-

Miscellaneous stuff about P.B. Stark

ultras | espresso | wheels | Erdös | Newton | schooling | Vicarism

I'm an ultrarunner. Here are some ultramarathons I've run:

Event Distance Year State Climb
Angel Island 50k50 km2005 CA 4,200'
Backward Western States100+ mi2004 CA 21,970'
Backyard Hundred100 mi2006 CA ~20,000'
The Bear100.33 mi2004 ID 21,061'
Bighorn Mountain Wild & Scenic103.6 mi2005 WY 18,308'
Cascade Crest Classic100 mi2005 WA 20,470'
Coyote 2 Moons100 mi2008 CA 28,102'
Dick Collins Firetrails 5050 mi2006, 2007 CA 7,800'
Miwok 100k100 km2004, 2005 CA ~10,000'
Mt. Diablo Trail Run50 km2004 CA 8,200'
Octo-Dipsea56 mi2004 CA 18,552'
Ohlone Double100 km2008 CA 15,600'
Rocky Raccoon50 mi2004 TX
San Diego 100100 mi2004 CA
San Diego 5050 mi2003 CA
Seacliff Beach Trail Run50 km2003 CA 3,710'
Skyline 50k50 km2003, 2006 CA 4,750'
Wildcat to Diablo50 mi2006, 2008 CA ~9,000'

See Stan Jensen's run100s.com or zombierunner.com for more about ultrarunning.

I'm serious about espresso:

I roast my own beans using a Hearthware iRoast 2. I grind using a Mazzer Mini Electronic B. I pull shots on a La Pavoni Professional, which is a larger model of the canonical coffee maker of algebraic geometers worldwide. I use a Reg Barber tamper and a naked portafilter.

My favorite wheels:

I drive a Vespa GTS 250ie and a Colnago C40 Carbon, full Campagnolo Record 10-speed, Ultra Torque carbon cranks, Easton EC90 bars.

My Erdös Number is 3:

(Erdös -> Felzenbaum -> Hochberg -> Stark)

(Erdös -> Diaconis -> Freedman -> Stark)

(Erdös -> Diaconis -> Evans -> Stark)

(Erdös -> Tovey -> Donoho -> Stark)

In December 2006, there were about 33,605 people with Erdös number 3. I believe that my Erdös number of the second kind is also 3; in December 2006, there were about 10,118 people with an Erdös number of the second kind equal to 3.

I'm an academic descendent of Sir Isaac Newton ;-)

Sir Isaac Newton1642-1727
Roger Cotes1682-1716
Robert Smith1689-1768
Antony Shepherd1721-1796
Samuel Vince1749-1821
Robert Woodhouse1773-1827
George Peacock1791-1858
Agustus De Morgan1806-1871
E.J. Routh1831-1907
Lord Rayleigh1842-1919
J.J. Thomson1856-1940
Lord Rutherford1871-1937
Sir Edward Bullard1907-1980
Robert L. Parker1942-
Philip B. Stark1960-

(Devised by Duncan Agnew.)

Schooling

My education is a little unusual for a professor of Statistics. I dropped out of high school to go to MIT, where I intended to major in Physics and Philosophy. After a year, I transferred to Princeton University, where I majored in Philosophy. I spent a semester in Oxford as a junior. From Princeton I went to law school at the University of Texas at Austin. I dropped out after six weeks, and worked in management for an industrial marketing company. After a year, I switched to part-time consulting and took undergraduate courses at UT in Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Physics, then started graduate work in Geophysics. I transferred from UT to University of California, San Diego (Scripps Institution of Oceanography), where—while self-employed as a car mechanic— I finished my Ph.D. and started postdoctoral work in Geophysics. I came to UC Berkeley as a postdoc in Statistics, which was my first formal exposure to Probability and Statistics. I was hired as Assistant Professor of Statistics in 1988 after a year as a postdoc.

My moral system

I am the founder of Vicarism.

Last modified 24 May 2008. www.stat.berkeley.edu/~stark/other.htm