Category Archives: Uncategorized

Report from MSRI and Berkeley

Posted on March 7, 2017 by Persiflage

Having attended last Friday’s academic sponsors’ day at MSRI, I can provide a little more context concerning the issues expressed last time. But first, it’s time for the current edition of NAME AND SHAME: There are currently 105 universities which … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The class number 100 problem

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Persiflage

Some time ago, Mark Watkins busted open the “class number n” problem for smallish n, finding all imaginary quadratic fields of class number at most 100 (the original paper is here) Although the paper describes the method in detail, it … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Central Extensions and Weight One Forms

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Persiflage

As mentioned in the comments to the last post, Kevin Buzzard and Alan Lauder have made an extensive computation of weight one modular forms in characteristic zero (see also here). Thinking about what that data might contain, I wondered about … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ventotene, Part II

Posted on March 17, 2016 by Persiflage

I promised to return to a more mathematical summary of the conference in Ventotene, and indeed I shall do so in the next two posts. One of the themes of the conference was bounding the order of the torsion subgroup … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Harris 60

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Persiflage

I’ve just returned from the excellent MSRI workshop which honored Michael Harris’ 60th birthday, and here is a brief summary of some of the gossip and mathematics I picked up when I was there. First, let me take note of … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Uncategorized, Waffle | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Report from Luminy

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Persiflage

For how long has Luminy been infested with bloodthirsty mosquitoes? The combination of mosquitoes in my room with the fact that my bed was 6′ long with a completely unnecessary headboard (which meant that I had to sleep on an … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Robert Coleman

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Persiflage

I was very sad to learn that, after a long illness with multiple sclerosis, Robert Coleman has just died. Robert’s influence on mathematics is certainly obvious to all of us in the field. Most of my personal interaction with him … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Fundamental Curve of p-adic Hodge Theory, Part II

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Persiflage

This is a second post from JW, following on from Part I. The Galois group of \(\mathbb{Q}_p\) as a geometric fundamental group. In this follow-up post, I’d like to relay something Peter Scholze told me last fall. It concerns the … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Straight from the top to the bottom

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Persiflage

Possibly the worst programme on radio is NPR’s “from the top.” Ostensibly the show is about showcasing young performers in classical music. Yet, in reality, it is all about the incredibly annoying host, Christopher O’Riley, for whom condescension has become … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Stephen Fry

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Persiflage

Never let it be said that this blog shies away from confronting sacred cows. Today’s target: Stephen Fry. In the video below, Fry tries to have his cake and eat it too — calling out grammar pedants for “showing off … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment