Hain-Matsumoto, “Galois actions on fundamental groups of curves…”

31Jan10

I recently had occasion to spend some time with Richard Hain and Makoto Matsumoto’s 2005 paper “Galois actions on fundamental groups and the cycle C – C^-,” which I’d always meant to delve into.  It’s really beautiful!  I cannot say I’ve really delved — maybe something more like scratched — but I wanted to share [...]

Filed under: math   |  1 Comment
Tags: algebraic curves, algebraic geometry, arithmetic geometry, elliptic curves, fundamental groups, Galois representations, gross-schoen, hain, matsumoto, number theory, papers, zhang

The Chess Master and the Computer

27Jan10

Garry Kasparov has a thoughtful and educational piece in the New York Review of Books about his transition from best chess player in the world to best human chess player in the world, and what computers mean for the future of chess.  (Spoiler:  Kasparov thinks chess does have a future.)  Mentioned in passing is Jonathan [...]

Filed under: computers, magazines, psychology   |  1 Comment
Tags: checkers, chess, chinook, kasparov, nyrb

Two great tastes that taste great together

24Jan10

Why yes, this is a pastrami sandwich with two potato pancakes in place of the bread. Courtesy of Kaufman’s Bagel and Delicatessen in Skokie, IL.

Filed under: food, travel   |  4 Comments
Tags: chicago, chimera, deli, kaufman, latke, pastrami, skokie

George Saunders, “The Bohemians”

14Jan10

I remember being really charmed by his book Pastoralia, which is all about garbled management-speak and commercial items with wacky MultiCapNames and the basic human inability to step off stage ever.  In Persuasion Nation is just like that too, but it starts to feel like a schtick; yeah, yeah, in the future people think the [...]

Filed under: books, comedy   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: bohemians, fiction, george saunders, grace paley, new yorker, schtick, short stories

Deforming Galois representations in Rwanda

14Jan10

I just now learned that my friend Ravi Ramakrishna from Cornell spent a sabbatical term last spring at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology in Rwanda.  And he blogged his semester.  Good reading for anyone interested in math in the developing world, or who likes awesome pictures of gorillas and volcanoes.  Ravi made a [...]

Filed under: education, friends, math, teaching, travel   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: africa, kigali, ravi ramakrishna, rwanda

2009 book list

10Jan10

Here’s the list of books I read in 2009.  Last year I only read three books published in 2008:  this year I’ve got seven 2009 pubs on the list, plus two late-2008 books I read early in the year.  So I’m getting up to date. Best of the year:  the obvious choice, 2666, is the [...]

Filed under: books, lists   |  1 Comment

What do roots of random polynomials look like?

09Jan10

Answer:  they look awesome! I found this picture, made by Sam Derbyshire, on John Baez’s This Week in Mathematical Physics, progenitor of all math blogs and still teaching me things 16 years into its run.  It depicts the roots of polynomials of degree at most 24 with all coefficients .  The image above is a [...]

Filed under: math   |  3 Comments

A true-false quiz for the world

05Jan10

Google’s autocomplete suggestions for searches starting with “Is”: Is Lady Gaga a man Is Lady Gaga a hermaphrodite Is the world going to end in 2012 Is bronchitis contagious Is Santa real Is pneumonia contagious Is Khloe Kardashian pregnant Is Walmart open on Christmas 2009 Is Wendy Williams a man Is Limewire illegal My answers:  [...]

Filed under: computers, offhand   |  7 Comments
Tags: autocomplete, google, questions, true-false

Reader survey: do you double-space after a period?

03Jan10

I do, just like they taught me in 10th grade typing class.  But a quick sample of my incoming e-mail suggests I’m the only one, apart from Mrs. Q and my mom.  Mrs. Q informs me the APA styleguide demands one space after a period: she uses the double space in e-mail but not in [...]

Filed under: computers, language, offhand   |  27 Comments
Tags: period, reader survey, sentences, spaces, spacing, typesetting