Wednesday, May 23, 2007

This one hits close to home.

The following arXiv paper includes a rigorous definition of insecure:

\\
arXiv:0705.3273
Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 00:46:24 GMT (5kb)

Title: Birkhoff billiards are insecure
Authors: Serge Tabachnikov
Categories: math.DG math.DS
\\
We prove that every compact plane billiard, bounded by a smooth curve, is
insecure: there exist pairs of points $A,B$ such that no finite set of points
can block all billiard trajectories from $A$ to $B$.
\\ ( http://arxiv.org/abs/0705.3273 , 5kb)
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No wonder I like to study compact planar billiards! They're insecure -- just like me.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know Mason, you're to hot to be so isecure, so loosen up :)

Zifnab said...

It's interesting that you (Mason) think you're insecure, as I've never thought that about you. You always have an air of certainty, in yourself and your knowledge and skills that I respect.

I'm curious, are there particular things you feel insecure about, or is it just an overall comment?

Oh yeah, and if Katiya says you're a hottie, i'd listen. :)

Mason said...

Z: This was an overall comment. I feel that way on occasion academically (I still sometimes doubt myself when things are going wrong, even with a decent number of past successes by this point) and somewhat more often socially. I actually did this particular post as a joke because I was amused by seeing a rigorous definition of insecurity. [I'm not feeling that insecure at the moment, but if one does the whole Woody Allen thing, then one can remain insecure no matter how well things are going. :) ] I've actually been much more comfortable the last few months -- basically just about everything in my life has been working out very well for a while and that obviously helps a lot. Anyway, I guess maybe a short version is to say that I feel more insecurity than I typically show though I show this to some more than others.

I always listen to what Katiya says. (Then I typically do what I want anyway, but that's another issue... but she got me to send a Mother's Day card, which took a fair bit of convincing.) I'm not sure about the loosening up thing -- that's not exactly my expertise.