Carl Lumma 1-dan master of the unyielding fist of Bayesian inference http://twitter.com/clumma/favorites 118. intelligence and life are the same phenomenon 2013.07.24 117. My family of 4 emits ~ 50 lbs of waste per week at our residence (all waste forms, inc. recyclable). Fits into two 30 gal cans (100 kg/m^3). 2013.07.10 116. LEO payloads in metric tons: Soyuz-U 7, Proton-M 22, Space Shuttle 24, Falcon Heavy 53, Saturn V 120 2013.07.01 115. The mark of a worthwhile tool is that it challenges its users, not panders to their "intuition", let alone their basest instincts. 2013.02.20 114. Which institution has failed: marriage or divorce? 2012.12.18 113. I est. airport screening costs $2B/yr in productivity lost to delays (TSA budget is $8B). 2012.02.10 112. So your right hand is the one you want to use, and your left hand is the one left over. 2012.07.09 111. I love apples! Think about if like, apples didn't exist. Man that would suck. 2012.07.09 110. never explain by ignorance what can be explained by undepreciated infrastructure 2012.05.05 109. in light years... nearest star: 4, nearest galaxy: 25,000, diameter of milky way: 100,000, nearest spiral galaxy: 2.5M 2012.04.29 108. Computers are smarter than humans. 2012.04.13 107. The Church-Turing thesis is incompatible with the existence of real numbers. 2012.04.10 106. medicine conspicuously lacks satisfaction guarantees. 2012.04.02 105. General rule for units: put the thing you want in the denominator #youredoingitwrong #mpg #ROI 2012.03.29 104. (tensile) strength - limit of elastic deformation; toughness - limit of plastic deformation 2012.03.25 103. The cost of energy is unitless. 2012.03.25 102. Any sufficiently advanced markup is indistinguishable from s-expressions. 2012.02.26 101. A great org is not something that contains great people, it is something that makes people great! 2011.11.22 100. From '03 to now, % of mortgages delinquent went from 15 to 15 for FHA loans, 10 to 10 for VA, 3 to 9 for Prime, and 20 to 40 for Subprime. 2011.11.18 99. Mollweide -> Briesemeister -> Xarax Conformal -> Pierce Quincuncial 2011.11.14 98. The difference between a cult leader and a great CEO is that the cult leader charges you to follow him, whereas the CEO pays you. 2011.10.24 97. Coincidence that gay men often work in industries that serve women (hair, clothing)? Coincidence about homophobia? I think not. 2011.10.23 96. The amount of 'social leverage' in a species should determine the portion of non-viable offspring and, ultimately, parthenogenesis. 2011.10.23 95. The biological pathway that women use to make gay men will be fully elucidated within 5 years http://t.co/i70hb2WW http://t.co/LyBCN7u6 2011.10.23 94. Remember killer bees? I just bought a jar of their honey. That's right, I took their honey for myself - What now! 2011.10.13 93. NPR: only 7% of seniors can identify which gov't program they're counting on to pay for their housing for the next 20 years. 2011.09.29 92. Carl's 1st law: Imaginary problems can be real barriers to happiness, but real problems can't. 2011.09.26 91. Oh Lord, please save me from bad AI, and until then, please save me from bad AI. 2011.09.12 90. Who can remember when medicine created wealth rather than destroying it... anyone? 2011.09.01 89. My latest invention: Actively-cooled bandage for postoperative care (Peltier effect). Because icepacks have always been broken. 2011.07.15 88. I like contest prediction contests but let's face it, it's basically a solved problem, and the solution is called TrueSkill. 2011.06.25 87. Having lost sight of our goals, we redouble our efforts. -Mark Twain 2011.06.16 86. Google doesn't care about me. 2011.06.06 85. "He called me a double-dutch bastard" - My friend Adam, visiting me in Berkeley in 2001, about my housemate, Tom. 2011.06.01 84. Chaitin vs Valiant. Fight! http://www.umcs.maine.edu/~chaitin/darwin.pdf http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~valiant/evolvability-2008.pdf 2011.05.25 83. I have an impeccable memory: I can't remember the last time I forgot something. 2011.05.25 82. Kramnik: "absolutely obvious chess is a drawn game". Fascinating press conference from the Candidates tournament http://bit.ly/kxQDi5 2011.05.14 81. According to Wright 2006, the group's real name wasn't used in public pronouncements because its existence was still a closely held secret. 2011.05.02 80. Like Ross Perot, I'm gonna start a new party! The Software PM party. If your legislation were a patch to the US Code... yeah, you're fired. 2011.04.25 79. Aaah, Fresh lemonade from our tree with a weeeee bit of Knob Creek! 2011.04.17 78. Damn tired of excerpting algorithms that don't check if they're making things longer. YouTube and Facebook WTF. 2011.04.02 77. Global equilibrium Cs137 inventory is 2.5e11 Bq/capita. 2011.04.02 76. Global population density is 120 people per square mile. 2011.04.02 75. EMBRACE REALITY 2011.03.31 74. Why is "my manager" supposed to sound better than "my boss" again? It sounds way worse! 2011.03.31 73. Proof that MD-run clinics have next to nothing effective on offer: not open on weekends. 2011.03.28 72. Why do I feel that it's fine to say "that that" but not fine to write it? 2011.03.20 71. "non-dairy creamer" freaks me out. I don't even think it's the right part of speech. 2011.03.16 70. Bagger at Whole Foods sez double bags more than double carrying capacity. I agree. #scalinglaws 2011.03.09 69. How does lemon form? 2011.02.20 68. Carl's 97th Law: Quantity is monetizing, efficiency is depreciating. (Garrett 2009 for the former; Jevons doesn't quite cut the latter...) 2011.02.19 67. I want to start a cult of fission worshipers... TRIGA behind the alter, font of heavy water near the entrance... 2011.02.02 66. The future influences the present just as much as the past. 2011.01.27 65. Anyone puts a question mark in their abstract, spends a night in the box. http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.2804 http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.3116 2011.01.22 64. My latest invention: widescreen paper! 2011.01.16 63. self-identifies as ethnically Protestant (D'oh!) 2010.12.25 62. So long Eurozone... thanks for playing. 2010.11.16 61. Countercyclical spending requires being countercyclical in good times too. Where were the Keynsenian savings proposals in 2007? 2010.10.31 60. Adric said he wants to take leg vitamins, so I give him some every day. Fire fast! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQCDG85fYOg&t=6m0s 2010.10.31 59. Raking my yard... so satisfying, healthful, meditative & easy. Why would I ever pay anyone to do this for me? 2010.10.29 58. San Francisco is the only place I know where people live in a city and commute to work in a suburb. 2010.10.18 57. Carl's 1st law of design: Primum non nocere (OK to make hard tasks easy, but never at the expense of making easy tasks hard) 2010.10.17 56. Fortunately, the positive externalities are maximized and negative externalities minimized by the same quantity: EROI 2010.10.17 55. Adric watching bugs bunny: [laughing] Yosemite Sam doesn't have the right ideas! 2010.10.16 54. I'm always adjusting the volume 2010.10.04 53. The basic error of climate change rhetoric is the tacit assertion that only the negative externalities of energy production are important 2010.09.26 52. nuclear energy isn't killing enough people 2010.09.06 51. stop building bullshit and start building machine-learning traffic lights 2010.08.30 50. patent this: autocorrect tunes down when user types slower 2010.08.29 49. The price of X has decreased from Y to Z since you placed it in your cart -- Amazon's price data should be released as an inflation index. 2010.08.24 48. If 9/11 was an attack on American society, it worked. 2010.08.19 47. Restricting fission because of atom bombs would be like restricting chemistry sets because of conventional bombs. Oh wait- we did that too. 2010.08.16 46. Facebook is how you get women to use e-mail. Just like SUVs are how you get women to feel safe commuting alone. 2010.08.15 45. There are 2 kinds of people in the world: those who use Google maps, and those who spontaneously start giving directions over the phone. 2010.08.15 44. Question about meditation: How do I know I'm not meditating right now? 2010.07.29 43. How much of my stupidity as a young man was due to my being stupid & young, and how much to the fact that the whole world was stupider then? 2010.07.22 42. Dylan ravaged Adric's strawberry plant, smeared them all over himself. Cleaned him up, now he smells like strawberry shortcake! 2010.07.16 41. Adric eating watermelon: "My germs and cells are having a party!" 2010.07.13 40. Adric looking through a crystal: I can see lots of you, dads. 2010.07.07 39. All papers I just walked by: 'general's job in danger'. Guess PG was right, it really is a printout of yesterday's news. 2010.06.23 38. Class action against CA for early termination fees for those who don't want a cell if they can't use it in the car. 2010.06.18 37. we made this world for you. is it any wonder, then, that it suits you better? 2010.06.12 36. pulped natural coffee from Ritual, fresh-ground, mix a dash of cumin & coriander, brew in Chemex, chill, bit of half & half, stir. ahhhhh 2010.06.10 35. Here's an idea: we're already in the presence of a malevolent AI... how else could the singularity be inevitable? 2010.05.23 34. Adric: "What about a liitle tiiiiny kraken?" 2010.05.11 33. Folks discovered that expressing fear for the safety of children in public is easier than the basic civic duty of looking out for them. 2010.05.09 32. If I undertake to study roses, do I not come to resemble a rosebush? 2010.04.29 31. Why can't somebody threaten to bomb Caltrain if they DON'T run on time? 2010.04.27 30. Chemistry isn't cool so we have to call it "nanotechnology" 2010.04.26 29. 150 ways to improve the federal government: http://www.bettertogether.org/150ways.htm 2010.04.17 28. Democracy is so insidious because no one can go against its rule - it tells you in advance you'll lose. 2010.04.06 27. Too much ham. Cooked in beer with hot mustard & malted barley syrup. 2010.04.05 26. Accelerator-driven subcritical fission now feasible, thanks to improvements of 7 orders of magnitude in accel. efficiency since 1970! #TEAC2 2010.03.30 25. Carl's 362nd law: when approaching a seeing-eye toilet, it will either be flushing repeatedly or filled with pee. Even at the googleplex. 2010.03.30 24. Adric informs me: "mustacheydash" and "yuckyburger" are no longer funny, and "yuppiedoe" is no longer cool. Oh. 2010.03.27 23. '98 VW Jetta GLX R.I.P. (2001-2010) possibly the best car ever made 2010.03.18 22. if you need to read verbatim to introduce a speaker - don't bother 2010.03.13 21. patient complaints + drug responses + SVM = DSM 6 2010.02.10 20. Google makes fantastic products, but why is my anus always sore? I never had this problem with Microsoft. 2010.02.10 19. Having Adric walk on my back - one of the marginally appropriate benefits of fatherhood. 2010.01.23 18. My spirit guide: The black squirrel who lives in our back yard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_squirrel #myspiritguide 2010.01.20 17. Hypothesis: side airbags make cars less safe (wider B pillar makes it harder to see your blind spot). Discuss. 2010.01.09 16. Schmidhuber: "Columbus didn't become famous because he was the first to discover America, but because he was the last to discover America." 2010.01.07 15. Stare at a wall while listening to everything around you: Cubicles, anti-useful since 1968 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Office 2009.12.19 14. Rule of thumb for physical property: possession is half of ownership. Rule of thumb for IP: origination is half of ownership. 2009.11.28 13. Fill in the blank: vaccination has enough computational power to in principle relieve __ % of human disease. 2009.11.03 12. First clinical observation of AIDS four years after last clinical observation of smallpox. Dun dun dun. 2009.11.03 11. Crazy idea of the week- smallpox eradication caused the rise of HIV through ecosystem effects? 2009.11.02 10. Conformists may kill civilizations: http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/Richerson/RedNoise.pdf 2009.10.03 9. My reply on the Boltzmann's brain paradox: http://tinyurl.com/ya584t7 2009.10.01 8. Our dwellings use structural wood and cosmetic rock. Spot the error... 2009.09.28 7. The algorithmic information theory people have stuff stronger than the anthropic principle but weaker than evolution. Sorry, physics. 2009.09.27 6. "I don't always play the guitar, but when I do, I prefer a choob tuned in 22-tone equal temperament." 2009.08.25 5. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568495110 May '97. #firstamazonpurchase 2009.07.31 4. Yes, that's a Lyapunov fractal on my profile background, which innately tiles the plane without seams. And yes it matches my shirt. 2009.07.01 3. Extreme Ironing! http://bit.ly/11yKIr 2009.06.22 2. 5 parts per trillion! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosmin 2009.04.22 1. Just finished watching Nausicaa with Adric. Is Hayao Miyazaki the best filmmaker of all time? (Or is that Stanley Kubrick?) 2009.04.05