Philonoist.net

I was first exposed to Neil deGrasse Tyson a couple of weeks ago via this video on “stupid” design in which he argues that there can’t be a Creator if a Creator existed, it would have “unintelligent” among other attributes (see his comment below), since there’s a load of stuff out there (in the galaxy, on Earth, in our bodies) that will kill us. “This is no garden of Eden,” he states. Since then, I’ve seen his name a couple of times in print, and last week in New York, he hosted the pre-show video at the Hayden Planetarium on Cosmic Collisions. Then I learned that he hosts scienceNOW, a counterpart to the venerable PBS science show, NOVA.

So I finally got around to his Wikipedia page today, and found that in 2000, Tyson was voted the “sexiest Astrophysicist alive” by People Magazine.

‘Nuff friggen said.

As Steve Holt on Arrested Development would say… “STEVE HOLT”!

Filed by Adam College at 11:06 am under Olin
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From Geekologie:

Isn’t that Harrison Ford on the left there? Can’t we just ask him and settle this once and for all?

Tagged with: star wars

Filed by Adam College at 10:46 am under Movies
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Like many a New Englander, I usually get my iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts. I know, I know, it’s a a chain, and I agree it’s not the best (which, by the way, is at Sarah’s Market at Huron+Concord in Cambridge.) My commute takes me by a Brugger’s Bagels, Au Bon Pain, and Dunkin Donuts, so of the three, DD wins, ok? Don’t judge.

Anyway, it appears Dunkin Donuts is running a new contest later this month. Standard instant-win stuff, get a code from any participating retailer on any applicable iced drink, go to the website, type it in, ???, PROFIT! I know this only because my iced coffee had just such a code today.

Couple of things:

1) The film and paper holding the code to the cup is pretty abysmal. It holds water (you know, like the condensation from the iced coffee?) so the paper coupon meant to make me feel like a winner does no such thing.

2) Since it was new and shiny, it was on my mind when I got to work this morning, so I went to the website. Pretty slick business, with a nice job of having a “wait for it” screen up and going.

3) Since I was here, it’d be nice to know what I’m playing for. The official rules are more than happy to help me out.Every entrant gets entered into two pool prizes: one nationwide, and one based on your zip-code. As is obvious from the screen above and the title of the contest, the regional pools roughly correspond to major market baseball teams: Baltimore, the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, New England (BoSox), Philly, Chicago (no distinction), and Tampa Bay.

But here’s the kicker. Despite it being a baseball-themed contest, despite being sponsored by MLB 2K8, despite Boston being both home of the hottest team in the American League and the holy land of Dunkin Donuts (like pharmacies in Florida, on every corner), the New England regional grand prize? Four (4) tickets to Six Flags New England. Talk about a bait-and-switch and destroying your official donut shop of the Boston Red Sox goodwill.

That’s bad enough, right? Guess what the prizes for the Baltimore, NY Yankees, and Tampa Bay regional pools are? Yup. Tickets to a game. Suite tickets to a game. Suite tickets to a Baltimore, NY Yankees, or Tampa Bay game (respectively) IN BOSTON. With airfare and hotel accommodations included.

To sum up: if you’re a lifelong Bostoner and grew up bringing Munchkins in for your birthday at school, you get a chance to win a trip to drive your ass out to Agawam and ride Superman: Man of Steel. If you live in a different state with a different zip code, you get to win a chance to see your local team play in one of America’s great ballparks (in a suite!), with roundtrip air and hotel.

Here’s the section of the official rules, copied:

“National Prize Pool Prizes (850): FIFTY (50) GRAND PRIZES: Sharp AQUOS® 46″ LCD HD TV. Approximate Retail Value (”ARV”): $1,799 each. ONE HUNDRED (100) FIRST PRIZES: Microsoft Xbox 360® Video Game System and the Xbox game title: Major League Baseball 2K8. ARV: $410 each. ONE HUNDRED (100) SECOND PRIZES: Digital camera (brand, model, and make determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion). ARV: $200 each. SIX HUNDRED (600) THIRD PRIZES: Major League Baseball 2K8 video game. ARV: $30-$60 each.

Baltimore Prize Pool Prizes (52): TWELVE (12) GRAND PRIZES: Two (2) suite tickets to a game in Boston to watch the home team on the road, air transportation and hotel (airline, hotel, game date and seating determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion). ARV: $2,326 each. The actual value may vary based on airfare fluctuations and distance between departure and destination. FORTY (40) FIRST PRIZES: MLB.com gift card. ARV: $200 each.

Chicago Prize Pool Prizes (25): TWENTY-FIVE (25) GRAND PRIZES: MLB.com gift card. ARV: $200 each.

New York Yankees® Prize Pool Prizes (49): FOUR (4) GRAND PRIZES: Two (2) suite tickets to a New York Yankees® away game in Boston, air transportation and hotel (airline, hotel, game date and seating determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion). ARV: $2,326 each. The actual value may vary based on airfare fluctuations and distance between departure and destination. FORTY-FIVE (45) FIRST PRIZES: Two (2) tickets to a New York Yankees® game (game date and seating determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion). ARV: $60-$187 each.

New York Mets® Prize Pool Prizes (45): FORTY-FIVE (45) GRAND PRIZES: Two (2) tickets to a New York Mets® game (game date and seating determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion). ARV: $140-$236 each.

Philadelphia Prize Pool Prizes (25): TWENTY-FIVE (25) GRAND PRIZES: MLB.com gift card. ARV: $200 each.

Tampa Bay Prize Pool Prizes (50): EIGHT (8) GRAND PRIZES: Two (2) suite tickets to a Tampa Bay Rays® away game in Boston, air transportation and hotel (airline, hotel, game date and seating determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion). ARV: $2,326 each. The actual value may vary based on airfare fluctuations and distance between departure and destination. FORTY-TWO (42) FIRST PRIZES: Two (2) tickets to a Tampa Bay Rays® game (game date and seating determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion). ARV: $42–$44 each.

New England Prize Pool Prizes (100): ONE HUNDRED (100) GRAND PRIZES: Four (4) tickets to Six Flags New England Amusement Park (valid during the 2008 season only; terms and conditions apply.) ARV: $200 each.”

Injustice, thy name is Dunkin Donuts. I don’t think I’ll be buying coffee from you anytime soon.

Tagged with: Boston, boston red sox, dunkin donuts

Filed by Adam College at 10:37 am under Everything Else
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Oliners past and present are good at many a thing: we’ve built K’Nex Computers, travelled to Antarctica, and started companies. But if there’s one thing we’re terrible at, it’s blogging, at least from the point of view of Planet Olin. In its heyday, PO was damn near close to required reading; during one of Olin’s famous e-mail explosions, I decided to post my thoughts to my blog instead of send out another reply-all, and still got e-mail replies to it. (By the way, an e-mail explosion happened to great comedic effect at work the other week. Proof again that Olin is just a shadowy corporation that confers degrees and not an actual college. If you’re keeping track at home, that’s Corporation 40, College 38. But like 15 of those corporation points is using Exchange as a mail server for students. Current students, rejoice in the fact that once you do get a real job with a company larger than 100 people, you’ll get to heckle from the back during e-mail orientation.) Now it’s a down to a post every other day. The bottom’s fallen off.

So what happened? Now, I admit that not everyone is a blogger, and even those that are aren’t on PO. But now with at least half of PO’s contributing authors alumni instead of students, the drop-off is explainable: those alumni are out doing real world things that take real world time, instead of procrastinating on the latest problem set to write about 2005’s horrible Aeon Flux. I think those first students expected the future classes to take over the blogging for us, but that hasn’t happened. (Some notable exceptions exist) Maybe it will someday, who knows?

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been tied into some alumni events surrounding the close of the fiscal year and graduation. These events have made me realize two things. First, that the people from Olin are (to paraphrase, of all people, Dave Barrett) the best you’ll meet in your life. They’re certainly the smartest, but they’re also good conversationalists, willing to go the extra mile, and collectively, a great sense of humor. (Current students, mourn the fact that it’s all downhill from here.) And two, despite Facebook and LinkedIn and e-mail lists and blogs and all the other tools that make Austin virtually next door to Boston, there’s not enough conversation going on en masse, not enough many-to-many threads.

Some absurd percentage of Oliners will say something along the lines of “Some of the best conversations of my life happened at <N> a.m.” where <N> is some small natural number, certainly less than or equal to 4. I think we all shared in them, those random musings that come tandem with insomnia and certainly only under extreme academic tension. But those conversations stimulated us in an incredible fashion, inspired us, gave us that last extra push. (Caffeine also did that, albeit chemically.) And despite our collective thinking that those conversations die off as a function of distance, I don’t think that’s the case. I think we just need to make more of a conscious effort in having them in formats we’re not used to, in ways we never expected.

Tagged with: Communication

Filed by Adam College at 10:45 am under Olin
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Yesterday I baked a cake from scratch (no lie) and as I was pulling the pans out of the oven, I realized I didn’t have a cooling rack. Now, I understand it’s not the most elegant solution, but with 8 cans of soup and an old wire storage system you have lying around (like this one from Target), you too can clean and assemble your way to quick-fix baking goodness.

As a tip, I recommend first turning the cake out onto the wire before you assemble the rack. I didn’t have a cake disaster, but I could easily imagine such a thing happening.

And the cake was delicious to boot, even though it came out a little dry. Turns out a stick of butter and four cups (!) of Confectioner’s Sugar with a little cream and vanilla extract will make a mighty good frosting.

Mm, engineering solutions in the kitchen.

Technorati Tags: lifehack, kitchen, cooking

Tagged with: cooking, kitchen, lifehack

Filed by Adam College at 12:13 pm under Life
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