ktheory.com

arXiv under load due to Perelman’s Fields Medal
Tuesday morning Grigory “Grisha” Perelman was awarded the Fields Medal for his work on (proof of) the Poincaré Conjecture, one of the million dollar Millenium Prize Problems. NY Times, CNN, the BBC and other web sites point out that he published his work solely on the Internet; but […]

Earlier tonight I went to see Inconvenient Truth playing at the cinema 50 feet from my apartment. But that’s not what this post is about. Standing in line for candy, I did a double- then triple-take at the man standing behind me. Finally I placed where I’d seen him: Mayor Bill Timber of Super Troopers […]

Depiction of Threat Outgrew Supporting Evidence
This 5,400-word Washington Post article details the Bush Administration’s lack of evidence and their spinning of circumstantial evidence to bolster support for the preemptive war in Iraq.
This article deserves a Pulitzer.

First of all, Margaret visited. It was awesome. We partied like it was three people’s birffdays, lyrically accompanied by 50 Cent.
Larry Flint invites us to pray for the death of Bill O’Reilly
I talked to Jimmy Chamberlain at Wishbone . Evelyn recognized him, but was too shy to talk to him. He was sitting with […]

“For every attitude that is supposed to be distinctively American one can find an opposite stance that is no less so�0�7 There is no such thing as an essentially American world view�0�5anymore than there is an essentially American landscape. Anyone who thinks otherwise shows they have not grasped the most important fact about America, which […]

This is a partially composed entry from one year ago today. I didn’t post it at the time because I was too shocked and confused to feel that my thoughts were coherent or interesting enough to post. Apparently, I e-mailed it to myself to keep a copy of the partial draft. I re-discovered it today […]

According to my sister, the cartoon Kim Possible made two references to the University of Chicago in last night�0�9s episode, “Pain King vs. Cleopatra”. In the episode, a talisman is stolen from a museum, and the history of the talisman is somehow tied to the U of C. Yea school spirit! Kim and Ron (Stoppable) […]

Today, while avoiding work, I came across a paper (PDF format) proving that the primality of a number can be determined in polynomial computing time. As the Slashdot thread emphasizes, this does not weaken current cryptography schemes, since the algorithms merely determines if a number is prime, but not what the actual factors are.
I didn’t […]

(Warning to Margaret: this post contains a graphic description of a foot.)
The other day, while playing basketball, I sprained my ankle pretty badly. While I was driving the lane, my friend Jason (who’s quite big) moved to block my path. But instead of blocking me, we just tripped each other. He ended up falling on […]

I went to the Empire Club for the first time. It is the most pathetic club imaginable. A friend of a friend’s band was playing, The Tease I think they’re called. The bassist works at The Spot and was introduced as ‘Frankel, The Spot Guy’. That was the high point. Low points included a cover […]

Yesterday I returned home to Binghamton, NY for the summer. It’s so good to be home. I spent the afternoon gossiping with my sister and her friends. Then I watched the Lakers game and hit up the Spot diner with my friends.
Sufficient water pressure is an underrated nicety of being home. The water pressure in […]

Final exams are winding down. I had my math exam this morning, conviently scheduled at the same time as graduation. Little did I know that graduation was accompanied by a swarm of bagpipers, and ringing the bell in Rockefeller Chapel for 15 minutes straight. It was quite annoying.
But fortunately I’m the stoic type. I think […]

Tonight was pretty sweet. Some U of C friends and I drove up to Evanston for a NU rock ‘n’ roll party featuring Never Ending Story (Adele’s band). It was a lot like U of C parties, except I felt more liberated because I didn’t know most people. It was cool hanging out with Adele, […]

A few weeks ago, I told you about my adventures at the Kentucky Derby. Here are the pictures (in pop-up windows):
Updated June 1 with more hi-res pictures
One, the paddock, where you can see the horses and the jockeys before the race.
Two, a horse being taken through the paddock.
Three, Mike Rosenberg (left) and I smoke cigars […]

I’m writing this paper right now for my Science, Culture, and Society class. It’s due tomorrow and I have 5 of 12-15 pages. It’s going to be a late night.
But at least I was able to choose a topic that I like. The paper is fun actually. It’s about the issue of global warming from […]

This evening was pretty chill. Margaret and I went to a sushi bar in Old Town. I had Chimay beer at the restaurant, which is really good beer (perhaps a bit on the pretentious side—I’ll stick to Rolling Rock for most social situations in college). Then we saw Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the […]

During spring break, I spent an afternoon setting up new laptop computers in the U of C ‘technology classroom’. It consisted of installing a wireless base station, unpacking 20 Apple iBooks and 20 Dell Dimension laptops, and installing some software. I was making $10/hour, and playing with new computers is fun. Plus, I had nothing […]

Last night I saw a sneak preview of About a Boy at Doc Films. Hugh Grant was really funny, but the boy (Nicholas Hoult) was annoying. Overall, it was enjoyable, partly because it was free. It�0�9d be a good movie to take a date to because it�0�9s about a guy finding his sensitive side, assuming […]

I feel like I have a ridiculous amount of work for the next few days. The last thing I should be doing is blogging, but, you know how it is…
I need to read/write about the standardization of scientific measurements for my Science, Culture, and Society in Western Civ class; read/write about the scientific work of […]

This is a totally hilarious letter written by indie record label manager Bob Salerno (of Chicago-based Bobsled Records) to his band, The Waxwings, after their disasterous record release show.
Highlights include:
“You play to ONLY 300 people at your home town RECORD RELEASE show and 80% of them were at the bar in the back by the […]