Andrew Wiles Wins 2016 Abel Prize

The home team won big today: my Mathematical Institute colleague Andrew Wiles has won the 2016 Abel Prize!

Induction and Birthday Parties

Well, this is a very depressing way to apply induction.

I find this SMBC perversely amusing, though I have been in this kind of situation before and it's not fun.

Nobel Prize Predictor

Thomson Reuters (who produce the Web of Science, among other things) have a Nobel Prize Predictor. (I've linked directly to the physics page, but one can find interesting predictions in the other ones as well---e.g., Eric Lander in Biology/Medicine.) Michael Berry ought to already have a Physics Nobel. My Mathematical Institute colleague Roger Penrose is unsurprisingly also on the physics list. It would be especially awesome if he won, because then the department would almost certainly have a big Nobel Party!

Somerville-Jesus Ball

Somerville College is having a ball jointly with Jesus College tonight. (They do this every 2 or 3 years. I guess it's supposed to be every 2 years, but last year's ball got punted to this year.) Apparently, something like 2000 people will show up, and Somerville is the only one of the two colleges that can possibly accommodate something of this size. The College is going into lock-down at 5pm, and my choices are basically to go to the party (which is so not happening!), being stuck in my apartment starting at 5pm and having to deal with the shit going on around me, or being stuck outside from 5pm until something like 4am. Thankfully, my friend Felicia has offered me a couch futon to sleep on tonight, so I have somewhere else to be---and a place where I will actually be able to get work done and sleep, which certainly won't be the case tonight in my apartment in Somerville. And I'll have the spare key, so I'll actually have the freedom to go out and do stuff if I want. (Maybe I'll go see "Hot Tub Time Machine" or something?) Yeah! The couch futon isn't necessarily the most comfortable one in the world, but I don't care, because this is infinitely better than the alternatives of being stuck either in my apartment or in my Dartington House office!

I get by with a little help from my friends...

Update: An awesome moment related to this occurred today. I was in Somerville's SCR having some coffee and a pastry, and more people were around than usual for a Saturday. The wife of a Governing Body member asked several of us collectively if were going to go to the ball, and I immediately answered "Fuck no!" before I could stop myself. I am just a picture of propriety.

Good Friends + Good Desserts = Big Win

I'm having a party tomorrow, some close friends will be coming, I've already bought some very good but expensive desserts, and there should be some gaming on the docket. That's about all I have to say.

Did I mention that most parties around here are costume parties?

Lemming just e-mailed me about the following article on BoingBoing:

"Citizens observed a masked individual wielding a running chainsaw walking around Bicester, Oxfordshire, England. Turns out he was on his way to a costume party."

I think I might have mentioned this before at some point, but nearly all of the student parties around here are (de facto) costume parties. This is a bit different from what I was used to before I moved to Oxford. Of course, most of the costumes I've seen aren't particularly creative... (Part of me is a bit disturbed by the choice of costume, but a larger part of me is amused by it. I suppose that's in poor taste, but I'm not going to lie to myself and pretend I'm not amused.)