Sam M. '07 | January 11, 2006
"I Am Evil Homer"
DID YOU KNOW? In a family with six members, there is a greater than 50% chance that at least two of those members have a birthday within one week of each other. (info courtesy Wikipedia and thekeri).
Wow! Thanks for the great response on the last entry, all you guys. I actually didn't figure it out myself and I was going to sit down and crank it out by hand when I started getting responses, but you all went above and beyond the call of duty with your alternate methods and python scripts and whatnot. And to Prashant and Shishir... of course, the question I meant to ask was "what is the probability that at least two bloggers have a birthday on the same day," because that's the only one that I know how to solve off the top of my head, but I suppose a more interesting question would be "what is the probability that at least two bloggers have a birthday on the same day, but no three bloggers have a birthday on the same day." Because Laura and I wouldn't be quite as cool if say, Melis, Mitra, and Anthony all had the same birthday. The margin of this blog is too narrow to contain the solution to that one, I think.
Anyway, today was pretty cool and low-stress. At my UROP, we're waiting for a part to come, so I spent the better part of the day vacuuming sand out of our reactor and tidying up in general. So, I took a couple-hour lunch break to come home, go running, take a shower, sear a pork chop, roast some zucchini
AAAAGGHGGH!!!!
Sorry, I didn't expect there to be a cat on my windowsill when I looked over.
and have a proper meal before heading back to work. Anyway, on my way back to work I parked my bike under the Green Building for fear of impending rain and walked back over to my UROP. On the way, I'm pretty sure I saw Professor Lodish outside smoking a cigarette. And this just struck me as really weird because
a) the Green Building is for Earth and Planetary Sciences research, and Professor Lodish teaches 7.06: Cell Biology
b) Professor Lodish teaches 7.06: Cell Biology... shouldn't he know better than to be smoking?
I remember in 7.06 during the unit on cancer, Professor Lodish even made sure to ask if any of us smoked and to say that it was really bad and then described in detail why. So this is, I don't know, just like a total loss of childhood innocence for me... like when you go to see a mall santa and it's a girl and she feeds you that story about there being all of Santa's little helpers around the world or when you're at a theme park and see Mickey Mouse with his head half-off.
I still believe in Tim the Beaver, though.
So, yeah, other than taking swing dancing lessons at the MIT Lindy Hop Society with the divine Moria '06, this was really the most interesting thing that happened to me today.
I think it's like seeing a labor economics professor shopping at Wal-Mart, or a thermodynamics professor decreasing entropy.
Note: Just so this isn't taken as libel, I just want to make it clear that I'm pretty sure it looked like Professor Lodish, but not one hundred percent sure--I haven't seen him for over a semester, and I didn't want to stop and stare or anything. Although, as Mollie noted, given his colorful description of the STAT homodimer in the JAK-STAT signaling pathway, this blog entry is probably not the most incriminating thing ever written about him.
Yes, I had to look that one up. Luckily, I put a star by it in my notes.
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I definitely remember Lodish warning us not to smoke in 7.06.
And telling us lots of inappropriate sexy stories about protein-protein interactions.
Posted by: Mollie on January 11, 2006 11:54 PM
Hey Sam
Thanks for the clarification.
Also, Happy "belated" Birthday to you!!
I just wanted to know, do you know any Indian guys in MIT?
Thanks
Prashant
Posted by: Prashant on January 12, 2006 02:56 AM
Good to know I could be of service. ^_^
Gah. Smoking? *smites Professor Lodish*
Posted by: thekeri on January 12, 2006 03:14 PM
Hm. Observation from me - Prof Harvey Lodish came to S'pore once, and he guest-lectured at my school. He delivered the lecture on cancer, incidentally... And now Sam spots him smoking? Hm. Perhaps one should advise hm about this. Hmm...
Posted by: Eric Asava-Aree on January 12, 2006 04:46 PM
"In a family with six members, there is a greater than 50% chance that at least two of those members have a birthday within one week of each other."
Hmm... guess my family's part of the minority. The closest ones are my mother and elder brother, whose birthdays are a month and a day apart. Still, quite interesting.
Posted by: Teck lee on January 12, 2006 11:07 PM
I am iranian.I want apply to MIT.
I study mechanical engineering .
please help me for this application.
by the way I love turkish singer very much.
Posted by: jalalrokhsat on January 13, 2006 03:59 AM
Prashant -- As a matter of fact, I do know a few Indian guys here at MIT. There are a few more of them here than there were in Harrisburg, PA.
Jalal -- Well, your website says that you already have a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. These blogs are mostly written for people who want to apply as undergraduates to get their bachelors' degrees. I think you should go to http://web.mit.edu/admissions/graduate/ and check out the information there.
Which Turkish singer do you love?
Posted by: Sam on January 13, 2006 12:00 PM
You think it's bad that just soemone who teaches cell bio is a smoker? My first grad school lab rotation I worked under an MD/PhD who had his board certification as an oncologist and did all his research on lung cancer and cigarette smoke condensate... and he smokes a pack and a half a day. I've been really shocked with the number of my oncology faculty who are smokers!
Posted by: Julie on January 13, 2006 03:12 PM
