In case English's "woof, woof" isn't enough for you, Wikipedia provides representations of the dog's bark in 58 other languages, from "blaf, blaf" in Afrikaans, through "guk, guk" in Indonesian, to "wff, wff" in Welsh.
January 5, 2011
A sartorial observation.
Consistent with Roland Barthes's observation that "clothes are machines that communicate", we have noticed that on days when we wear a pink shirt, we get more smiles.
January 4, 2011
"See the Moon!"
A brief allegory, NeuroCooking friends, on the importance of specificity in science:
"If the Moon were made of green cheese, it would be visible to the naked eye.""See the Moon!""In conclusion, we have proved that the Moon is made of green cheese."
January 3, 2011
January 2, 2011
Fueling the fire of genius.
Annual federal spending on mathematics, the physical sciences and engineering now equals only the increase in health-care costs every nine weeks.
Inversion as a good.
In the 1940's, Jerry Cornfield & Wassily Leontief invented econometrics. In one of their first studies on the "sectors" of the American economy, they used economic data to arrive at a 24 x 24 matrix that they then needed to invert. Inverting that 24 x 24 matrix by hand, would, they calculated, take several centuries.
Harvard University's IBM "Mark I" electro-mechanical computer, developed for the war effort, was in principle available to perform this calculation, but the work would have to be paid for, and Cornfield & Leontif's bosses at the Bureau of Labor Statistics refused to approve such an expenditure, because, according to policy, the government would pay for goods, but not for services – after all, so many experts were on the government payroll that they saw no need to pay for services.
In the end, the bureau issued a purchase order, for "one matrix, inverted" from Harvard.
January 1, 2011
NeuroCooking: Still safe in 2011!
Reading this on a USA m i l i t a r y computer? You may continue to do so, because, to our knowledge, NeuroCooking is free of classified information (unlike the New York Times). However, it appears likely that you will soon be barred from watching the CBS television network.
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[Please note: While we remain unaware of any classified material on NeuroCooking, the potential availability of steganographic methods means that we cannot absolutely guarantee the absence of classified material in NeuroCooking comments; we will continue to monitor this situation closely. NeuroCooking cannot be a source of legal advice; persons seeking such should consult a member of their state Bar Association.]
"But, if you want the best person, ..."
In 1940, Frank Graham, President of the University of North Carolina, asked George Snedecor, a leader in statistics whom he had recently happened to meet on a train, for a favor. Could Snedecore recommend a man to lead the new statistics department in North Carolina? Snedecore responded with a letter that listed ten men, and then stated:
"These are the ten best men I can think of. But, if you want the best person, I would recommend Gertrude Cox."
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