January 19, 2012

Linkage

Posted by Anand Sarwate under Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , |
Leave a Comment 

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and I am going to try to post more regularly now, but as usual, things start out slowly, so here are some links. I’ve been working on massaging the schedule for the 2012 ITA Workshop (registration is open!) as well as some submissions for KDD (a first for me) and ISIT (since I skipped last year), so things are a bit hectic.

Chicago Restaurant Week listings are out, for the small number of you readers who are in Chicago. Some history on the Chicago activities of CORE in the 40s.

Via Andrew Gelman, a new statistics blog.

A paper on something called Avoidance Coupling, which I want to read sometime when I have time again.

Our team, Too Big To Fail, finished second in the 2012 MIT Mystery Hunt. There were some great puzzles in there. In particular, Picture An Acorn was awesome (though I barely looked at it), and Slash Fiction was a lot of fun (and nostalgia-inducing. Ah, Paris!). Erin has a much more exhaustive rundown.

 

October 5, 2011

News from UChicago Statistics

Posted by Anand Sarwate under Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , |
1 Comment 

In a further procrastination about Allerton blogging, I want to share two items from the UChicago Statistics department.

The first is that there will be a conference in early December in memory of Partha Niyogi, who passed away last year. Registration is free, so if you are in the area, you may want to come.

The other is that Patrick Billingsley passed away in April. I had no idea that he “also became an accomplished actor of stage and screen” (ideas are now percolating in my head). He was in the The Untouchables! The next time I am over there, I will take a picture of a poster they have up advertising his tenor voice performing a “tragicomic rendition” of ergodic theory and coding. I gotta find a new shtick for myself, I think.

 

July 8, 2011

Linkage

Posted by Anand Sarwate under Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , |
Leave a Comment 

Cosma reviewed Networks, Crowds, and Markets by Easley and Kleinberg for the American Scientist. I have had the book for a while and just haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, but I should. Its a weighty tome, perhaps a bit too weighty to take to the beach (or on a plane, or…). Alex Dimakis said he reads a little bit before going to bed at night. That’s a heavy glass of warm milk. A fun quote from the review:

What game theorists somewhat disturbingly call rationality is assumed throughout—in other words, game players are assumed to be hedonistic yet infinitely calculating sociopaths endowed with supernatural computing abilities.

Ah, game theory. I anticipate experiencing the unease Cosma feels about the “realities behind the mathematics.”

MIT wants to teach math writing. I thought I learned how to write math by having my Phase II paper draft doused liberally in red ink by Prof. Kleiman. But this is something else entirely. I think a more important thing is to help those who work in mathematical fields or who use mathematics. Perhaps this will be a resource that engineering graduate students can use to improve their own writing.

The Connected States of America, including an interactive map showing how much people in place A talk to people in place B. Via MeFi.

Since I am moving to Chicago this fall, it’s time to get familiar with the L.

Our Paperwork Explosion – an add for IBM. Very weird. Also, vaguely menacing. I love the music though! AVia MeFi.

A mountain-climber’s axe! A mountain-climber’s axe! CAN’T YOU GET THAT THROUGH YOUR SKULL? (Trotsky dies. Bell.)

 

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.