February 2012
56 posts
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Classes with CS Majors...
Math Prof: I'm not sure if this version of Bayes Theorem works for Spam filters, I think the authors of your textbook made too many simplifying assumptions.
CS student: No, we proved it last semester in Artificial Intelligence.
Other CS student: Yeah, empirically it works just as well as the full version of Bayes formula, and it's way more computationally efficient.
Another one: The accuracy you gain by applying the full version is so small that it costs more to apply it than not to.
Math Prof: Oh. Well, I'm still not convinced, but I guess if you guys say so.
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Classes with Math Education Majors...
Abstract Algebra Prof: Another example is with Big-O notation. Now, Big-O notation is,... well... how many of you know what Big-O notation is?
I: enthusiastically raise hand
Other students:
I:
Ohter students:
I: Oops, this isn't a computer-science class... (put hand down embarassedly)
Prof: One person...?
“Human reason has this peculiar fate that in one species of its knowledge it is...”
– Immanuel Kant, Preface to the First Edition of The Critique on Pure Reason (via mcdona)
“Happiness is rooted in misery. Misery lurks beneath happiness. Who knows what...”
– Tao Te Ching 58
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Vowels
English Professor: Elementary question to ensure that you learned the things you should have learned in grade school: How many vowels are there in the English language?
Linguistics Student: Oh! I know this! Depends on your accent, but most commonly argued somewhere from 12-15. But I've also heard the argument that we have as many as 20 vowels!
English Professor:
Linguistics Student:
English Professor:
Linguistics Student:
English Professor:
Linguistics Student: ....Oh whoops. English class.
Linguistics Student: a e i o u
Linguistics Student: Five.
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Why is graduate school looking way, way too inevitable right now?
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“And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will...”
– God’s love is unconditional, except when it’s not.
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“Grief is the other side of love. […] Perhaps grief is an internal doomsday...”
– Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works
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“No sharp line divides thinking from feeling, nor does thinking inevitbly precede...”
– Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works
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“The notion of causality is simply a lame way of connecting the various stages of...”
– Alan Watts, “Tao: The Watercourse Way”
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“In trying to figure out the brain, the obstacle is that we have no finer...”
– Alan Watts, “Tao: The Watercourse Way”
“ya khotela zabyt [tebya]
я хотела забыть [тебя]”
– Tatu
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I work with college students, and sometimes they...
Student: What's your major?
I: Math and Linguistics.
Student:
I: Yea, I know--
Student: wow.
I: They're really not that different though.
Student: Really? I hate math. It's so illogical.
I: What makes you say that?
Student: Well, for example, sometimes an equation can have a solution, or sometimes two solutions, or sometimes no solutions!
I: (do not go into math-major mode. It is inappropriate to lecture clients at work. DO NOT go into math-major mode, just nod and smile.) "Yeah, well kind of. So what's your major?"
Crisis averted.
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“Genuine science is pedantic, expensive, and subversive”
– Steven Pinker, “How the Mind Works”
A Rendezvous of Questions and Question Marks:... →
intellectualvalentinesday:
macfoto:
Valentine’s Day Pick-up Lines from your Favorite Philosophers
thesociologist:
Anselm: You’re the greatest conceivable being, baby. I’m glad you exist.
Aquinas: Hey remember when I said, “As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the...
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“Science is my lady!”
– Leonard
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france: ten
france: twenty
france: thirty
france: forty
france: fifty
france: sixty
france:
france:
france: sixty ten
world: france what are you do—
france: four twenties
world: france stop it
france: four twenties ten
world: france that doesn't even make any sense
france:
france:
france:
world:
france:
world:
france: hundred.
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“For natural scientists, [abstraction] is the very core and essence of what they...”
– Charles C. Pinter
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Playing Beer Pong....
George: Which cup should we take away? The key is to break up clusters, so probably this one or this one...
I: If we take away this one, the resulting clusters are smaller than if we take away that one.
George: Yea, and they're also offset at a greater angle.
Casey: Hey, why did we put the two math nerds on the same team?
George: I am not a math nerd, I'm an ENGINEER!
I: You're a computer scientist. Close enough.
George: Computer ENGINEER.
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“The reality of that cup is that it is there and it is not me.”
– Sartre; and so begins my adventure into Being and Nothingness
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“Rebellion comes from the mind. You can’t create it, you just are that way.”
– SLC Punk
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“You don’t live your life by lyrics.”
– SLC Punk
“My landlord doesn’t take me seriously… Maybe it’s because I...”
– Ìgè
“I’m holding on by letting go of you”
– All-American Rejects
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Raj: Let's just go walk around and see what's what.
Sheldon: That's a semantically null sentence.
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“Our brains were shaped for fitness, not truth. … We are apt to want our...”
– Steven Pinker, “How the Mind Works”
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“Every group is a group of permutations. This great result is a classic theorem...”
– Charles C. Pinter, A Book of Abstract Algebra.
Mathematicians, they know a good time when they see one.
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“It is a fact both remarkable and trivial that every cycle can be expressed as a...”
– Charles C. Pinter
Only a mathematician would say that something is both “remarkable and trivial.”
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“Either the dead are nothing and have no perception of anything, or it is, as we...”
– Socrates
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acatholicvibe asked: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.