[FRIAM] Interesting article and ad
http://public.cq.com/docs/hb/hbnews110-02553782.html in the Congressional Quarterly, a press release from Rajeev Venkayya, the end customer for the flu study that my colleagues and I worked on recently. We ran hundreds of EpiSims runs for the study, as well as a similar number of runs with two other epi codes, and then spent months collating and correlating results, and identifying additional scenarios to simulate. Also check out the ad by Google to the left of the article. --Doug -- Doug Roberts, RTI International [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] 505-455-7333 - Office 505-670-8195 - Cell FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
[FRIAM] Diff Contin. to Nick!
2. DIFFERENTIABILITY AND CONTINUITY (Nicholas Thompson) Nick: Let me be your math consultant! Taught that stuff at Caltech many years!! The mathematicians are horn swogglin' you with mis-understood function theory! A'course the f'n roof is continuous. If it weren't the rain would come through! It is trivial to write a continuous function, f(x) defined for 0x =c and g(x) defined for cx1 with f(c) = g(c), with the peak at x=c and a different slope for x=c, than for xc. But the function is continuous. Just like a roof ridge. A geometric function has, at each point, some degree of continuity, denoted by C N, where N is the order of the first discontinuous derivative. The triangular roof frame rafter is C1, meaning continuous in ordinate, discontinuous in slope. Smoother shapes have continuity of higher derivatives. Analytic functions have infinite continuity (thanks to M. Cauchy!). Airfoils have to be very smooth, but they can't be infinity smooth, since we need to tailor the pressure distribution to control separation, and the trailing edge must usually be sharp. Some of my airfoils of the olden days, when we did this by hand, were C16 -- that is continuous only up to the 16th derivative. The airfoil I designed for the Victor B Mk II(1956) is that rough, 'cause we did things on Friden calculators in them days. But, as the RAF nuclear delivery system in the hottest days of the Cold War, it scared the daylights out of the Ruzski. The airfoil on the Gossamer Condor (Lissaman 7769) is much smoother than that, although that too was pretty primitive. I did it personally using the old (1971) TRS with punched tape inputs. I used the Radio Shack computer eksactly as Picasso recommended: as an automated calculator to make the tiring number crunches needed to provide answers to my questions. Incidentally, with a trained geometric eye, which I think I have since I've been laying out airfoils and streamline shapes since the 50's, you can see about 4 derivative continuity. But the bloody air is unforgiving and wants higher smoothness than that. It responds to curvature of curvature of curvature that you didn't even know was there. But the computer does. Artists talk only up to C3, meaning continuity of curvature. Art Deco derives a lot of its arresting visual tension by deliberately exploiting discontinuities in curvature - for example a scroll of fixed radius terminating a straight banister (C3). Art Nouveau designers would rather die than do such thing -- for them it's all swooning smoothity!! I'm sure this is more than you wanted to know, but I love digressing on this, and for 20 years gave a course at Art Center on Leonardo and his art and technology. He was not a mathematician, even by the fairly unsophisticated standards of the High Renaissance, but how he longed to express things mathematically!! Peter Lissaman, Da Vinci Ventures Expertise is not knowing everything, but knowing what to look for. 1454 Miracerros Loop South, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505 TEL: (505) 983-7728 FAX: (505) 983-1694 FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
[FRIAM] complex cormac
I've always been at a bit of a loss to understand why novelist Cormac McCarthy is in residence at SFI (apart from the fact that he's brilliant and so are a lot of people there, and I'd certainly have him in residence in my office if I could); but reading his Nobel- winning post-apocalyptic The Road I came across two lines in as many pages that started to make it more clear: The last instance of a thing takes the class with it. Turns out the light and is gone. Query: how does the never to be differ from what never was? That's enough to make afternoon tea more interesting... db dba | David Breecker Associates, Inc. Santa Fe: 505-690-2335 Abiquiu: 505-685-4891 www.BreeckerAssociates.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] complex cormac
And three cheers to Cormac for telling Oprah You work your side of the street and I'll work mine !! FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting article and ad
I for one would like to say thank you. My general sense has been that not nearly enough has been done to attempt to protect us and mitigate the impact of a pandemic. So thanks! Well done! db On Jul 25, 2007, at 8:35 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote: http://public.cq.com/docs/hb/hbnews110-02553782.html in the Congressional Quarterly, a press release from Rajeev Venkayya, the end customer for the flu study that my colleagues and I worked on recently. We ran hundreds of EpiSims runs for the study, as well as a similar number of runs with two other epi codes, and then spent months collating and correlating results, and identifying additional scenarios to simulate. Also check out the ad by Google to the left of the article. --Doug -- Doug Roberts, RTI International [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] 505-455-7333 - Office 505-670-8195 - Cell FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org dba | David Breecker Associates, Inc. Santa Fe: 505-690-2335 Abiquiu: 505-685-4891 www.BreeckerAssociates.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
[FRIAM] correction: mean value theorem
All, Ok. I got it wrong. Berlinsk's account of the proof first establishes a function for the distance between the chord and function itself, h. Then it says, Two facts about h must now be invoked. First, h is continuous on (a, b) and second, h is differentiable on (a, b). I think my point has to be (if I have one at all) that these two facts, in combination with a definition of a mean, and the defintion of a slope at a point, are sufficient to entail directly the mean value theorem. But I dont want to get too hung up on this narrow point. The main point, in my mind, is to figure out the extent to which mathematicians indentify mathematics with the formalisms (algebra, etc.) and the extent to which you indentify it with the premisses from which it precedes. . Anyway, even I perceive that I am starting to beome tiresome. thanks, all, Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Research Associate, Redfish Group, Santa Fe, NM ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
[FRIAM] simulation and mathematics
Dear All, AllI am trying to keep track, over a VERY slow modem, of all the arguments and counter arguments that have come my way as a result of my attempts to find out from you all what is essentially mathematical, what is essentially computational, and what is essentially just plain good old fashioned LOGIC. One point that slipped by in the hail of 's was a distinction that somebody made between simulation and mathematics. While I am asking REALLY dumb questions, I wanted somebody to explain to me how ALGEBRA is not a kind of simulation? I promise that these questions arent endless, and that your answers have been very helpful to me--for what THAT is worth. n Nick Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Research Associate, Redfish Group, Santa Fe, NM ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] DIFFERENTIABILITY AND CONTINUITY
On Wed, Jul 25, 2007 at 12:09:07PM -0600, Nicholas Thompson wrote: Deep down in the tangle of 's I just found this gem. The record is two confused for me to know who to thank so I will thank you ALL. What you have given is the handwaving version of the proof. The trouble is that human imagination can easily get us into trouble when dealing with infinities, which is necessarily involved in dealing with the concept of continuity. In the above example, you mention that continuity is important, but say nothing about differentiability. Are you aware that continuous curves that are nowhere differentiable exist? I fact most continuous curves are not differentiable. By most, I mean infinitely more continuous curves are not differentiable than those that are, a concept handled by sets of measure zero. OK. I AM BEING CALLED TO A MEAL AND YOU ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ONE DOESNT ANSWER THAT CALL. BAD KARMA AM I WRONG THAT BOTH CONTINUITY AND DIFFERENTIABILTY OF AT LEAST THE primary FUNCTION ARE A PREMISE OF THE MEAN VALUE THEOREM. Continuity on [a,b] and differentiability on ]a,b[ are the premisses of the MVT. MORE TO THE POINT, ARE YOU ALL CONVERGING AROUND THE ASSERTION THAT THE MEAN VALUE THEOREM CANNOT BE DONE WITH OUT ALGEBRA? AS OPPOSED THE THE VIEW I WAS ENTERTAINING THAT THE MEAN VALUE THEORY IS A LOGICAL PROOF THAT IS REPRESENTED ALGEBRAICALLY FOR PEDIGOGICAL PURPOSES. One cannot rigourously deal with the notions of continuity and differentiability without algebra. Therefore, the verbal version of MVT is not rigorous, although it works pretty well for an intuitive understanding. For many people (including physicists, or myself as an ex-physicist) rigorous understanding is not really needed, we can trust that mathematicians have done the rigour bit. But the rigorous expression still needs to be somewhere, and it is probably useful to have been exposed to mathematical rigour at some point in one's training. For pedagogical purposes, I'm not so sure that algebraic representations are that useful - I much prefer geometric representations for instance. However, not everyone's thinking style is the same, and there probably are students that benefit from algebraic presentation. This whole discussion started from discussion of a textbook of analysis for english majors. I'm not all that familiar with teaching maths to humanities students, but I gather that neither algebraic nor geometric approaches work with them. For instance, an economist friend of mine wrote Debunking Economics, and spelt out all equations in words. I complained about how much more difficult I found this presentation, having to mentally translate them back to the original algebra, and his comment was that I wasn't the target audience. This was backed up by one of his readers from a humanities background, who said they found the verbal descriptions much clearer to understand than if it had been expressed in algebra! So it is all a question of horses for courses. SORRY TO TWIST EVERYBODY'S KNICKERS ABOUT THIS. BUT IRRITATING AS IT MAY BE TO YOU ALL, THIS CONVERSATION HAS BEEN VERY HELPFUL TO ME. NICK nick FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org -- A/Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Mathematics UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Australiahttp://www.hpcoders.com.au FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting article and ad
Thanks, David. There was no way that the NIH-funded MIDAS project could say
No when the White House approached the MIDAS PI and requested that we do
the study (even if Bush is still in the White House).
;-{
The good news is that the White House staffer who ran the study was one of
the smartest, hardest working people that I've encountered in quite a while.
--Doug
--
Doug Roberts, RTI International
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
505-455-7333 - Office
505-670-8195 - Cell
On 7/25/07, David Breecker [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I for one would like to say thank you. My general sense has been that
not nearly enough has been done to attempt to protect us and mitigate the
impact of a pandemic.
So thanks! Well done!
db
On Jul 25, 2007, at 8:35 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:
http://public.cq.com/docs/hb/hbnews110-02553782.html
in the Congressional Quarterly, a press release from Rajeev Venkayya, the
end customer for the flu study that my colleagues and I worked on recently.
We ran hundreds of EpiSims runs for the study, as well as a similar number
of runs with two other epi codes, and then spent months collating and
correlating results, and identifying additional scenarios to simulate.
Also check out the ad by Google to the left of the article.
--Doug
--
Doug Roberts, RTI International
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
505-455-7333 - Office
505-670-8195 - Cell
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
dba | David Breecker Associates, Inc.
Santa Fe: 505-690-2335
Abiquiu: 505-685-4891
www.BreeckerAssociates.com
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
[FRIAM] Friday Fractals
First Friday Fractals has become FRIDAY FRACTALS http://fractalfoundation.org/ Now EVERY Friday in August, beginning August 3'd, with shows at 6:00, 7:00 and 8:00 PM in the LodeStar Planetarium. Zoom deep into fractals in this educational and extremely entertaining immersive presentation, suitable for all ages LodeStar Planetarium Museum of Natural History Albuquerque, NM Prices for each show are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and $4 for children 3-12. The Museum is located at 1801 Mountain Road NW in Albuquerque, New Mexico. From Interstate 40, take Rio Grande Boulevard south about half a mile to Mountain Road, then east on Mountain Road less than a half a mile to the Museum, turning north on 18th street to the parking lot. The Museum entrance is on 18th Street. NMMNHS Entrance http://www.nmnaturalhistory.org/images/NMcultureEntrance1.jpg [ Yahoo! Maps ] http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/mp/gr/mplogo.gif Map of 1801 Mountain Rd Nw http://us.rd.yahoo.com/maps//maps/extmap/*-http://maps.yahoo.com//maps_resu lt?name=ed=6.UMhup_0Tr02D_n9XC_8eSuZOK40JzW4G_oEHYzT4rSw2m1t6KX4v1s.PlYxC7K OFPqZtfXIgQv621q1Sd1F9jlHDqCkuVT5bD22wrSUeD6mWgCjQ3zJw--csz=Albuquerque%2C+ NM+87104-1375desc=mag=9ds=nstate=NMuzip=87104country=USBFKey=resize= s Albuquerque, NM 87104-1375 For more information about the Planetarium call (505) 841-2800 NMcultureEntrance1.jpgmplogo.gif FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] complex cormac
Yeah, I also remember a very sfi-ish small piece in Blood Meridian. I'm traveling now and don't have the book so won't try to butcher a quote from memory. But my hazy memory is that it had a bit about propagating information structuring the world... -Original Message- From: David Breecker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 12:02 AM To: Friam Group Subject: [FRIAM] complex cormac I've always been at a bit of a loss to understand why novelist Cormac McCarthy is in residence at SFI (apart from the fact that he's brilliant and so are a lot of people there, and I'd certainly have him in residence in my office if I could); but reading his Nobel-winning post-apocalyptic The Road I came across two lines in as many pages that started to make it more clear: The last instance of a thing takes the class with it. Turns out the light and is gone. Query: how does the never to be differ from what never was? That's enough to make afternoon tea more interesting... db dba | David Breecker Associates, Inc. Santa Fe: 505-690-2335 Abiquiu: 505-685-4891 www.BreeckerAssociates.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] complex cormac
No less great; but McCarthy was awarded a Pulitzer for The Road, not a Nobel. RL On Wed, 25 Jul 2007, David Breecker wrote: I've always been at a bit of a loss to understand why novelist Cormac McCarthy is in residence at SFI (apart from the fact that he's brilliant and so are a lot of people there, and I'd certainly have him in residence in my office if I could); but reading his Nobel- winning post-apocalyptic The Road I came across two lines in as many pages that started to make it more clear: The last instance of a thing takes the class with it. Turns out the light and is gone. Query: how does the never to be differ from what never was? That's enough to make afternoon tea more interesting... db FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
