September 2015 - mathfun@mailman.xmission.com

Re: [math-fun] Yogi Berra, computer scientist, dead at 90
by Leo Broukhis 25 Sep '15

25 Sep '15

On Thu, 24 Sep 2015 12:30:40 -0600, Cris Moore <moore(a)santafe.edu> wrote: > So the sentence ?I am currently engaging in amphibolism? is self-referential and true? I think so. Leo > On Sep 24, 2015, at 12:24 PM, Leo Broukhis <leob(a)mailcom.com> wrote: > >>> Er ... "Amphibolism is the integration of catabolism(complex break >>> down into small molecules) and anabolism(complex synthesized from >>> small)." [www.answers.com] ? >> >> Alternatively, "amphibolism" can be understood as proneness to >> ambiguity in speech, >> cf. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/amphiboly

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[math-fun] Cool orbit trajectory
by Henry Baker 24 Sep '15

24 Sep '15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2&v=BIy5g4bvskM 2.5 minutes, 15MBytes. Gtoc 8 - Winning trajectory visualization AdvancedConcepts Published on Sep 24, 2015 This is a visualization of the trajectory designed by the ACT-ISAS team that won 1st place in the GTOC8. The theme chosen by NASA / JPL for the 8th edition of the GTOC was high-resolution mapping of radio sources in the universe using space-based Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). Three spacecraft had to depart from the Earth and needed to perform several interferometric measurements of one of 420 radio sources. An interferometric measurement could be made when the three spacecraft lay on a plane whose normal pointed towards the radio source. Moon gravity assists and low-thrust propulsion had to be used to target each interferometric measurement.

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Re: [math-fun] math-fun Digest, Vol 151, Issue 48
by Leo Broukhis 24 Sep '15

24 Sep '15

On Wed, 23 Sep 2015 21:15:13 +0100, Fred Lunnon <fred.lunnon(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Er ... "Amphibolism is the integration of catabolism(complex break > down into small molecules) and anabolism(complex synthesized from > small)." [www.answers.com] ? Alternatively, "amphibolism" can be understood as proneness to ambiguity in speech, cf. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/amphiboly I should note that although lexical ambiguity can be called an amphiboly, a more specific term would be "equivocation". > By the way, did he have athletics (emeritus) tenure? I don't know.

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Re: [math-fun] Yogi Berra, computer scientist, dead at 90
by Leo Broukhis 23 Sep '15

23 Sep '15

I conclude that Yogi Berra's likely cause of death was amphibolism. Leo On Wed, 23 Sep 2015 08:08:41 -0700, Henry Baker <hbaker1(a)pipeline.com> wrote: > On O(n) constants: > > "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." [Take that, Don Knuth!] > > On cut-and-choose: > > "You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six" > > On quantum computation: > > "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." > > On debugging: > > "You can observe a lot by watching." > > On speculative execution & the failure of IBM's Model 91: > > "We made too many wrong mistakes." > > On load balancing: > > "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." > > On the Halting Problem: > > "It ain't over till it's over." > > On self-referential statements: > > "I never said most of the things I said." [Take that!, Bertrand Russell!] > > On memory caches' ability to reduce latency: > > "The future ain’t what it used to be." > > On network synchronization: > > "It gets late early out here." > > On neural network convergence: > > "If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else." > > On Google's success: > > "I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did." > > On the security of multiparty cryptographic protocols: > > "Never answer an anonymous letter." > > On the difference between "wall clock time" and "CPU time": > > "I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four." > > On recursive sorting algorithms & dynamic programming: > > "The lousy teams are good this year" > > On cryptographic zero-knowledge protocols: > > "There are some people who, if they don't already know, you can't tell 'em." > > On cache misses: > > "I wish I had an answer to that because I'm tired of answering that question." > > On Turing Machine diagonalization: > > "I knew the record would stand until it was broken." > > On parallel system synchronization deadlock: > > "You should always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise, they won’t come to yours."

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[math-fun] Faculty position in CS
by Michael Collins 23 Sep '15

23 Sep '15

(Apologies if this is spam; please forward to anyone you know who might be seeking a faculty position) My department is advertising for a full-time non-tenure-track position focused on (but not limited to) teaching intro programming; masters degrees will be considered for instructor, Ph.D.s for lecturer. The CS department at Christopher Newport University is a great place to work, with a very congenial, supportive atmosphere and energetic faculty who are passionate about teaching. Note the fairly early deadline (November 1st). Mike Collins

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[math-fun] Yogi Berra, computer scientist, dead at 90
by Henry Baker 23 Sep '15

23 Sep '15

On O(n) constants: "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." [Take that, Don Knuth!] On cut-and-choose: "You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six" On quantum computation: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." On debugging: "You can observe a lot by watching." On speculative execution & the failure of IBM's Model 91: "We made too many wrong mistakes." On load balancing: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." On the Halting Problem: "It ain't over till it's over." On self-referential statements: "I never said most of the things I said." [Take that!, Bertrand Russell!] On memory caches' ability to reduce latency: "The future aint what it used to be." On network synchronization: "It gets late early out here." On neural network convergence: "If you dont know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else." On Google's success: "Im not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did." On the security of multiparty cryptographic protocols: "Never answer an anonymous letter." On the difference between "wall clock time" and "CPU time": "I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four." On recursive sorting algorithms & dynamic programming: "The lousy teams are good this year" On cryptographic zero-knowledge protocols: "There are some people who, if they don't already know, you can't tell 'em." On cache misses: "I wish I had an answer to that because I'm tired of answering that question." On Turing Machine diagonalization: "I knew the record would stand until it was broken." On parallel system synchronization deadlock: "You should always go to other peoples funerals, otherwise, they wont come to yours."

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Re: [math-fun] open tree of life
by Warren D Smith 22 Sep '15

22 Sep '15

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi may not have the latest greatest data, but pleasant to use. My original question about the path from Homo Sapiens (Humans) to Zea Mays (Maize) is answered almost immediately, it is got by gluing these two paths (49 nodes in all) 1. Eukaryota; Viridiplantae; Streptophyta; Streptophytina; Embryophyta; Tracheophyta; Euphyllophyta; Spermatophyta; Magnoliophyta; Mesangiospermae; Liliopsida; Petrosaviidae; commelinids; Poales; Poaceae; PACMAD clade; Panicoideae; Andropogonodae; Andropogoneae; Tripsacinae; Zea 2. Eukaryota; Opisthokonta; Metazoa; Eumetazoa; Bilateria; Deuterostomia; Chordata; Craniata; Vertebrata; Gnathostomata; Teleostomi; Euteleostomi; Sarcopterygii; Dipnotetrapodomorpha; Tetrapoda; Amniota; Mammalia; Theria; Eutheria; Boreoeutheria; Euarchontoglires; Primates; Haplorrhini; Simiiformes; Catarrhini; Hominoidea; Hominidae; Homininae; Homo and you can click on any of those words, e.g. "Craniata" to learn more. The amount of info inside this thing looks immense. About http://www.onezoom.org/ Currently omits the bacteria, far as I can tell? However they claim by the end of 2015 they will interface this to the full Open Tree of Life Project dataset with over 2 million species.

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[math-fun] Loebner prize
by Warren D Smith 22 Sep '15

22 Sep '15

For the best "chatbot" in a "Turing test" is now to be run at Bletchley Park annually. The winner this year was "Rose" by Bruce & Sue Wilcox: http://ec2-54-215-197-164.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com/speech.php I tried it and it produced decent answers about 25% of the time, which I found quite impressive.

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Re: [math-fun] open tree of life
by Marc LeBrun 21 Sep '15

21 Sep '15

>="Hilarie Orman" <ho(a)alum.mit.edu> > As near as I was able to tell, you need to install their software and load > all the databases. If there's something easier, I'd like to know. It seems you can simple talk to their site directly through HTTP. For example when I issued (my analog of) the example command they give: curl -X POST http://api.opentreeoflife.org/v2/tree_of_life/about -H "content-type:application/json" -d '{"study_list":false}' I got the following JSON payload in response { date: "2015-05-06 12:23:30.995" tree_id: "opentree3.0" taxonomy_version: "ott2.8draft5" num_tips: 2339460 root_taxon_name: "cellular organisms" num_source_studies: 479 root_node_id: 1 root_ott_id: 93302 } Their APIs doc is at https://github.com/OpenTreeOfLife/opentree/wiki/Open-Tree-of-Life-APIs

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Re: [math-fun] open tree of life
by Hilarie Orman 21 Sep '15

21 Sep '15

I was hoping for something that would display the data graphically, as in their paper, with zoom capability. I assumed without verification that their software provided something like that. Hilarie > From: Marc LeBrun <mlb(a)well.com> > > >="Hilarie Orman" <ho(a)alum.mit.edu> > > As near as I was able to tell, you need to install their software and load > > all the databases. If there's something easier, I'd like to know. > It seems you can simple talk to their site directly through HTTP. > For example when I issued (my analog of) the example command they give: > curl -X POST http://api.opentreeoflife.org/v2/tree_of_life/about -H > "content-type:application/json" -d '{"study_list":false}' > I got the following JSON payload in response > { > date: "2015-05-06 12:23:30.995" > tree_id: "opentree3.0" > taxonomy_version: "ott2.8draft5" > num_tips: 2339460 > root_taxon_name: "cellular organisms" > num_source_studies: 479 > root_node_id: 1 > root_ott_id: 93302 > } > Their APIs doc is at > https://github.com/OpenTreeOfLife/opentree/wiki/Open-Tree-of-Life-APIs

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