Daniel F. Moore

"For if there is anything in a journey of any length, for me it is this: a deliverance from the..."

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 13:54:36 +0000

“For if there is anything in a journey of any length, for me it is this: a deliverance from the plantlike state of helpless passive sufferer, an exercise however small of will, and nobility - and of curiosity, without which a rational mind becomes stultified”

- J. R. R. Tolkien

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

Thu, 02 Apr 2015 14:21:08 +0000

author: Michael Lewis
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/04/02
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review:

"For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings; How..."

Sat, 14 Mar 2015 03:55:20 +0000

“For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison’d by their wives: some sleeping kill’d;
All murder’d: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear’d and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable, and humour’d thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!
Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence: throw away respect,
Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while:
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,
How can you say to me, I am a king?”

- Richard II, Shakespeare

Musée Mécanique - San Francisco's Antique Penny Arcade

Mon, 09 Mar 2015 17:47:38 +0000

Musée Mécanique - San Francisco's Antique Penny Arcade:

Located at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, The Musee Mecanique is one of the world’s largest privately owned collection of coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade machines in their original working (and playable) condition. Open Daily, Free Admission.

I love to sail… forbidden seas…

Thu, 12 Feb 2015 14:58:29 +0000

I love to sail… forbidden seas…

"Go, wondrous creature, mount where science guides. Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the..."

Thu, 20 Nov 2014 06:12:34 +0000

“Go, wondrous creature, mount where science guides.
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the sun;
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule,
Then drop into thyself and be a fool.”

- Alexander Pope

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Wed, 01 Oct 2014 13:42:08 +0000

author: Susanna Clarke
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2006/01/01
date added: 2014/10/01
shelves:
review:
JS & MN is a delightfully wonderful book and extremely well written. I was captivated from the moment I started reading it. The wonderful asides (in the form of footnotes) add so much depth to the world in the book.

The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 20:37:41 +0000

author: Alan Lightman
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/06/24
shelves:
review:

Our Skulls Didn’t Evolve to be Punched – Phenomena: Laelaps

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:14:21 +0000

Our Skulls Didn’t Evolve to be Punched – Phenomena: Laelaps:

Thanks, National Geographic, for nipping this incredibly dumb idea in the bud

"The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable..."

Tue, 20 May 2014 18:46:26 +0000

“The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data”

- John Tukey

Humanities and the importance of it

Fri, 04 Apr 2014 21:21:49 +0000

If you ask the question what is the organism called human, that question is best answered by the sciences. But if you ask the question what is the experience of being this organism called human, the question of experience is best answered by humanities

- Dipesh Chakrabart, Prof. of History, University of Chicago

Test

Fri, 04 Apr 2014 21:12:38 +0000

this is a test

"If you ask the question what is the organism called human, that question is best answered by the..."

Fri, 04 Apr 2014 20:20:58 +0000

“If you ask the question what is the organism called human, that question is best answered by the sciences. But if you ask the question what is the experience of being this organism called human, the question of experience is best answered by humanities”

- Dipesh Chakrabart, Prof. of History, University of Chicago

The Book of Merlyn (The Once and Future King, #5)

Tue, 11 Mar 2014 14:38:01 +0000

author: T.H. White
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1977
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/03/11
shelves:
review:

The Stardust Voyages (Stardust, #1)

Thu, 06 Mar 2014 11:21:53 +0000

author: Stephen Tall
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1975
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/03/06
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review:

Danger: Humans (by Tom Scott)

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 06:53:36 +0000

Danger: Humans (by Tom Scott)

Lapham’s Quarterly: Comedy

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 08:01:44 +0000

author: Lewis H. Lapham
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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review:

The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King #1-4)

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 08:00:29 +0000

author: T.H. White
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1958
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
shelves:
review:

2312

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 08:00:00 +0000

author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
shelves:
review:

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 07:59:15 +0000

author: Barbara W. Tuchman
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/01/11
shelves:
review:

Civilization: The Six Ways the West Beat the Rest

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 07:58:01 +0000

author: Niall Ferguson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/01/11
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review:

"It’s surprising how hard we’ll work when the work is done just for ourselves."

Wed, 08 Jan 2014 16:40:20 +0000

“It’s surprising how hard we’ll work when the work is done just for ourselves.”

- Calvin and Hobbes at Martijn’s - Bill Watterson

Great North Road

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 01:44:35 +0000

author: Peter F. Hamilton
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/11/17
shelves:
review:

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 01:44:12 +0000

author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/11/17
shelves:
review:

Saga, Volume 2

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 01:44:00 +0000

author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/11/17
shelves:
review:

We Stopped Dreaming (Episode 2) - A New Perspective (by Evan...

Wed, 06 Nov 2013 05:19:16 +0000

We Stopped Dreaming (Episode 2) - A New Perspective (by Evan Schurr)

"The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has..."

Wed, 06 Nov 2013 04:50:04 +0000

“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.”

- The Road goes ever on, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, Chapter 1

A Man For All Seasons - Giving the Devil the Benefit of Law (by...

Wed, 17 Jul 2013 15:34:41 +0000

A Man For All Seasons - Giving the Devil the Benefit of Law (by CrassHeretic)

An excellent lecture, excellently delivered John Cleese - a...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:09:34 +0000

An excellent lecture, excellently delivered

John Cleese - a lecture on Creativity

Some interesting geometric mean facts

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:27:52 +0000

Okay, so none of this is going to rock anyone's world, but I thought it was pretty cool, especially because I've been using geometric means all my life.

The arithmetic mean (usually just said "mean") is the number that is equally between another two points (or in the middle of them). So that x_m=(x₁+x₂)/2. And we can derive from this pretty easily that x₁-x_m = x_m-x₂. Or, if we have more points, the residuals of x_i-x_m add to zero. Similarly, the geometric mean is defined as the number that is equally between two points when plotted on a log graph. So, basically you multiply the two numbers together and take the square root. Or, if you have multiple points, then G = (x₁*x₂*...*x_n)^(1/n). Interestingly if you multiply all the values of x_i/G together then you get 1.

There's even more! The geometric mean even has a (gasp!) geometric understanding. First, the geometric mean is the length of a square whose area is equal to a rectangle with sides x₁ and x₂. You can expand this to cubes and hypercubes of multiple dimensions. But even more surprising is something from Pythagoras. The geometric mean can be gotten in the following method. If you draw the circle with the sum of x1 and x2 as a diameter, then the chord that runs perpendicular to the diameter and passes through the point on the diameter that is a distance x1 from one edge and x2 from the other. This chord has a length that is twice the geometric mean! Or, as Pythagoras puts it:

Sprouts – Exploration and Play

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 02:46:59 +0000

In an article in Scientific American in 1967, Martin Gardner described the game Sprouts, which was, apparently invented by John Conway and Michael Paterson.

The game begins with n spots on a sheet of paper. Even with as few as three spots, sprouts is more difficult to analyze than ticktacktoe (sic), so that it is best for beginners to play with no more than three or four initial spots. A move consists of drawing a line that joins one spot to another or to itself and then placing a new spot anywhere along the line. these restrictions must be observed:

the line may have any shape but it must not cross itself, cross a previously drawn line or pass through a previously made spot.

No spot may have more than three lines emanating from it.

Players take turns drawing curves... the winner is the last person able to play.

I came across the game recently while reading The Colossal Book of Mathematics and played it a few times before deciding to go through the math of it. I ended up matching a proof (performed many times before by others) of the maximum number of moves with a certain number of starting spots. But the process by which I got there really highlights the process by which I solve a lot of problems of this sort.

The first step is exploration. I played Sprout games with myself of varying numbers of spots, 2, 3, 10, etc. (the games with 10 dots was difficult to keep track of), in which I had different motives - keeping moves open, closing them off, attached to the closest neighbor, and so on. Quickly, I saw that there was a clear upper bound on the number of moves I was able to do. Games with two spots I could force to end in four moves, but I could also get it done with five. Games with four spots I could force to end in eight moves, but not fewer, and I could get it up to eleven moves (though that took some time to find, I kept ending on the tenth move). Looking at my table, it seemed pretty clear that there was a pattern for the maximum number of moves - 3n-1.

The second step is explanation. That is, does the pattern make sense? In this case, you explain it this way. Each spot that I start with has a potential of three connections to it. So, I start out with 3n connections on the sheet of paper. When I draw a line, I take away two connections from the game. BUT I add one (the spot in the middle of the newly added line already has two lines emanating from it). So, with each move, I subtract a net of one potential connection from the game. This may lead you to think that there could be 3n moves. However, it is important to think of the final state. There must be a last move in the game and that move will draw a connection and then a spot in the middle of that connect. That spot will have two lines emanating from it and leave one connection. So the game will always end with one unused connection. Hence, 3n-1 moves.

It just so happens that this explanation is also the formal mathematical proof. This isn't always so, but it is nice when it is. Incidentally, Eugenia Cheng has a nice article about when math and theorems behave in an explainable way that makes sense and when they don't (she calls it the "moral" considerations of mathematics).

Here, the third step is finding the optimal solution. Or find an optimal solution. This is important for the application of mathematics. Just because I know that it is possible to have a game that lasts 3n-1 moves doesn't mean that it is easy to find it. Or, for another theorem, just because I know that I am always at most 17 moves away from solving Rubik's Cube, doesn't mean I know which 17 moves to do. A difficult one to start with is to find the 3n-1 solution for n=4. Or what if you start with 10 spots? Can you find the correct sequence of 29 moves? Chances are that if you just have a go with 10 spots that you'll end up with less than 29 moves. Luckily, in this case, you can come up with a way to generate the number of moves.

Start with one spot. It's pretty trivial to find the 3n-1=2 moves for this. See the first picture. We start with one big spot and then add one self-connecting line, generating the first small spot. Then we connect the small spot to the original spot and get the second small spot. This spot cannot connect to either of the other two because they already have three lines coming out of them, so we are done. Now, we can use this to show how to generate an maximal solution for any number of spots. We do this by induction. We have already shown the method for generating a maximal solution for n=1. Assume that we have a maximal solution for a game with k spots. We know that there is one externally situated spot with two connectors and that the game was finished in 3k-1 moves. Now, we will use this to construct a game with k+1 initial spots that finishes in 3(k+1)-3 moves (or 3k-1 +3 moves). Play the k+1 game as follows. Ignore one of the spots on the outside and use the remaining k spots to complete a k-game in 3k-1 moves. So now we have the situation in the first graphic, where the red spot is the final remaining spot in the k-game and the blue spot is our initial hold out that will make this a k+1 game. Now, we can do three moves shown in the next graphic to finish the game. Drawing first the yellow line, then the red, then the grey. You will notice now that we are left with only one spot and it has two lines emanating, so we have no more moves. And we have done this in 3k-1 +3 = 3(k+1)-1 moves. So, by induction, we can form this game for any integer n of games. And we can actually DO something with our initial exploration.

Saga, Volume 1

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 04:46:25 +0000

author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/12/06
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review:

The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 04:44:42 +0000

author: Lawrence Lessig
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/12/06
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"The heroic hours of life do not announce their presence by drum and trumpet, challenging us to be..."

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:25:00 +0000

“The heroic hours of life do not announce their presence by drum and trumpet, challenging us to be true to ourselves by appeals to the martial spirit that keeps the blood at heat. Some little, unassuming, unobtrusive choice presents itself before us slyly and craftily, glib and insinuating, in the modest garb of innocence. To yield to its blandishments is so easy. The wrong, it seems, is venial… Then it is that you will be summoned to show the courage of adventurous youth.”

- Benjamin Cardozo, The Game of Law, Law and Literature and Other Essays and Addresses

"So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t..."

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 20:47:34 +0000

“So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.”

- Dead Poets Society (1989)

"How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it..."

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:35:42 +0000

“How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service!”

- Charles Darwin in a letter to Fawcett, September 18, 1861

"Don Quixote: Not well? What is sickness to the body of a knight-errant? What matter wounds? For..."

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:09:14 +0000

“

Don Quixote: Not well? What is sickness to the body of a knight-errant? What matter wounds? For each time he falls he shall rise again… and woe to the wicked! Sancho!

Sancho: Here, Your Grace! More misadventures!

Don Quixote: Adventures, old friend!

”

- Man of La Mancha

"Too great a flexibility may lead to survival of no enduring value - mere persistence with no moral..."

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:43:34 +0000

“Too great a flexibility may lead to survival of no enduring value - mere persistence with no moral or intellectual core intact. What triumph can an ultimate chameleon claim if he gains not even the world, but only his basic continuity, at the price of his soul? Fortunately, and in the most parochial American sense, we know a model of long persistence and proven utility for the virtues in fruitful union of apparent opposites.”

- Stephen Jay Gould, The Hedgehog, The Fox, and the Magister’s Pox

The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox: Mending the Gap between Science and the Humanities

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:36:02 +0000

author: Stephen Jay Gould
name: Daniel
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/07
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review:

The Trial

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:49:27 +0000

author: Franz Kafka
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1925
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/09/27
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Flint the King (Dragonlance: Preludes, #5; Preludes II, #2)

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:49:19 +0000

author: Mary Kirchoff
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/09/27
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"Does the President Matter?"

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 23:49:33 +0000

“Does the President Matter?”

- Bard College | Hannah Arendt Center | Fall Conference

What an interesting conference! In reality, I’m not sure that the answer is yes…

Quantum Generations: A History of Physics in the Twentieth Century

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 16:52:33 +0000

author: Helge Kragh
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2011/04/16
date added: 2012/07/08
shelves:
review:

The Mongoliad: Book One (Foreworld, #1)

Fri, 11 May 2012 17:04:32 +0000

author: Neal Stephenson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/05/11
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review:

Codex In Crisis

Fri, 11 May 2012 17:01:59 +0000

author: Anthony Grafton
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/05/11
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20 minutes

Fri, 04 May 2012 22:30:26 +0000

Here is an incomplete list of things that I consider myself expert enough to give a 20 minute talk on (not in any order):

Medieval Physics and Technology
One dimensional ZnS nanostructure growth
MBIR - What it is and what it can do
A Beginner's Guide to Brewing Beer
Techniques of Semiconductor Metrology
Technology Transfer and the UN Declaration of Human Rights
Memes and The Spread of Scientific Ideas
The Atlanta Braves from 1990 - Present
Nanotechnology - What it matters
Statistical Analysis of Experimental Data
The Joys of Geocaching
How to Travel Like a Scientist
Building Your Own Computer
Quasar Absorption Line Systems
The Horrors of the Designated Hitter and Wild Card System in Baseball

Quasar Absorption Line Systems

Thu, 03 May 2012 23:37:14 +0000

The very first published scientific research that I did was a poster and paper on Quasar (or QSO) Absorption Line Systems titled "A Comprehensive Catalog of Heavy-Element QSO Absorption Line Systems." The poster pdf is here. It was fun research - when I started, I had no clue what quasars where, what absorption line spectra were, what they could possibly be used for, how to program in a Unix environment, or how to even think about new research. By the time I graduated I had all of this under my belt, as well as a lot of other astrophysical concepts, so much so that I decided it was time to learn something else.

Quasars are some of the brightest, largest, farthest away objects in our universe. They are really bright, really big regions surrounding black holes at the center of galaxies. They can be so bright as to emit up to one thousand times the entire energy output of our galaxy. Nicely, this energy radiation is emitted almost uniformly across the entire spectrum of light. This allows for a good analysis of the gaseous material in between Earth and the quasar, because this material will absorb the light according to the amounts of gas and the ions present. What's really cool is that if you undertake a project like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) you can combine the data from much of these absorption systems into a giant map and, because looking farther away is the same as looking further back in time, you can gain a lot of insight about the evolution of elements in the universe (there are other cool things about quasar absorption line systems, that's just what I find coolest).

I think about the experience a lot, as it set me on a course for my whole career. It was very prescient for me in describing to be how modern research is done. We (as a society) tend to have this image in our head of scientists in a lab mixing chemicals in beakers. Though this is done (I even did some of it in grad school), most of science these days is analyzing data, setting tools up electronically, often remotely, so that you can collect a mass of more data, and coming up with algorithms to parse through data, all on a computer. The example is this - the black and white absorption line spectra above is what you have to look at day after day. What you have to imagine in your head (and explain at parties) is the artist's rendition.

This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:11:45 +0000

author: Carmen M. Reinhart
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/04/26
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review:

Parrot and Olivier in America

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:11:28 +0000

author: Peter Carey
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/04/26
shelves:
review:

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:10:06 +0000

author: Charles Yu
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/04/26
shelves:
review:

Circle math

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:12:59 +0000

If you’ve never taken the time to read through Eugene Wigner’s article “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences”, then please take the time to do so. The article begins with a story about a statistician/mathematician explaining some population data to a friend and the statistician has to first explain the symbols. “And what is this symbol here?” asks the friend. “Oh,” said the statistician, “this is π.” “What is that?” “The ratio of the circumference of the circle to its diameter.” “Well, now you are pushing your joke too far,” said the classmate, “surely the population has nothing to do with the circumference of the circle.” The classmate, we know, is being naïve. The population has everything to do with the circumference of the circle, because Gaussians use Euler’s constant, e, and that constant is related to cosines and sines which are related to circles.

The great question is - is mathematics successful because we’ve hit on something that fundamentally describes the world or have we adapted our vision of the world to match our mathematics? Mathematics is, in some way, the study of patterns and the way in which we study patterns affects what patterns we see. Some entities in mathematics we are pretty sure are fundamental – prime numbers are prime no matter what number base you are in. But sometimes, I get the sense that we use numbers like π only because we have so much experience with circles. That is, we were able to bend population statistics to use circle math because we have circle math as a tool. When you have a hammer, things look like nails. Or, in this case nested sets of nested sets of nested sets of nails. We tend to go through a huge amount of effort to make things look like circles because it makes the math easier (we know how to handle them). Maybe a species that didn’t think in circles (maybe they envision the world through polar coordinates and never had to come up with fancy ways of describing circles because circles are just r=1) and wouldn’t use the ratio of the circumference of the circle to its diameter to describe statistics.

Truly random

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:27:31 +0000

The random number generators on your computer are not, technically, random. Your computer can’t actually do random things in a repeatable (even though it often seems like it is) algorithmically, so we have pseudo-random number generation algorithms that just seem random and are random enough for most applications. I use random number generators for Monte Carlo simulations and some other testing and Matlab/Mathematica/Excel’s built in random number generator (=rand()) is good enough. This is because I never generate millions and millions of random numbers at a time. However, I was porting over a simulation from Matlab to Excel and noticed a slight difference between the end values that I was getting (not important, but enough that it was curious). I traced it back to the distribution of random numbers and looked in to the theories behind random number generator algorithms.

The best way to generate random numbers would is to get truly random numbers from a physical process that we know is random. For example, by measuring the quantum fluctuations of the vacuum. On a quantum level, the vacuum has particles that randomly appear and disappear all the time and this creates a fluctuating electro-magnetic field. By measuring this, you can create random numbers. This is all described in a paper here. And, in a really awesome turn, the group has allowed web access to measurements like these that help you generate in real time all sorts of random goodies – like colors, dice throws, pixels, The Matrix, or white noise.

Subtle Fun

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:38:02 +0000

People tend to take themselves too seriously, especially in their work and in professional settings. Though being the clown around the office or professionally isn't a good idea unless you are in fact a clown, you have to have some fun and it's always good to throw in some subtle, understated humor. It can lighten a mood and keep people nicely entertained while going about what they are doing. It can also help create an "in group" of humor that only a few people get.

That's why I love this so much. It's rare to get humor into scientific publications nowadays. People and editors are such sticklers about taking out colloquialisms and anything not exactly scientific that they forget about making articles enjoyable to read. You have slightly more leeway in your own dissertation, but not much. And in industry your report goes through so many levels before anyone sees it that any joy in it gets sucked right out. And here is an example of a pretty groundbreaking report that had a good subtle joke in it. I suspect that Wilson saw the paper go through and had a good laugh to himself. Fun and accomplishing things - who knew that the two could go together? There's definitely a lesson here and I think it goes something like this: A sense of humor is important when you are working on difficult problems. And getting a subtle joke past the supervisors, editors, reviewers, bosses, or whoever is just the sort of thing that helps the creative juices flow. Or something like that.

Bullet-Points

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:33:38 +0000

I typically don’t like the type of advice you get from networking ideas sites. This is mainly because the advice tends to fit what I’ve written below (under the line). Basically I think that the key to good networking is to be open to meeting new people, be honest, and be friendly. However, I read one the other day that said you should have a basic 3 bullet-point answer to the Tell Me About Yourself statement. These seems helpful in a way (in that it could focus the things you talk about), so here are my bullet points

Research scientist and mathematician with an eye on nanotechnology, its development, ethics of its applications (particularly with respect to international affairs and the military), and its limitations
Avid reader, particularly of philosophy, humanities, and other liberal arts, but also of poetry and fiction
Beer aficionado and travel enthusiast

The hardest part of these sort of exercises is limiting it to three points. I have many more things that are pretty central to who I am – I’m a Scholar, Scientist, Engineer, Philosopher, Bibliophile, Beer Aficionado, Greek Speaker, Political Commentator, World Traveler, Atlanta Braves Devotee, Letter Writer, History Enthusiast, Computer Consultant, Player of: Trivia, Scrabble, Softball, Monopoly, rummy Tiles, and Racquetball, etc. But if I’m looking for things to define myself and the things I spend time on in order to interest other people, then those might be my go-to pitches. But see below to see why I actually don’t like these sorts of defining activities.

Everyone in the networking business will tell you that personal branding (that is, having your own identifying brand – the brand that is Daniel Moore) is extremely important to growing and “selling” yourself. The name that sends the email is just as important as the name of the website you visit. “It’s a promise of the value you’ll receive for the time you spend reading the message.”

I have no doubt that we all use these brands in different ways. We’re more likely to read an email first if it is from someone who we trust to always send us useful information. We all dress a certain way at certain events (My personal work dress code – In the winter it has been sweater vest, typically blue-ish, on top of a white-ish button down shirt - is very different than my weekend dress code – much more casual, jeans typically), we all present certain sides of ourselves, and if we’re smart we manage what is said about us and what we say in social networking. So, I’m fully aware that “personal brands” exist.

However, I can’t help but think that it isn’t always the best way to think about it. To some extent, we associate “branding” with trying to paper over problems, with trying to sell ourselves. Am I a product? Am I a commodity? Am I in a price/value competition with other humans? My guess is that “branding” experts would say yes. But doesn’t that bring up a lot of person as object issues? Don’t I start objectifying myself?

A thought on the importance of teaching arts

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:15:45 +0000

Had this thought on a train about what teaching of the arts does for our students (inspired by Nussbaum’s book):

What I mean when I say that we ought to teach the arts is not that we need to teach an appreciation for fine arts. Even though this is important – knowing art movements such as baroque, dadaism, post-modern, etc. can help us see radically different views of the wordl – what I mean is that we need the teaching of imagination and expression, role play and creation. These skills allow us to experience the world from a different perspective, to empathize and to know that What Is So need not be, that the world can be made different.

Keep Universities

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 23:46:51 +0000

The idea of replacing universities with some other type of learning is all over the place lately. People like to cite TED, Khan Acadamy, Academic Earth, etc. as an example of how this can work. Or they do things like take the SAT as an adult and declare it useless. Or they just rant against the things that universities teach. At least Paul Graham gives a token nod to campus social life.

Most of the items I read about this suffer from a lack of understanding of what universities are for, what they have evolved from, the reasons for different features, etc. In short, they suffer from not understanding the use of them and as such they have no business advocated for getting rid of universities.

They also tend to treat all universities as equal in purpose (from a technical institute like Georgia Tech to a liberal arts university like University of Chicago) and that’s a huge fallacy. In doing so, they tend to assume that the purpose of a university (in total) is to train its students for a job. To mold them in to useful instruments for the modern economy. This is a huge mistake. Many have argued against this perception of education (most notably, Martha Nussbaum in her book) and these arguments have not been adequately addressed.

I’ve had discussions with people where they advocate things like making it easier to get student loans for more useful majors (which almost always are engineering or pre-med majors). Do we really want to discourage people from pursuing an education in something they are interested in, like history? Do we really want to create tiers of people? Do we really want to make some majors only available for the wealthy? I don’t really understand the idea that has taken hold that the liberal arts are not worth as much as science and engineering. It seems an incredibly short-sighted idea that wants to borrow from the future for the sake of the short-term.

Sure, things like Khan Acadamy and MIT Online classes are useful, but does anyone really think that they can replace the deep dive into study that universities provide? Does anyone have any data suggesting that this is so? I’ve never seen it. Until then, let’s keep universities and allow them to adjust and adapt as they have for 600 years. They’ve served us well.

A thought on the role sport plays in society

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:56:39 +0000

Had this thought on a train about the important role of sport in democratic societies:

In our democratic society, all are equal, so much as we can make it, when it comes to freedom, liberty, and opportunity. We rise and fall and live close together so that even the poor “never consider himself entirely a stranger to the pleasure and works” of the rich and vice versa.1 Even if this isn’t so, we maintain our society by thinking that it fundamentally is. It is with this that activities like “sport” play a vital role. They provide a similar and equal pleasure to rich and poor alike. All sports fans fill out brackets and are devastated (or elated) when a number 1 or number 2 seed loses. All can discuss the goodness of Peyton Manning’s move to Denver.

1. this idea is from Tocqueville who further says that in enlightened and democratic societies, even if its citizens are not equal to one another, they think they are equal; they consider themselves similar.

The use of it

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 23:20:11 +0000

G.K. Chesterson -

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

It’s very hard to have this sort of humility in our own work/life. To admit that things are there for a some reason and just because we can’t see the purpose of it doesn’t mean that it isn’t valuable.

Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:54:22 +0000

author: Kevin Maney
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/03/16
shelves:
review:

Lapham's Quarterly: Family

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:53:48 +0000

author: Lewis H. Lapham
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/03/16
shelves:
review:

The Guns of August

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:52:42 +0000

author: Barbara W. Tuchman
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1962
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/03/16
shelves:
review:

Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?: Leading a Great Enterprise through Dramatic Change

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:14:29 +0000

author: Louis V. Gerstner Jr.
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/01/29
shelves:
review:

The Ascent of Rum Doodle

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:55:55 +0000

author: W.E. Bowman
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1956
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/01/29
shelves:
review:
This is, by far, one of the funniest books ever written. Even though you have never heard of it and it is extremely difficult to find, look for it, pick it up, and get ready for a good laugh.

Jim Henson's Tale of Sand

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:27:30 +0000

author: Jim Henson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/01/20
shelves:
review:

A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5)

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:53:44 +0000

author: George R.R. Martin
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2011/08/07
date added: 2012/01/16
shelves:
review:

Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:15:14 +0000

author: Martha C. Nussbaum
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/01/04
shelves:
review:

Lapham's Quarterly: Celebrity

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 05:54:05 +0000

author: Lewis H. Lapham
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/12/30
shelves:
review:

Lapham's Quarterly: Food

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 05:54:02 +0000

author: Lewis H. Lapham
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/12/30
shelves:
review:

Little Green Men

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 05:52:46 +0000

author: Christopher Buckley
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/12/30
shelves:
review:

An Earth-like Planet! Some thoughts

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:40:28 +0000

The announcement at a NASA conference this week of the discovery of a planet in the habitable zone of a sun-like star was met with a lot of well-deserved enthusiasm. It’s the first of its kind that we have seen (except Earth). We still don’t know if it is, in the words of Marc Kuchner, a Goddard astrophysicist, “moist and juicy” and the planet is 600 light-years away, but the potential of seeing more of these is pretty exciting.

What if we discovered a planet that by all measures habitable? Earth-like temperatures, water, greenery, etc. What then? The first step, I suppose, would be to send a probe to send back data. Let’s be extremely optimistic and say that it will only take 100 years to get that data back. Then, let’s assume that the data is good and confirms what we want. Then we send a manned mission, knowing very well that it will take a couple of generations for the mission to reach the planet. Again, let’s be extremely optimistic and say 50 years (in my extremely optimistic scenario, I’m imagining something close to light-speed travel).

This sort of time frame is why people who are excited about interplanetary travel in the short term get excited about the Moon and Mars. Maybe there’s a good division of labor here between private and public endeavors. Let the companies like Virgin Galactic and SpaceShipOne focus on the intra-Solar System manned travel (or maybe just this side of the asteroid belt). NASA and government entities can focus on the rest. This doesn’t even have to run afoul of any good government principles. Surely, the “progress of science” of traveling to the moon and into near-Earth orbit has been promoted and the engineering needs to be worked out now by commercial entities.

The Ramsgate Paradox

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:55:42 +0000

author: Stephen Tall
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.42
book published: 1976
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/12/07
shelves:
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A surprisingly good set of short stories, continuing from the 1st book - The Stardust Voyages.

Peace With Honour

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:11:16 +0000

author: A.A. Milne
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.67
book published: 1934
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/12/03
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The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:33:59 +0000

author: Michael Lewis
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/11/09
shelves:
review:

The Peoples of Middle-earth (The History of Middle-earth, #12)

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:40:36 +0000

author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/11/07
shelves:
review:

The War of the Jewels (The History of Middle-earth, #11)

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:09:44 +0000

author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/11/07
shelves:
review:

Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:08:04 +0000

author: Samir Okasha
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/11/07
shelves:
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Bagombo Snuff Box

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:41:04 +0000

author: Kurt Vonnegut
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
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Snuff

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:41:03 +0000

author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
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Snuff (Discworld, #39; City Watch #8)

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:41:01 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
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Only You Can Save Mankind (Johnny Maxwell, #1)

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:40:27 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
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The Last Continent (Discworld, #22; Rincewind #6)

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:40:11 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
review:

Making Money (Discworld, #36)

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:39:57 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
review:

Soul Music (Discworld, #16; Death, #3)

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:39:46 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
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Reaper Man (Discworld, #11; Death, #2)

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:39:42 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
review:

Hogfather (Discworld, #20; Death, #4)

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:39:41 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
review:

Wyrd Sisters (Discworld, #6; Witches #2)

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:39:37 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
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Small Gods (Discworld, #13)

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:39:34 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
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Going Postal (Discworld, #33; Moist von Lipwig, #1)

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:39:33 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
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Guards! Guards! (Discworld, #8; City Watch #1)

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:39:30 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
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The Color of Magic (Discworld, #1; Rincewind #1)

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:39:26 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
shelves:
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Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:39:23 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
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The Children of Men

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:38:02 +0000

author: P.D. James
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/10/30
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Once a Week

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:45:49 +0000

author: A.A. Milne
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1914
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/09/26
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review:

Not That It Matters

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:45:41 +0000

author: A.A. Milne
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1920
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/09/26
shelves:
review:

The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:45:04 +0000

author: A.A. Milne
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1921
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/09/26
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Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:41:29 +0000

author: Suzanne Collins
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/09/26
shelves:
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Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:41:28 +0000

author: Suzanne Collins
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/09/26
shelves:
review:

The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:41:16 +0000

author: Suzanne Collins
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/09/26
shelves:
review:

Night Watch (Discworld, #29)

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 23:20:25 +0000

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2011/08/07
date added: 2011/08/07
shelves:
review:

A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 23:20:03 +0000

author: George R.R. Martin
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2011/08/07
date added: 2011/08/07
shelves:
review: