Duke Graduation Redux

I’m finally back from my trip around the country. I can share the photos from graduation, although many of them are blurry. I’m more loathe to share the photos from Las Vegas…

Carolina “Classic”

There are some things about North Carolina almost everyone knows, such as tobacco, basketball, and NASCAR. Then there are things that you only learn if you live here for a while; e.g. coleslaw is a condiment.

That’s right, any self-respecting North Carolinian restaurant serves a tiny cup of coleslaw on the side with every sandwich (and many other orders) so that you can put it on your sandwich if you care to. It actually works quite well because the cole slaw here is the best I’ve ever had: unlike its Midwestern brethren it contains only a bit of mayonnaise, and unlike the local barbecue it’s light on the vinegar.

Coleslaw features prominently in Carolina-style burgers, which also have chili, chopped onion, and mustard. Even Wendy’s has a fast-food version that is sold regionally. Apparently there is some sort of difference between coleslaw and “slaw,” but either way I find them to be delicious.

Another, more interesting North Carolina “quirk” has to do with how I’ve used quotation marks in these last two sentences.

Water Water Everywhere

Think about how much water you think is on Earth. If you were to take it all and form it into a sphere, how big do you think it would be? Now do the same with all the air on Earth.

Dan Phiffer has a picture of what that would look like, courtesy of the Science Photo Library.

Music Charts

This couldn’t wait until Music Monday.

1. Choose a song.
2. Find a mathematical way to express the meaning of the song.
3. Create a chart.

Feeding the meter

On Tuesday a driver in the state of Lower Austria found a novel solution to the ever-pesky problem of parking in a crowded urban area. Believing she’d found the entrance to an underground garage (and, presumably, failing to think to herself ‘hey, that garage wasn’t there yesterday,’ most probably because she doesn’t think in English), the driver promptly entered the facility. That the entrance was in fact to a pedestrian tunnel only became apparent after her car had descended the stairwell. A valet couldn’t have done a better job, and no pedestrians were harmed. After some assistance from the local fire department in extracting her car, the woman was able to continue searching for a parking place.

(Google Language Tools, if you really care.)

The Netherlands is going to build an island

Dr. Tighe must be on vacation, since he hasn’t posted this story yet. IHT.com reports that the Dutch plan to build a new island, and Slate’s new video service has an Explainer about it.

Six Degrees of Steroids Nation

Because I don’t want my RSS feed to be all “Bunton’s Summer CD” stories, especially now that it’s winter, I thought I’d link to a very cool idea that happens to fit in very well with our interests. Those clever kids over at Slate have taken the recent Mitchell Report, the investigation Major League Baseball commissioned to investigate the use of steroids among its players, and graphically represented the network of connections here.

Obviously, the most provocative segment of the graph is at the 1:00 position, with names like Clemens and Pettitte. These were linked through Braves hero (but personal pariah) David Justice during his time with the Yankees in 2000-2001. But perhaps even more remarkable is the large list of average players. For example, former top prospect Nook Logan is listed, but his potential was never realized, despite the apparent use of performance-enhancing drugs.

It is also quite important to note that this view, meaning the Mitchell Report, is from a singular perspective. Kirk Radomski, the report’s original source, was based in New York, and had very specific connections to Baltimore and Los Angeles. Obviously, if the source had been based in, say, Chicago, the graph would look much, much different. Maybe someday we’ll have enough information to create an SD-6-like network.

And now for something completely different

I have nothing constructive to say, but Small and Wang have been up for a week now.

Apropos of nothing:

We don’t read so good.

Snoopy gets deep.

Physics is easier than football. Google image search “BCS explained” and this is the first hit you get.

Elvis Stormtrooper

So #1 Missouri and #2 West Virginia both lost yesterday, making the selection of the two teams who get to play for the BCS national championship uncertain at best.  In the moments before BCS chaos comes to a crescendo, I think it’s time we take a break and think back to simpler times before we had twelve top five teams lose to unranked teams in a single season.  I give you, the King of all stormtroopers:

I know I can’t do any more of these without adding a “stormtrooper” tag, which is a path I don’t want to go down, but Elvis Trooper really makes me happy.

The vast multitude of pictures of Elvis Trooper at comic conventions with girls dressed so sluttily that The Onion, at least, would have you believe they are only there for the self-esteem boost, is a bit depressing in it’s monotony.  Still, I’d probably get my picture taken with Elvis Stormtrooper myself, and I wouldn’t blame him for only keeping the ones with scantily-clad women. At least not much…

And yes, there’s a picture of Elvis  Trooper with his dick in a box…

You Can Take Duke Chapel and Stick It…

I don’t happen to feel any animousity toward the Duke Chapel, but certain higher powers in the Duke physics department seem to.

Since my failed attempt at creating a poster for the Duke physics department came up today, it is a happy coincidence that I was sitting on an image