Quirky Quintet

ludicrouswing: Avada Kedavra

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:01:14 -0500

Avada Kedavra

The Math Movie: Script

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:11:00 -0500

The Matrix introduced a whole generation to the concept of metaphysics by portraying the perceived illusion as an illusion. If people can make a blockbuster film on philosophy, why not math?

Here’s my whack at a script:

A young man, while working at CERN, discovers that he can manipulate anything to infinite precision. This of course, is a huge discovery, and he is rewarded with various awards and medals.

But then, this man realizes the power of what he has done, now he can apply the Banach-Tarski theorem. He immediately created a machine which analyzes an object and then duplicates it.

A bowling ball goes in. Two bowling ball comes out.

He tries food. It works.

The international community once again showers him with accolades: he basically solved world hunger….

meh… There’s not much of a good vs evil thing going on here… I guess math just makes the world a better place.

Also, someone else basically did this already…

The Penis of Math

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 22:12:00 -0500

I noticed this while working with production functions in econ: lowercase omega looks like balls, and omega prime looks like a penis.

Proof?

Now that you seen it, you can’t unsee it…

Scroll over to 3:29… From the study that John...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:12:00 -0500

Scroll over to 3:29…

From the study that John mentioned:

their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it

Climbing Everest

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:36:30 -0500

I don’t use the elevators anymore at Cornell, except to wash laundry.

Assuming that I only go up and down the stairs 4 times a day, I change my elevation around 40” x 4 = 160”

Now over the 15 weeks of this semester, I would’ve changed my elevation over 5 kilometers by foot.

… That’s like climbing 5/8 of the height of Mt. Everest… except I go down half the time…

At least it's not 40GB limit

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:55:34 -0500

An email I got today:

Billing Alert

——————-

You are receiving this alert because you have used 80% of the bandwidth included in your basic student network service for the month of February. Only Internet usage to or from off-campus sites is measured. If you exceed the usage included in your basic monthly student network service, additional usage will incur charges at a rate of $0.0015 per megabyte ($1.54 per gigabyte).

Please read this alert carefully. This alert is for your information, to help you manage your network usage, and to help you to avoid unexpected charges.

About Student Network Service
——————————————-
Student network service includes 50 GB (gigabytes) of Internet usage to or from off-campus sites each month. This includes usage from all systems registered to your Cornell NetID, such as desktop computers, laptop computers, and network-capable handheld devices. Network usage based billing applies to activity on the wired and Wi-Fi networks, including the Student Wired Network Service, RedRover, and RedRover Secure.

Use of on-campus resources, such as Cornell’s websites, Blackboard, student services, university libraries, and DirecTV DOES NOT count towards network billing.

How to View Your Bill
——————————-
Your bill is on-line at http://nubb.cornell.edu.

The Network Usage Based Billing (NUBB) web site is the definitive source of network billing information. It displays your network billing information for all network-capable deices registered to your NetID. This includes a listing of your registered devices and the amount of usage on each for both the university wired and Wi-Fi networks. The NUBB website displays your total usage for the month, as well as displaying your charges to date (if any).

The NUBB website is updated daily at approximately 12:00 Noon EDT/EST. CIT encourages you to check the NUBB website regularly, and use it to manage your network usage and avoid unexpected charges.

A Special Word About Network Security
——————————————————-
Unexpected network usage can indicate that your system has been compromised, become infected by a computer virus, or is conducting activity of which you are unaware. Under University Policy 5.4.1, you are responsible for the security of your devices.

Cornell provides free security software and other resources to assist you. For more information, see:http://www.dfa.cornell.edu/dfa/treasurer/policyoffice/policies/volumes/informationtech/resources.cfm
http://www.cit.cornell.edu/security/

Questions?
—————
If you have questions about your network usage charges, or if you believe that your system has been compromised or infected, please contact:
The CIT Contact Center (HelpDesk)
Phone: (607) 255-8990
Email: helpdesk@cornell.edu

Our staff will assist you in attempting to identify the activity generating your network usage. You may also find more information and answers to commonly-asked questions on the following web sites:
http://www.cit.cornell.edu/services/nubb/about/faq.cfm

Thank you,
Cornell Information Technologies
Network & Communication Services

This is an automated message from the CIT Network Usage Based Billing (NUBB) System. You will receive only one notification in a given month.

Trololol

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:11:38 -0500

Trololol

Education Gap

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:38:18 -0500

One of today’s NYTimes articles was about the growing educational gap between the economic classes. Although many causes were listed, the author listed almost no resolutions. I believe that with the current college application format, the sons and daughters of the wealthy will always have an advantage.

It’s true that college isn’t everything. In fact, a major goal of any program trying to close this gap is to increase “literacy activities” among poor children. This will even the playing field during the grade school years, but it will tilt again once college application starts.

(I’m still a staunch believer that a college education is the surest way to a higher income bracket, even for the poorest of families. Financial aid these days are incredibly generous to the poorest in order to show diversity within its campuses.)

The economics status of the family will greatly determine whether the family has enough resources and time to send the child to piano lessons, sports clubs, or extracurricular activities in general. Without that boost in the resume, the poorer the family, the less likely that they will get into top universities (where the opportunities to push his or her family ahead is even bigger).

Without resolving the college application process to something that truly measures intelligence, dedication or virtues, universities will continue to favor the parents who can ship their children to soccer practice every Saturday morning. Only the smartest and most dedicated lower-income children will have a chance of attending a top university, while average kids of upper-income families will have that chance just because of the money.

I’m not saying that I know how to reform this, or fix the gap. I do believe that this must be something that needs to be addressed.

Little something I made for fun…

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:53:17 -0500

Little something I made for fun…

Lagrange

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:39:27 -0500

My econ professor mentioned Monday that Lagrange slept throughout the day, and only worked in the evening, after the Parisan parties of course.

I believe this fact is false, but I do secretly hope its true.

Almost happened today.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:06:35 -0500

Almost happened today.

How to Play Minesweeper in Real Life

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:29:49 -0500

I’m back to Cornell, and back to posting again. Posting during winter break was stupid as this was intended to cover Cornell life.

Besides this wonderful, satirical video from CollegeHumor (embedded below), minesweeper doesn’t exist in real life. Right? Wrong.

See more at CollegeHumor

Direction:

Find a field with lots of holes in it, with preferably non-permeable soil/concrete underneath. Kind of like the field I have to cross to get to my work.
Wait for it to rain a bit to fill up the holes with water, and, subsequently, mud. The rain should be relatively heavy, kind of like the rain that happened 2/3 days ago.
Let it get freezing cold first. Like the day before.
Add a layer of snow, but not too much. Just enough to hide it. The amount of snow that fell on Ithaca yesterday night is good.
Walk through the field (like I did today). If your steps crack the ice, and submerge your foot in water, you lost.

There was an old Reddit post about how fun these ice puddles are. So not fun when they creep up on me.

Found this rage comic though…

see more Rage Comics

A Gift of Lidia Pereprygina

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 22:01:00 -0500

Stalin’s adult life is quite well-known, but few knows of his little run-in when he was little.

There [Siberia], he lived the life of a hunter-gatherer, having learned fishing and hunting from local Siberian tribesmen. While there he began a 2-year affair with Lidia Pereprygina, then aged 13, with whom he fathered two children.

Two things to note about Stalin from that passage:

Why are all high Russian officials outdoorsy? Why can’t Obama be as cool as Putin?
35ish/2 + 7 is nowhere near 13.

I doubt that was a fun relationship for Ms. Lidia, but the modern world has invented a marvel that might have prevented this weird relationship.

For all you online after-Christmas deal shoppers/bloggers:...

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 22:35:57 -0500

For all you online after-Christmas deal shoppers/bloggers: hilarious little video from TED.

Additional Winter Project

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:41:00 -0500

Since I already bum around on reddit a lot, I figured this project shouldn’t be that hard.

Whenever I see these threads on reddit, I wonder what the users did.

But now, I’m going to start a folder where I classify each gif/image I see within the comments to have the perfect response.

I already got to apply it:

For anyone wondering, this is the link, and it’s is awfully cute.

According to Wikipedia: Wells was the last white man to win an...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:38:39 -0500

According to Wikipedia:

Wells was the last white man to win an Olympic 100m final. 1980 was also the last time a white athlete made it to the men’s 100m final.

In other news, no black man has been in the 100m freestyle final /racist (sorry).

For an interesting article regarding belly button and speed, read this (it is the Daily News though, and it’s poorly written. Still funny).

Photo source.

It’s fascinating to see one person having that much...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:18:00 -0500

It’s fascinating to see one person having that much control over a region of the world that a good portion of the inhabitants love him.

Contrast the video to this:

From The Atlantic.

Even though we made fun of Kim Jong Il like no other, he probably will be more remembered then any of us. Maybe in order to achieve my goal of being on Wikipedia, I should become the dictator of some small, impoverishment country…

HI

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:23:09 -0500

Otters don’t talk.

Penis

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:22:56 -0500

Yes. I do have a penis.

Semester Review

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 17:40:00 -0500

I haven’t blogged in quite a while now due to exams. Now that they’re over, I should be going back to some sort of a normal posting schedule.

But I do want to get down my thought of each class that I took this semester.

ECON3010 (Gregory Besharov):

I took this class because I thought my microeconomics skill was quite weak. The class is intended to be class that covers important material from both the introductory microeconomics course and the intermediate one.

The work load was quite reasonable, with only a short problem set due each week. I must admit that the lectures are somewhat confusing at times as the pace is quite fast. If you’re the type who reads the chapter before hand, it’s fine. Going to discussion is a must; it’s where the techniques (not material) that will be on the prelims is thought.

The class is very heavy on algebra and derivatives. I was very comfortable with the math involved but I felt that some people did struggle (thank you MAO). The prelims were reasonable, with a reasonable curve.

GOVT1817 (Peter Katzenstein):

This class involved the most work out of anything I have took. The reading material is gigantic, with some one thousand printed pages (with most printed pages containing 2 pages from a journal). The lectures are highly enjoyable at times, while completely out-of-the-blue at other times. The discussions are helpful if you do the readings before-hand.

The main thing Katzenstein emphasizes is the ability to think critically. He’ll find students to rehash the world news each lecture, and then to analyze it using material from the class. I feel that he tries to highlight this skill in the prelim, but it turned out to be more memorization of the readings. The “review essay” is similar in that you voice your opinion and use readings to support yourself. The final is definitely tons of memorization, but with a bit more application in the final essay.

If you can memorize well, this class should be quite easy. Beware there is a lot of reading. A highly enjoyable class to take pass/fail…

Oh, and Canadians burned the White House in 1812.

MATH2230 (John Hubbard):

The very first class, the professor will try to scare away around half the people. On the first night, he covered basically the entirety of uncountable sets that I learned from AoPS in about 5 minutes. If you do really like math though, this is quite a fun class.

The work load is a decent amount, with some pretty hard problems at times. Be best friend with the TA; he/she will be very helpful with stuck problems. The material that is covered is kind of weird: derivatives with respect to linear algebra, basic topology, Kantorovich’s Theorem (really, really obscure theorem, but the professor loves it), FTA, manifolds, Taylor polynomials. It’s just a menagerie of stuff.

Hubbard really loves Newton’s Method and computational stuff. And he is also really easily distracted. Ask a random question, and he’ll try to answer it; not matter how bad the question is.

Prelims are decent…

I’ll probably download all the PDFs from the class (ie the sample prelims given etc) if anyone needs them, PM me.