Following the old tradition...

Go and change the world! Buena suerte! :)

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Some things I learned this semester:

Here's a fun experiment. How do we perceive emotion? The faces pictured below are either Angry, Fearful, Disgusted, Happy, Neutral, Sad, or Surprised. Two are used more than once.

Taken From: "Coding Facial Expressions with Gabor Wavelets." Michael J. Lyons, Shigeru Akamatsu, Miyuki Kamachi, Jiro Gyoba. Proceedings, Third IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, April 14-16 1998, Nara Japan, IEEE Computer Society, pp. 200-205.

Taken from Hood, Clifton. 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York. John Hopkins University Press, 1995.

A 1907 ballad, "The Subway Express" depicted the Interborough as an arena for sexual flirtation where the motion of a crowded rush hour express threw two strangers, a young man and a young woman, into each other's arms. As the train sped from lower Manhattan to the Bronx, they fell in love:

(Boy)
It was in no sheltered nook
It was by no babbling brook
When romantic'lly we met.
(Girl)
Ah, the scene I can't forget
We were thrown together in the Subway Express.
(Boy)
You were clearly all at sea
As you wildly clutched at me
When around that curve we swung.
(Girl)
Yes, and though I'd lost my tongue
I made a hit with you, you must confess.
(Boy)
Yes, you hit me in the back
And as around and round you flew
I inquired if I could tender a supporting arm to you.
(Girl)
To which I answered, "No sir!"
When the guard yelled "Move up closer"
And clearly there was nothing else to do.

(Boy)
We first met down at Spring Street
And then upon my word.
(Girl)
I felt I'd known you all my life
When we reached Twenty Third.
(Boy)
You won my heart at Harlem
(Girl)
At the Bronx I murmured yes,
(Boy)
We lost no time in that hour sublime
On the Subway Express.

Now isn't that an amazing way to fall in love?! :P

ps. Just in case you were confused, some of the classes I took this term were Ecology (1.018/7.30), Neuroscience (9.01), and History of New York City (21H.235). That's where all the things are coming from. :)

Back to studying!

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

That just made me feel oodles better.
Teehee, oodles. I should have slept.

Posted by: Valerie on December 15, 2009

Also that song was definitely in the credits to Inuyasha, which I haven't seen in years so maybe I'm wrong, or maybe I'm crazy, I'm going to stop babbling now.

Posted by: Valerie on December 15, 2009

^ It is! Good job +100 points

Posted by: Oasis '11 on December 15, 2009

Thanks for the good laugh. =)

Posted by: Val'14? on December 15, 2009

It is like a typical Eurovision song.Maybe Taiwan should join it next year.

Posted by: Zeki '14? on December 15, 2009

LOL. "I'm afraid you have humans."

Posted by: VAL ('14?) on December 15, 2009

yeah i pretty much cracked up at the "I'm afraid you have humans" joke too

Posted by: nate ('14?) on December 15, 2009

pavlov's dog was the best!

Posted by: Baransel'14? on December 15, 2009

That was such an uplifting song...and hilarious (and cute) comics and stories.

I'm curious about 1:45 (in the video) though. I doubt they were brave enough to bring a camera that close to a moving bowling ball (unless they were....). So what then--zoom? lighter/fake bowling ball? treadmill? I'll never know, but it's killing me....

Posted by: Lydia AK on December 15, 2009

Hey Chris. Thanx for a new blog....and a funny one too.

Posted by: D on December 15, 2009

Pavlov's dog LOL I have my psych final on Thursday and I've finished one of my math finals, my neuro final and eng final. Ahh! Only 3 more to go

Posted by: Su ('14?) on December 15, 2009

"I'm afraid you have humans."

LOL the third

------------
Seriously, who's behind the selection of reCAPRCHA words? They're so ingenious.

Posted by: tree on December 15, 2009

Thanks, uh, Chris. You should keep this here as the latest entry on end. It's all we really need to know.

Posted by: T on December 15, 2009

Hahaha, thank youu!! Awesome post. I was starting to wonder where the bloggers had gone.

(The lyrics to "The Subway Express" remind me of Edith Piaf's "La Foule," though her song has a sad ending...)

Posted by: Natalia ('14?) on December 15, 2009

Here in Mauritius, it will be the 16th of December in exactly 6 minutes.

Good luck to all early applicants!

Posted by: 0 on December 15, 2009

Wow, the encouragement is definitely appreciated...the wait is agonizing!!! Good luck on your finals 8D

Posted by: Natalia on December 15, 2009

Hahaha awesome song!! I am now pumped for all my finals haha

Posted by: makesense on December 15, 2009

Thanks for the post! It definitely pumped me up for what's going to be an intense two days:

Wednesday:
-Diff Eq final
-MIT decisions

Thursday:
-Flight to Brazil

Posted by: Luiz ('14?) on December 15, 2009

Yeah that was definitely the first OP to Inuyasha.

...What?

Posted by: noob on December 15, 2009

Starting from top left and going as if reading a book: Surprised, sad, disgusted, happy, fearful, neutral, neutral, angry, surprised.

Pavlov's dogs was brilliant! Good luck on your finals.

Posted by: Tim on December 15, 2009

^ 6/9, not bad!

Think more about top center, top right, middle right.

(one can argue that there are no "correct answers," but I guess it's still interesting to see whether your perception of emotion is the same as what most people think )

Posted by: Oasis '11 on December 15, 2009

These are really cute! But I'm still dying... I need to know!!!!

Posted by: Anonymous on December 15, 2009

Buena suerte en tus finales!!! (Hablas español?)

Posted by: Leilani ('15?) on December 15, 2009

I came from the future and knew, just knew, that I am rejected. OMG, such crappy days rain like cows of the Beloved.Just crappy days.

Posted by: tree on December 15, 2009

thanks for the video! Revived me. I guess even if MIT rejects me, it isn't the end of the world.
An education is how much one puts into it, not where or what the name of the education is.
Gotta remember the self-taughts and the misfits of society. My comrades， despair not！

Posted by: tree on December 15, 2009

I'm so excited! This will literally be the happiest day in my life. I want to study economics and become the next major theorist in history.

Posted by: Jeremy E. Hopeful '14 on December 15, 2009

Good luck everyone!!!!!!!

Posted by: Hamsika on December 15, 2009

哇~帅哥~~
Êôï~

surprised
sad
angry
happy
disgusted
sad
neutral
disgusted
fearful

so many negative feelings -.-

Posted by: anon on December 16, 2009

left to right: surprised, disgusted, angry, happy, fearful, sad, neutral, angry, fearful

Posted by: shell on December 16, 2009

Oh god, Change the World was one of my favourite songs back in 7th grade (just shows how old I feel, eep!) I listened to it while I did homework, before I slept, before tests, everywhere. Glad to see some good old-school J-pop boybands are still being appreciated =)

Posted by: Vivian '12 on December 16, 2009

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