Category Archives: Politics

What would a good ICM talk look like?

Posted on February 27, 2022 by Persiflage

Now that the ICM has (unsurprisingly) become a virtual event, it might be worthwhile thinking a little bit about what would constitute a good talk in this new setting. There’s a certain electricity to talks given in person, and I … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Politics | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The upcoming jobs bloodbath

Posted on November 12, 2020 by Persiflage

Universities are losing lots of money this year. Even those schools with a sizeable endowment are very restricted in how those funds can be used, and the result is that many places will have hiring freezes. This is surely going … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

You are welcome, Northwestern junior faculty

Posted on March 27, 2020 by Persiflage

Nobody has even accused Persiflage of being afraid to speak truth to power. After Chicago made their announcement that they were extending tenure by one year for all (qualified) faculty, I thought that, as a good local citizen of Evanston, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Choices

Posted on May 29, 2019 by Persiflage

Who is your preferred next prime minister? I guess it depends on what variety of politician you prefer.  

Posted in Politics, Waffle | 1 Comment

The Journal of Number Theory experiment

Posted on April 4, 2019 by Persiflage

The Journal of Number Theory has been (for some time) the standard “specialist” journal for number theory papers. By that, I mean it was a home for reasonably good number theory papers which were not (necessarily) good enough for some … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

The spoils of Rio

Posted on August 1, 2018 by Persiflage

Congratulations to Akshay and Peter — don’t spend all those loonies at once! (Actually, I’m not sure that’s a grammatically correct usage of the word loonies unless they pay the winners in the form of 15000 coins; possibly the Hawk … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Politics, Waffle | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Nobody Cares About Your Paper

Posted on May 6, 2018 by Persiflage

I handle quite a few papers (though far fewer than other editors I know) as an associate editor at Mathematische Zeitschrift. Since the acceptance rate at Math Zeit is something in the neighbourhood of 20%, there are certainly good papers … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Politics, Rant | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Hiring Season

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Persiflage

Lizard 1: Wait, explain again why we bury our young in the sand and thereby place them into mortal peril? Lizard 2: So they develop character! If it was good enough for me, it’s good enough for them. (Feel free … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Politics, Rant, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The ABC conjecture has (still) not been proved

Posted on December 17, 2017 by Persiflage

The ABC conjecture has (still) not been proved. Five years ago, Cathy O’Neil laid out a perfectly cogent case for why the (at that point recent) claims by Shinichi Mochizuki should not (yet) be regarded as constituting a proof of … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Politics, Rant | Tagged , , | 34 Comments

Jobs Related Public Service Announcements

Posted on November 4, 2017 by Persiflage

Job season is upon us. Now is probably a good time to give applicants (and letter writers!) a few pointers. Of course, there are many other sources of advice on this topic, so let me try to narrow the focus … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment