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Nov. 13th, 2006
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Nov. 13th, 2006 06:08 pm*sigh*
Another really interesting colloquium (on the BaBar high energy physics experiment at Stanford that is studying charge-parity violation) at which the lights were completely turned off, and predictably, I fell asleep halfway through the talk. I sat next to one of my officemates and asked him to poke me if I started nodding off. This worked to keep me awake for perhaps the first half hour of the talk, but not beyond. Afterwards he told me that there had been a point when I had been flopping around in my seat -- nodding off, leaning forward, then jerking back, leaning back, and jerking forward again) but then I had just gone sound out, until the end. The physics I was able to catch was really fascinating, which is why my inability to stay awake in there frustrates me to no end.
One thing that I have thought about doing before (such as when my continually dozing off in 111 seminar became joke-worthy) is something I might actually be able to implement, when I take the Horowitz electronics class. This would be a device that would involve a microcontroller and a number of electrodes. The device would measure vital signs, like heart rate and/or some brain electrical activity, and upon detecting that one was asleep or nearly asleep, deliver a mild electric shock through another electrode attached perhaps to my leg or side. Perhaps, like the Milgram experiment, if mild shocks were not sufficient, the device could be programmed to deliver increasingly strong, but still safe shocks.
Such a device would have great practical benefit; it would more readily keep me awake in colloquia. It could also be useful in other environments, such as solo long-distance highway driving, when the consequences of dozing off could be fatal.
The implementation of this device might not be so easy, however. I'm not immediately sure how one would design an algorithm to determine the onset of dozing off from the appropriate vital signs. Also, one would have to be careful with where the shocks are applied, as something that posed the risk of inducing ventricular fibrillation would obviously not be desirable. Still, it is perhaps something worth thinking about in my copious free time.
Alternatively, perhaps the more easily implemented solution would just be to stand at the back of the auditorium for the whole talk, as latecomers who can't find seats occasionally have to do. This is the method of West Point, where falling asleep in class results in demerits and punishment tours of marching around a quad with a rifle. Cadets who feel that they are in danger of falling asleep are allowed to stand for the rest of class. This method, at least, requires no equipment and poses no risk of harm.
Another really interesting colloquium (on the BaBar high energy physics experiment at Stanford that is studying charge-parity violation) at which the lights were completely turned off, and predictably, I fell asleep halfway through the talk. I sat next to one of my officemates and asked him to poke me if I started nodding off. This worked to keep me awake for perhaps the first half hour of the talk, but not beyond. Afterwards he told me that there had been a point when I had been flopping around in my seat -- nodding off, leaning forward, then jerking back, leaning back, and jerking forward again) but then I had just gone sound out, until the end. The physics I was able to catch was really fascinating, which is why my inability to stay awake in there frustrates me to no end.
One thing that I have thought about doing before (such as when my continually dozing off in 111 seminar became joke-worthy) is something I might actually be able to implement, when I take the Horowitz electronics class. This would be a device that would involve a microcontroller and a number of electrodes. The device would measure vital signs, like heart rate and/or some brain electrical activity, and upon detecting that one was asleep or nearly asleep, deliver a mild electric shock through another electrode attached perhaps to my leg or side. Perhaps, like the Milgram experiment, if mild shocks were not sufficient, the device could be programmed to deliver increasingly strong, but still safe shocks.
Such a device would have great practical benefit; it would more readily keep me awake in colloquia. It could also be useful in other environments, such as solo long-distance highway driving, when the consequences of dozing off could be fatal.
The implementation of this device might not be so easy, however. I'm not immediately sure how one would design an algorithm to determine the onset of dozing off from the appropriate vital signs. Also, one would have to be careful with where the shocks are applied, as something that posed the risk of inducing ventricular fibrillation would obviously not be desirable. Still, it is perhaps something worth thinking about in my copious free time.
Alternatively, perhaps the more easily implemented solution would just be to stand at the back of the auditorium for the whole talk, as latecomers who can't find seats occasionally have to do. This is the method of West Point, where falling asleep in class results in demerits and punishment tours of marching around a quad with a rifle. Cadets who feel that they are in danger of falling asleep are allowed to stand for the rest of class. This method, at least, requires no equipment and poses no risk of harm.
There's a first time for everything...
Nov. 13th, 2006 07:25 pmIn computing a partition function for a stat mech homework problem (the partition function for a mean-field Hamiltonian of the XY model, which is basically a generalized Ising model where the spins are unit vectors that can point in any direction as opposed to just being up or down), an integral came up whose result is in terms of modified Bessel functions of the first kind.