Musings on technology and justice
I just saw that Robert Langlands has won this year’s Abel Prize in mathematics. A month back I had noted that two University of Chicago mathematicians –Sasha Beilinson and Vladimir Drinfeld — had received the Wolf prize for work that builds upon Langlands’ ideas. What are those ideas? Langlands has spent his life looking for connections […]
Read More A good year for Robert LanglandsWe learned of Stephen Hawking’s passing today. I learned that one of the technologists behind the assistive technology that amplified the continuous flow of so many of his ground breaking insights is Lama Nachman. Her story and the implications for better assistive technology is fascinating. We are both mourning the passing of Stephen Hawking and […]
Read More Mothers of invention, a parting nod from Stephen HawkingAs we passed through Doha on the way to Gaborone, I was amazed by the architectural beauty of so many Islamic inspired structures. It was truly a feast for the eyes and mind. Though we did not have time to visit many of the older architectural treasures, I discovered that a lot of the buildings […]
Read More The geometrical beauty of DohaHeading back from New York City last weekend I was amazed to see an updated station stop display (graph) on the E train to JFK. I don’t have a video, but you can see the how it updates the destinations (I didn’t notice eta) below — a list of next stops shifts to the right: […]
Read More Making the subway more readableWe visited Maun with our family in December. Located near the eastern edge of the Okavango delta, it possesses a still, quiet beauty. We took a short plane ride over the delta. As I look again at the images taken that day, I am struck by the fractal quality of the images. How do you […]
Read More The fractal beauty of MaunYesterday I came across a photo of two gentlemen sitting outside of my old grad-school student lounge. They are Sasha Beilinson and Vladimir Drinfeld, two mathematicians from my alma mater who were awarded this year’s Wolf Prize in Mathematics. The CS department at the University of Chicago shared space with Mathematics and Statistics in my […]
Read More The Wolf prize mathematicians outside my nookIf you’re in sales, it pays to call (and email, and chat) early and often. This intuitive insight comes from a recent study, “Research on 200 Million Sales Interactions Cracks the Code on Cadences” published by Atlanta startup SalesLoft. This data was shared with me by Butler Raines, SalesLoft’s Head of Product — a dear friend, beautiful […]
Read More Call (and email and chat) early and often!Can the resistance inspire a new generation of mathematicians? Samuel Hansen thinks so. In his recent post on The Aperiodical, he describes how the recent avalanche of math-informed court decisions on gerrymandering in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are putting mathematics in the spotlight. It is really heartening that discrete geometry and other branches of advanced mathematics can be use […]
Read More Mathematicians, rock the vote!In the US, the African American scholar (and February 1st Google doodle subject) Carter G Woodson began working in 1926 to establish “Negro History Week“, for in Woodson’s day the contributions of Black people were “overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them.” Woodson’s Negro History week evolved into today’s […]
Read More Black history month is Black mathematicians month — in the UKSeems like a strange combination! But the US Census Bureau has been posting a series of infographics called Stats for Stories that are meant to inspire data driven journalism and blogging. For Super Bowl 52, they produced the following infographic comparing the Philadelphia and the Boston metro areas in terms of snack food manufacturers, breweries, […]
Read More The Census and the Super Bowl
