Saturday, February 27, 2010

Model / Actress at Caltech?

Talulah Riley

Update: Miss Talulah starred in The Boat That Rocked (Pirate Rock), which is a great movie for those of you who like British humor and golden oldies :)

The soundtrack is pretty darn sweet

Friday, February 26, 2010

Our Webmaster Page

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Interesting Facts About Beer

So I had to make a presentation on the history of beer today at the ungodly hour of 9 am. Here are some of the highlights:

1. The Sumerians circa 3000 BC had a prayer called "Hymn to Nankasi", where Nankasi is a diety. The hymn was both a prayer and also a recipe for beer. The Egyptians even offered beer as a sacrifice to the Gods. It seemed the path to God back then involved a cold one.

2. Hops were added to beer in the 9th century. Hops are flower clusters from the hop plant, basically they serve to preserve the beer, but they have a bitter flavor. England passed a law mandating that all brewers put hops in their beers. The peasants at the time didn't like the taste, so they had an uprising. Yes, that's right. Just like many countries fight for their freedom, these peasants fought for their right to great tasting beer. They were brutally killed by the government.

3. The jazz industry really became popular as a result of Prohibition. This is because everyone, and I mean everyone, wanted to go to these "speakeasies", which were essentially bars that served illegal alcohol. Jazz musicians took advantage and played at these places, and it skyrocketed in popularity. I was never a fan of jazz, but maybe that's just because I was sober.

Uncharted 2 is da shit!!

This game is hella good, like I started playing a few days ago. The visuals are amazing, cut scenes almost cinematic, story is compelling, witty dialogue amongst the characters. My favorite part was when I got to shoot down a helicopter with a really big gun, like a rocket launcher or some shit. Safe to say, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, so I can just play it all day. Here's a youtube video of uncharted 2:

Sunday, February 21, 2010

We're 7th! (after dropping to page 2)

Thanks again to those who linked us :D

Unrelated, CC mods be hatin! Blocked TWICE, even though we technically were following the discussion of the thread! Sigh. I guess I'm just a forum n00b.

Any suggestion for content we should put here? Not sure how much fresh content helps the ranking of our blog (prolly close to none) but I feel like we should provide at least a little bit of entertainment for those who bothered linking us/looking at our page.

This is the cutest video I've seen all week--it cracks me up every time I watch it:

Surprised kitty!

Friday, February 19, 2010

WE'RE FIFTH! YES, NUMBER FIVE (under google search for "rankmaniac 2010")

rankmaniac 2010
From rankmaniac 2010

Yayy! A big thank you to all the kindly strangers out there that linked us from your blog or simply visited this website!

Updates:
1) The collegeconfidential jerks (just kidding, they are the best--please don't hurt me) removed our threads and banned The 2010 Rankmaniacs from CC! =( I understand if they block spammers but...we were adding value to the site by providing actual information! What jealous biotches :) Oh well, that won't stop us! If you have any questions regarding Caltech or anything--you're still welcome to comment.

2) Yelp update on Pasadena restaurant DISH bistro and bar

3) It is raining in SoCal ='(

4) Curling is a ridiculous sport. I thought the girls (very cute ones) were just cleaning the ice, little did I know they were actually playing a game!

We're on page 2 today!!

Wow how did that happen? We must've done something right :) ....I hope?

collegeconfidential: kelloggss question

Question:
please chance me for caltech!!

Magnet public school (rated #1 in canada by mccleans magazine)
GPA: Top%1 academic ranking (96.4% average out of 100%)

Major Courses:
english IB HL
history IB HL
French IB
Physics IB HL
Math IB
Chem IB
Biology IB HL
**full ib candidate

SAT:
cr 730
math 780
writing 800
total 2310

800 on sat math level 2
790 on chem sat

Major ecs:
Skin cancer researcher at local university
national gold medal for medical research at canada wide science fair
intel science fair participant in may 2010
numerous local science and technology fair awards
Vice president of community league with 500 members
Varsity basketball team
local hospital volunteering
mentoring/coaching junior students competing in science competition
Top 10 ranking in city-wide math contest
school clubs

oh btw my 2 teacher refs are math and physics if that makes any difference.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Answer:

You have very high SAT scores and GPA which are to be expected at Caltech. You also have a lot of extracurricular activities which hopefully showcases your interest in math/science.

After looking at grades, standardized scores, etc. the most important factors for admission are usually:
1) showing interesting in math / science (seems like your extracurriculars show that)
2) taking advanced math or science classes (above and beyond normal high school classes)
3) doing research, which you do (good job!)

I remember talking to an undergraduate friend in admissions (yes, there are undergrads who read your application) who said that a student who was did well at USAMO was denied because he had only taken up to Calculus AB. It seemed to show that he was not as interested in math because he did not take the initiative to self-study more advanced topics. (Knowledge of Calculus BC is assumed in Caltech freshman math classes.) Of course there are students who are admitted without having taken Calculus BC or physics, but it's not very common.

If you have done very good research and have a good rec from your research mentor, that is HUGE. Caltech is very theoretical and places a lot of emphasis on research. The winner of the Caltech Lingle scholarship one year (full tuition, board, and even a stipend) had been published in Nature (famous research journal).

Anyway, your chances look pretty good. Just remember to show your passion for math/sciency things!

collegeconfidential: Sneeezy's question

Question: What got you into Caltech?

Answer: Aside from the "necessary" academic requirements (high standardized test scores, high GPA, good recommendations). I think what may have really showed the admissions people my passion for math and science was a 20-page write up I submitted from my summer research project at a national university neuroscience research lab. I also stuck to my nerdy/dorky/quirky voice in my personal statements. I made a campus visit prior to admissions and the lady working at admissions said she would make a note of that on my files. Those are just my opinions though, of course I never found out why they accepted me :)

collegeconfidential: wasslion's question

Question: What is the "vibe" at Caltech? Are people competitive? Helpful? Does the small class make a personal feel? Is there a lot of merchandising (Campus bookstore)?

Also, I know Caltech has one of the highest scoring class profiles.

Answer: From what I hear about other colleges, it seems like Caltech is definitely a lot more relaxed than other "top tier" schools. I've heard stories about how people re-arrange reference books in libraries so that other students will not be able to find them. That does not happen here...we're too lazy :P hehe jk. The Honor Code (no member of Caltech community should take advantage of another) is taken seriously and generally followed by students and members of the community.

Most classes have collaboration policies that encourage students to discuss the homework problems together but write up their answers separately. I feel like sometimes our homework assignments are made tougher and harder because the Profs expect us to collaborate hahha :) People are generally very nice about help each other out--the close-knit house system makes it really easy for people to just pop next door and ask their neighbors for help. We also have a Dean's tutoring program where you can sign up for tutors--for free! Tutors get paid by the deans. The TAs are generally helpful as well.

The small class size does make for a closer knit community--by the time I graduated I knew most of my class by name.

There isn't much merchandising, altho you can see for yourself at the Caltech bookstore website.

Hope that answered your questions!

- Rankmaniac 2010

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

67 Year Old Guy Beats Up Thug

Out and about



where do the rankmaniacs prowl?

Woe is me



I totally forgot Pandora put in a new play time limit...40 hours/month for the free service--that's hardly enough! I've resorted to Youtube play lists, which just aren't the same and require much more active thinking, i.e. Weezy or Late Night Alumni...or...? Here's a somewhat relevant comic...

P.S. Dammit! The both of the TAs are ranked LITERALLY RIGHT ABOVE US!!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

rankmaniac 2010

Ram Kandasamy, Victor Li, and Esther Wang
(E-mail caltech address vli in order to exchange links.)

Rankmaniac 2010 is a competition between Caltech and CMU where students compete to create a web page that will be ranked highly in Google or Bing for the search term "rankmaniac 2010".

Thank you very much for your visit!