Math Hut

The future of Math Hut

2008-02-18T21:39:00.003-05:00

This blog is moribund. What do you want to do about it?

I invite open discussion on the topic. I'll post one suggestion in a comment.

Anyone there?

2008-01-28T22:28:00.000-05:00

With one of the more interesting primary seasons underway, I'm surprised there has been no activity here. Is anyone home?

Would anyone like to predict who wins in Florida? On Super Tuesday? Whether the conventions turn interesting because no one has a majority headed in?

Colbert for president

2007-10-17T19:53:00.000-04:00

Stephen Colbert is officially running for president. He's going to be in the primaries in South Carolina (his home state). I think I'll try to convince people here to vote him.

The Chaser

2007-09-17T23:56:00.000-04:00

Can a Canadian flag get Osama bin Laden into the APEC meeting? The Chaser's War on Everything tried to find out, with hilarious results and unfortunate arrests. The full episode (Episode 15) can be downloaded at idents.tv.

An Inconvenient Diet?

2007-08-29T08:47:00.000-04:00

The New York Times is reporting that according to the United Nations, "...the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined". This was a surprise to me.

I think people would be more likely to change what they drive then change their diet. Given the small percentage of vegetarians it seems like this new issue could fragment the environmental movement. Perhaps this might even cause more harm then good?

Debate debate

2007-07-23T23:27:00.001-04:00

The YouTube debate on CNN tonight kicked ass. It was fast-paced, and the candidates got to cover a wide range of issues. Overall, I think the quality of the Democratic field is very high, with broad consensus on the important issues of our day. It's quite a stark contrast with part of a Republican debate I watched earlier this year, the major themes of which were 9/11, terror, 9/11, stay the course in Iraq, 9/11, fear, 9/11, surge!, 9/11, and links between Saddam and Osama.

Which video did you like best? Whom do you support? Discuss.

Le Tour

2007-07-13T20:30:00.000-04:00

Is anyone following the Tour de France this year? For those of us that don't get the race on TV, are there web sites that are doing live tracking/ commentary that you'd recommend?

And more importantly, are there particular riders I should be rooting for (other than anyone tough enough to gut out two weeks on a bike with a broken tailbone)?

I know everything!

2007-06-23T01:10:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Jacob pointed me toward the pilot for Heat Vision and Jack. It's a brilliant pilot directed by Ben Stiller and starring Jack Black that never got picked up by the networks. You can get the details here. Anyway, it may not be for everyone, but I was amused by it.

Freakin' brilliant

2007-05-30T23:55:00.000-04:00

The new Wendy's ad is freakin' brilliant.

The ad starts out with a bunch of idiots kicking trees. A guy dressed in a Wendy's wig realizes he doesn't have to be an idiot and stops kicking his tree. He realizes that he's in the mood for a juicy Wendy's burger. After he declaims this desire, some of the other tree-kickers start follow him in search of a Wendy's burger.

The first reason why the ad is brilliant is the sheer absurdity of it all. And the second reason is because it insults you, the viewer. The ad is the guy who stops kicking trees; you are one of the other idiotic, suggestible tree-kickers who's suddenly in the mood for a Wendy's burger because some guy (or some ad) says they're good.

But the real reason why the ad is brilliant is that the ad smacks of awareness of its own insult. The implication is that Wendy's burgers are so good that Wendy's can call you a suggestible idiot and you'll still eat there. And that insulting prophesy will surely be self-fulfilling in many cases.

In a world of vapid advertisements that hide their contempt for the consumer behind patronizing noise and imagery, it's refreshing to have one that has the courage to put its disrespect for the consumer right out in the open.

Kaye Effect video

2007-04-17T10:00:00.000-04:00

I hope all the physics geeks out there have seen this video of a stable Kaye effect. It's absolutely fascinating!

Save the chocolate!

2007-04-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

I just saw this on the Ph.D. comic blog:
Hershey and some other chocolate manufacturers are trying to get the FDA to change their rules so that they can use vegetable oil instead of cacao butter or milk fats and still call it chocolate! This is terrible!!! They already have an FDA approved name for things like that they are called Made with Chocolate or Chocolatey or Chocolate Flavored. There's a reason those things aren't just called chocolate...

Anyway, there's a group that's organizing protests to the FDA called Don't Mess With Our Chocolate.

The Boston Marathon

2007-04-13T15:11:00.000-04:00

I work in Hopkinton (the start of the marathon) and plan to walk over to the starting line on Monday. The field contains a number of great runners, but the most exciting part may well be the weather. Granted, I'd still watch the race anyway :), but this has the potential to make it much more exciting.

A new graduate...

2007-04-11T08:40:00.000-04:00

I can post again! I wasn't able to for a little while so this is a bit old but...
Mike Slakenerny has graduated!!
So as I told our graduate students, even in a fictional comic everyone gets out of grad school eventually; see there's hope! ;) It will be interesting to see where he goes from here...

Open thread

2007-04-11T00:09:00.000-04:00

So it seems that the new blogger sucks. I'm trying a test right now to reinvite a few people in the hopes that that's all it will take to restore access. If the test goes well, I'll dig through my e-mail for everyone's addresses. If your e-mail has changed since you last contacted me, drop me a message. I'm reachable at my standard username at my alum account.

In the meantime, post discussion topics as comments.

Missing Mac Options :(

2007-04-06T23:24:00.000-04:00

Does anyone here have a mac? My hard drive failed, and after reinstalling (on a new hard drive), the "Options..." button on the Airport sheet in the Network prefpane in system preferences doesn't work anymore. It says it can't create a window because it's not a modal session. I've tried everything I can think of except reinstalling the OS (because that seems to be overkill for such a small thing). It's not that I don't know how to change the plist manually. It's just that's it's particularly galling to have such a problem with a mac; I mean, it's not like it's a windows machine. I searched online and was able to find seven (7) other people who had posted about the same problem on the apple site. It even has a radar bug number...and has for several years! It's annoying because it's probably the sort of thing that would be really easy to fix if only you could figure out what the problem was. Any ideas?

New RPG

2007-03-09T10:08:00.000-05:00

I just got a new computer game, Shady O'Grady's Rising Star. It's an RPG, but instead of creating a band with a wizard, a fighter, an elf, etc., you have a literal band with a drummer, a bass player, etc. The graphics are not the best, but it's really fun to play. There is a demo available for download, so if you like RPGs, you might want to look at it. It's made by a company called Gilligames; I actually hadn't heard of it until they interviewed the developer on MTV.

Sandwich at Scollay Square

2007-03-07T23:32:00.000-05:00

I hear that the MBTA has gotten rid of T tokens and now has a fare system known as the "CharlieCard." So, T'ers, how's that working out? Do you miss the old tokens? Do the free subway-to-bus transfers make up for the higher price?

Anna Nicole

2007-02-09T19:52:00.000-05:00

So, does anyone care about Anna Nicole Smith? Her claims to fame are tenuous at best, with the possible exception of being a Supreme Court litigant, although that's hardly why anyone cared about her. Why does her death have to suck up all the oxygen from other news stories that actually matter?

Gotta love Colbert

2007-01-30T00:03:00.000-05:00

Only Stephen Colbert can change reality (compare)... but not for long.

Getting bigger

2006-12-29T00:05:00.000-05:00

Go Liechtenstein! The tiny little country is now slightly less tiny.

Speaking of getting bigger, the 30-team NHL is considering reorganizing from six 5-team divisions (3 per conference, like this) to four divisions: one with 7 teams and one with 8 teams per conference. The plan would be for the top two teams from each division to be guaranteed playoff spots, along with four wildcard spots per division. This is inequitable in terms of playoff-spot allocation, though less so than it would seem; division rivals play each other frequently, so it would be extremely improbable for the eight playoff spots to be allocated 7-1 between two divisions.

But the reorganization would be appropriate if the league ever expands to 32 teams. Leaving aside considerations of the financial viability of a 32-team league, which two cities would you like to see get an NHL franchise? Seattle? Winnipeg? Las Vegas? Houston? Omaha? Quebec? Cleveland? Halifax? Clemson? :-) Let your imagination run wild....

Women in science and engineering

2006-12-19T09:39:00.000-05:00

There's an interesting article in the NY Times about women in engineering and science. As a women in engineering, I must say that I sadly know first hand some of the issues they bring up (especially with regard to staying in academia).

The one that particularly annoys me because it's so stupid is the whole double standard in dress code. I want to wear jeans too. gosh darn it! and I hate wearing heels all day... (although I think I can get away without them because I'm tall.) But now that I'm going to be Prof. Finou (I signed my offer letter last week. Yay!), I will need to "suit up!" now all the time and not just for teaching class... Sigh... I'll miss my jeans...

Me

2006-12-17T00:35:00.000-05:00

Time magazine named me Person of the Year. It's about time. Critics overwhelmingly agree that I was far more qualified to earn the coveted honour than Dubya in 2004. I was disappointed again in 2005; if they had room amongst their three slots for half of the Stephen and Melinda Gates Foundation, how could they have overlooked me? But I finally got the praise I deserve, so suck on that, Donald Rumsfeld. :-)

Democrats may lose control of the Senate?

2006-12-14T01:01:00.000-05:00

It appears that the senior Senator from South Dakota, Tim Johnson, had a stroke and is undergoing brain surgery. If he is unable to complete his term, the Republican governor would appoint a replacement and the Republicans would again control the Senate.

Does anyone know if this would be a record for the briefest time one party has controlled the Senate? I would suspect so...

Gotta love Anderson

2006-12-12T00:19:00.000-05:00

Tip of the Hat to Stephen Colbert, who keeps us up to date with news from Anderson, SC. It seems that Anderson is the place to be if you want to drive a float while intoxicated. Anderson also has valuable lessons to teach us about lighting cigarettes with a pistol.

What's your favourite South Carolina town?

Has anyone seen this comic?

2006-12-05T11:03:00.000-05:00

xkcd

The disclaimer pretty much says it all

"Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)."

BDean would enjoy the strip titled Matrix Transform

It's money

2006-11-30T12:10:00.000-05:00

Quark wants comments on making US currency recognizable to the blind.

Let's Go to the Mall

2006-11-24T00:28:00.000-05:00

The show How I Met Your Mother usually kicks ass, despite its occasional anti-Canadianism. But this week's episode, featuring the Robin Sparkles video was legen...wait for it...and I hope you're not lactose-intolerant 'cause the second half of that word is...dairy! The YouTube link has the full video, including scenes not aired on CBS. I can't decide which is better: the robot or the fake Brian Mulroney.

Republicans determined to retain Democratic majority

2006-11-15T11:44:00.000-05:00

What could possibly go wrong when you've elected Trent Lott as Majority Whip? I'm sure he'll help the party draw some moderate votes.

That Time of Year Again

2006-11-07T04:35:00.000-05:00

Yes, it is once again that magic moment when eligible US citizens will gather in their millions to "Vote or Die", as the saying goes.

Question 1 on the Massachusetts ballot is of particular interest to wine drinkers. This item, if approved, would either allow residents to buy wine at grocery stores like civilized people, or would lead to teenagers getting wasted on MD 20/20 from 7-Eleven. Depending on who you ask, of course.

Hubble to be saved

2006-10-31T11:42:00.000-05:00

Nerds of the world rejoice-- Hubble will be saved

Bad news for visitors to Canada

2006-10-24T23:19:00.000-04:00

The government of Canada is contemplating eliminating the GST Visitor Rebate Program (news release). This means that accommodation and purchases over CAD 50.00 will suddenly become 6% (formerly 7%) more expensive in USD. News of this brings back memories of that sad day when Québec discontinued the rebate program for their provincial tax.

Hat tip to the Rick Mercer Report for bringing this to the attention of its viewers.

Happy Mole Day!

2006-10-23T09:02:00.000-04:00

October 23rd is one of the best silly holidays ever :) Let the mole puns commence!

Polls

2006-09-28T00:37:00.000-04:00

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on The Daily Show last night: great interview, or the greatest interview?

---

So, who doesn't have a word for rain falling while the sun is shining? And what are all those other phrases? The results surprise me.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

2006-09-19T16:27:00.000-04:00

Ahoy, ye mateys!
I hope all you scurvy dogs be having a merry "talk like a pirate day"! For those of you that need a refresher, here's video of a short course on "basic pirate".

Towards a carbon-free CA ;)

2006-08-31T12:58:00.000-04:00

So California is passing a law to put tighter restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions. The reason being that “We’d all like to see California one day be carbon free." according to Mr. Núñez, a Los Angeles Democrat. hmmm...

How many planets in the solar system?

2006-08-14T15:54:00.000-04:00

The New York Times has had a few articles of late on a meeting of astronomers to attempt to define what makes a planet with Pluto's (and Xena's plus a few others) fate hanging in the balance. Since we have a few astrophysicists around, what are their opinions on the matter?

Sad End for Landis?

2006-08-05T12:45:00.000-04:00

So the B sample is positive too. Doesn't look like Landis has much of a chance to clear his name. I don't know much about doping and cycling, but somehow all of it seems quite shady, including the people in the anti-doping agencies. Something is rather strange with the way Landis allegedly doped as well. First, what does synthetic testosterone do anyway? The joke I heard is that it only helps if there's a hot chick at the top of the mountain. :) Delphine, any thoughts on this, since you are our resident expert? What would actually happen to someone if their testosterone level is 3 times higher than the natural limit in the human body? Would there be any outwardly observable signs? If there should be, then maybe people should be taking another look at the tapes from stage 17.

The other thing is, I thought that one of the arguments used by people who claim Armstrong is a dopee despite never failing a drug test is that there are dozens of banned substances that cannot be detected by any test. If that's the case, why would Landis choose testosterone, and the synthetic stuff at that, when it's almost certain that he'd get caught? It's not like he doesn't know he'll be tested right after the stage when he won. Landis is either incredibly stupid (unlikely), or desperate (possible), or there's something else going on. And let's not forget that he's had a reputation for being a very clean rider. The case against him just seems too neat.

This brings me to the shadiness of the anti-doping guys. In the recent case where Armstrong's sample from 1997 (or there abouts) was tested positive for EPO, the court actually found the anti-doping agency and the lab that performed the test grossly negligent in their handling of the samples. It was unclear who had access to it and for how long. That very same lab was used to test Landis's A sample. My question is, who's in charge of handling the samples and can they be trusted? There seems almost an irrepressible giddiness in the way the positive test was leaked to the press. In a way, the more doping there is and the greater the magnitude of the bust, the more important and powerful the anti-doping guys become. In my book, that's a conflict of interest and it taints every result that they produce.

What do you guys think?

Anime about Go

2006-07-31T11:13:00.000-04:00

So for all you Go fans out there, there is a Go anime series, Hikaru No Go, that is now available to view on the Toonami (Cartoon Network) Jetstream web site. It's dubbed but it's not too bad. I watched an episode over the weekend but I don't know anything about Go so I think I missed some stuff about the game they played...

Barenaked reality

2006-07-27T00:24:00.000-04:00

Check out this show with one of the Barenaked Ladies. But isn't OLN becoming Vs.?

Axions

2006-07-13T01:26:00.000-04:00

Axions are a certain type of hypothetical, looked-for-but-not-yet-found particle. If you have ever heard about axions and wondered "Huh? What's the point?" then you may be interested in reading The Pooltable Analogy to Axion Physics.

Fun with boxes!

2006-06-28T22:15:00.000-04:00

I am moving tomorrow. We were going to move on Friday, but this morning the mover called and said, hey, it would be better for us if you move tomorrow instead! That's why I'm posting this instead of doing what I should be doing: putting things in boxes. I just hope it doesn't rain again. There's been flooding and stuff, although luckily our house is on a hill. (As a side note, I found my login info while packing! :)

Who are folks rooting for in the World Cup now?

2006-06-25T01:29:00.000-04:00

At the moment, I have to go with Ecuador, since my boss's wife is from Ecuador. I assume bdelphine is rooting for France. Any other teams I should be pulling for or against?

Open thread

2006-06-24T00:13:00.000-04:00

A mishmash of musings in the comments section....

ECOLOGY: Getting a Better Picture of the Ocean's Nitrogen Budget -- Kolber 312 (5779): 1479 -- Science

2006-06-11T11:07:00.000-04:00

Climate modelers face many challenges... very crude and non-physical perscriptions for cloud formation is one of the biggies. But there are also significant uncertainties in th biological processes that are essential to the Carbon and Nitrogen cycles. Without a fundamental understanding of these mechanisms, it's very difficult to predict whether the climate will continue to respond in a nearly linear manner or if some non-linearity will set it. That could be good (e.g., increase in CO_2 consumption by more ocean biomass) or bad (e.g., gulf stream reversing and sending Europe to the freezer). So it is very important to improve out understanding of the actual mechanisms responsible for the the current state of the Carbon and Nitrogen cycles. The study below might be a key step in improving our understanding of the Nitrogen cycle. ECOLOGY: Getting a Better Picture of the Ocean's Nitrogen Budget -- Kolber 312 (5779): 1479 -- Science

Key quotes from the article...
"There is an apparent deficit of about ~90 Tg required to support the existing level of oceanic new production.... The authors have reassessed the rates of nitrogen fixation by this organism [Trichodesmium], substantially narrowing the nitrogen deficit."

World Cup Watching

2006-06-09T07:41:00.000-04:00

Never Mind The Winner
Does anyone in the Cambridge area have plans to watch the World Cup? It would be cool to get together to eat some food and watch some of the games.

Also, gratuituous baby pictures link!

World Cup

2006-06-08T11:43:00.000-04:00

Any predictions on how far the U.S. will go? I think we should be able to get back to the quarter finals at least. And how much will the rest of the world hate us if we win it all and it's still a sport less popular here than bass fishing.

Researchers Analyze HPC Potential of Cell Processor

2006-05-28T14:50:00.000-04:00

Remember the days when a math coprocessor was something special and expensive. Soon a SIMD chip may play that role. In the near future, it looks like there are two very interesting possibilities, Cell+ and GRAPE-DR
Anyone have experience working with these or other SIMD architectures (maybe an old connection machine)?

MIT and my SS#...

2006-05-16T09:20:00.000-04:00

I just got a letter in the mail that says that MIT accidentally sent out my personal info (including SS#, birthday, address...) to 150 people on an MIT mailing list. They say they are sorry... but I'm pretty upset. "Sorry" isn't going to cut it if I end up the victim of identity fraud.

Why the heck do they have that stuff in some file that can accidentally get mailed around? I'm not a student or employee anymore... Also, what mailing list did they send it to exactly? I think I have a right to know (and no, saying that the mailing list is 150 people who are "mostly" members of the MIT community does not make me feel better)

Here's the press release that I found about it. I can't believe there isnt' more news about this... There doesn't even seem to be anything in the Tech about it either.

Mr. T with a Hasidic beard

2006-05-16T00:51:00.000-04:00

I Pity the Fool or Shalom in the Home? Discuss.

NASA's in bad shape

2006-05-05T21:49:00.000-04:00

This is obvious for those of us in astronomy, but for non-astro folks, it might have gone unnoticed. NASA's having some major problems now. Basically, the president decided NASA should shift towards preparing to send humans to the moon and Mars. While an Apollo-style charge might be cool, that only works if you have Apollo-style funding to go with it.

Also entering the picture is completeing the long overdue and long overbudget international space station. Evidently, the US made "international committments" that the higher ups feel that they must honor, even though the science plans for the space station have been so drastically reduced that the whole thing will basically be abandoned shortly after completing it. In order to complete it, we have to return the space shuttle to flight (yes, there was another flight, but it had foam problems again, so they're still working on getting it back to back to flight). Again, the irony is that the shuttle is now scheduled to be decommissioned not long after completeing the space station. The hope is that some new better launch vehicle (with the intent to be part of the Moon and Mars thing) will be avaliable shortly after retiring the shuttle. IMHO, the reality is that there will probably be a big gap when there's no US launch vehicle to send people to the space station. (Remember SkyLab, our first space station? It crashed back into Earth while we were developing the space shuttle.)

Of course, returning the space shuttle to flight, building the space station, building a new human launch vehicle, and sending people to the Moon and Mars takes big bucks. However, the president/Congress haven't provided those extra bucks. Once there was supposedly a "wall" separating the budgets for space missions and science, but apparently that idea has been abandoned. So NASA is trying to cover those costs (as well as things like a mission to service/deorbit Hubble and build the James Webb Space Telescope "on budget" (but using a revised budgetting standard that makes things seem like they cost more)) by cutting back on many things, including large space missions but also including small missions, the analysis of data from current/previous missions, and the funding to theoretical interpretation of the observations. Basically, NASA is trying to cover these expenses by cutting back on the astrophysicists who actually do the science that makes those missions worthwhile. Obviously, you have to cut _a lot_ of postdoc/graduate student stipends to cover the cost of building a new space ship to send to the Moon. But that's a big part of the strategy that NASA administrators are planning on!

As a result of this many astronomers are facing extremely severe budgets. Advisors who started graduate students on thesis projects are learning that already approved funding is being cut. The graduate students who have begun the long and complex training and begun their thesis projects are wondering how they'll get paid in the next year or two and if they should abandon their previous work and/or change career paths. Postdocs who have already been trained are seriously considering leaving the country and/or the field. To give you some idea of the scale "Already, 240 grants affecting 500 postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students have been terminated." (from the CNN link below), and from what we understand this is only the beginning. Other missions that were well along the way (some within a year of being launched) are being delayed by multiple years. In many cases, these delays will actually increase the mission costs, since you have to retain the key engineers the whole time and then rehire and retrain people to do the jobs of the people that you let go. And many missions are being descoped and delayed, or in some cases put in an holding pattern (wihtout funding) of unknown duration (seems a lot like "canceled" to the people working on those missions).

As a result of all this, astronomers are starting to complain loudly, even contacting politicans directly to complain about the decisions being made at NASA. Now the National Research Council has issued a report that will hopefully help scientists better argue for restore some sanity to the NASA budget.

Politicans: If you are going to give NASA specific goals (e.g., send humans to the Moon and Mars), then you must give NASA the funding to acheive those goals realistically without dramatically cutting the projects that the agency has already started and invested in. If you are going to give NASA a fixed budget, then let scientists tell NASA how best to spend that money to advance science. Scientists have estalished programs like the decadal reviews that communicate to policy makers the major projects that scientists think should be funded.

Study Finds Money Gap at NASA - New York Times

Report: NASA lacks science funds - CNN

NASA Watch (source of general NASA gossip)

Québec solidaire

2006-05-04T00:19:00.000-04:00

So, has anyone heard of the new political party Québec solidaire? It purports to be a left-wing alternative advocating sovereignty. The Gazette, not exactly an unbiased paper but the only major English daily in the province, published this editorial pointing out that its position on sovereignty may turn off many of the progressive voters it would hope to attract. Indeed, I wonder whether it would have been smarter to have remained ambiguous on sovereignty, which nearly worked for the right-wing ADQ. That said, they did manage to get 22% of the vote in a recent by-election, not bad for a party that's only three months old.

Thoughts, anyone?

Punts

2006-05-03T23:43:00.000-04:00

Step 2 of every great scientific study is "grow a beard".

Finally, practical research

2006-05-02T22:45:00.000-04:00

Deconstructing Faculty Doors

"English professor James M. Lang, in his seminal 2004 essay on faculty office doors, ..."

For Science's Gatekeepers, a Credibility Gap

2006-05-01T22:29:00.000-04:00

NYT story about the refereeing process and it's shortcomings... For Science's Gatekeepers, a Credibility Gap. It should be noted that this article focuses on medical studies which have very different concerns and conflicts of interest than more basic science research (e.g., on planet formation).

Gasoline & Ethanol

2006-04-26T03:28:00.000-04:00

I read the headline Bush Eases Environmental Rules on Gasoline. Is this a good or a bad thing? Supposedly part of the reason for the recent increase in gasoline prices has to do with refiners converting from a process that uses one set of additives to a different process that uses another set of additives (including ethanol) to help reduce air pollution in the summer. So perhaps easing the rules about including ethanol will help lower gasoline prices. Of course, since I commute on a bicycle, the price of gasoline isn't a big worry for me.

But what about the environmental impact? Where I live the air quality is fine, so I'm more concerned with global carbon dioxide emissions. A recent meta study done here at berkeley found that using ethanol in gasoline significantly reduced the ammount of petrolium required to produce that gallon of gasoline. This is very significant as previous studies had suggested the opposite. But this conclusion was only true when they carefully considered how the "waste" products of ethanol production are used to displace other products that would otherwise require petrolium to produce. (This raises the concern that if ethanol were used on a large scale, would there still be useful applications for the byproducts? Or would it eventually revert to no net change in petrolium usage?) So this study concludes that including ethanol in gasoline is useful in the sense of reducing petrolium consumption, minimizing dependance on foreign oil, etc.. However, that same metra-study was unable to determine whether the effective change in the ammount of carbon being released into the atmosphere when petrolium was replaced by ethanol in gasoline was positive or negative. (They did estimate that it's likely a 10-30% effect.) So even switching all our cars to using E85 (85% ethanol, 15% normal gasoline), won't solve the problem of green house gases. (The authors suggest growing biofuels form plants other than corn that could result in less carbon emissions, but that is even farther in the future than large scale usage of corn ethanol.)

My conclusion... It's not clear whether easing these "environmental rules" will result in an increased or decreased prices of gasoline. And it's not clear whether easing thse environmental rules will result in an increased or decreased level of carbon emissions.

Armenian Genocide

2006-04-24T16:04:00.000-04:00

I'm not doing well as a world citizen... I didn't realize that today was the rememberence day for the Armenian genocide, until it came up at the staff meeting at work that the engineers that we're working with in Armenia have the day off.

Mu may have changed over the lifetime of the universe

2006-04-21T16:51:00.000-04:00

According to an articne in New Scientist based on a paper in Physical Review Letters, a group is claiming evidence that mu (the ratio of the mass of the proton to the mass of the electron) may have changed over time. Obviously, this would be a significant thing, and this result hasn't been confirmed yet, so it's very early.

Do the astrophysicists around these parts happen to know anything about this or the group that is making the claim?

Going Nuclear

2006-04-17T21:29:00.000-04:00

Patrick Moore's editorial in the Washington Post that Going Nuclear should be a key part of the environmentalist platform.

Nine Million Bicycles

2006-04-16T23:18:00.000-04:00

Anyone seen this?

Howe & Ser

2006-04-06T12:47:00.000-04:00

It seems that they're the guys to ask when you need a cannon to be moved.

Good day to be blue

2006-04-04T23:50:00.000-04:00

First, the corrupt politician from TX-22 resigns. Then the Massachusetts legislature passes a plan to provide health insurance to all. That makes two steps in the right direction....left!

Light Reading

2006-04-02T18:48:00.000-04:00

If you have some leisure time, Geoffrey Chaucer has asked for his Tales to be proclaimed in April, the month being particularly fitting. On his blog he also has some touching reminiscences about the Pearl Poet.

If your time is more limited, I recommend Daniel Nussbaum's Oedipus, King (of the Road). It's a quick read.

And you can always marvel at the awesomeness of this picture of Bagger 288.

Why so quiet?

2006-03-26T00:17:00.000-05:00

Since people have been so quiet, I'll mention a cute ad that finou and acg might like. The ad opens with the text "combination off the two". We see an ice rink. On the ice, right by a door, is a man in red stretching and standing around. A talented female figure skater all in white is executing some spins. Another man in blue sweats is nearby. The woman doesn't see him and spins into him, knocking him into the guy in red, who falls through the door. The ad is for Dooly's, a bar where one can play pool.

Oscars, King Pong

2006-03-06T21:17:00.000-05:00

So, what did you guys think of John Stewart's Oscars gig?

Here's a new video game by the company that made the Grand Theft Auto series. Combine this new Table Tennis Game and GnuChess and you've got King Pong!

With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies

2006-02-15T11:15:00.000-05:00

Many of you may remember Paul Hackett, the Democrat Marine reservist and Iraq War veteran that nearly won a seat in the House of Representatives last summer. He got 48% of the vote in one of Ohio's most conservative House districts running against a Republican incumbant. Lots of folks, including some around here, were excited by that showing since it appeared to show that the Republicans were vulnerable in an important swing state.

It was no suprise when Hackett started a run for a Senate seat a few months ago, at the urging of some top Democrats. Many were expecting that, in a mid-term election during the second term of a sitting Republican president with the popularity rating of a slime mold, this was one of the Senate seats that were in play and likely to go to the dems. The wily Democrats, however, appear to have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by sabotaging Hackett's campaign and forcing him to withdraw from politics altogether.

And they wonder why they're the minority party...

Odd opening ceremony?

2006-02-11T00:07:00.000-05:00

What does everyone think of that odd past/present/future Italy thing at the Olympics opening ceremony? It was a classy touch to include Pavarotti rather than some washed-up old rock stars (cf. the Superbowl). And while this may have been the first opening ceremony to include a star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, hopefully it won't be the last. My calls: Tim Curry in Beijing and Meat Loaf in Vancouver/Whistler.

Controversial cartoons?

2006-02-02T22:21:00.000-05:00

What does everyone think of those cartoons?

Democrats growing a pair?

2006-01-26T16:49:00.000-05:00

Between Sen. Kerry calling for a fillibuster of Alito and the passionate attack on the current administration Gore delivered last week, it seems like Democratic scientists may have made some progress in their decade-long attempt to grow a pair for at least one representative. Is this just the standard rumbling of the opposition prior to the State of the Union? Or is this a trend where the opposition party is actually starting to realize that they actually have to, you know, explain to the American people why they oppose something? I sure hope it's the latter, not because I necessarily agree with the Dems, but because I find it incredibly unhealthy to allow any party to run Washington unchecked for a decade.

Of course, this is a party that managed to find a way to lose the 2000 election despite the biggest and longest peace-time economic expansion in generations and that couldn't find a way to market a decorated veteran during a war against an incumbant with a "spotty" military record who had presided over a substantial economic recession in 2004. They also seem to have decided to oppose Alito at the 11th hour, without bothering to lay the framework of their objections far enough in advance to have any hope of persuading the American people, which I suspect is going to turn into a matter of "too little, too late". At least they're starting to wake up.

Beauty and NRAO

2006-01-07T15:53:00.000-05:00

Beauty and the Geek series 2 premieres on the WB on Thursday. One of the contestants, Rubik's cubing genius Tyson, was a summer student at NRAO-Socorro last year!

Jon Stewart at the Oscars

2006-01-05T15:12:00.000-05:00

Jon Stewart is hosting the Oscar's this year. It should be interesting and might actually make me watch the show...
His response to being asked to host the show was cute: "As an avid watcher of the Oscars, I can't help but be a little disappointed with the choice."

Hey! It's That Guy!...

2005-12-30T00:17:00.000-05:00

Finally, there's a book to help you identify all those great character actors out there. What, you didn't know that Wallace Shawn appeared in a Hungarian movie with Meat Loaf? Inconceivable!

Canadian election open thread

2005-12-18T15:10:00.000-05:00

The Canadian federal election campaign season is well underway. The leaders have staked out their positions, launched a barrage of attacks, and even survived one debate in each of the two official languages. The actual vote will be on 23 January 2006. Share your thoughts, questions, and opinions here!

Scientific misconduct

2005-12-17T03:21:00.000-05:00

You've probably heard about the ongoing Korean Cloning Controversy. (If not, try this and/or this article.)

If the allegations are true, then this would be a pretty significant case of scientific fakery. I'm reminded of the double whammy in 2002 regarding (1) Elements 116 and 118 and (2) the work of Jan Hendrik Schön.

What has happened to scientific integrity? Have things always been this bad, and never publicized -- or has there been a real decline in professional ethics?

In either case, how can we improve things? Do we need more ethics workshops for students and scientists? Stricter punishment of cheating in undergraduate classes? Less pressure to come up with positive experimental results?

How much is too much?

2005-12-07T23:21:00.000-05:00

One of my NRAO friends pointed me toward this nifty calculator to estimate how much caffeine you can consume and stay alive. I don't believe the numbers, though. It claims I can drink thousands of cups of "decaf coffee" [Hey, an oxymoron!] before death claims me, but I'm not sure I could handle even one!

How to talk to a human

2005-12-06T22:26:00.000-05:00

When I need to talk to a human, I usually guess ways to make the automated machine give up. Today I stumbled into this list of escape codes for many common companies. Hopefully, by posting here I'll be able to find it next time I call a company.

Happy fourth Thursday in November

2005-11-24T13:10:00.000-05:00

...or as it's known in the US, Thanksgiving.

T doesn't pity you, fool

2005-11-15T23:20:00.000-05:00

Now you can get Mr. T to dump your soon-to-be ex, reports The Mirror. At celebritymessages.com, that's just one of many videotones you can send to someone. Now that's T mobile!

Scott Adams blog

2005-11-01T12:39:00.000-05:00

If folks are not aware of it, Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) has recently started a blog. Particularly for those of us that work in the real world (i.e. not astrophysicists), this is required daily reading.

The stories of what editors have rejected in a couple of recent Dilbert strips are priceless!

It's no "king pong", but...

2005-10-29T00:20:00.000-04:00

The sport of chess boxing is on the rise. Check out this description of the 2003 world championship.

Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead

2005-10-27T10:01:00.000-04:00

There is dancing in the streets this morning as Harriet Miers withdraws her nomination and restores (some) of my faith in the functioning of the government. The interesting bit in all this politically is that the lesson Bush probably takes from this experience is that he needs to come up with a candidate that is more outspokenly conservative, though some modicum of judicial credentials would probably help. This would seem to bode well for some of the female conservative firebrands on the various Courts of Appeal.

Bill Watterson

2005-10-26T11:25:00.000-04:00

A coworker recently pointed me to this article on Bill Watterson, the famed creator of Calvin and Hobbes. Apparently, no one has seen much of him since he stopped writing the strip. While I'm not sure I'd like to see new additions to Calvin and Hobbes, I think it'd be great to see some new stuff from this comic strip genius.

A watery grave

2005-10-10T23:21:00.000-04:00

Advice to potential cheese makers: leave your product on dry land.

Ignoble Prizes and Swiming in Water vs Syrup

2005-10-07T05:06:00.000-04:00

To follow up on our previous discussion about swimming in H_2O versus swimming in D_2O, I bring to your attention this year's Ig Noble Prize in Chemistry to Edward Cussler and Briand Gettelfinger at U. Minnesota and U Wisconsin. The award winning paper...
"Will Humans Swim Faster or Slower in Syrup?" American Institute of Chemical Engineers Journal, Brian Gettelfinger and E. L. Cussler, vol. 50, no. 11, October 2004, pp. 2646-7.

Giant Squid!

2005-09-28T23:58:00.000-04:00

Has everyone seen the pictures of the giant squid (25 ft/8m)?

The Maine Marathon

2005-09-27T13:48:00.000-04:00

This coming Sunday (Oct. 2) is the Maine Marathon. I'll be running it with Jessica, and my Dad (a vetran of several marathons) is flying in to run it as well. I certainly won't be going fast, but hope to make it in under 5 hours.

According to the race info, there will be a "Medical tent located at finish line, with additional medical personnel patrolling the course". Here's hoping we won't need that! :)

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRrr!

2005-09-19T08:01:00.000-04:00

Ahoy, today is talk like a pirate day! Savvy, ye scallywag!?

One Find, Two Astronomers: An Ethical Brawl

2005-09-14T04:15:00.000-04:00

Evidently, the second hand rumors among astronomers have now become such a well known secret that they've made the New York Times. One Find, Two Astronomers: An Ethical Brawl

What's the deal with l'Academie française?

2005-09-11T01:21:00.000-04:00

I was looking over this article in Wikipedia when I came across the entry for "diaeresis", which makes reference to a 1990 reform that changed the spelling of the feminine form aiguë to aigüe. In a way, I've always thought that the old form made little sense orthographically, but I didn't know that the official spelling had changed.

The website for l'Academie française makes reference to some of the changes implented in 1990 on this page (français, see Transformations et "réformes" de l'orthographe). But what were they thinking? While I suppose dropping the circumflex in words like traitre and paraitre is a minor change, the rule for pluralization of compound nouns just seems totally wrong. And why did they violate the letter e? Sècheresse? Cèleri? They're joking, right?

My Larousse (printed in 1996) reflects almost none of these changes (although it lists évènement as an acceptable alternate spelling). Most of the changes look positively alien compared to what I've seen in common usage (charriot? relai?).

My question for someone who speaks French natively (probably finou): Have any of the 1990 changes been adopted into common usage in France, or have they all been (rightfully) ignored?

If you thought the Roberts nomination was interesting

2005-09-03T23:47:00.000-04:00

Chief Justice William Rehnquist has tied. A New York Times article has been rushed online-- there are some really awful typos. Confirmation hearings for John Rberts are scheduled to start in less than 72 hours.

Brasserie Le Pi 3.14

2005-09-03T02:30:00.000-04:00

Pi Bar
Originally uploaded by eford.

Recently, I was in Avignon, France and happened upon a bar/small restaurant with an unusual name. I would have liked to ask for an explanation. But they were closed. That makes this an opportunity to amuse oursevles with wild speculations.

Regenerative mice

2005-09-02T03:16:00.000-04:00

Not sure how many people saw this on Slashdot, but apparently all those biologists may have some use after all (even the French PhD's with biology leanings). A group at Penn State has apparently created mice that can regenerate limbs and internal organs and even have even found ways to pass this ability on to other mice via cell transfer. Maybe one day I'll be able to have a couple of extra hands grown so I can type twice as fast-- think of the productivity gains.

because we're all touched by his noodly appendage

2005-08-21T12:36:00.000-04:00

Here's the petition to get FSM (Flying Spaghetti Monsterism) theory to get taught along side evolution and inteligent design in Kansas schools. Also, the site shows concrete evidence that global warming is caused by a decline in Pirates. You can help! go check it out ;)

Science discussion topic

2005-08-19T23:44:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since we've had a good old-fashioned physics debate, so let's have one now. Would a swimmer swim faster in H₂O or D₂O? Assume a 400m Olympic race.

John Roberts & the marginalization of the Democrats

2005-08-09T16:31:00.000-04:00

As I watch the nomination of John Roberts move forward, I am constantly amazed by how the Democrats have managed to completely marginalize themselves in the process. I'm sure the Republicans are grateful for the assistance, but I would like to see a modicum of competence from the other side of the aisle. Given that nothing has come out yet that would remotely stand in the way of the nomination, I'm shocked by the opportunities the Democrats let slip by.

The Democrats had a golden opportunity when Bush noinated Roberts to steal all or part of the credit. Roberts is about as moderate as the Dems could have reasonably hoped for-- Roberts's name even came up when one of the Gang of 14 was questioned about what sort of centrist candidate he was looking for. Rather than crowing about the fact that their firm stand for the judicial fillibuster forced Bush to nominate a moderate, rather than one of the more hard-line options, the Democrats just sat on their hands.

Actually, it was worse than sitting on their hands because they chose to start griping about the quality of the consulation they had with the President before the nomination. Leaving aside the fact that there aren't a lot of Senators that can pull that sort of complaint off without sounding like a petulant child, and the there are at best a couple of handfuls of voters who would care, that sort of complaint was a huge lost opportunity. Imagine if the Dems had come out instead and said that they were pleased with the degree to which they were consulted before the nomination and that they were pleased that their principled stand and their suggestions had lead to such a quality nomination. There is no way that Bush could realistically deny such a story without seeming petty (er, we did talk to Senators, but we didn't consult with them, and they didn't suggest Roberts), and this sort of story line portrays the Democrats in the Senate as an equal partner with the President rather than a relatively impotent check on presidential authority.

Now, in the run-up to the hearings, the Dems have utterly failed to articulate any coherent objections to Roberts. Yes, they've nitpicked a couple of briefs hes written and have made some noise about getting additional memos, but there is certainly no coherent idea that ties together whatever objections they might have. What we've heard in the press so far is that he's a particularly nice guy with a distinguished resume and a history of supporting a variety of causes. If the Democrats have any objections, they really ought to voice them before we decide to push for canonizing the guy.

Even better, a NYTimes article a few days ago discussion Sen. Leahy, ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, points out that "Senate Democrats remain divided about how hard to challenge the nomination". Its like the Democrats are conditioned to such a deliberate pace that they always lose because they can never make the first move. Roberts was on most everyone's short list once the vacancy was announced, so this was hardly a shocking nomination. The Democrats needed to know whether they were going to put up a stiff challenge or whether they were going to co-opt Bush's thunder. Either approach would probably have worked when the nomination was made-- waiting a month neuters either argument and makes the Dems look like idiots.

The 50-State Strategy

2005-08-03T23:27:00.000-04:00

In case you missed the news, Democrat Paul Hackett lost the by-election in OH-02, but did extremely well in an extremely red district. (For details, look here.) In a Congressional district that the Dems lost by 44 points in the 2004 elections, Iraq War veteran Hackett lost this election by a mere 4 points, thanks in large part to a strong candidate who wasn't afraid to speak his mind, weak Republian opposition, and unprecedented support from the netroots.

If a serious effort can swing a race 40 points our way, there are few 2006 races that won't be competitive, but we've got to fight them all. We can't allow any more FL-07's or SC-03's, where the Republican wins by default because he's unopposed. My challenge to Qian and Bdean: If no one runs for the Dems in your district, file papers and run yourself.

Challenging every single district is important for three reasons. First and most obvious, you can't win a district you're not running in. Second, even if you would ordinarily have no reasonable chance of winning a district, you make your opponents defend home territory, which leaves them fewer resources to attack you where you're weak or where the race is close. And third, downticket support is important for Presidential races. Get somebody to vote for a Democrat now, and they'll be less afraid to pull the lever for a Democratic candidate in the future.

As for the rest of us in red ridings, it behooves us not to just sit back in 2006 when it looks like public opinion might finally be turning against the Republican party. NM-02 is only -20, and even ID-01/ID-02 are only about -40, not impossible to turn (which CD are you in, jocave?). Letters to the editor, political contributions, GOTV efforts, talking to your neighbours... s'all good, and all helpful. Even if you live in a heavily blue area like Massachusetts, CA-09, or MD-04, there's always something that can be done to help out the cause of the last major US political party that's grounded in reality. (As for Maryland, there's an important Senate race next year....)

2005-08-02T22:21:00.000-04:00

So, no one's posted anything about that 10th planet yet. Is it big enough to be what they're looking for?

To timidly go where a few hundred have gone before

2005-07-27T21:12:00.000-04:00

NASA has announced that it is grounding the shuttle fleet until further notice. Despite their engineers concluing that there was "no significant problem" with Discovery, painstaking analysis by the shuttle crew, extensive video that shows nothing major, some brave NASA admin has apparently concluded that the fleet still needs to be grounded.

Have we really reached a point where we can only send people into space if the risks are equivalent to driving cross-country in the family sedan? It seems to me that explorers have throughout history been involved far greater risks for far less benefit. From 1921 to 1999, for example, 900 people climbed Mt. Everest while 150 died trying, giving climbers 1-in-6 odds of dying. Shuttle astronauts, on the other hand, face something like a 1-2% chance of dying. The odds of a soldier dying in a 1 year tour of duty in Iraq is about 0.1%, though the odds for a front line soldier, without the dilution of risk from including the various support troops, will likely be much higher. Is it really reasonable for NASA to blanche at allowing a handful of astronauts to take the sort of risk we ask soldiers to take?

AFL-CIO split

2005-07-25T15:44:00.000-04:00

More than one-fourth of the 13 million people that were members of AFL-CIO unions yesterday are no longer affiliated with the AFL-CIO today. Both the Teamsters and the service workers union, along with five others, split with the AFL-CIO today.

Given the crucial grass-roots organizational support that the AFL-CIO provides for the democratic party, what sort of impact will this have for the 2006 mid-term elections? My guess at this point is that a weakening of the AFL-CIO will prove pivotal with Senate seats in Michigan (currently Democratic) along with Ohio and Pennsylvania (currently Republican) up for grabs and expected to be relatively tight.

In the long run, though, reinvigorating the labor movement is a necessary step. Given the declining union rolls and influence over the past couple decades, a shakeup now seems preferrable to allowing the death spiral to continue.

Harry Potter?

2005-07-19T12:35:00.000-04:00

I just finished the latest installment of Harry Potter. It's pretty good and it only took me about a day to read (I kept telling myself I would stop at the next chapter but I could never get enough will power to do so...)
So, anybody else read it? How does it compare to the others so far?

The Tour

2005-07-06T14:23:00.000-04:00

Vincent pointed out recently that I haven't yet posted anything about the tour yet. Well, here's the remedy:

The Tour de France is now in full swing with the cyclists completing stage 5 today. So far there's been lots of excitment with both an individual and team time trial. Lance got the yellow jersey yesterday when Zabriskie crashed in rather dramatic fashion just over 1 km from the end of the team time trial. I've been thoroughly enjoying OLN's live coverage - my tivo hasn't yet missed a show!

If you're looking for a good read about cycling, I reccommend Lance Armstrong's War . It's not just about Lance, but includes quite a bit about cycling in general. Apparently, the Discovery team has their tires aged in a cellar for a few years before being used. I find it hard to beleive this really improves the tire...