Archive for the '' Category
New Yorker article: Manifold Destiny
Sequel to earlier post. Much online gossip about Cao and Zhu on many Chinese websites, according to a mathematician friend. Some of it can be found in the New Yorker article here. But what really struck me in the article, other than the bitching among the Chinese mathematicians and their shoving and pushing for glory was the purity of Perelman:
Mikhail Gromov, the Russian geometer, said that he understood Perelman’s logic: “To do great work, you have to have a pure mind. You can think only about the mathematics. Everything else is human weakness. Accepting prizes is showing weakness.†Others might view Perelman’s refusal to accept a Fields as arrogant, Gromov said, but his principles are admirable. “The ideal scientist does science and cares about nothing else,†he said. “He wants to live this ideal. Now, I don’t think he really lives on this ideal plane. But he wants to.â€
More about the controversy here.
R. L. Burnside videos
I wrote about Burnside earlier here. He’s almost unknown in Singapore and under-rated in general. Check out the videos below. Kick Ass.
This is what the world lost.
Poor Black Mattie(Short Version)
Rollin and Tumblin
