2024-12-23

Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Wed Feb 15, 2012

  • (via Pictures: Shark Swallows Another Shark Whole)
  • Finding an optimal seating chart (PDF)
    Finding an optimal seating chart (PDF):

    We found that the most important assignment was to place guests who arrived as dates to the wedding at the same table. This was done by giving those guests a very high weight (50) in the  connection matrix. From there, one could construct a level of weights for guests of the same immediate family, same extended family, etc. If one already has an idea of which guests should sit at the same table, but needs help filling out the tables, weights can be assigned based upon guests who should sit together. This is the method we imposed in our problems. Dates were given a weight of 50, guests  who should sit at the same table a weight of 10, guests who know  each other but do not necessarily need to sit at the same table a  weight of 1, and guests who do not know each other a weight of 0. Additionally, negative weights could be assigned to discourage the model from seating two people at the same table (for example, divorced parents).

    …

    Acknowledgments
    MLB gratefully acknowledges JDLP for still agreeing to marry her after writing this.

    (Or you could have the sort of wedding where there isn’t any need to seat people. It makes the math a lot easier.)

  • BBC News – Equation predicts ponytail shape
    BBC News – Equation predicts ponytail shape:

    The new equation takes into account the stiffness of hairs, the effects of gravity and the presence of random curliness or waviness.

    …

    This will resonate with some in the computer graphics and animation industry, where a realistic representation of hair and fur has proven a tough challenge.

  • PLoS ONE: Monitoring Gaseous CO2 and Ethanol above Champagne Glasses: Flute versus Coupe, and the Role of Temperature
    PLoS ONE: Monitoring Gaseous CO2 and Ethanol above Champagne Glasses: Flute versus Coupe, and the Role of Temperature:

    The concentration of gaseous CO2 was found to be significantly higher above the flute than above the coupe. Moreover, a recently developed gaseous CO2 visualization technique based on infrared imaging was performed, thus confirming this tendency. The influence of champagne temperature was also tested. As could have been expected, lowering the temperature of champagne was found to decrease ethanol vapor concentrations in the headspace of a glass. Nevertheless, and quite surprisingly, this temperature decrease had no impact on the level of gaseous CO2 found above the glass. Those results were discussed on the basis of a multiparameter model which describes fluxes of gaseous CO2 escaping the liquid phase into the form of bubbles.

  • Leonard Cohen’s Old Ideas, and the genius of his lyrics. – Slate Magazine
    Leonard Cohen’s Old Ideas, and the genius of his lyrics. – Slate Magazine:

    If Cohen is the finest poet of our songwriters, he’s hardly a simple or a predictable one. You can never guess which direction a line is going to come from: cynical, surreal, earnest, bitter, exalted—no way to know. Eventually it adds up to a strange sense. Beside Dylan’s flights of fancy and rage, Cohen’s sentiments seem more immediate, more real. Or maybe I just have a touch more preference for Cohen’s familiar depression tinged with something like religion than for Dylan’s wit and wildness and biliousness.

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