Category Archives: Rant

Boxes for Boxer update

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Persiflage

As noted in this post, exactly 42 reprints of [BCGP] were recovered in January of 2022 from boxes left out in the snow outside Eckhart Hall addressed to George Boxer. As mentioned there, the packaging (5 boxes of 8 plus … Continue reading →

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Don’t cite my paper!

Posted on April 26, 2021 by Persiflage

The process of publishing a paper is an extremely long one, and it is not atypical to take several years from the first submission to the paper finally being accepted. The one part of the process that happens extremely quickly, … Continue reading →

Posted in Rant | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

Ramanujan Machine Redux

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Persiflage

I had no intention to discuss the Ramanujan Machine again, but over the past few days there has been a flurry of (attempted) trollish comments on that post, so after taking a brief look at the latest version, I thought … Continue reading →

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

Inter-universal Teichmüller theory explained

Posted on January 17, 2020 by Persiflage

Normally a message such as the one below would go immediately to the rubbish bin. Fortunately for me, I happened to open it accidentally and thereupon discovered the most cogent explanation to date of IUT. I hereby share with you … Continue reading →

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The Ramanujan Machine is all hype

Posted on July 17, 2019 by Persiflage

Edit (17/02/21) I changed the title of this post which was unnecessarily incendiary. There’s a lot that I like about how mathematics operates as a social discipline. We have a great respect for the history of the subject, which in … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Rant | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

En Passant V

Posted on July 7, 2019 by Persiflage

(warning: today’s persiflage comes with possible extra snark due to sleep deprivation) The Ramanujan Machine: I learnt from John Baez on twitter about The Ramanujan Machine, a project designed to “help reveal [the] underlying structure” of the “fundamental constants” of … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Rant | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Referee Requests

Posted on April 11, 2019 by Persiflage

################################################### From: Mathematics Editorial Office Subject: [Mathematics] Review Request Date: December 26, 2018 at 7:43:31 AM CST Dear Professor Calegari, Happy new year. We have received the following manuscript to be considered for publication in Mathematics (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/mathematics/) and kindly invite … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Rant, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Cookies for everyone!

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Persiflage

Chicago University has recently moved to two-factor authentication. While this is not itself objectionable, it is pretty annoying to have to have access my cell phone for push notifications just to be able to use MathSciNet. Fortunately, there is (at … Continue reading →

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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