sweet tweets

    the twits (or tweets)

    01.31.12

    throwaway saga

    Posted in words at 12:27 am by electricvishnu

    doppelgangers of the north are rockin’ out.
    Brennivin and RBV destroying doubt.
    men of science, explorer chicks, we’re quite a crew.
    it’s Indy day in RVK . . .

    I’ve found from where the summer wind blows
    I found the source

    the firmament’s this cement blue,
    but in here spotlights shine on you:
    record scratches, and there’s lightning

    be this night sacred or be it blurred,
    ill-defined by rhyming words -
    soaring melodies so fleeting

    the midnight sun kisses your face -
    i follow suit
    eyes and fingertips connect -
    i dance with you
    from what blue sky did you fall
    it’s all so fast
    magic moments can never . . .

    with each breath we draw the sweet night
    a conversation from forty-two lives past
    journey, whitesnake, and john denver
    know this adieu too well

    the firmament’s this cement blue,
    but faktory lights, they shine on you.
    freeze frame strobe sequence that i
    cannot forget

    call it myth, or call it not;
    call it everything you got:
    smoke dissipating from a french cigarette

    the firmament’s this cement blue,
    but out there spotlights shine on you:
    vinyl scratches and there’s lightning

    was this night nothing? was it blurred?
    first light affliction so absurd.
    undress so elegant and frantic

    when all my friends are dead and gone
    (rocking chairs and children grown)
    a secret smile born of that summer

    when firmaments were cement blue
    everywhere spotlights shine on you
    into the sea i throw this letter

    11.30.11

    Posted in hot jams at 11:20 pm by electricvishnu

    strangers wasted – hey reema [remix] by electricvishnu

    10.20.11

    caffeine consumption by weekday

    Posted in words at 11:27 pm by electricvishnu

    09.15.11

    Posted in haikus at 9:14 pm by electricvishnu

    the first leaves not-green
    spotted on an early walk:
    unexpected gifts.

    08.24.11

    in honor of 95 years of the national parks

    Posted in snapshots, travel at 11:00 pm by electricvishnu



    08.23.11

    perspective hour

    Posted in goings on, math, sportsish at 9:05 pm by electricvishnu

    given the last 70 years of NHL history, the probability of the new york rangers winning the stanley cup within 10 years is just about the same as there being a seismic event with a magnitude greater than 5.35 within 500 km of new york city in the same time span. [today's quake was 5.8 approximately 450 km away]

    05.01.11

    harmonica v. ukulele

    Posted in words at 8:26 pm by electricvishnu

    somewhere along the lines (specifically in early 2008) the ukulele overtook the harmonica (w/r/t usa google searches). mraz effect?
    don’t get me wrong, i love the uku . . . but it’s time to bring the harp back!

    04.30.11

    studying efficiency

    Posted in math at 9:16 pm by electricvishnu

    \approx \frac{(cloudCover + \alpha )}{outsideTemp}e^{\frac{-(caffeineConsumed - 3)^4}{(caffeineConsumed - 6)^2}} + \epsilon

    the connected generation

    Posted in words about non-words at 7:04 pm by electricvishnu

    Sparked by a viewing of the latest South Park episode, and following the natural extension of an evening amongst similarly twisted company, I viewed Human Centipede (in its entirety) for the first time.   Earlier I had seen the first 15 minutes (nothing breaks up the monotony of  long car ride like quasi-scat-smut).

    In short, I enjoy that in the future, generations after this one will respond to some specific knock or another with “yeeah but your generation made the human centipede . . . like . . . seriously?? WTF” I was pretty surprised that there was a Ebert review of it; plus 1 in my book for Ebert.  It summed it up pretty well.

    There’s not too much crap I have to add to this, but in short, thanks Tom Six, you freaky-deeky-Dutchman.  That was pretty f-ed up.

    04.24.11

    shootout probabilities [solution]

    Posted in math, sportsish at 3:29 pm by electricvishnu

    Let the chance of a goal in any given round of the shootout be g = 1-s.  We will assume (because we are . . . umm intense calculation averse . . .) that g is constant and independent with respect to shootout round.
    Now, let’s call p = g (1-g).  This is the probability, within one round, of the home team gaining one unanswered goal in that round.  We will call this an “up move”

    Set q = g^2 + (1-g)^2.  This is the probability, within one round, of the score not changing.  Equivalently P( (home=goal AND away=goal) OR (home=nogoal AND away=nogoal)) = q.  This is our “no move”

    In the figure above, there are 6 distinct paths that can be followed from the origin to either of the two terminal “winning” nodes: a win of 2-0 after the second round or (2-1 or 1-0)  after the third.

    Each path is made up of only “up”, “down”, and “no” moves.  Because we are assuming the two teams score with equal probabilities, P(down move) = P(up move)

    Because summing up the probabilities of these paths will give us the total probability of the home team winning in or before the third round, we must multiply this total by 2 to get our answer.

    Here is the graph of 2 \left(p^2+2 p^3+3 p q^2\right) with respect to g from 0 to 1.

    Simplifying this polynomial equation with respect to g gives us:

    2 g \left(3-14 g+36 g^2-53 g^3+42 g^4-14 g^5\right)

    Plugging in g=.5 will give us the maximum of this function: 0.5625 (or 9/16)

    We have obvious minimums of 0 at g=0 and g=1.  Here the shootout would just go on and on, with either everybody or nobody scoring.

    The probability goes above 50% when   .184 < g < .816

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