I have output!

I've been trying to formulate a new project for the little course I'll be lecturing sometime soon. I've decided to get the students counting primes and verifying the prime number theorem. Hopefully they'll be able to produce something like this picture.

It's a graph of n against pi(n)/li(n). Why do we care? Well, pi(n) is the number of primes below n and li(n) is the logarithmic integral. The PNT says that these two are asymptotically equivalent, and the graph shows this in action! (See, it gets closer to 1...) Okay, it's not impressive. If it were two stars colliding or a model of Canada being shot off to infinity, I'm sure you'd all be more impressed.

Our policy on marriage.

This is fantastic. Read it now.

Burns Night

On saturday Stefan and Elinborg cooked Burns dinner for a bunch of us. However, it turns out that everyone had worked out in advance that it was my birthday (my CV is online ... grr) and so they surprised me with cake. Which was lovely. We also watched the welsh film 101 Rekjavik, which was a fine thing: quite funny and also entertainingly misanthropic, at least until the end. Here's one photo, and there's another on flickr (photos link at the right).

Thanks to everyone!

Oh tedious week!

This week has been very tedious. I got back from Sheffield feeling harrassed rather than refreshed by three days of homotopy and two at my parents' (though seeing people in York was nice). The rest of the week hasn't been much better and -- you know what? -- I don't know why at all. There was a fun evening out yesterday after the geometry and topology seminars, but I got rather drunk and have felt pig sick all day.

Actual news is that I submitted a paper (the sea of red ink one) to a journal for the first time ever. Probably mentioning will have jinxed me, but I hope they like it and that the referee doesn't rip me to shreds (if it even gets that far).

Feel free to learn about Homology and Cohomology via the link on the right. You're also welcome to access me if you wish.

Intrusion!

So I got back to the office today and found this message on my blackboard. I really think I locked my door! So either a) Andrew is a wizard or b) Andrew has special insider methods. Which can it be?

Something About Topology

Given this blog's name it's unforgivable that I haven't actually talked about any proper topology yet, but given the evidence of people actually reading I don't think I'm going to start. Except to mention that I just listened to an online lecture on `Derived Algebraic Geometry' by boylike genius Jacob Lurie, who might just be the man to do all the cool stuff with elliptic cohomology that nobody else has managed. The lecture was cool.

I forgot to mention the thing that happened in Sheffield that has most affected me: This man told me that I look 'at least 30 years old'. I had the great pleasure of teaching him in Swansea. If Andrew's lurking around, he might recognise the man and be able to verify that he's quite annoying.

Well, I've been bumming at my parents' for two nights and tomorrow it's back to Edinburgh and back to the grindstone.

Sheffield

For the last few days I've been at the Sheffield Homotopy Miniconference. Homotopy Theory is a sort of topology where everything's even abstracter than usual and there's very little geometry left. It was a pretty hardcore affair. But Sheffield was nice, as were the people at the conference. Despite the harrowing five-talk-a-day schedule, there was plenty of socialising, and we discussed Rick Jardine's wall of hatred.

I also visited the Arts Tower and rode on the paternoster, though I think my dismount needs some work. Saw J too for lunch. It was fun!

Photos. New Semester.

Depictee-sanctioned Scarborough photos can be seen at the link on the right. This one was taken on the beach after we'd had our chips. The photographer is Wrennyjen, who sat in a little sand hole (presumably dug by a child sometime earlier) to get the very low angle. So dedicated! Despite the obvious sunshine and beautiful blue sky it was bloody freezing.

So today is the first day of the new semester. I've lots to be getting on with, not least preparing for several sets of lectures and doing some lovely new maths. (Hopefully I'll be able to investigate the topology of Joyce's G_2 manifolds. Cool, eg?) Still, I can't quite be arsed to get down to any of it because I'm off to Sheffield for a conference on wednesday and there doesn't seem to be any point me getting my teeth into anything particular.

I finished watching Lost last night. That's the last 12 episodes done and dusted since thursday. Come on, that's impressive! What's in the hatch? Oooo.

Corpse in the Office!

I came back to the office today after the Christmas break to find this corpse. My beautiful Ikea peace lily obviously failed to appreciate its two weeks of neglect. Now I just have a stack of marking to do, which will thankfully be alleviated by all of series 1 of Lost that my flatmate just lent me on DVD. And I still have some Seinfelds left. Did anyone see Larry David talking to Ricky Gervaise on C4 last night? I really enjoyed it.