This is for Rave!

Back in October Rave asked me in the comments to this post what an equation was. I had no idea. But tonight an answer was provided. So Rave, go read the comments and you will have your answer. *grin*

Happy Birthday Leonard!

Leonard Euler was born on this day in 1707. He produced mathematics in virtually every area of math.

Here are some of my favorites.
Typing Euler into the search box at Mathworld produces 671 results.
Typing Euler into Google produces 12,300,000 results.

A different DNA

VW Bug had this on her blog. I just couldn't resist and I have to say, this is so me. *grin*

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Wouldn't this be a GREAT job?

Still on the job hunt and still checking the various job boards. This morning's search hasn't been particularly productive, but HotJobs has the following listing. This is a job that I would absolutely love to have, but there is no way in the world I can even pretend to be qualified. Although it's pretty scary that I know what the ad is talking about. LOL

So here's the ad. Doesn't this sound like way too much fun?

Computational Research Scientist (Biomedical)
Company Name: Delta Search Labs, Inc.
Job Category: Pharmaceutical/Biotech; Technology
Location: Cambridge, MA
Position Type: Full-Time, Employee
Salary: Unspecified
Experience: 2-5 Years Experience
Desired Education Level: PhD
Date Posted: April 10, 2007

Solutions Labs (www.solutionslabs.com ) a Cambridge MA based R&D company, is recruiting one or two candidates with the following qualifications. Ph.D. or M.S. level researcher (M.S. absolutely must have several years relevant experience) with degree in Computer Science, Chemistry, Biophysics, Physics, Molecular Biology or Chemical Engineering wanted for bioinformatics, chemoinformatics, and chemometrics algorithm development. Will also consider exceptional candidates from Applied Mathematics, Statistics or related Engineering fields. Documented accomplishments in computational research and strong analytical, statistical, and numerical analysis skills required. Experience in spectroscopic data analysis (NMR is especially desirable) and mass spectrometry data analysis is prefered. We are seeking individuals whose primary background is computational and mathematical but who have experience analyzing experimental data and understand problems of preprocessing chemical data from various analytic methods. Desired background includes some of the following: pattern recognition, machine learning, multivariate statistics, numerical analysis, etc. Sufficient knowledge of biochemistry and molecular biology to interpret results of data analysis within a systems biology context (e.g. metabolic pathway analysis) would be a big plus. Experience with analysis and interpretation of Affymetrix microarray studies is also a big plus. Initial projects will be for both small molecule spectroscopic data pattern recognition (metabolomics) and DNA microarray analysis but might eventually expand to include mass spec proteomics. Position will involve both algorithm development and extensive programming. Programming may be done in Matlab and other scripting languages (e.g. Python). Position could involve collaboration with leading academic research groups. Ideal candidate will be creative with the desire and ability to help identify and aggressively pursue new opportunities in emerging fields. Strong written and verbal communication skills are a must. Prefer either US citizens, US permanent residents, or NAFTA TN applicants (but not an absolute requirement for exceptional candidates). Please send a cover letter and resume (pdf or doc file) to jobs@solutionslabs.com . Please use Research Scientist as the email subject

Okay...

I have heat and hot water.

The headache is gone. (Probably because the erstwhile housemate brought me cigarettes. I was out. Have I mentioned that I don't have a working car so if I run out of something, it's just too bad so sad.)

The snow is still on the way.

Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed

I'm out of heating oil. No heat. No hot water.

Oh, and I have a headache.

And did I mention that there is a snow storm on the way?

We did the Easter dinner

and I am STUFFED!

It actually was a lot of fun. Friday was the erstwhile housemate's birthday so we celebrated his birthday today. (There's a joke in there, but ... ) So besides the traditional Easter ham we had a fabulous birthday cake that my sister made with help from my youngest nephew (9 years old) on the marzipan decorations. Youngest nephew put the candles on the cake just before I took this picture.

There was also a funny birthday card with a hunky man on the front. *grin*

BTW - the cake was a carrot cake like you've never had. Sister added raisins, nuts, and pineapple. Yummy.

Sweater

This is a sweater for me. It took me forever to get around to weaving in the ends. LOL
Front and back.

Greenland is closed!

(At least that's what the ticker on the bottom of the TV said.)

I think the chickens want to escape and fly south. This is their world this morning. You can't really tell from the photo, but the top of the area looked like a 3-D image of a function. At least the way they look in a mathematics program. I'm such a nerd. LOL

Monday's interview

If I haven't said so before, this was the second telephone interview with the company. It amuses me because I'm talking with people who are about 11 miles away. However, this is the way the company (corporate wide) does the process.

So I had the interview - lasted about 1/2 an hour. Since I had the phone on speaker, the erstwhile housemate heard the whole thing. I felt like I'd done badly, but he thought it went well. I guess it went good enough because a face-to-face interview will be scheduled this week. *crossing fingers*

Now if I could just figure out why the two people I've spoken with are both trying to point me away from the analyst position and towards a Six Sigma one.

Quote for the day

from blogless friend Sue.

I discovered that nature was constructed in a wonderful way, and our task is to find out the mathematical structure of the nature itself. It is a kind of faith that has helped me through my whole life. - Albert Einstein

Friday's interview

Went okay, but I felt a little like I'd been the object of a "bait and switch" ad campaign. In the first interview, HR decided to submit my resume for an analyst position. The interview was for a dead-end data entry position. I let them know that I have a second interview for an analyst position with another company and that I would get back to them after that.

So on to today's interview.

Woohoo!

After 10-1/2 months of pretty much no movement, I have not one but two interviews!

The first is tomorrow morning for a company I'd really like to work for and have been trying to get a job with for some time. The job is moderately interesting, but I don't know what the pay range is. Somehow asking over the telephone today didn't feel right.

The second interview is on Monday. It's actually a second interview of sorts since the initial contact turned into a telephone interview. I was doing some mental scrambling on that one. LOL. But I must have done fairly well since they got back to me two days later to schedule the "second" interview. At any rate, it's a really interesting job, the company initiated the contact with me which I think is a major plus, and the pay range is very nice.

So we'll see what happens. Given my current disastrous financial situation, I'm inclined to go for money.

This is strange

From MSNBC: Bizarre hexagon spotted in Saturn’s clouds. Astronomers can’t explain six-sided pattern at planet’s north pole. Go here for the story.

A love story

Check out this YouTube video link from Gooseania - To the vector belong the spoils - the love story between a dot and a line. BTW - this is a book you can buy. I read it several years ago.

Riemann Hypothesis - Is it proved (or disproved)???

So this is the current "news" making the rounds on some of the math blogs - a draft paper proving that the Riemann Hypothesis is wrong.

A rehash for all of you who get bleeding brains when I go into math mode:

There is a function (the zeta function) that predicts the distribution of the prime numbers. In 1859 this pretty neat mathematician named Riemann presented a short paper in which he conjectured that the non-trivial roots of the zeta function would all have a real part = 1/2.

Lost you, didn't I? Okay, go back to high school algebra and those equations you had to solve. The ones that looked like x² + 3x - 4 = 0. You'd do some arithmetic and find out that you could rewrite the equation as (x + 4)(x - 1) = 0 and the solution was x = -4 or x = 1. Those were, more or less, the trivial roots.

Although it's more complicated (I'm guilty of major simplification in the previous paragraph), the trivial roots of the function in the Riemann Hypothesis are all negative numbers (-2, -4, -6, .....) and the non-trivial roots are all complex numbers. The hypothesis says that the non-trivial roots will all be 1/2 + yi (y is any real number and i is the square root of -1).

Fast forward to 2007 and nobody has proved or disproved the hypothesis. It's a really BIG deal for a whole lot of reasons. A draft paper has appeared on ArXiv claiming to disprove the hypothesis. Keep in mind that this is a draft and has not been peer-reviewed in any manner. Nevertheless, it's getting attention. Check the entries on Gooseania and Ars Mathematica.

Even though my interest in the zeta function has to do with that real part "y" of the non-trivial roots, I've downloaded the paper. I can tell you that 8 pages into it, I'm cross-eyed. LOL

Here's what I've been doing

What have you been doing?

Today almost improved on the week

Even though I woke up with a migraine, I briefly thought that all was not lost. You see after I came downstairs, the crazy kitty magically made the missing bamboo crochet hook appear. There was joy in Mudville.

The joy didn't last long. My firewall had an upgrade. I downloaded the file and ran it. Something went totally caca so with pounding head, I got to try and restore the 'puter and get the expletive deleted upgrade installed. It's done now, but the expletive deleted Norton System Works isn't recognizing the upgrade and thinks that I don't have a firewall. *banging head*

If my car was running, I'd run away from home.

The fastest turn down ever

I submitted an online application today, received confirmation of receipt at 12:05, received the "thanks but not thanks" email at 12:43.

I'm pretty sure now that I am totally unemployable so the cat and I are making a list of couches we can sleep on starting April 1st. Please let me know what dates are available at your house.

And my friends think that I give them headaches

From Yahoo - Brainiacs Succeed in Mapping 248-Dimensional Object

For the more mathematically inclined among you, check out what The n-Category Cafe had to say today.