I couldn't wait until Halloween to make this picture... pic.twitter.com/r9ivfghzpj
— Mason Porter (@masonporter) September 24, 2014
19 hours ago
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Tonight is a Night for Spectral Graph Theory
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Monday, October 21, 2019
The Two–Infinity Norm and Beyond!
Two–infinity and beyond!!! pic.twitter.com/b2KGnIol35
— Mason Porter (@masonporter) October 21, 2019
Sunday, October 20, 2019
What Happens in Washington, D.C. Stays in Washington, D.C.
I suppose that truer words were never written.
In any event, today I am heading off to Washington, D.C. to principal-investigator workshop that is related to a new NSF grant of mine.
On Thursday, I'll be giving a seminar in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at George Mason University. It will be Mason@Mason — a fixed point!
In any event, today I am heading off to Washington, D.C. to principal-investigator workshop that is related to a new NSF grant of mine.
On Thursday, I'll be giving a seminar in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at George Mason University. It will be Mason@Mason — a fixed point!
Friday, October 18, 2019
A Beautiful Map of Mathematics
My latest pseudo-mathematical project.... pic.twitter.com/BzNYMw3DEt
— Sam Cohen (@SamCMaths) October 18, 2019
For details of the construction, see this page.
I am — literally! — all over the map.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
A Skirt Made of Rejection Letters
“I just searched for ‘unfortunately’ and ‘we regret to inform you’ in my email.”
— hardmaru 😷 (@hardmaru) October 16, 2019
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
(Tip of the cap to Petter Holme.)
Saturday, October 12, 2019
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!
Tuesday, October 08, 2019
A Spectacular List of Errata
Friday, October 04, 2019
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
In case you're wondering, it is from this song
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
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:
— Dr Elizabeth Bruton 🏳️🌈 (@lizbruton) October 1, 2019
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
Monday, September 30, 2019
Cool Art: Geometric Flat Lays from Kristen Meyer
Kristen Meyer's art is really cool!
Take a look at her Instagram page. Among her particularly nice pieces is this one.
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.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
"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.
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.
Monday, September 23, 2019
Saturday, September 21, 2019
What Happens When You Finish a PhD in Complex Systems
No cynicism or snark at all. :P
(By the way, I have been enjoying various instances of this meme that I have encountered during the last couple of days.)
When you finish a PhD in complex systems, they take you to a special room and tell you that people are not actually particles.
— Mason Porter (@masonporter) September 22, 2019
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
(By the way, I have been enjoying various instances of this meme that I have encountered during the last couple of days.)
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
I Have "NoIDEA"
It turns out that there is a journal called "Nonlinear Differential Equations and Applications". The acronym it uses is "NoDEA".
— Mason Porter (@masonporter) September 18, 2019
I feel inspired!
I am going to start a journal called "Nonlinear Integro-Differential Equations and Applications", and its acronym will be "NoIDEA"!
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