I find it comforting that in the midst of all the politcal advertisements, the inevitable international crisis, and other such drama, someone devoted their life to the succesful completion of a proof.  I don't quite understand the dumbed down explanation, although I get the gist of it, but apparently this is quite an advance in the world of mathematics and the name of Shinichi Mochizuki is going to be very famous and most of us won't have more than a vague notion of why....


The idea of utilizing "lost space" to create friendly and inviting green areas is really alluring -- but it will only work if there is plenty of protection from the predators of the asphalt jungle above....

We need new definitions of privacy -- webtracks are pretty potent and you had better think about that before you post that next status update....

All this talk about reducing debt and giving more money for rich folks to invest -- didn't we learn ANYTHING from the 1930's?  You cannot save yourself out of a recession; Herbert Hoover tried that.  I keep waiting for someone to talk in terms of actually putting people back to work -- the country's infrastructure is tottering with over-burdened legacy systems badly in need up repair and improvement.  This [and education] is the real reason we pay taxes, the real purpose of government, Isn't it?  I don't believe that the 1% or the small businesses are going to embark on a Depression era style work program anytime soon.

Sometimes those email streams that get forwarded and forwarded make you think.  This one [thank you Bonita!] sent me off on a trip down memory's lane....