Posts
June 03, 2013
+
10:13 PM | random sudokus
In a paper arXived on Friday, Roberto Fontana relates the generation of Sudoku grids to the one of Latin squares (which is unsurprising) and to maximum cliques of a graph (more surprising). The generation of a random Latin square proceeds in three steps: generate a random Latin square L with identity permutation matrix on symbol […]
+
Suppose one is given a -tuple of distinct integers for some , arranged in increasing order. When is it possible to find infinitely many translates of which consists entirely of primes? The case is just Euclid’s theorem on the infinitude of primes, but the case is already open in general, with the case being the […]
+
4:44 PM | Nicolaus was not a priest.
Erik Kwakkei (@erik_kwakkei) drew my attention to a rather nice short video by Anthony Esolem of Prager University explaining that the Middle Ages were anything but Dark and should actually be called the bright ages. This is a very well … Continue reading →
+
Louis Mittel writes: The premise of the column this guy is starting is interesting: Noah Davis interviews a smart person and then interviews the smartest person that smart person knows and so on. It reminded me of you mentioning survey design strategy of asking people about other people, like “How many people do you know [...]The post The statistical properties of smart chains (and referral chains more generally) appeared first on Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science.
+
12:09 PM | Sum-free subset challenge
A set of integers is called sum-free if no element of the set is the sum of any other pair of elements in the set. For example, {1, 10, 100} is sum-free. Let’s look at pulling out a sum-free subset…Read more ›
+
11:04 AM | How much would you pay to be my friend?
I am on my way to D.C. for a health analytics conference, where I hope to learn the state of the art for health data and modeling. So stay tuned for updates on that. In the meantime, ponder this concept (hat tip Matt Stoller, who describes it as ‘neoliberal prostitution’). It’s a dating website called […]
+
10:13 AM | first pho in Saigon
Filed under: pictures, Travel Tagged: Melbourne, pho, Saigon, Vietnam
+
10:10 AM | Holiday in the Highlands
Palm trees, pristine white beaches, turquoise blue water…and sheep. If such a scenario sounds like your idea of heaven, you need to get yourself to the western highlands of Scotland. Yes, Scotland. And no, I haven’t embarked on an alternative career as a travel agent – I’ve just had a fantastic holiday up there and […]
June 02, 2013
+
“I understand you have been elected to serve on the Presidential Search Committee. Thank you so much for taking this important task on,” wrote the Chancellor. It is of course always nice to hear that you have once again gained … Continue reading →
+
10:13 PM | camera miracles: once, not thrice!
As if a thumb was not enough, I lost the “new” Canon Ixus 115 H5 I bought in replacement of the (mediocre) Nikon Coolpix I lost on Ben Nevis (the title refer to the miracle mentioned in a post in February 2013, when I almost lost my (Nikon Coolpix L26) camera to the cloaca maxima, […]
+
1:41 PM | Flame bait
Mark Palko asks what I think of this article by Francisco Louca, who writes about “‘hybridization’, a synthesis between Fisherian and Neyman-Pearsonian precepts, defined as a number of practical proceedings for statistical testing and inference that were developed notwithstanding the original authors, as an eventual convergence between what they considered to be radically irreconcilable.” To [...]The post Flame bait appeared first on Statistical Modeling, Causal
[…]
+
12:37 PM | Spacetime of General Relativity
General relativity is commonly represented in popular science as in the following extract of the Fabric of Cosmos, what is space? hosted by Brian Greene: But a few years ago, I read somewhere that this usual visual representation of spacetime as a bent sheet of cloth was wrong. Worse than that, not only was it [...]
+
11:29 AM | Let’s enjoy the backlash against hackathons
As much as I have loved my DataKind hackathons, where I get to meet a bunch of friendly nerds who are spend their weekend trying to solve problems using technology, I also have my reservations about the whole weekend hackathon culture, especially when: It’s a competition, so really you’re not solving problems as much as […]
June 01, 2013
+
10:13 PM | camera miracles: once, not thrice!
As if a thumb was not enough, I lost the “new” Canon Ixus 115 H5 I bought in replacement of the (mediocre) Nikon Coolpix I lost on Ben Nevis (the title refer to the miracle mentioned in a post in February 2013, when I almost lost my (Nikon Coolpix L26) camera to the cloaca maxima, […]
+
10:13 PM | Bayes.2.5.0 reminder
Just a reminder that Bayes 250 at the RSS is taking place in less than three weeks and that it would be a good idea to register now (using a form and not an on-line page, unfortunately)! Here is the official program. Current Schedule 11:00 Registration and tea 11:30 Welcome 11:35 Anthony O’Hagan (Warwickshire) and […]
+
7:19 PM | Blueberry season
I took a couple of my kids blueberry picking this morning at Chmielewski Blueberry Farm. It’s a little early in the season, so some of the berries are ripe but a lot are not. Here’s a post I wrote four…Read more ›
+
4:49 PM | That Prudential commercial
Prudential, the insurance company, has a commercial in which they ask people to place stickers at the age of the oldest person they know, thereby creating a histogram with its peak in the early 90s. Patrick Honner has commented that this seems like a way to fool the quantitatively unsophisticated into thinking they will live […]
+
I don't know if you noticed, but today is a triangular day. It is the first of June, and 1 is indeed a triangular number.1 is also a special number because it is a square number as well. In fact, if you look at all of the regular polygonal figurative families, one is the first number. It is the first pentagonal number, hexagonal number, and so on. In fact, a dot can represent whatever figure you want it to, which shows the creativity of mathematics.Because of this specialness to the number one, […]
+
3:54 PM | Physics and multidimensions
posted by @ulaulaman about @lirarandall conference at #wirednextfest in #milano
One of the most famous theoretical physicist in the world, Lisa Randall, was yesterday in Milano for the Wired's Next Fest with a conference about Physics, technology and multidimensions. The physicist talked about LHC, the Standard Model and the Higgs boson and the connections between his research work.
The starting point is a light introduction about the scales in our universe: we known the cosmic and […]
Randall L. & Sundrum R. (1999). Large Mass Hierarchy from a Small Extra Dimension, Physical Review Letters, 83 (17) 3370-3373. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.3370
Citation
+
3:20 PM | L'universo di Lisa Randall
La fisica teorica più famosa del mondo, Lisa Randall, ieri pomeriggio era a Milano, al Planetario Ulrico Hoepli, per una conferenza all'interno della Next Fest organizzata da Wired. La Randall, che si presenta al pubblico del Planetario (non pienissimo, purtroppo) con una conferenza dal titolo Fisica, tecnologia e multidimensionalità, discute essenzialmente del suo lavoro come fisica teorica, di LHC e di ATLAS e della scoperta del bosone di Higgs.
La conferenza inizia con una introduzione […]
Randall L. & Sundrum R. (1999). Large Mass Hierarchy from a Small Extra Dimension, Physical Review Letters, 83 (17) 3370-3373. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.3370
Citation
+
3:04 PM | New Channels for the MCMP on iTunes U!
The MCMP is proud to present over 250 videos on iTunes U! Thanks for all your contributions in the last two years! In 2013 we are opening 4 new channels: "Logic", "Epistemology", "Philosophy of Science", "Metaphysics and Philosophy of Language". We are introducing the update with a video – of course! Check it out at http://firstsight.rforge.com/?videoid=xoZzT2cC6x. Have fun exploring and try out our new video search function at http://www.mcmp.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de/media/index.html!
+
1:52 PM | E la cena improvvisata
Fettina superstite di pitta calabrese e fettina di pollo, entrambe addobbate con pomodorini, mozzarella e origano, tutto rigorosamente al forno! E anche stasera abbiamo mangiato!
+
1:11 PM | Benford’s law and addresses
One example we give to illustrate Benford’s law is the first digits of addresses. Javier Marquez Pena had a survey and, just for laffs, he looked the distribution of first digits: Cool—it really works! P.S. The y-axis shouldn’t go below zero, and I’d much prefer an L-type graphics box (par(bty=”l”)) rather than the square, but [...]The post Benford’s law and addresses appeared first on Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science.
+
I’m psyched to be able to answer your sex-related question today, really. I just don’t know how to thank you guys. Please keep them coming. And by the way, if you don’t know what you’re in for, go here for past advice columns and here for an explanation of the name Pythia. Most importantly, Submit your question for Aunt […]
May 31, 2013
+
10:13 PM | ABC in Roma (#2)
Just a few more words written on my return home from Roma (on an uneventful and sunny trip). On a personal side (that readers can skip!), it was a pleasure as always to be two days in Roma, from running in the early morning, beating the rain and the traffic (and with no map nor […]
+
4:55 PM | Parallel Weighings
We’ve all been hearing about parallel computing, and now it has turned up in a coin-weighing puzzle invented by Konstantin Knop.
“We have N indistinguishable coins. One of them is fake and it is not known whether it is heavier or lighter, but all genuine coins weigh the same. There are two [...]
+
4:45 PM | Was I Dead?
Once when I was working at Telcordia, I received a phone call from my doctor’s office. Here is how it went:
— Are you Tanya Khovanova?
— Yes.
— You should come here immediately and redo your blood test ASAP.
— What’s going on?
— Your blood count shows that you are dead.
— If I’m dead, then what’s the [...]
