ktheory.com

YouTube has videos of Stephen Colbert hosting the White House Correspondents Association Dinner: one, two, three (it’s presented in three parts). Update: YouTube removed the videos for copyright infringement. But you can watch the video (streaming RealPlayer link) on CSPAN’s site. Colbert plays the same character at the dinner as he plays on his show. […]

When sending documents to people, consider the utility of the filename in the recipient’s context. We’re hiring student employees for the summer, and if I had a nickel for every email attachment called “resume.pdf”, I’d have at least $0.60.
Naming a file “resume.pdf” makes plenty of sense for a student, who likely only has one such […]

An older librarian in my office reads the New York Times on her computer and knows I like weblogs. Whenever there’s an article about weblogs, she prints out a hard copy and puts it on my desk.
We make small talk about the article for a minute or two, and I act flattered that she bothered […]

On Merlin’s tip:
Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: The fish!

It’s not every day my work is showcased on Boing Boing (albeit tangentially): More ‘net xxx: Los Alamos physics preprint archive.
Note that xxx.lanl.gov is the original URL of arXiv.org from when it was hosted by LANL. In 2001, Ginsparg brought the ‘LANL e-Print archive’ to Cornell, and the site became arXiv.org. xxx.lanl.gov remains as one […]

I wonder if one can become addicted to eye drops, like one can become addicted to lip balm.

From NY Times:
Mike Breen, a mathematician at the American Mathematical Society in Providence, R.I., said the chances of being one of the people who correctly picked the Final Four in ESPN.com’s contest this year were about 1 in 750,000. Last year, he said, roughly 1 in 700 brackets included the correct four teams.
Note that there […]