music How to tell a story with music: a brief narrative analysis of the 1812 overture Even if you are not familiar with Tchaikovsky, you've probably listened to the 1812 overture before, especially the climactic finale. This dynamic piece of music, Tchaikovsky forms an effective narrative structure using a collection of distinctively Russian themes.
Architecture Architect Josep Lluís Sert tour at Harvard Architectural tour of the buildings designed by Josep Lluís Sert in the Boston area.
law Fidelio Around the 1970s, the United States established a de facto moratorium on capital punishment. What happened? Beethoven was undoubtedly a prolific composer, with his work ranging from the monumental 9
biotechnology Elixir Enjoying wine and cheese is nice, but what else can we do? Last weekend, I indulged with a friend on a young Californian Cabernet Sauvignon and some cheese. The world
life Star Wars, The Constitution, and the meaning of life. One should be careful when engaging in an expedition to search for "the meaning." Alternatively, avoid an explicit search all together. The Star Wars franchise now has a
life Flameout Starting a new year with a big personal failure was demoralizing, but I learned something from the experience. Modern life demands us to tenaciously march toward success and "learn
law Gerrymandering Round 2: Gill v. Whitford Background Back in 2004, in Vieth v. Jubelirer, the Supreme Court decided not to intervene in this Gerrymandering case because it is "a non-justiciable question, as there are no
life Zen and the Art of Flight Envelope Protection Who really flies the plane? Why do I meditate? Questions and thoughts I had while on an early Saturday morning flight on an Airbus A321. Disclaimers: Fly-by-wire and flight envelope
optimization Squirrel and Biconvex Optimization an analogy between squirrel vocalization localization and biconvex optimization
idea 3 Stage Model of Large Scale High Impact Change How can one bring a high impact, large scale, and novel change to society? When bringing something new to the mass market (new type of product, method/tool to solve
list 2017-07 list Last Updated: 2017-07-09 2017-07-09 Lessig on "Aaron's Laws - Law and Justice in a Digital Age" A convergence of the Aaron Schwartz tragedy, cyberlaw, (not-so-moedern) copyrights, and academic publishing. China’s quantum satellite achieves ‘spooky action’ at record distance If Buddhist Monks
physics Laser: why population inversion is impossible in 2-state gain medium I reviewed some basic laser physics from a class. Laser requires a gain medium with state > 2. Here's a quick analysis behind why. Following Einstein's conventions, 3 things can
effective altruism Towards a better future for all of us Even if you're not a multi-billionaire like Bill and Melinda Gates (see 2017 Annual Letter for their vision and impact), most of us want to do "good" and
list 2017-03 list Last Updated: 2017-03-17 2017-03-17 The Toxins That Threaten Our Brains - The Atlantic The Real Story Of 2016 - FiveThirtyEight Argument preview: Justices to consider limits on “exhaustion” of patent rights - SCOTUS Blog Perhaps "the most important patent cases of this term.
mussel Mussel Washer Richard Garwin is a polymath physicist who earned his Ph.D. at the age of just 21. Enrico Fermi, his doctoral advisor, supposedly said "Garwin was the only true genius he had ever met." Garwin, at the age of 88, won the
aviation Airbus 320 vs Boeing 737 accident rate I have always been curious if there's any difference on the safety records between the A320 family and its only competition, the Boeing 737 family (the Classic). I wonder if the introduction of full flight envelope protection system with fly-by-wire in A320 series potentially
life Good Morning Fermat Preface On August 31st 2016, I made a mistake; I left to work during the peak of rush hour. With the college students back in town (the beginning of the
list 2016-08 list Last Updated: 2016-08-30 2016-08-30 The Fog of War - Errol Morris This fascinating winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary gives insights into both McNamara's life and the history. A Tale of Two Drugs - MIT Technology Review A small insight into drug
data The Supreme Laughter The Court The Supreme Court of the United States—the highest court in the U.S.—makes decisions that can affect everyday lives of many Americans and the course of
list 2016-07 list Last Updated: 2016-07-26 2016-07-26 Inside Genomics Pioneer Craig Venter’s Latest Production - MIT Technology Review On Craig Venter's latest venture attempting to correlate health data with sequencing information. This plane could cross the Atlantic in 3.5 hours. Why did it fail? This
music A Musical Tribute To Science Listen "Light" by Philip Glass on: Apple Music Spotify In the dawn of the 20th century, the United States was enjoying the period of stability, which also applied to science—particularly in physics. Some in the 19th century even suggested that the
mathematica Processing Messages (iMessage) Data using Mathematica WARNING: Copy your files. Don't work directly with your Messages db. Thanks to Apple's continuity, Messages.app on OS X allows you to receive and send regular texts (SMS) along with the usual iMessages. Now this Messages database makes analyzing texting data much easier.
list 2016-06 list 2016-06-30 How Facebook Tries to Prevent Office Politics - HBR For any organization or group, politics is not a stranger. This article shares some of the measures that Facebook uses to prevent office politics. The Illicit Perks of the M.D. Club - NYT
list 2016-05 list 2016-05-23 The Doomsday Invention: Will artificial intelligence bring us utopia or destruction? - New Yorker “... the word hanging in the air—an echo of Oppenheimer, who famously said of the bomb, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do
