# blueollie

## And the Laplace Transform offends…

This Friday, we start Laplace Transforms in differential equations. By “Laplace Transforms”, we mean the usual simplified Laplace Transform we teach to beginning differential equations students; we do not know what a Lebesgue or a Stieltjes integral is.

That reminded me of what happened in my first differential equations course, back in the fall of 1978. I was sitting next to Vince and the instructor wrote the following on the board:

That, of course, is the gamma function (think of it as a way to extend the factorial function into a continuous function on the reals, though there is a more general version). If you must know, for positive real numbers, $\Gamma(x) = \int^{\infty}_0 t^{x-1} e^{-t} dt$. This is a convergent improper integral for $x > 0$

Never mind that.

Vince said “box of x, what is box?” I replied “that is the gamma function, Vince”.

“Box…what’s box? They are just making stuff up! They are making it up as they go along!” Vince was just so offended by the gamma function!

Anyway, that is a memory that made me chuckle; and yes, Vince ended up passing the course.

Workout notes: Not sure what was wrong; my nose is runny and I had a tough time breathing in the gym as the pace got harder (heat? dehydration? allergies?) So my planned 10 minute warm up, 10 x (2:30 at 6.7, 2:30 at 5.3) workout became 10 minute warm up, 6 x (2:30 at 6.7, 2:30 at 5.3) followed by a 5 minute walk, then enough running to get me to 6.1 miles in 1:05, and 1:44 more of walking to get me to 10K in 1:06:44.

I call that a “rescue of a workout”; for me, a 10K training run at under 11 minutes per mile is a valid training run, and I did get some pace changes.

March 22, 2017

## Yes, I miss George W. Bush…as an opponent.

Donald Trump has me missing George W. Bush…as an opponent. Yeah, I think that President Bush didn’t do a good job…not at all. But if my choices were him or Donald Trump, I’d vote for President Bush (after gulping quite a bit of pink bismuth)

Unrelated note
There really is no hope for me…at least I caught it BEFORE I left for work.

September 22, 2016

## Snarky Grumpy Meme Two

When people post stuff like the meme on the left, it is time to click “unfollow” or “unfriend”. 🙂 Seriously, if you want to be liked, become likable. If you want to be accepted, earn acceptance.

Ha ha ha ha…:-)

## Math-y Bernie and Stanford

Workout notes: weight, 186. eek!
pull ups: 5 sets of 10 (ok), rotator cuff
bench press: 10 x 135, 5 x 185 (strong), 8 x 170
incline press: 10 x 135
military press (dumbbell): 2 sets of 12 x 50 seated, supported, 10 x 40 standing
rows: 3 sets of 10 x 50
twist crunch: 2 sets of 12
yoga leg lifts: 2 sets of 10
moving bridge
side plank 30 seconds, front 30 seconds

Swim: 500 free, 10 x 25 3g/5g, 25 swim (fins), 8 x 50 (side/free), 100 pull, 100 free, 100 pull, 100 of fly/free

Math: yes, the delegate math works against Sanders (though he will probably win Wisconsin by 5-10 points) but not catch up enough on delegates. Yes, he has run an excellent campaign:

The first thing to say is that it’s still very unlikely that Sanders can win the nomination. Don’t tell me about national polls (and cherry-pick the polls that show your guy getting close); at this point it’s all about delegate counts, where Clinton has a substantial lead with the voting more than half over. The Times’s Upshot has a nice calculator that takes account of what we know about demographic factors – Sanders does well in very white states and in caucuses, not so much elsewhere – and lets you experiment with various overall leads in what remains of the race. To overtake Clinton in pledged delegates, Sanders would need to win by about a 13 point margin from here on in […]

at this point it’s something like a 90 percent probability that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee. Anyone denying that arithmetic is basically pulling a con job on Sanders supporters.

So what does that say about appropriate behavior on the part of her rival? Two things, I’d argue.

First, the Sanders campaign needs to stop feeding the right-wing disinformation machine. Engaging in innuendo suggesting, without evidence, that Clinton is corrupt is, at this point, basically campaigning on behalf of the RNC. If Sanders really believes, as he says, that it’s all-important to keep the White House out of Republican hands, he should stop all that – and tell his staff to stop it too.

Second, it’s time for Sanders to engage in some citizenship. The presidency isn’t the only office on the line; down-ballot races for the Senate and even the House are going to be crucial. Clinton has been raising money for other races; Sanders hasn’t, and is still being evasive on whether he will ever do so. Not acceptable.

And speaking of math, get a load of some April Fool’s demands made on the Stanford math department. (all in good fun)

April 2, 2016

Someone posted this meme…and tagged me.

Am I really that bad? 🙂

March 22, 2016

## Harry Kellerman and troubles….

A few days ago my wife thanked me for listening to “her troubles”. I said “oh, I am fine..that is the price I pay for…”…well never mind that.

But that did remind me of a scene from a 1971 movie starring Dustin Hoffman: it is called Who is Harry Kellerman and Why is He Saying Terrible Things About Me? It is a comedy-drama that is about a musician who has emotional and mental issues.

Sure enough I found the movie on Youtube. The Hoffman character is visiting his analyst and he imagines his analyst breaking into the song Don’t Tell Me Your Troubles (17:06 into the movie video)

It is the Ray Charles cover:

And that got me to thinking about my protocol (yes, this meme is a JOKE). Remember the song is about a guy in anguish because his “sweet love” left him, and he just doesn’t want to hear about anyone else’s troubles AT THAT TIME.

January 26, 2016

## I’ve seen that look…

She bends over, straightens up and then realizes where he was…

November 28, 2015

## Silly memes (version ???)

At least two of these: I did NOT create.

Note: this happened to me twice two weekends ago: I was with an Ohio State fan on Saturday, and between two Bears fans on Sunday…only one of which was hot. And no, it was NOT Jason. 🙂

Before you say this

Think of the song lyrics …

And to finish off: my wife and I have watched many Columbo and Murder She Wrote shows together …this is almost an evening ritual. Whereas Columbo is a homicide detective, J. B. Fletcher is a murder mystery writer who ..well…let’s just say that where ever she goes, someone gets murdered. Think that Chicago has a lot of murders? Per capita, it trails (the fictional) Cabot Cove (and where ever Ms. Fletcher travels to…)

November 25, 2015