Holy shit.

Okay, I've decided that I can't keep having opinions about episodes of Lost and not telling anyone about them. So, about last night's episode...

( Spoilers )

After a bit of consternation, I've figured out what I'll be doing next year. I'm going to be a postdoc at MIT. Wooo hoo!!! *does the the-future-seems-bright-and-shiny-even-though-it-only-means-more-work-and-stress-but-I'm-not-thinking-about-that-now dance ( Read more... )

When I was a freshman in college, LSC brought Douglas Adams to MIT to give a lecture, mostly about his wonderful book "Last Chance to See". callyperry once observed to me that, surely, even he would have found it amusing that a lecture with this title came less than a year before his tragic and premature death ( Read more... )

Thing I learned about LaTeX today:

The newline command \\ has an optional argument that inserts additional spacing before the next line. So, for example, \\[1in] adds an inch of space before the start of the next paragraph. This has the interesting side effect that if, say, you're trying to make an array with some stuff on the second line in ( Read more... )

In November, Metaphysical Plant (my mystery hunt team) had a puzzle party. I happened to be in Boston at the time, so I went. I showed up too late to solve any puzzles (they'd done the P&A, I think), but we ended up hanging out for another two or three hours, had dinner, and chatted about team organization and such. I continue to believe that ( Read more... )

Last night I saw the last episode of Angel. That concluded my 28 month expedition to watch all 7 seasons of Buffy and all 5 seasons of Angel. And now there's no more Joss Whedon out there (well, except for a few more episodes of Dollhouse that are trickling out, which anyway aren't as good as the earlier stuff). Very sad.

Now again, as I posted a ( Read more... )

I haven't seen anyone else post this on LJ yet:

DARPA is giving away a bunch of money if we can find some red balloons that they'll release tomorrow. Go here to join the MIT team. Then invite everyone you know to join too. If someone finds a balloon, that person's inviter, as well as their grand-inviter, their great-grand-inviter, and so on all ( Read more... )

In lieu of a real post, which might require thought and time, and I seem to have neither, here's a meme, from laura47:

The problem with LJ: We all think we are so close, but really we know nothing about one another. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away ( Read more... )

Two posts in two days. Try not to faint.

My provocative subject, while definitely true, is true only in the most literal sense; not perhaps in the way it sounds like it is. Let me explain.

Worldview Manager is a program based on an idea by Scott Aaronson. The idea is that it asks you a bunch of questions about your opinion on a variety of topics ( Read more... )