June 2025
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A mysterious surge in visits last week from Vietnam
It lasts several days, and involved thousands of unique visits, some of whom visited multiple pages of the blog. I am guessing the blog must have been linked from some popular website or discussion board in Vietnam. Can any readers from Vietnam shed light on this? Thanks.
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A new philosophy journal? “Germ”
Philosopher Bryan Frances writes: Here’s an idea for a new philosophy journal, called “Germ”. All it publishes are the germs of ideas. No development, no stage-setting, no detailed arguments, no treatment or even mention of the relevant literature, and so on. Max word length would be something like 500. When submitting to the journal, the…
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Great moments in rock ‘n’ roll memorials: Sly Stone and Brian Wilson edition
Two major figures of 1960s and 1970s rock music, Sly Stone ("Sly & the Family Stone") and Brian Wilson (primary songwriter and arranger for "The Beach Boys") both died this week. I confess to not having been a big Beach Boys fan, but they undoubtedly had some splendid songs. I was more partial to Sly…
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More signs of the times: Northwestern announces hiring freeze, other cuts
Northwestern University has announced a faculty and staff hiring freeze, as well as (so far unspecified) cuts to employee tuition benefits and healthcare. (The latter is a bit shocking, frankly.) Northwestern is on the "hit list" for the fake anti-semitism campaign of the Trumpistas, and has already lost nearly $800 million in federal monies.
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Connell from Birkbeck to Notre Dame
Sophia Connell (ancient philosophy, history of analytic philosophy), Reader in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, has accepted a tenured appointment as Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, effective January 1, 2026.
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Quantum mechanics, realism, and idealism
This essay in Nature by philosopher Alyssa Ney is quite informative and lucid (especially for those, like me, with a limited understanding of the physics), but you will have to register (for free) to read the whole thing.
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We are heading into an even more dangerous moment under the tyrant Trump
Protests against ICE, against the persecution of immigrants, and against the military invasion of Los Angeles are spreading–including to Chicago–and this is likely to increase exponentially with each Trump provocation. Trump would love nothing better than to send the national guard and military into Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, etc. That will, of course, put…
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RFK Jr’s plan to kill us all: vaccine approval edition
The dangerous imbecile strikes again: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary, on Monday fired all 17 members of the advisory committee on immunization to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying that the move would restore the public’s trust in vaccines…. The C.D.C.’s vaccine advisers wield enormous influence. They carefully review data…
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On the shameless lies undergirding the military invasion of Los Angeles
This is right: Administration officials like Stephen Miller are pushing the idea that Los Angeles is “occupied territory,” as evidenced by the foreign flags some protesters are carrying. Americans who still have hope for democracy should be saying, as loudly and as often as they can, that this is an insultingly stupid lie to justify…
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A serious, rather than rhetorical, Trump-Hitler comparison…
…from law professor Matthew Finkin, who examines the legal mechanisms by which the Nazis consolidated power, with comparisons to Trump (as well as noting some importance differences). Before Orban, there was Hitler, and it's worth paying attention to some of the unnerving parallels. One "difference" is that Hitler openly ridiculed Western democracies and liberal values;…
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The shift away from humanities towards STEM in graduate education at UChicago
This data, compiled by the UChicago AAUP chapter, is pretty alarming. The last President was a mathematician (Bob Zimmer, whose gross mismanagement of the finances has left the university in a vulnerable position); the current one a chemist. Is that part of the explanation for this shift? I'm not sure.
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American NeoNazis ramping up activities and training…
…for the obvious reasons.
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Congratulations to the University of Chicago Law School Class of 2025!
It was a pleasure and privilege to teach such talented young men and women. I join all my colleagues in wishing you much happiness and success in the years ahead!
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Signs of the times: Johns Hopkins announces staff hiring freeze, pay freeze
Hopkins runs huge medical and life sciences research programs, heavily dependent on federal monies, so this is not surprising. The University of Chicago (which gets much less NIH money) has not announced a hiring freeze, but has announced a freeze on salaries, the second time in five years. Thanks Bob Zimmer (the President who ruined…
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Berkeley’s lawsuit against the Trumpistas for unlawful termination of grants
Here. It's a good survey of the multiple ways in which almost everything Trump is doing to the NSF, NIH, NEH etc. is blatantly illegal. (Thanks to Dean Rowan for the pointer.)
Then my question is how many of ordinary mathematicians also qualify as artists of their profession…