The difference between "Sunday" and "resurrection" is one letter in Russian

From the Commentary on The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (359) for my Core 101 class with Professor Bruce Zuckerman.

Sunday morning-- i.e., Easter Sunday. ... The Yanovskaya text contains a serious error here, possibly one of proofreading. Throughout this work, and especially in the Pilate narrative, Bulgakov has carefully avoided words like "cross," "resurrection," etc., and here the Russian is easily mistaken. The Yanovskaya text says Pilate was absolved on the morning of the resurrection. The difference between "Sunday" and "resurrection" is one letter in Russian. The author has been meticulous about time markers throughout the novel's action, which makes a Sunday reference logical. There is no reason to think that Bulgakov would suddenly introduce religious categories he had so assiduously avoided up to this point.

USC's building that looks like an eighth note

16. BMH – Booth Music Hall, shaped like an eighth note, is one of the buildings of USC’s Flora
Thorton School of Music. The Music is USC’s oldest professional school, and consistently ranks
among the top national music schools and conservatories. The school maintains more than 17
performing ensembles, and is the leading producer of live music performance in Southern
California

USC self tour (PDF)

ok, so the SC trivia quizzes are getting kind of lame. i'm a sophomore. i'm a creative writing major. the best place to study on campus is the little library in the basement of marks hall. the best shake at ground zero used to be called 'kim's burnt vagina' before the administration made them change the name. campus's greatest danger is either the pizza at EVK or a morning lecture in one of the auditoriums in SGM. when you go up to hoose library on the top floor of mudd hall, you feel like there's learning seeping into you from the walls. the courtyard of the gerontology building is the prettiest place on campus other than maybe the entrance to doheny. yes, the music building is actually shaped like an eighth note. it's very hard to swim in the reflecting pool in front of Leavey, but you can do the elementary backstroke if you try hard enough.

and if none of that convinces you,

no where else in the world have i ever heard of a currency commonly referred to as 'discresh'.

Fight On, SC!

SportingNews.com

Sine, Cosine, Cosine, Sine. Cosine, Cosine, Sign, Sine, Sine

I overheard Paul VanWieren in the hallway asking about sin(x + y). This reminded me of something I learned from my Math 226 (Calculus III) TA:

"sine, cosine, cosine, sine."
"cosine, cosine, sign, sine, sine."

Say it out loud and you'll never forget it. Here's how it works:

sin(x + y) = sin(x) cos(y) + cos(x) sin(y)
cos(x + y) = cos(x) cos(y) - sin(x) sin(y)

Notice that "sign" means to change the sign-- to a minus sign (-). Clever, huh?

Very useful tip, especially for someone with poor memory like myself.

Living in Tutor Hall... 24/7

One interesting thing about USC is that I hear all kinds of wacky (and awesome) stories about people staying overnight in the school's facilities (academic buildings) and doing amazing things. One of these buildings is the Viterbi School of Engineering's newest, RTH (Ronald Tutor Hall). I hope they don't lock down and make things less accessible... exploring USC's vast buildings (including roofs and basements), and experimenting with all-nighters is an essential part of the college experience.

IMPORTANT: Access to RTH and CED Study Lounge

Good Afternoon,

We have recently been informed of a security issue involving RTH. The Department of Public Safety and our own Viterbi Facilities Office has been notified on a pretty regular basis that the doors at RTH have been propped open or unlocked after hours and on weekends.

Remember, RTH is open to the public during the day and evening hours (before 10:00 PM) when classes are in session and research is conducted. During other times, RTH is locked and only Faculty, Staff and authorized Students are admitted. This has been the policy since the building opened, but was not strictly enforced until we realized students are propping the doors with the carpets, trashcans, and other items. This building is home to offices, classroom, and labs that house expensive equipment.

Viterbi Facilities is working on getting a card swipe for 1 of the outer doors, but since this won’t be implemented before the end of this school year, if you plan on using the study lounge through the last day of finals email your name and 10 digit ID to Maggie Achoy, our Office Manager, at machoy@usc.edu, before 3 pm this Friday, April 27th. This deadline is important to ensure a list gets to the Department of Public Safety before the weekend begins.

If you have any questions about this policy, please contact Associate Dean Yates [...]

Thank you in advance for your cooperation in keeping the building safe and secure,

Traci

.......................................

Traci Thomas Navarro

Director, Center for Engineering Diversity

Viterbi Admission and Student Affairs Division

CSCI 105 Awards - Project Presenters

1. Sherwin & Tracy *
2. Jeff & Gavan
3. David & Aadarsh
4. Riley & Dennis
5. Michael & Nate *

These are all top-notch computer science students.

* I voted for this group.

VSC Funding Board Approved Events

Join us for any of these you have time for. Approved on April 16, 2007.

AICHE – AICHE Elections – Food: Bistango Café
April 20, 2007 - 6 PM – HED 116

Chi Epsilon – Gift to EIT Review Professors
April 23, 2007

AIAA – End of the Year Send-Off
April 25, 2007

NSBE – Member Recognition Banquet – Food: El Pollo Loco
April 25, 2007 – 7 PM – GFS 109

Upsilon Pi Epsilon – ACM Programming Contest - Food
April 28, 2007

Eta Kappa Nu – End of the Year Banquet - Food
April 30, 2007

Chi Epsilon – Alber Dorman Honor Ceremony
May 2, 2007

ADT – End of the Year Banquet
May 5, 2007

Jeopardy is coming to the University of Southern California

Are you Jeopardy!’s biggest winner? Well, except for the being on TV part…? Here’s your chance:

The Jeopardy! College Championships want you!

Jeopardy! will be filming at the Galen Center in April of 2007, and the producers want to invite you to the contestant search for the Jeopardy! College Championships.

Here are the details:

McCarthy Quad
Monday, April 2, 2007
11:00am - 1:00pm

While the screening process takes less than 10 minutes, please expect a line to form well before the 11 am start time. Upon passing the first screen test, you will take another test to narrow down the number of contestants until there is one remaining USC representative.

Only undergraduates are eligible to compete in the Jeopardy! College Championships, although anyone can take the test and participate in the festivities. There will be mock competitions going on with promotional gifts, so come out and let Jeopardy! test the mettle of your mind…

Orange Juicer and Diluting EVK Juices

At the on-campus Jamba Juice, they use a giant juicing machine. One of the employees takes a huge box of oranges (maybe 100 or so) and dumps them into the machine's container. One by one, the oranges roll along a conveyor belt and land in some kind of cup.

Then an arm comes down and smashes it, releasing the juice into an external container and dropping the skin and other solids. Then the next orange rolls in. It's an automated way of juicing tons of oranges, just by pressing a button and letting electricity do the rest. What an increase in productivity!

At EVK, they have a variety of fruit juices, including orange, orange passion fruit, cranberry, and apple. When the juice runs out, some kind of dirty (cloudy) water comes out. My theory is that the machine takes concentrated juice and mixes in tap water (possibly filtered) on-the-fly.

Thus, when the concentrate runs out, it's not like *nothing* comes out of the machine. Rather, a gross kind of water is what's left, coming in from the tap but would normally be mixed with the concentrate. This is just my theory-- I don't know if it's true.

Firefox T-Shirts

Firefox T-Shirts

ACM Jeopardy Tournament

ACM Jeopardy Tournament