Woo!
YAY DORKY FRIENDS!
You guys are super fun. I’m glad we could all hang out one last time before I ditch the wondrous United States for the frigid north.
And the Leibniz-Newton slash? NEEDS TO HAPPEN. I’m going to have some interesting dreams tonight.
Today’s song: Swoon by Imogen Heap
Even in my dreams, man, even in my dreams
So I had this dream last night where I had to come up with something to statistically analyze within thirty seconds or this group of guys would murder me. It was like the Statistics Mafia or something.
Anyway.
My idea in the dream was to go to the Sporcle quiz of “50 states in 10 minutes” and see whether or not there were any correlations between the percentage of times a state name is remembered and:
a) Geographical location
b) State population
c) Number of syllables in the state name
My dreams: scary stuff. So guess what I did today?
Part I: Percentage of times a state name is remembered vs. geographical location
States were categorized by geographic location and those locations were numbered from northwest to southeast:
Northwest: 1
Southwest: 2
North central: 3
South central: 4
Northeast: 5
Southeast: 6
The average percent of times the state name is remembered was averaged within each geographic location, and these mean percentages were plotted against the location numbers. Here is said plot:
As you can see, the mean percentage of times that the state name is remembered is lowest for the two central regions and the Northeast. This could be due to lower populations in the central areas and the sheer number of itty bitty states in the Northeast. Or something else, who knows.
Part II: Percentage of times a state name is remembered vs. state population
This was a bit easier. This is just a plot of the percentage versus the state population. Ignore that x-axis; I can’t remember how to quickly fix it in R and it’s late.
Here you’ve got those few outlier states like California and Texas with mega populations that also appear to be at the top of the percentage remembered axis. Other than that, though, there doesn’t appear to be any sort of trend going on here. At least, in my opinion.
Part III: Percentage of times a state name is remembered vs. number of syllables in the state name
The average percent of times the state name is remembered was averaged within each number of syllables (1 through 5), and these mean percentages were plotted against the location numbers.
Haha, I don’t really know what this says. There aren’t that many 2- and 5- syllable states anyway. And Maine is the only 1-syllable. I don’t think this is the best of the three graphs to look at.
Anyway.
Fun times.
Today’s song: Thinking About You by Radiohead
So…out of it…
I forgot how awesome you Moscow friends are. We need to have a Rock Band party.
And I need to take my meds at a different time of day.
That is all.
Today’s song: The Underdog by Spoon
“Citizen SNIIIIIIIPS!”
YAY, I’m in Moscow again!
So the first thing my mom and I did was go to WinCo to get groceries for the time we’re here.
A standard packet of shredded cheese cost $2.49
$2.49.
You can’t buy a head of lettuce for that price in Vancouver. WHAT.
So I bought two bags of groceries and it all cost less than $40. One bag up north usually costs $50 or $60.
Well, anyway, I’m back. We all need to hang out.
Today’s song: Warp 1.9 (feat. Steve Aoki) by The Bloody Beetroots
TWSB: To the Ends of the Earth…Er, Solar System
First off, if I were to ever become a supervillian, I’d want my name to be Heliopause. Just ‘cause.
Voyager 1, launched 33 years ago, is now approaching the edge of our solar system.
Scientists know the craft has reached such a point by observing a change in the particles that surround it. These particles, emanated by the sun, are, instead of travelling outwards, are flowing sideways. This means that the particles are shifting in order to go down the tail of the heliosphere, which is indicative of Voyager 1 making the jump into interstellar space.
Around the heliosphere is the heliosheath, in which temperatures rise and wind speeds slow to zero. Scientists are measuring particle speeds around Voyager 1 to be nearly zero, thus they believe this is where the craft is. It is suspected that it will make the cross-over in the next few years.
The initial goals for Voyager 1 (and its sister Voyager 2) was to survey the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (and Pluto, too, back then I guess). This was accomplished back in 1989. Now it’s breeching the outermost reaches of our star.
How freaking cool is that?
Today’s song: Guilty Pleasure by Cobra Starship
Qualia!
I’ve decided that I want to donate some bone marrow.
For various reasons I am unable to donate blood, but there don’t appear to be any reasons why I can’t donate marrow. So that’s what I shall do. I figure I’ll never be able to donate blood anyway…anemia, low blood volume, low plasma levels, whatever…so why not try to extract some other part of my body for someone else?
Yay.
Today’s song: Strobe (Radio Edit) by Deadmau5
App-tacular
Okay, I promise I’m not an Apple whore, but I absolutely love this app.
It’s called Measures and it contains conversions to so many freaking units for so many different applications. The following measurement categories are included: length, area, weight, volume, temperature, time, fuel consumption, data storage, speed, currencies, acceleration, pressure, energy, power, force, torque, angle, charge, density, luminance, SI prefixes, flow, radioactivity, magnetic flux, magnetic flux density, clothes sizes and shoe sizes.
Seriously.
And like I said, SO MANY UNITS. For example, I now know that I am 0.86805556 fathoms tall, weigh 29,166.67 pennyweights, am 8,021,280 moments old, and wear a size 35 shoe in Brazil.
It’s also super easy to use. Here’s a review of it.
I don’t know how many of you have Touches/iPhones, but I recommend this not only because it’s useful, but because it’s ridiculously entertaining.
99 cents, people. Get it.
Today’s song: Better by Regina Spektor
Stuff
I’m feeling a touch materialistic today, and therefore feel like listing stuff that I would like to buy but either can’t find/can’t afford/don’t think it’s worth buying at this point in time.
Go!
Game Boy Color
My old one was teal, but lime green wins the Olympics of cool colors.
Heartbeats
I got to try these out at a HMV up here and they have AMAZING sound. Exponentially better than any other in-ear headphone I’ve ever tried.
KitchenAid Mixer
I love these things. I always have. And now that I’m actually cooking on a somewhat regular basis, I can justify getting one. An orange one, of course (seriously, look these up, they’re amazing).
Metalocalypse
Because duh.
Haha, sorry, I don’t have much to say today.
Today’s song: Float On by Modest Mouse
TWSB: Canada – A Weighty Issue (Or “massy,” rather; shut up, it’s a pun)
Canada: being the nonconformist country since 1867.
For over 40 years scientists have been trying to figure out why parts of Canada—specifically the Hudson Bay area—experience lower gravitational pull than other parts of the world.
Yeah, seriously.
Freaking Canada.
There are two theories that have been put forth to explain this phenomenon. The first has to do with the convection currents of the earth’s magma. Scientists who support this theory think that convection beneath the Hudson Bay area is causing the continental plate there to be dragged down, thus decreasing mass and, subsequently, decreasing gravity.
The second theory has to do with the old Laurentide Ice Sheet. This ice sheet covered much of Canada and the northern US way back when glaciers ruled the world. The ice was about 2 miles thick in most sections (perspective: the Antarctic ice sheet covering the continent can be as thick as 3 miles) and thus was super heavy and weighed down that part of the earth, displacing the mass underneath it.
This ice sheet melted over the course of 10,000 years, but the earth that had been beneath it is still “rebounding”—that is, it is still quite a large depression that is slowly rising back up to what would be a normal level if the ice sheet had never been there. Because this depression still exists, that is the cause of the lower amount of gravity in that region of the planet.
Apparently, it turns out that both theories are correct. There’s mega convection going on beneath the earth’s surface under the Hudson Bay, but there’s also been a measured effect of the earth rebounding from the glacier. Though this rebound will take about 5,000 more years, the change that is occurring is prominent enough to be observed—the sea level, which is rising in other parts of the world, is noticeably dropping along Hudson Bay.
So yeah. Convection + Ice Age influence = Canada’s weird.
Cool, huh?
Today’s song: I Turn My Camera On by Spoon
Stir fry—Claudia style!
HI PEOPLE!
So I have recently acquired a wok and have decided to try out stir fry. My first attempt was pretty damn good, and even though I’m probably doing it all wrong, I decided to share it (mainly ‘cause I took a pretty picture, haha).
You will need:
- Some sort of uncooked egg noodle – 100 grams or a bowl filled with uncooked noodles. The noodles will compress once they’re cooked, so don’t worry about fitting them plus the veggies in a bowl once you’re done.
- Broccoli – 35 grams of small stalks with florets or a about half a cupful
- Carrots – 2 ounces julienned or about a half a cupful
- Red pepper – 1 ounce cut into cubes or however you prefer (about a loose handful)
- White or yellow onion – 20 grams sliced or cubed (enough to fill your palm)
- Mushrooms – 15 grams sliced, or about a small handful
- Canola oil (or some sort of equivalent—whatever oil you like that’s good for high heat) – 2 teaspoons
- Stir fry sauce (again, your choice) – about 3 tablespoons
It’s best to get all your slicing/combining/other cooking done before you actually start the stir fry, so do all this before you even turn on the heat beneath your wok.
Combine broccoli, carrots, pepper, onion, and mushrooms into a microwave-safe container, add about three tablespoons of water, and microwave on high for about 1:45 or 2:00, depending on how thick you’ve kept your broccoli stalks. While this is microwaving, put a pot of water on the stove and get the water boiling. Also, go ahead and put a tablespoon of stir fry sauce and the two teaspoons of canola oil into the frying pan/wok and mix it up for later.
Drain the water from the veggie mix and set aside. Once your water starts boiling, cook your noodles to the package instructions (the variety I use cook very quick and are done in less than a minute—don’t overcook or you’ll end up with squishy and that’s not very appealing). Once they’re done, drain the water and set aside. Start heating up your frying pan/wok. I get mine up to about a 5 or 6 on the oven knob, just until the sauce starts to bubble.
I know I’m going to get chastised for this, but I add all my veggies at once. Everything seems to be pretty uniformly cooked once I take them out of the microwave and they’re not going to be on the heat very long, so I don’t worry too much about different cooking times like I know you’re supposed to do. It all tastes fine in the end, in my opinion. If they’re sizzling like hell, though, you’re doing this part right. Stir them up with the sauce so that they’re all coated—this’ll take about a minute.
Make a well in the veggies and dump in your noodles. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of stir fry sauce atop the noodles and mix well with the veggies. I usually cook for another minute and a half to two minutes, just until things start sticking to the frying pan/wok. Turn off the heat and transfer everything to a bowl.
Yay! I think I’m getting better at this cheffing stuff.
Today’s song: Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine
Gift of the Magikarp
I suddenly have an insatiable urge to acquire Pokemon cards. I had quite an impressive collection way back when. I also remember being the only girl in elementary school who was into Pokemon.
I miss my Gameboy Color, too. It was sexy.
Anyway, here is a list of my 10 favorite Pokemon. Just ‘cause.
Snorlax
I adore Snorlax. He’s such a fat dude. Any creature whose abilities include “thick fat” has to be awesome. I always tried to play him in my deck as often as possible, haha.
Psyduck
This is the creepiest Pokemon ever. Its powers stem from something akin to chronic migraines, which makes me wonder, in its picture, whether its staring into the water to concentrate or contemplating suicide.
“Psyduck are usually unable to think very clearly due to having a chronic headache. Because of the headache, a Psyduck will always hold its head. When these headaches worsen, Psyduck may use psychic powers.”
What if that principle held for humans? “Uh oh, migraine coming on…guess I’ll have to USE AMNESIA!”
Sudowoodo
Apparently this is a rock-type Pokemon. I was unaware of this. I wonder why a rock Pokemon would desire to disguise itself as a tree rather than anything else. Now I am even more intrigued by this club-branched weirdo.
Porygon
These should always be named Tron.
Ditto
Silly Putty Pokemon! I thought this was always one of the coolest Pokemon in terms of moves.
“When two Ditto meet in the wild, they will attempt to transform into each other.”
And this is how black holes are formed.
Diglett
Diglett is cuter than hell. He’s also the first Pokemon I was ever introduced to, so I think I have a soft spot in my heart for him.
Metapod
Yes, I’m aware that my liking Metapod basically makes me the most boring person on the planet. But I always thought it was one of the cooler-looking dudes. It also lends itself to jokes like this:
Voltorb
Every time I see one of these I have to think of how often they would be mistaken for pokeballs. What kind of weird evolutionary tactic is that? “Hey, I’m actually a Pokemon sitting here in the grass and HEY STOP TRYING TO SHOVE ANOTHER POKEMON INTO ME WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ASH YOU DILETTANTE POKEMASTER!
Magneton
It’s a molecule! That’s why I always liked it, it looked like H3 or something.
“Magneton is most commonly seen as one Magnemite on top, and two Magnemite linked via body on the bottom, forming a triangle.”
Bow-chicka-wow-wow.
They can also get hungry and have emotions, apparently.
Machamp
Machamp was the first holographic card I ever got; thus I have a soft spot in my heart for it. That’s about all I’ve got for Machamp, haha.
Today’s song: Horchata by Vampire Weekend
Are sore thumbs really that noticeable?
To start on the 5,000 question survey off of my 101 in 1,000, here are the first 100 questions. These will be arriving in installments for awhile now.
1. Who are you?
I’m Claudia
2. What are the 3 most important things everyone should know about you?
I can’t smell, I’m in grad school, and I really, really like statistics.
3. When you aren’t filling out 5,000 question surveys like this one what are you doing?
Doing research, blogging, searching for 5,000 question surveys to fill out.
4. List your classes in school from the ones you like the most to the ones you like the least (or if you are out of school, think of the classes you did like and didn’t like at the time).
Tests and Measurements was finally surpassed by both Philosophy of Science and Multivariate Analysis. Math 143 still stands as the worst class on the planet.
5. What is your biggest goal for this year?
Get a new song for every day of the year. Looks like I’m going to make it!
6. Where do you want to be in 5 years?
Hopefully either done with school or in a philosophy PhD program. I’d prefer the latter at this point.
7. What stage of life are you in right now?
The grad school stage. That’s synonymous with the quarter life crisis stage, FYI.
8. Are you more child-like or childish?
Probably child-like. I’m like 12 years old in my head.
9. What is the last thing you said out loud?
“The battle of the Apple products!”
10. What song comes closest to how you feel about your life right now?
Probably Regina Spektor’s Eet.
11. Have you ever taken martial arts classes?
I did a long time ago. For like three days.
12. Does your life tend to get better or worse or does it just stay the same?
In the words of Ronan Keating, “life is a rollercoaster.”
13. Does time really heal all wounds?
It certainly helps.
14. How do you handle a rainy day?
I live in Vancouver. My LIFE is a rainy day.
15. Which is worse…losing your luggage or having to sort out tangled holiday lights?
Losing luggage. I’m protective of my clothes.
16. How is your relationship with your parents?
Awesome.
17. Do you tend to be aware of what is going on around you?
In social gatherings, yes. I’m very in tune with whether or not everybody’s having a good time—that stresses me out.
18. What is the truest thing that you know?
Truth!
19. What did you want to be when you grew up?
A glaciologist.
20. Have you ever been given a second chance?
I’ve been offered a second chance, but I didn’t take it.
21. Are you more of a giver or a taker?
I try to be more of a giver
22. Do you make your decisions with an open heart/mind?
Usually.
23. What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you?
Appendicitis was pretty freaking bad, but that was mainly because I had to deal with it for about 27 hours while getting ready to graduate from elementary school.
24. What is the most emotionally painful thing that has ever happened to you?
Let’s not go into that.
25. Who have you hugged today?
No one.
26. Who has done something today to show they care about you?
I haven’t really been in communication with anyone today.
27. Do you have a lot to learn?
Oh yes.
28. If you could learn how to do three things just by wishing and not by working what would they be?
A) Understand statistics on a very basic level
B) Speak/read Basque
C) Be able to write really, really, really well
29. Which do you remember the longest: what other people say, what other people do or how other people make you feel?
What other people say.
30. What are the key ingredients to having a good relationship?
Sugar, eggs, and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.
31. What 3 things do you want to do before you die?
A) Go to Antarctica
B) Get a book published
C) Get a PhD
32. What three things would you want to die to avoid doing?
A) Severely hurting or killing someone
B) Ruining someone’s future
C) Having to read To Kill a Mockingbird again
33. Is there a cause you believe in more than any other cause?
Not particularly, I don’t think.
34. What does each decade make you think of:
The 1910’s.
Modesty
20’s:
Flappers!
30’s:
Great depression!
40’s:
Atomic
50’s:
Birth
60’s:
WOOOOOO!
70’s:
Space
80’s:
MC Hammer
90’s:
Pokemon!
2000:
Junior High
2010’s:
Change
35. Which decade do you feel the most special connection to and why?
1960s, just because people always tell me that’s when I was supposed to be born.
36. What is your favorite oldie/classic rock song?
I dig Peace of Mind pretty hard. We Built This City is also sufficiently badass.
37. What country do you live in and who is the leader of that country?
I currently live in Canada. Who the hell is the leader of Canada? I think it’s Harper…
38. What’s your favorite TV channel to watch in the middle of the night?
Probably Cartoon Network, ‘cause Adult Swim is on and that might mean METALOCALYPSE!
39. What Disney villain are you the most like and why?
My nickname was Scar in elementary school for whatever the hell reason. People would shout “you killed Moufassa!” at me across the playground. I’m not even kidding. Catholic children have an odd way of teasing.
40. Have you ever been a girl scout/boy scout?
I have indeed.
41. If you were traveling to another continent would you rather fly or take a boat?
Boat!
42. Why is the sky blue during the day and black at night?
SCIENCE!
43. What does your name mean?
Haha, it means “lame.”
44. Would you rather explore the deeps of the ocean or outer space?
Outer space.
45. Word association
What is the first word that comes to mind when you see the word:
Air: Current
Meat: Slab
Different: Rainbow
Pink: Ribbon
Deserve: Reward
White: Eggs
Elvis: Hunka-hunka-burnin’-love (totally one word)
Magic: Wand
Heart: Music
Clash: The
Pulp: Fiction
46. If you could meet any person in the world who is dead who would you want it to be?
LEIBNIZLEIBNIZLEIBNIZLEIBNIZ
47. What if you could meet anyone who is alive?
I’d like to meet Stephen Hawking. Or John Searle.
48. Is there a movie that you love so much you could watch it everyday?
I’m not a movie person.
49. You are going to be stuck alone in an elevator for a week. What do you bring to do?
iPod/headphones for music, journal/pen for writing, Pokemon on the Gameboy for sanity. I’m assuming the lights will be on.
50. Have you ever saved someone’s life or had your life saved?
Nope.
51. Make up a definition for the following silly words…
Fruitgoogle: Apple enthusiasts who utilize Google on their iPhones.
Ambytime: 5/14 time signature.
Asscactus: Slang for uncomfortable underwear.
52. What was the last thing you made with your own hands?
Cookies.
53. What was your favorite toy as a child?
A squeaky dog toy shaped like a wrench. His name was Wrenchie. He was green and infinitely awesome.
54. How many TV’s are in your house?
One, but no cable.
55. What is your favorite thing to do outside?
Cycle.
56. How do you feel when you see a rainbow?
YAY COLORS!
57. Have you ever dreamt a dream that came true?
Probably, but I can’t think of one right now.
58. Have you ever been to a psychic/tarot reader?
Nope.
59. What is your idea of paradise?
Living in Antarctica, doing statistical analyses, writing philosophical stuff, lots of Rock Band, and Sleepyhead on repeat.
60. Do you believe in god and if so what is he/she/it like?
No god. Hylozoist.
61. Do you believe in Hell?
Nope.
62. What one thing have you done that most people haven’t?
Never smelled.
63. What is the kindest thing you have ever done?
I leant someone $800 without expecting to be paid back…does that count?
64. Are you a patient person?
Shut up and get to the point!
65. What holiday should exist but doesn’t?
Leibniz Day. Freaking Canadians taking July 1st.
66. What holiday shouldn’t exist but does?
Haha, probably Groundhog’s Day
67. What’s the best joke you ever heard?
I’ve heard some pretty good geeky stats jokes, but I can’t think of any right now.
68. Where is the most fun place you have EVER been?
The house with the guys. Oh my god, that was the best year of my life.
69. Is your hair natural or dyed?
Natural.
70. Do you have any deep dark secrets or are you pretty much up front?
I have my select few.
71. What is under your bed right now?
Nothing, it’s a foam pad on the floor.
72. If you were in the Land of Oz would you want to live there or go home?
Depends on if they’d kick me out for making fun of the Scarecrow.
73. If you drive do you frequently speed?
I don’t drive.
74. What is the world’s best song to dance to?
Dildo!
75. What song was on the last time you danced with someone?
I don’t remember when I last danced with someone.
76. Do you prefer Disney or Warner Brothers?
I was a Disney kid.
77. What is the first animal you would run to see if you went to the zoo?
I dig elephants.
78. Would you consider yourself to be romantic?
Eh. I’m not innately programmed to write love songs to those I fancy, but I suppose I can be romantic at times.
79. If the earth stopped rotating would we all fly off?
You mean, like if all of a sudden, BAM, the earth just stopped rotating? That would be hilarious. We’d probably all drown when the oceans slosh up onto the shores (by “slosh” I mean “mega tsunami”). Or maybe we’d be swept up by the atmosphere which would still be rotating. That’d be awesome.
80. What is the one thing that you love to do so much that you would make sacrifices to be able to do it?
Random pointless analyses. I love doing them. Lovelovelove.
81. If you (and everyone) had to lose one right or freedom, but you could pick which one everyone had to lose, what would you pick?
It depends on what you consider to be rights or freedoms.
82. If you had to choose would you live on the equator or at the North Pole?
Can I live on the South Pole instead?
83. Would you rather give up listening to music or watching television?
Television, definitely.
84. What do you think makes someone a hero?
Whether or not they can break into spontaneous song about their good deeds.
85. What cartoon would you like to be a character in?
Dude, I would have loved to be a character in Talespin. ‘Cause that was the greatest cartoon ever made.
86. Name one thing that turns your stomach:
The color red-orange. Ew.
87. What was the last thing you paid for?
My phone bill.
88. Are you a coupon clipper?
Nope.
89. Get anything good in the mail recently?
I’m still waiting for my UPass…
90. Which would you rather take as a gym class…dancing, sailing, karate, or bowling?
Sailing!
91. In Star Trek people ‘beam’ back and forth between different places. What this means is they stand in a little tube and their molecules are deconstructed and sent to another tube somewhere else where they are reassembled. Only problem is when the molecules are deconstructed the person is dead. When they are put back together it is only a clone that has all the dead person’s memories. So…is the person who gets beamed the same person on both ends?
The Ship of Theseus: Star Trek version!
92. What insects are you afraid of?
Dragonflies scare the everliving hell out of me.
93. If you could print any phrase on a T-shirt, what would it say?
“LEIBNIZ RULES”
94. What’s the most eccentric thing you have ever worn?
HAHAHA LOOK WHO YOU’RE ASKING
95. If you could pick one food that you could eat all you wanted but it would have no effect on how much you weigh, what food would it be?
Dude, M&Ms. There is no other acceptable answer.
96. What are your parents interested in?
Hahaha, soil and graphic design.
97. Have you ever caught an insect and kept it as a pet?
We had giant millipedes when I was younger, but we obviously didn’t go out and catch them.
98. What is more helpful to you, wishes or plans?
Plans. Plans make everything right with the world.
99. When do you feel your life energy the strongest?
When I’m obsessing.
100. You are spending the night alone in the woods and may bring only 3 items with you. What do you bring?
A flashlight, a blanket, and something to entertain myself with.
Woohoo!
Today’s song: Ghosts N Stuff by Deadmau5
TWSB: BLACKER THAN THE BLACKEST BLACK TIMES INFINITY
Oh, NASA.
NASA’s telescopes and cameras in space require the use of a super black paint dubbed Z306 in order to reduce photon contamination by absorbing erratic light that ricochets off the instrument components.
However, Z306 is apparently not black enough, as NASA scientists have been working towards and have finally developed a new material that is like 10 times blacker than Z306 and is made of carbon nanotubes grown on titanium. The big breakthrough here, aside from the DARKNESS THAT IS THE NEW BLACK, is the fact that the scientists were able to develop a material that would allow the nanotubes to stick effectively to it, therefore reducing the risk of them scratching off under wear.
You can read more about it here. Sounds pretty snazzy, if you ask me.
Today’s song: Creep by Scala & Kolacny Brothers
An analysis of statewise uniform population density (according to Craigslist)
So during a study break this afternoon I took a casual little jaunt over to Craigslist to see what those in Vancouver were most recently ranting about. For whatever reason I decided to scroll down the page rather than click the little “Canada” link at the top, and I noticed that a few of the US states had only one little sublisting beneath them (Wyoming, for example).
This got me to wondering: does the way Craigslist create its state listings reflect the uniformity of those states’ population distributions? In other words, for example, if a state only has cities listed as opposed to large areas like “western Wisconsin,” does that reflect the fact that the state has its population “clustered” into small areas and not uniformly distributed throughout the state?
Now of course you know me and you know how I do things, so this wasn’t going to be some simple analysis in which I would merely count up the listings or something and do a rank ordered map thing.
No, no.
It has to be more complicated than that.
So without further ado, here’s what I did:
First I decided to take a look at the sublistings and rank them in order of size. It turns out that there are listings that range from as large as the entire state itself down to just regular cities. Here’s what I’ve got:
– State
– Area (e.g., “northwest CT,” “heartland Florida”)
– County
– Pair of cities (e.g., “Moscow/Pullman”)
– City
Theory: the more uniformly a state’s population is “spread out” in the state, the more likely there will be larger area listings for that state (e.g., just the state listed, or just areas and counties). The less uniformly a state’s population, the more likely that there will be a lot of smaller area listings (like a lot of cities and pairs of cities) rather than large area listings.
Make sense?
Of course, there is the overall population to consider—for example, Wyoming just has “Wyoming” listed ‘cause nobody lives there. But there are slightly more populous states that also have just the state listed. Similarly, there are also slightly more populous states that just have a few cities listed, thus indicating that the small populations of these states are clustered into areas and not uniformly spread out.
So here’s how I quantified “uniformness”—I gave every city listed under every state a value of 1. I then gave ever pair of cities, county, area, and state listed values of .8, .6, .4, and .2, respectively. I then, for every state, summed these numbers and divided by the number of listings. This way, the more uniformly a state’s population is spread out, the closer this final number will be to zero (or .2, rather, because that’s the value I assigned to “state”), and the more clustered the population, the closer this number will be to 1.
Here’s a map with colors! I’m into gradients lately.
If I could find some reference to compare this to I would, but I can’t find one, sorry.
Woo!
Does bread experience social loafing?
HEY Y’ALL!
In the spirit of early New Year’s resolutions with longer completion dates, I have submitted my 101 in 1001 list here. This (still expanding) list will be my list of 101 goals I would like to complete in 1,001 days (starting on the 5th, ‘cause I’m obsessive like that). So I’ll have until September 2, 2013 to complete everything I list here.
Likely? Nope.
Fun to attempt? Yup.
It’s like 2 in the morning right now and I spent all day working on trying to clearly define noncentrality-based fit indices, so my brain’s not working to full capacity at the moment, hence the fact that I’ve only got about 17 things listed right now. But it shall grow.
Oh yeah, and a drawing:
Today’s song: We Sing the Forest Electric by Graham Annable
If an emerald falls in a forest and is observed after time t, is it grue?
I hardly know what Minecraft is, but this song makes me very happy.
Anyway, because I’m ridiculously busy this week, here’s a mindless survey of mindlessness and joy.
Because it’s my blog and I want to.
Who have you inboxed in the last 24hours?
What the hell does “inboxed” mean? That sounds like some horrible frat hazing ritual. Like waterboarding, but with texting.
What do you think of the person you like?
HOT AS FUCK. I cuss because I mean it.
Do you hate anyone right now?
Nah.
Person you trust the most?
My mom, mainly ‘cause I don’t really trust anyone.
Last thing you sent in your text?
I was asking Kate where we were meeting for studying.
Do you think your funny?
I think I’m damn hilarious, but only to me.
Do you like more than one person?
I like a pair of gentlemen.
What’s the thing that you regret the most?
UBC, HOLY FREAKING CRAPSPASM
Do you prefer guys/girls to tell you the truth about how they feel about you or do you wanna find out from someone else?
Whatever keeps the drama to a minimum.
What do you hate the most?
Dr. Phil’s socks.
Seriously, I don’t know. I don’t hate anything.
Favourite number?
Eleven.
Nike or Addias?
Asics, mofos!
You are thinkin’ of a person right now aren’t you, who is it?
GET OUT OF MY HEAD
Who do you like?
Leibniz. Duh.
What do you like in a guy/girl?
Not being a jackass, not being a freaky cling—aside from that, it doesn’t matter.
List 15 facts about you. GO!
1. I don’t belong in this time period.
2. I have a violent name (the “claw” in Claudia and the “maul” in Mahler).
3. I know way too many things about the internet.
4. I’m not a big movie fan because I can practically have them memorized after watching them once or twice, and thus don’t see a big thrill in watching them again.
5. I’m more than halfway through my damn book list. Finally.
6. I still have nine more facts to go!
7. Muse held a concert up here back in April and I kick myself still for not going.
8. I have unhealthy relationships with pretty much everything.
9. I used to sing the Frosted Flakes “Hey Tony!” song incessantly. There are hours of video of this phenomenon.
10. I am very good at rewriting song lyrics on the spot. I think this is due to my mom playing a lot of Weird Al when I was a kid.
11. I wouldn’t mind being a pastry chef.
12. I also wouldn’t mind working on a fishing boat, though I’m sure that opinion would change if I were to experience it.
13. I was afraid of the letter “v” when I was a kid. Don’t even ask. I still don’t like words that start with that letter.
14. I can’t wait to see my Moscow friends!
15. I can’t wait to get the hell out of this MA program!
What makes you laugh?
Humorous things.
In 10 years what do you think you’ll be doing?
Ideally? Teaching “philosophy of statistics classes” with a side job at the Census Bureau. Most likely? With the way I operate, I’ll probably still be in school getting my nth degree.
How many times have you cried over the past week?
A metric crap-ton.
What did you do last night?
Freaked out.
Was last night good? Why?
See above.
What was the last thing you ate today?
Uh…Fritos?
Who is like a brother to you?
Aneel and I had a very brother-sister relationship there for awhile. Dork.
Someone who helped you out a lot?
My mom.
Are you mad at someone right now?
Nah.
Who was the last person you wanted to punch in the face, did you?
Hahahaha, this question scares me.
Are you single? If so, what happened to your last relationship?
Yes; I moved out of the country, he didn’t
Do you still like your ex?
All three of them, yes.
Love anyone at the moment?
Leibniz.
Do you care if people drink?
Nah.
How many boyfriends/girlfriends have you had?
Three. And a half. Ish.
What’s your background?
Who wants to know?
How tall are you?
GO TO HELL
Done answering questions?
CLAUDIA WANT MORE! CAPS LOCK ENGAGED!
Today’s song: The General Specific by Band of Horses
Euclid, NOO!
So as I said yesterday, NaNoWriMo is over! My actual word count was well over 50,325…I just managed to fall asleep at the computer and by the time I woke up it was past midnight and I couldn’t update again, haha.
Anyway, here is this year’s Wordle (click to enlarge!):
I kind of like where this year’s novel is headed, though that’s mainly because it was an idea I pulled out of my butt at the last minute and things just kind of fell into a nice coherent plot after the first 10,000 words or so. I don’t think it’s comparable to Prime, but Prime is special to me.
Now to not plan ahead for NaNo 2011 and have another panic attack the first week of November!
Today’s song: Uprising by Muse
November Song Review
November’s over and so is NaNoWriMo! But that whole thing will be analyzed tomorrow; right now it’s time for this month’s music review.
Graph of genres:
Mean song length: 4:22
NO five stars this month!
Today’s song: Peanut Butter & Patience by Deru
Zoomazoomazoomablogtime
I had a dream last night that consisted solely of me writing lengthy Wikipedia article on “water vandalism,” which turns out to not be a real thing in real life but was, in my dream, acts that involved defacing public water (like putting bath bubbles in a public fountain).
I’m actually surprised “water vandalism” hasn’t been coined for that yet.
Also, there exists no Wiki article for one of the main structural equation modeling fit indices I’m examining for my thesis, so I’m half-tempted to actually create one. I’ve never edited a Wiki page before.
Anyway.
Yes, I know I’m about 3,000 words short for NaNoWriMo right now. Shut up, I know it, I’ll get there. Last year I was like 7,000 words short at this point, so there!
Bah. I’m jittery.
Today’s song: Mykonos by Fleet Foxes
Scrabble Letter Values and the QWERTY Keyboard
Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of “Claudia analyzes crap for no good reason.”
Today’s topic is the relationship between the values of the letters in Scrabble and the frequency of use of the keys on the QWERTY layout keyboard.
This analysis took three main stages:
- Plot the letters of the keyboard by their values in Scrabble.
- Plot the letters of the keyboard by their frequency of use in a semi-long document (~50 pages).
- Compute the correlation between the two and see how strongly they’re related.
Step 1
There are 7 categories of letter scores in Scrabble: 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 8-, and 10-point letters. The first thing I decided to do was create gradient to overlay atop a QWERTY and see what the general pattern is. Here is said overlay:
Makes sense. K and J are a little wonky, but that might just be because the fingers on the right hand are meant to be skipping around to all the other more commonly-used letters placed around them. This was the easiest part of the analysis (except for making that stupid gradient; it took a few tries to get the colors at just the right differences for it to be readable but not too varying).
Step 2
I found a 50 or so page Word document of mine that wasn’t on anything specific and broke it down by letter. I put it into Wordle and got this lovely size-based comparison of use:
I then used Wordle’s “word frequency” counter to get the number of times each letter was used. I then ranked the letters by frequency of use.
I took this ranking and compared it to the category breakdown used in Scrabble—that is, since there are 10 letters that are given 1 point each, I took the 10 most frequently used letters in my document and assigned them to group 1, the group that gets a point each. There are 2 letters in Scrabble that get two points each; I took the 11th and 12th most frequently used letters from the document and put them into group 2. I did this for all the letters, down until group 7, the letters that get 10 points each.
So at this point I had a ranking of the frequency of use of letters in an average word document in the same metric as the Scrabble letter breakdown. I made a similar graph overlaying a QWERTY with this data:
Pretty similar to the Scrabble categories, eh? You still get that wonky J thing, too.
Side-by-side comparison:
Step 3
Now comes the fun part! I had two different ways of calculating a correlation.
The first way was the category to category comparison, which would require the use of the Spearman correlation coefficient (used for rank data). Essentially, this correlation would measure how often a letter was placed in the same group (e.g., group 1, group 4) for both the Scrabble ranking and the real data ranking. The Spearman correlation returned was 0.89. Pretty freaking high.
I could also compare the Scrabble categories against the raw frequency data, which would require the use of the polyserial correlation. Since the frequency decreases as the category number increases (group 1 has the highest frequencies, group 10 has the lowest), we would expect some sort of negative correlation. The polyserial correlation returned was -.92. Even higher than the Spearman.
So what can we conclude from this insanity? Basically that there’s a pretty strong correlation between how Scrabble decided to value the letters and the actual frequency of letter use in a regular document. Which is kind of a “duh,” but I like to show it using pretty pictures and stats.
WOO!
Today’s song: Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) by Arcade Fire
Bad Romance: The Cookie Version
Okay.
Don’t laugh at me.
Last night I had a dream about Lady Gaga (not the first time this has happened) in which she gave me a recipe with which to express her song Bad Romance as a batch of cookies.
I’m not kidding.
Well, okay, she didn’t give me an explicit recipe. She just told me what to do (“make Bad Romance into a batch of cookies”) and gave me four distinct ingredients that had to be included: Oreos, cream cheese, blueberries, and Nutella.
So that’s what I attempted this afternoon. She didn’t give me any real direction in terms of the recipe in the dream, so I just kind of made things up as I went for a small seven cookies batch. What I finally ended up doing was making a cream cheese blueberry cookie base, sprinkling them with crumbled up Oreo (just the cookie part), and then topping them with the Oreo filling mixed with Nutella.
This is what they look like:
So what’s the taste verdict?
Meh.
They don’t live up to the awesomeness of Bad Romance. I think they would have tasted better without the blueberries, but that may be because the cookies were small and the blueberries were overly intrusive (they have big blueberries in Canada).
They’re pretty, though.
Today’s song: First Train Home by Imogen Heap
TWSB: Yay, Jupiter’s going to be able to hold its pants up again!
(Obligatory belt joke taken care of)
This photo shows a picture of Jupiter’s SEB (Southern Equatorial Belt) returning after its disappearance was noticed last May. This picture and others capture plumes of energy breaking through the cloud tops.
So pretty soon, say scientists, Jupiter will return to looking like we’re used to seeing it.
Haha, I know this This Week’s Science Blog is short, but I’ve been wondering when the band would return since I became aware of it being gone.
Today’s song: Nocturne by Nomo
Haha, oh yeah, I forgot what today was…
Hahaha, oh my god.
So I didn’t die in the snow this morning (it took an hour and a half to get to campus due to three separate bus breakdowns)! And I now present you with an alphabetical list of things I am thankful for, because alphabetical lists rock and I’m putting off going back outside to get home.
Annabelle. I love my cat!
Broccoli. Broccoli is perhaps the greatest food ever.
Creativity. I don’t think I’m all that creative, but it’s fun to pretend and gives me an excuse to draw.
Dad. I miss him up here more than I thought I would.
Existentialism. Sometimes the only outlook on life that works.
Fantasies. Crawling into the alternate worlds that exist in my head keeps me (relatively) sane.
Good music. This has been an excellent year for music made for zoning out.
Hope. Without it, why bother?
Immune system. I have the immune system of a God. For that I am highly thankful, especially in such a big city when I’m exposed to dozens of people a day in enclosed areas (buses).
Joking. Laugh or die.
Kitchen. My new mode of creative expression, apparently, is cooking. Which is funny, ‘cause I can’t taste half the crap I make.
Leibniz. Oh, you know it.
Mom. YAY!
NaNoWriMo. A chance to write without abandon.
Obsessions. Statisics! Philosophy of science! Getting irrationally excited about little things that make my soul tingle! WOO!
Philosophy. I honestly don’t know how I had gotten through life without this before, when I thought it was all dumb.
Quirky life events. Creepy coincidences: keeping life interesting since 1988.
Readers. To those of you (two of you, maybe?) who read this regularly and to the random people who stop by—I appreciate your reading my ramblings!
School. As conflicted as I am right now regarding it, it’s still school, and I’m still me.
Transportation. Thank the transportation gods for the Vancouver bus system (and the UPass. Thank you thank you thank you, UPass).
Unusual friends. I’m talking to you, Moscow people. Like, all of you.
Vaio. Trusted friend and companion since 2006 (Vaio I and Vaio II have the same soul).
Web access. I love the internet. I want to study the internet. Trend analysis + memes = ideal way to have fun.
Xeno-experiences. As in foreign experiences. Vancouver is SO not Moscow in a lot of ways, which is nice. And I like sushi now.
Yesterday. The past, even the sucktastic parts, is very, very important to me, and I’m thankful for almost every experience I’ve had.
Zealousness. It’s important to me to have unabashed passion for at least one thing in life. The fact that I’m still zealous about stats/philosophy/Leibniz gives me hope.
WOO THAT’S ALL!
Happy Thanksgiving, US friends!
Today’s song: Perfect Girl by the Ultrasonics
Eigenblogger 