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.