Monthly Archives: October 2011

A bottle of wine for the mathematicians!

Posted on October 29, 2011 by

The waitress suddenly interrupted our lively conversation. My discussions with Helmut -a fellow mathematician and a friend for more than 25 years, who looks like a cross between St John the Baptist and Attila the Hunt– are always loud, boisterous, … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends, Op-eds | 3 Comments

The Tri-Council and CFI show Flaherty three “key directions to prosperity”

Posted on October 29, 2011 by

The joint pre-budget submission by NSERC, CIHR, SSHRC and CFI to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance is now public. Entitled, “BUILDING PROSPERITY, 
Research is building a brighter future for Canadians”, the document is supposed to be the 2012 manifesto of … Continue reading →

Posted in R&D Policy | 3 Comments

The real cost of non-affordable housing in and around UBC

Posted on October 26, 2011 by

One colleague wrote, “I think you will find many [such] stories among recent hires at UBC who left us due to the real estate woes, or candidates we wanted to attract who took a look at the housing prices and voted … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors, UBC Housing Action Plan | 4 Comments

Could this video also be about the rest of us?

Posted on October 23, 2011 by

Sometime between 2500 BC and 2000 BC, humanity took a giant leap forward, as our ancestors started understanding that numbers were pure abstractions and that one system alone was enough to count everything, i.e., the same number can be applied to … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy | 7 Comments

The “dirty reality” of math and science

Posted on October 20, 2011 by

“What were you doing in Montréal?” I asked. “I gave a plenary lecture at the Congress of the Mathematical Association of Quebec on ‘L’erreur en Mathématiques’ … and I cited you a lot “. My friend was only half-joking! What he was talking … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds | Leave a comment

Canadian universities will not be “occupied”

Posted on October 17, 2011 by

… at least not by faculty, and assuming that the main trigger for the “Occupy.X” movement is the following –quite eloquent– table. Indeed, I learned recently that Canadian university presidents are not always the highest paid within their institutions, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds | Leave a comment

iSad: Branding humour and its dark side

Posted on October 10, 2011 by

If you are not yet aware, Steve Jobs has died. Under his tight grip, the Apple brand and its derivatives became an integral part of modern culture. Inevitably, his appearances and statements were often diverted and distorted. His death is no … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds | Leave a comment

A tale of two subcultures: The UBC Bookstore vs. “UBC Central”

Posted on October 7, 2011 by

August is supposed to be a slow month for activism on campus. Not this year. Emails started popping up on my screen about a recently announced decision of the UBC administration to rebrand the Bookstore. It was to be named  … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors | 2 Comments

The future of UBC could be determined by … Housing

Posted on October 1, 2011 by

Providing faculty housing is partly how Stanford grew from nowhere in 1960 to elite in 1980. Columbia’s renaissance in the 1980′s as one of the top Ivy league institutions has been credited to opportunistic housing purchases around campus which allowed the … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors, UBC Housing Action Plan