More Humor

I am watching Syracuse vs. Notre Dame; aside from one good Orange drive and about 40 seconds and the end of the first half when the Irish burned the Orange with a touchdown bomb, this appears to be a game that neither team wants to win.

A fumbled punt gave ND its first field goal, and a bad punt snap followed by a partial block has set ND up close, again. But ND doesn’t seem to want to take advantage. They just botched a field goal snap and missed a field goal.

Notre Dame. Does. Not. Belong. In. A. Bowl. Period.

Update: ND scored on another bomb play, got an interception but only could get 3 more. It is now 23-10; from two blocked punts and two fumbles ND got a grand total of two field goals.

On the other hand, the Orange act as if they are a 2-8 team playing out the season under a lame-duck coach who was fired will not be retained after the season ends.

But they did have a long drive (mostly running up the middle) to cut it to 23-17 with a ton of time to play.

So we’ll see: which team wants to lose win more? Sorry….I am still grumpy about having to miss the Tech-OU game tonight.

Update: ND’s latest drive stalled and they barely missed a 49 yard field goal attempt (just inches short). The Orange started a drive (mostly running) and now have it on the ND 10 with 2:00 left in the game. A holding call set the Orange back; that hurts them because they have been making their yardage on the ground. They are now back at the 20 with 1:29 to go; perhaps they’ll have to pass.

Pass: complete, back to the 11 yard line and now it is 3rd and 8 yards to go; the Orange could still run it given that they have two time outs.

OMG!!!!! TD, Syracuse, with 42 seconds to go; it is tied 23-23 with the extra point try to follow. They have had trouble with snaps though: this snap is low but the holder does a good job and now it is 24-23.

The kick-off return takes it back to the 26 so ND has 35 seconds to get into field goal range. One incomplete pass; 29 seconds to go.

ND tries a bomb; in and out of the receiver’s hands (while he was twisting and falling; it would have been a circus catch. Another long bomb; off one hand of the receiver and 14 seconds are left.

Bomb is complete with 7 seconds left; ball at the 35 yard line!

So, try another bomb or a 52 yard field goal? There are 5 seconds left.

The kick is just short; ND loses to a 3-8 team at home.

Notre Dame. Does. Not. Belong. In. A. Bowl.

But I have to give the Orange credit: they played hard.

Now ND faces USC next. If the Trojans are at all interested in the game, they may well win 63-0, provided they decide to send in their substitutes.

One good thing though:

These photos (New Hampshire vs. Maine) remind me that the local weather could always be worse. Or get worse.

Other games: Ohio State’s 42-7 destruction of Michigan wasn’t a surprise. That Penn State is handling Michigan State so easily (28-0 in the second quarter) is a surprise to me; I expected Penn State to win but not so easily. Update: it is now 49-7, Penn State, in the3′th quarter.

That Florida hung 70 points on The Citadel didn’t surprise me. But NC State’s blowout of ranked NC (41-10) did surprise me.

That Illinois is stinking it up against Northwestern at the half (13-0) doesn’t surprise me.

Update: Northwestern is up 24-10 and just recovered a forced fumble (on a quarterback sack). A long run plus a face mask penalty puts Northwestern in business at the Illinois 13.

Illinois. Does. Not. Belong. In. A. Bowl.

Northwestern does though.

The Wildcats have the ball at about the 13 with 4′th and 3 with 2:49 to go. Since they are up by 14, do they kick it to go up by 3 scores, thereby all but icing the game? Or do they go for it; if they make it they can run out the clock (or score) and if they don’t, Illinois has 87 yards to go and would still be down by 2 scores.

They kick it; make it and now it is 27-10 lead with 2:44. Now Illinois needs three scores.

Illinois completes a long pass; the receiver catches the ball and gets positively BLASTED. This is the player that talked trash. The next pass is dropped; this Illinois receiver really didn’t want to catch the ball. Now U of I gets a delay of game penalty???

First down at the Wildcat 46. Can Illinois pretty it up a bit?

Sack; 53 seconds to go. 25 seconds to go; Illinois will finish with a whimper (5-7). Northwestern finishes 9-3.

Now they switch to Cal-Poly versus Wisconsin; Cal-Poly is almost in field goal range with under 20 seconds to go. Can the Big Ten get yet another black eye? Wisconsin attempts to ice the kicker.

The kick misses; overtime is probable as there are only 12 seconds left. Last pass gets intercepted; overtime!

Play one in overtime; Cal-Poly scores a TD via a pass. They miss the PAT; third miss of the PAT. Three missed PATs.

So, it is very likely that this will not go into a second overtime. First and goal at the 10. The Badgers run it to the 6; second down. Touchdown, Badgers! Three runs and a score. Now the PAT attempt….anything can happen and Cal-Poly attempts to ice the kicker. The kick is good; the Big Ten avoids a black eye.

But Cal-Poly still has their play-offs (they are ranked number 3 in what used to be known as I-AA).

Some humor

Intentional humor

This is one funny prank.

Unintentional humor

Bustery, Gray day

Workout notes Yoga with Cathie then 5 miles of walking in blustery conditions (roughly 13 minute pace); 32 F (freezing), gray and windy.

I felt nice and stretched.

Politics

This is the full radio address from President Elect Obama.

Personal I am watching a bit of the Ohio State vs. Michigan game. I’ll probably watch Notre Dame vs. Syracuse later. I was hoping to watch Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma but my wife is dragging me to the symphony and I couldn’t get out of it.

Lazy Saturday Morning 22 November.

Workout notes: I’ll be a slug this morning: maybe the 9 am yoga class followed by an hour of easy walking. I have a 4 mile running race on Sunday and I want to see how I do.

The course (for the Peoria Turkey Trot) is actually just a bit short: you start on a road and go up a huge hill; the first 2 miles or so are pretty much uphill. Then you go screaming down the hill (still on the road) and back to where you started. This loop is about 3.1 miles or so. Then you get on the edge of a large complex of soccer fields and run on the grass for about .7 miles. By then your quads are pretty much trashed.

Ironically, your time is about what your time for a 4 mile road course would be; the shorter distance is compensated for by the hill and the grass.

Anyway, I’d like to check out where I am in terms of fitness, and that means that I should probably take it easy today.

Assorted Items

Civics Quiz: I posted a link to the quiz on the Daily Kos. Needless to say, the Kossacks are doing pretty well. I’d love to see a contest between us and, say, the Freepers or the Dittoheads (we’d wipe the floor with them).

Obama’s President Elect Addresses

Here are the first two:

Science and Mathematics
Yesterday I attended a physics seminar on the Large Hadron Collider. This was a slightly more specialized talk than the public one the day before. There were lots of fascinating things there; one of the more fascinating topics was gravity: why is it so much weaker than the other forces (on the order of times weaker!). I was told that the spin of the graviton made it mathematically feasible to model gravity in such a way that most of the force extends beyond our space-time continuum into another, geometrically small dimension (the spins of the other particles would have those other forces acting in our dimensions). They also told me that candidates for these other dimensions could be compact manifolds or orbifolds.

More Cosmology

Here is a good TED talk on the large scale structure of the universe (e. g., the patterns that the clusters of galaxies make). Note that the simulations produces these sorts of structures given the estimated conditions at the big bang.

Some Mathematics
Here is the “knot not” video; this describes one of my research areas.

Economics

Robert Reich talks more about the bailout; he notes that some of the bailout programs really don’t do much other than help the investors who made bad investments. He also notes that bailing out GM might have a more positive impact on the economy than some of the bailouts of banks.

The Street’s view of the world is fundamentally flawed. Banks are important to the economy because they’re financial intermediaries. They connect savers with investors and borrowers. This is a vital function, but there’s nothing magical about it. At any given time the world contains a vast pool of money that can be put to all sorts of uses. Financial intermediaries simply link the pool to the uses.

To be sure, savers need to believe that intermediaries are trustworthy; otherwise, savers will prefer the underside of their mattresses. That’s why governments regulate intermediaries, insure deposits, and do whatever else needs to be done to make savers feel safe. What governments and societies fear most are “runs” on banks — panicked efforts by depositors to pull their money out all at once, before banks can possibly collect the money from all those who have used it to borrow or invest. That’s what happened in the 1930s.

But the current panic on Wall Street is not a “run” in this sense. It has almost nothing to do with banks’ roles as financial intermediaries. It’s about money that’s been lent to or invested in the banks themselves, in order to profit off of the banks’ profits. Lehman’s demise cost many investors and creditors lots of money, to be sure, but they were investors and creditors in Lehman, not in the real economy.

He then talks about how GM has a much greater impact on the economy as a whole:

In fact, there may be more reason to do the reverse. GM has a far greater impact on jobs and communities. Add parts suppliers and their employees, and the number of middle-class and blue-collar jobs dependent on GM is many multiples that of Citi. And the potential social costs of GM’s demise, or even major shrinkage, is much larger than Citi’s — including everything from unemployment insurance to lost tax revenues to families suddenly without health insurance to entire communities whose infrastructure and housing may become nearly worthless. I’m not arguing that GM should be bailed out; as I’ve noted elsewhere, GM’s creditors, shareholders, executives, and workers should have to make substantial sacrifices before taxpayers should be expected to sacrifice as well.

Anyway, there is much more there. This is one reason I love the internet: you get a free, front row seat for a seminar by an expert!

Religion and society (via 3quarks daily): does religion actually make a society more moral? There is no evidence that it does.

RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.

According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.

The study counters the view of believers that religion is necessary to provide the moral and ethical foundations of a healthy society.

It compares the social peformance of relatively secular countries, such as Britain, with the US, where the majority believes in a creator rather than the theory of evolution. Many conservative evangelicals in the US consider Darwinism to be a social evil, believing that it inspires atheism and amorality.

Many liberal Christians and believers of other faiths hold that religious belief is socially beneficial, believing that it helps to lower rates of violent crime, murder, suicide, sexual promiscuity and abortion. The benefits of religious belief to a society have been described as its “spiritual capital”. But the study claims that the devotion of many in the US may actually contribute to its ills.

The paper, published in the Journal of Religion and Society, a US academic journal, reports: “Many Americans agree that their churchgoing nation is an exceptional, God-blessed, shining city on the hill that stands as an impressive example for an increasingly sceptical world.

“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.

“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.” [...]

Gee, that is a shock, isn’t it. Of course it isn’t. Now I must wonder if the link between religious belief and society dysfunction is a mere correlation or it is causation: do people in troubled societies turn to religion because of their troubles, or does the religious beliefs themselves lead to the troubles? I also wonder about this as well: I’ve seen studies that show that dumber people have more trouble getting through life and that, well, dumber people tend to be more religious. So, is the measure of how religious a society is really more or less an ignorance detection?

More Topics for 21 November 2008

Academia: who are the biggest (faculty) nerds on campus? One prof weighs in. This annoyed me a bit:

Computer Science profs have to be the geekiest. When I went to graduate school in mathematics I thought I’d be surrounded by nothing but geeks, but I was pleasantly surprised–the faculty and grad students were pretty normal.

Hey! How dare anyone try to tell me that we’ve been outgeeked!!!!

Religion and Society The Friendly Atheist has a great line here:

The Christian OneNewsNow site says we are winning a war I didn’t even know we were waging!

The situation: the military. Our (atheist’s) great sin: we aren’t giving their religion preferred position; that is, we are asking Obama to

enact new rules against proselytizing and develop a new directive for all chaplains and commanders to eliminate public prayers from any mandatory attendance events for military troops.

Oh no! We don’t want people to be captive audience for someone’s religion! IT IS THE COMING OF THE ANTI-CHRIST!!! (follow the link; I am not exaggerating).

Why anyone takes these clowns seriously is beyond me.

Science (and humor)
What is Evolved and Rational talking about here?

If you’re a single-celled orgasm [...]
On another note, horny horny horny.

You guessed it: she is talking about a large but single celled organism which, to the astonishment of scientists, can leave a trail:

Slowly rolling across the ocean floor, a humble single-celled creature is poised to revolutionize our understanding of how complex life evolved on Earth.

A distant relative of microscopic amoebas, the grape-sized Gromia sphaerica was discovered once before, lying motionless at the bottom of the Arabian Sea. But when Mikhail Matz of the University of Texas at Austin and a group of researchers stumbled across a group of G. sphaerica off the coast of the Bahamas, the creatures were leaving trails behind them up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) long in the mud.

The trouble is, single-celled critters aren’t supposed to be able to leave trails. The oldest fossils of animal trails, called ‘trace fossils’, date to around 580 million years ago, and paleontologists always figured they must have been made by multicellular animals with complex, symmetrical bodies.

But G. sphaerica’s traces are the spitting image of the old, Precambrian fossils; two small ridges line the outside of the trail, and one thin bump runs down the middle.

In short, this gives some insight into the so-called Cambrian explosion: perhaps some of the fossilized trails were made by single celled animals.

Politics

Why do people hate Congress? Maybe one reason is that convicted felons get standing ovations?

Maybe another reason is that the party who is out of power will sometimes threaten to obstruct; that is, they are going to take their toys and go home.

Shoot. Me. Now.

I admit that my gut twists a bit when I find that I have “brief calculus” on my teaching schedule.

For the uninitiated: this is a course which teaches the superficial rudiments of computational calculus to those students who need a light conceptual understanding of the subject (e. g., business majors, the weaker chemistry students, biology majors, etc.)

There is nothing wrong with that; in every class I get a mix of really good students, solid students and, well, those whose aptitude for mathematics approaches my aptitude for, say, music or art.

I find that if I work at it, I can show patience in the classroom, even in situations such as this one:

we were working a “integration by substitution” problem and we came to the following (on the board):

And I get this question from a diligent student who attends without fail and sits at the front of the class: “where did the come from?”

Mind you, this student isn’t even close to the bottom of the class; she is one who is honest enough to speak up when she gets lost.

So I can grin and bear it, even if I mutter “this is what you get for not writing a better thesis” under my breath.

I suppose this is some sort of cosmic justice for what I put my foreign language professors though when I was an undergraduate.

But here is what really torques me off about this course: the textbooks that we use. Yes, we try to choose a “good” book but for the most part, the books are poorly written. I’ll give you two examples from the one that we are using. First, we had this problem in our set of exercises:

This enabled me to give an “extra credit” problem where I asked the students to find an integral that was not defined. One did it (the student who has a 97 average; surprised? )

Note that we have not covered improper integrals as yet, though we have noted that our Fundamental Theorem of Calculus required that the function be continuous on the interval on which we were integrating.

But worse came the following example from the text: we are going to discuss the “present value” of a continuous stream of revenue given what we can obtain continuously compounded interest.

So the basic formula (which is correct) is:

where is usually taken to be a constant revenue stream (to allow for ease of integration). So far, so good.

But now we turn to annuities. Suppose we get, say, payments per year of dollars per payment. So what do they do? They give the following formula:

while saying that these discrete payments constitute a continuous stream; example, 12 payments of 100 dollars a month would be put in as 1200 dollars a year as a steady stream.

No, they didn’t say that this was a “good enough” approximation but they said that this was “a formula” without any further discussion or even saying “discussing the reason this works is beyond our scope” or anything like that.

Here is a demonstration, assuming 3 percent interest (annual) compounded continuously.
We have three situations.
Situation one: two payments of 100 dollars; the payments are at the beginning of the month:

Situation two: two payments of 100 dollars; the payments are at the end of the month:

Situation three: the book’s formula:

Again, I don’t fault them for using an approximation; I do fault them for not admitting that is what they are doing.

But that happens with this course: the text books tend to be bad.