Archæoludology is a new field that concerns the computational study of ancient game using tools like machine learning. Very cool!

Here is the arXiv paper that led to the above popular piece.

Game on!

My Six-Word Horror Story

"Microsoft Word format required for submissions."#SixWordHorror #SixWordHorrorStory https://t.co/NQ19cnvWio

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) June 18, 2019

The First Hipster?

Monk-dude with cool glasses gazing at the world around him while his fellow monks sing songs - manuscript datable to 1325-1350, which makes this an early depiction of spectacles (Besançon, BM, 140). pic.twitter.com/o43bnHHxn5

— Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) May 14, 2019

(Tip of the cap to Nicholas Christakis.)

Jenny's Constant

How did I not know this? There is a Jenny's constant (for real!)!

As quoted in the above entry in the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences:

First few digits reproduce the digits of the phone number in the song "867-5309/Jenny" performed by Tommy Tutone.

The next digit is a 0, and the following 4 digits (1, 9, 8, 1) are the year the song was recorded (1981). (Noticed by Rob Johnson of the explainxkcd.com forums)

(Tip of the cap to Nalini Joshi. Nalini's tweet included a link to this old xkcd (which I had forgotten about, and I don't think I had ever followed the rabbit hole about Jenny's constant.)

UCLA's 2019 Mathematics Commencement Ceremony

As you can see from the short video below, this is how we do things in the UCLA mathematics commencement ceremony.

(I am the one in bright red. It's because of my Cornell doctoral degree, but these are almost almost Somerville colors. You can tell the birds from the colors of their feathers.)



Many undergrads from my courses, as well as ones who are doing research projects with me, participated in the ceremony.

Before the ceremony, in the mathematics department lounge, our commencement speaker asked me if I was graduating. He said that I look very young, but I am more than a decade older than he is!

Hidden Giant Art in the Wilderness of Copenhagen

This hidden giant art (and its implementation) is so awesome!

(Tip of the cap to Christopher Dempsey.)

My 2011 D & D Character Sheet (According to my Students)

In 2011, I was honored and flattered when some of my @SomervilleOx students made a D & D character sheet for me: https://t.co/JOlvWpRI2b

They were wrong about my alignment and my diety, but that's ok.

Also, I have a +5 Vorpal Red Pen and a Decanter of Infinite Ice Latte. pic.twitter.com/hMd9jzHHWt

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) June 14, 2019

P.S. In case you are interested, here is my 2011 blog entry and the discussion therein.

A Colorful Visual Illusion

All the balls are the same color — and that color is *brown*! pic.twitter.com/JriPXHnNYR

— Chaz Firestone (@chazfirestone) June 14, 2019

(Tip of the cap to Lucas Lacasa.)

Spot-On SMBC Comic about Scientific "Findings"

The comic-strip author this one.

Mouseover text: "Somewhere, there's a scientist reading this, wonder[ing] why I made a comic with no hyperbole."

Some scientists get all the breaks pic.twitter.com/l327NT5vFd

— Adam J Calhoun (@neuroecology) June 14, 2019

Introductory Paragraph from a Book on Type Theory: A Wild Adventure

Now I want to start an actual scientific paper in this style. :P

Wow, this intro to type theory book doesn’t mess around. pic.twitter.com/ESiSvmMPV9

— Fogus’ Wake (@fogus) June 13, 2019

(Tip of the cap to David Bindel.)

Tales from the ArXiv: "Bourgeois Functions"

The snippet below, from this new paper makes me wonder about a rigorous definition of a "bourgeois function"... 🤔

Awesome Talks by My Students and Postdoc at the Snowbird Conference!

Awesome talks by my students & postdocs at #SIAMDS19!

Heather Brooks (@HZinnbrooks): https://t.co/SDWGU4tTeR

Michelle Feng (@michellehfeng): https://t.co/EpOQTqrsom

Yacoub Kureh (@Yacoub_Kureh): https://t.co/Y31nfpCjm7

Alice Schwarze (@aliceschwarze): https://t.co/k9Ete7BkEv pic.twitter.com/MGojbXkqdH

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) June 10, 2019

20th Anniversary of Bobby Valentine's Dugout Disguise

Twenty years ago today, Bobby Valentine pulled his famous stunt. I remember watching this game on television.

It was awesome when Ichiro Suzuki paid homage to this incident last year.

Typograms

Very nice!

A typogram is a word or a series of words written and disposed in such a manner that they illustrates what they mean. Artist Aaron Kuehn brings the typograms at a new level by dwaring complex systems depicted using only the names of their parts https://t.co/xDlvbZ1YWO pic.twitter.com/jvMgWbeld4

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 8, 2019

Amazing Sculptures from Tightly-Rolled Newspapers

These are incredible!

Japanese Artist Tightly Rolls Newspaper To Create Incredibly Realistic Animal Sculptures https://t.co/wgxGL3848A

— Archpng (@archpng) June 8, 2019

35th Anniversary of the Release of Tetris

Happy 35th anniversary, Tetris!

#Today in 1984, #Tetris was first released https://t.co/GONHKVxEOx #HappyBirthdayTetris pic.twitter.com/wJUQzBVooa

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 7, 2019

Terry Tao's Guest-Starring Role in "Math With Bad Drawings"

pic.twitter.com/JChbKy1voN

— Ben Orlin (@benorlin) June 6, 2019

P.S. Terry's reaction was amusing when I showed this to him. :)

A Yiddish Proverb with Mixed Feelings

Let's just say that I have mixed feelings about this proverb.

The heart of a man may be compared to a sausage; no one can tell exactly what's inside. — Jewish proverb

— Yiddish Proverbs (@YiddishProverbs) June 4, 2019

(Tip of the cap to Benjamin E. Hardisty.)

Actual (Perhaps?) New Idea: Pogo Sticks Instead of E-Scooters

What could possibly go wrong?

How can this not be a joke? https://t.co/2ZoAPBE4Pz

— Carl T. Bergstrom (@CT_Bergstrom) June 3, 2019

Also: #nottheOnion

Update: One of my friends was suggesting that this is a joke from the 'company', and that may be true. There are so many real ridiculous things nowadays that I find it hard to tell.

A 1930s Pictorial Vision of the Future

Hey, look. Flying cars!

There are many cool things about this picture.

A vision of the future, from 1930. What do you find most interesting? https://t.co/g6aV3jtTfm pic.twitter.com/LoBoMuyxzF

— Cliff Pickover (@pickover) June 2, 2019

"Apostryphal Grammatical Constructions"

I think that "apostryphal" really ought to be a valid adjective. That seems like a great way to discuss apostrophes, especially when they annoy me or I want to change them.

Based on my quick googling, however, this appears to be apocryphal.

I also like the idea of evoking apocalypses in related comments and puns.

Example usage: "I rewrote the sentence to avoid apostryphal grammar."

A Paper from Hell

It had to be done.

'Faces in Things' Twitter Account

This is glorious, of course.

I'm always watching, Wazowski.

Always watching. pic.twitter.com/r43ATUqoEg

— Faces in Things (@FacesPics) May 31, 2019

ASCII Fluid Dynamics

This is really cool.

ASCII fluid dynamics. You didn't know you wanted to see this, but you do.https://t.co/DNpdVUM6dr

— ℝafael Bailo (@rtsbailo) May 31, 2019

The Oldest Current Major League Baseball Players

Now that Fernando Rodney is no longer on a roster, the oldest Major Leaguer is Albert Pujols, who is currently 39. Rich Hill is the second-oldest.

I don't know the answer to this, but I wonder how long it's been since there hasn't been anybody who is at least 40 in the Majors?

RIP Murray Gell-Mann (1929–2019)

Nobel Laureate Murray Gell-Mann, one of the giants of theoretical physics (including some work in complex systems, in the later stages of his career) died today.

Update: Here is an obituary from Caltech that focuses on his things like his contributions to particle physics (e.g., his development of quarks and quantum chromodynamics). By contrast, his obituary from Santa Fe Institute focuses on his contributions to the study of complex systems.

Update: The New York Times has now published an obituary.

(Tip of the cap to John Preskill.)

An XKCD Comic about Adjustments for High Altitude

On the heels of my return from the 2019 Snowbird conference late last night (and the fact that, at least for one year, we're finally changing the venue), I am highly amused by the xkcd comic about high altitude.

I especially like the Nena one ("Nuclear war can be triggered with only 94 red balloons") and the Scrabble one ("Scrabble letters are worth 16% more").

Once More, With Feeling: What Happens in Snowbird Stays in Snowbird

I'm heading to my 10th "Snowbird" conference! (I have missed only the 2005 one since my first one in 1999.)
Counting the 2014 MRC, this is my 11th trip to Snowbird.

This is possibly the last one that will actually be in Snowbird. (I'm looking forward to the conference being in Portland in 2021.)

Let's get this party started.

Schmutzphysik and Schmutzmathematik

I love the German version of the term!

As an applied mathematician who studies nonlinear and complex systems, I'll say it loudly and proudly: I study _both_ Schmutzphysik and Schmutzmathematik!

From "When condensed-matter physics became king": https://t.co/uttZ3BMoKB pic.twitter.com/LTgipBv2uc

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) May 17, 2019

(I'm also used to the 'schmutz' from Yiddish from the family.)

"Why Teachers Should Read John Urschel's Book"

Courtesy of Math with Bad Drawings, here are five (very!) important takeaway messages from John Urschel's new book.

https://t.co/8ut7tFPLte

— Ben Orlin (@benorlin) May 15, 2019

(Tip of the cap to Alex Kontorovich.

RIP Tim Conway (1933–2019)

This morning, we lost Tim Conway, one of the world's great comedians. Tim Conway was so funny! I remember seeing some of his skits on The Carol Burnett Show, and I also remember some of his sound bites from Jim Healy's radio show.

A 'Lucky Charms' Plot

I've been wanting to make a 'Lucky Charms' plot for years.

Here is one.

I've wanted to produce a plot with a `Lucky Charms' (@LuckyCharms) theme for years.

Now I just need to find a good way to put one in a scientific paper. pic.twitter.com/dHChWIkBTM

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) May 14, 2019

Lego Monuments

Wow!

15 Stunning LEGO Versions Of World Famous Monuments https://t.co/XvWqciWHEl

— Archpng (@archpng) May 11, 2019

Poissonian Fish

After catching a fishy phrase — "fraction of failing breams", which I corrected to "fraction of failing beams" — in my manuscript draft (though Juan G. Restrepo has suggested the dystopian "fraction of failing dreams" as a possible correction), I noticed in a Google Scholar e-mail that my work was cited recently by a paper called The Contact Structure of Great Britain's Salmon and Trout Aquaculture Industry (which has nothing to do with any baseball players on the Angels). This made me think of "failed salmon" and "failed trout" and gives possible inspiration for writing a paper with a title like Percolation on Fish(y) Networks. My mind continued to descend in a fishy direction, so I decided to plot Poisson distributions of fish (as you can see in my tweet).

Here are some Poisson distributions of fish. pic.twitter.com/wZ367E4GVg

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) May 11, 2019

The Original People of Los Angeles

Here is an online vignette from a Los Angeles Times project about the origins of Los Angeles.

Quoting from the vignette: "The original people of Los Angeles, the Tongva, defined their world as Tovaangar. It extended from Palos Verdes to San Bernardino, from Saddleback Mountain to the San Fernando Valley."

(Tip of the cap to Paulette Steeves.)

Footnote of the Day

This is truly the craziest footnote I have ever seen #twitterstorians pic.twitter.com/Sylg24CHYd

— Kara Schlichting (@KaraSchlichting) May 9, 2019

Update: I was point to this document by a friend of mine. He points out that footnotes 1–4 are very amusing, and I especially like number 3: "If large telescope arrays feel they must talk of attojoules per hectare per century, for some reason, they’re going to have to be careful how they do so; it’s probably best not to even think about atto-Henrys."

Old Book Covers: Much Cooler Than Today

Book covers used to be so much cooler than they are now.

(I already knew this, but this is a particularly good example.)

I love the lengthy title-pages in some historical books. This one is particularly extraordinary!
- The Flash Mirror (c.1840) pic.twitter.com/K7XGUIYOz5

— Dr Bob Nicholson (@DigiVictorian) September 6, 2018

Albert Pujols Becomes Fifth Major Leaguer with 2000 Runs Batted In!

Albert Pujols has become the fifth Major League Baseball player to reach 2000 runs batted in (RBIs). This is quite a rare milestone. Hank Aaron is first on the career RBI list, followed by Babe Ruth (with an estimated total), Alex Rodriguez, Cap Anson (with an estimated total), and then Pujols. Here is the list of career leaders.

The article shouldn't say that Pujols is the "third" player with 2000 or more RBIs. That statement is highly misleading.

RBIs do involve a lot of help from one's friends, but this is still very nice. Pujols is hanging on that this point, but given how RBIs work, hitting a few homers and having people like Mike Trout on base in front of him for three more years could be enough for Pujols to get the record. The chances are pretty good.

Tales from the ArXiv: Today's Scientific Acronym Award Winner is "STROOPWAFEL"

And today's scientific acronym award goes to... this paper, which introduces the acronym STROOPWAFEL (which stands for "Simulating The Rare Outcomes Of Populations With AIS For Efficient Learning").

I could use a stroopwafel... Yum...

Awesome Watercolor Doors

These watercolor paintings of doors are really awesome!

(Tip of the cap to Archpng.)

"Unhappy Meals"

I am highly amused by Burger King's new Unhappy Meals (which are actually called "Real Meals").

I am surprised, given it's appearance as part of George Carlin's seven dirty words, that a "Pissed Meal" is included. (This would have a far different meaning in the United Kingdom, by the way.) I think that a "DGAF Meal", however, would appeal to me. ;P

(Tip of the cap to John Baker.)

The Geometric Art of Saskia Freeke

Saskia Freeke makes some really nice geometric art and posts it regularly on Twitter. I really like today's example.

Geometric Shapes / 190503#processing #creativecoding #everyday pic.twitter.com/oZXnCLZWSo

— Saskia Freeke (@sasj_nl) May 3, 2019

An Icosahedral Pecan Pie

In 2009 or thereabouts, Charless Fowlkes and his collaborators made a large icosahedral pecan pie.

Just don't roll a 1 on this 20-sided die.

(Tip of the cap to Karen Kustedjo.)

Topological Trivial Pursuit, Genus VII Edition

The game Trivial Pursuit has a Genus edition (also called "Genus I" edition), Genus II edition, Genus III edition, and so on.

It would have been really nice if they had made topologically correct versions of those various games.

Coming soon: "Topological Trivial Pursuit, Genus VII edition"

Jigsaw Puzzle Mash-Ups

Apparently, entirely different jigsaw puzzles use pieces of the same shape, so some person created some mash-ups.

I think my favorites are #4 and #11.

"Consider yourself hugged." (You'll know it when you see it.)

(Tip of the cap to Sean Blacklidge.)