OCD + Art + Everyday Objects = Win!

Wow, some of Emily Blincoe's artistic OCD arrangements of everyday objects are stunningly gorgeous! I approve!

You can see more of them on Emily's page.

(Tip of the cap to Maria Satterwhite.)

Mathematicians and OCD

No, mathematicians do not have OCD. Not at all.

P.S. I am guilty as charged. (And for what it's worth, I actually find the idea in this article to be interesting.)

Do You Have Enough Subject Classification Tags?

Really, Alex and Alan? Are 19 separate classes in the Mathematics Subject Classification truly necessary? Don't you think that's just a bit extreme?

There is nothing wrong with this, but you've managed to win my WTF award for the day. (That said, this paper now makes me wonder if this is the record.)

In summary:

(a) That seems a bit extreme.
(b) I wonder if this is the record.
(c) Seriously, WTF?


Update (1/14/13): One of my students checked the data that we have, and the maximum number between 1980 and 2009 appears to be 8 secondary MSCs (the one above has 1 primary MSC and 18 secondary MSCs). Wow.

Exploring the World of xkcd

Wow, today's xkcd is awesome! I haven't explored all of it yet --- and maybe I haven't gotten anywhere close to all of it? --- but I'll have to stop now because I urgently need to get some things done. Still, this is awesome! [Maybe today was not the optimal day for this particular one to come out, but that's hardly the worst problem in my life. I'll just have to look at it more later. :) ]

Update: This particular xkcd is not only awesome but also supremely evil, especially for those of us with OCD.

My wikipedia lineage

I just found yet another of my advisors/mentors on wikipedia, so I've got quite the lineage going. (Hopefully I can make them proud.) Thus far, my mentors with wikipedia pages include the following people:


Leonid Bunimovich, my official postdoc advisor at Georgia Tech (math department)

Predrag Cvitanovic, my unofficial postdoc advisor at Georgia Tech (physics department)

Michael Lacey, the PI of the VIGRE grant in Georgia Tech's math department (he wrote my recommendation letters that addressed teaching)

Richard Liboff, my Ph.D. advisor at Cornell

Jerry Marsden, my first SURF advisor at Caltech (and author of numerous recommendation letters for me back in the day)

Steve Strogatz, a member of my Ph.D. committee (representing my minor in Theoretical & Applied Mechanics)


Mentioned as a famous alum of the University of Cambridge's Theory of Condensed Matter group is Mike Cross, my postdoc advisor at Caltech. (His being mentioned in this manner suggests he probably will get his own page eventually.)

Lots of wikipedia pages also refer to John Guckenheimer (a member of my Ph.D. committee, representing my minor in Math), who is also likely to have his own page eventually. (I'm not sure if my final committee member, Greg Ezra, will end up with a wikipedia page.)

Gerald Whitham, my original faculty advisor at Caltech, probably deserves a page.

If one wants to generalize and consider mathematical genealogy, my grand-advisor Harold Grad (one of the fathers of kinetic theory) doesn't have a page but deserves one, his advisor was Richard Courant, and at that point one just keeps finding ultra-famous people as one looks at the advising history.

By the way, have I mentioned that mathematicians tend to be obsessed with academic genealogy? And that many of us have OCD?