1. It seems to me that Phil Engel talks a lot like John Wood.
2. It looks like I'm going to be overseeing one of the exploration labs.
3. Today some random person at dinner - not a PROMYS person, I think - said at dinner that they didn't eat meat other than beef. Josh asked why. The reasons... were ridiculous. As I recall, they were:
1. Cows can feed more people than other animals (not true, and they're of course not as efficient as not eating meat).
2. I don't remember this one - I think it wasn't actually an independent reason but somehow supposed to be a response to Josh's counterargument above - I just remember Josh pointing out in response that if we didn't eat food animals, they'd go extinct as they can't survive on their own.
3. People in India don't eat cows, so he has to help balance that. (WTF?!)
4. If he's going to eat an animal, it should be one that can defend itself. (Because, you know, cows can do that. And he also hunts and kills them himself. Or something.)
4. A common first-year mistake I've noticed that I didn't expect: Trying to prove ordering properties without putting anything about ordering or N in their inventory[0]. How they expect this will be possible, I don't know. I remember when I was a first year I and the people I worked with started with considerably more ordering properties than I needed!
5. The current idea for the Default Act: Fergie, as usual, will smash a watermelon with his head. The people in the Default Act will then have to eat it.
6. The other day Ingrid[3] called me on the phone out of nowhere just to ask me whether, in fact, Damon Wang now goes to UChicago. (He does.)
-Harry
[0]Axioms, for the non-PROMYS people.
[3]I suppose since I'm at PROMYS I should specify I mean Ingrid Spielman, not Ingrid Guha who was at PROMYS in 2004 and 2005.
2. It looks like I'm going to be overseeing one of the exploration labs.
3. Today some random person at dinner - not a PROMYS person, I think - said at dinner that they didn't eat meat other than beef. Josh asked why. The reasons... were ridiculous. As I recall, they were:
1. Cows can feed more people than other animals (not true, and they're of course not as efficient as not eating meat).
2. I don't remember this one - I think it wasn't actually an independent reason but somehow supposed to be a response to Josh's counterargument above - I just remember Josh pointing out in response that if we didn't eat food animals, they'd go extinct as they can't survive on their own.
3. People in India don't eat cows, so he has to help balance that. (WTF?!)
4. If he's going to eat an animal, it should be one that can defend itself. (Because, you know, cows can do that. And he also hunts and kills them himself. Or something.)
4. A common first-year mistake I've noticed that I didn't expect: Trying to prove ordering properties without putting anything about ordering or N in their inventory[0]. How they expect this will be possible, I don't know. I remember when I was a first year I and the people I worked with started with considerably more ordering properties than I needed!
5. The current idea for the Default Act: Fergie, as usual, will smash a watermelon with his head. The people in the Default Act will then have to eat it.
6. The other day Ingrid[3] called me on the phone out of nowhere just to ask me whether, in fact, Damon Wang now goes to UChicago. (He does.)
-Harry
[0]Axioms, for the non-PROMYS people.
[3]I suppose since I'm at PROMYS I should specify I mean Ingrid Spielman, not Ingrid Guha who was at PROMYS in 2004 and 2005.
