Blog Posts

Proper Gardening Attire

2017 June 3

Seen about town today… Passing by the community garden early this afternoon, I saw a man on his knees, digging and planting. He was being supervised and, it seems, lectured by a young girl, maybe six or seven, in a geranium-colored tutu. (for Joan Solomon Frank)

Tags: burlington

Mortal Combat

2017 May 19

Seen about town today… Walking downtown, I saw two sparrows on the sidewalk, locked in mortal combat—beaks, claws, the works. A real tussle. I told them to knock it off and they flew away.

Tags: burlington

Raindrops

2017 May 18

Seen about town today… Raindrops the size of grapes

Tags: burlington

Quantitative Reasoning

2017 May 5

UVM adds quantitative reasoning requirement for general education. Good move. Memo: Approval of a proposal for a University-wide General Education requirement in Quantitative Reasoning

Tags: mathematics uvm

Ramsey Theory

2017 May 1

Giving a presentation on Ramsey Theory today. Wish me luck!

Tags: mathematics uvm

March For Science

2017 April 22

March for Science, UVM / Burlington, VT. I was pleased to see so many people!

Tags: burlington

Chalk Fairies Are Real!

2017 April 17

Earlier this AM I saw a chalk fairy—a real bona fide, honest-to-goodness chalk fairy. He was extremely diminutive and looked to be about 100 years old. Sighting occurred in Votey.

Tags: uvm

LaTeX Styles for Fitch

2017 April 15

If you’re studying logic at UVM, and if you’re interested in creating Fitch-style proofs in LaTex, and if you want them to look like the proofs that are presented in Language, Proof, and Logic (2011; Barker-Plummer, Barwise, and Etchemendy; CSLI Publications, Stanford, CA), then this fork of Peter Selinger’s LaTeX macros for Fitch style natural deduction is for you! https://github.com/cbcafiero/fitchsty Selinger is Professor of Mathematics at Dalhousie University. His website is http://www. ... Read more …

Tags: uvm

My Valentine's Day Message To Gary Derr

2017 February 14

via email Dear Mr. Derr: I usually read your email messages with great gusto. However, your most recent Announcement and Events excludes an item of such importance that it must be reported – it cannot be swept under the rug! Of course, I am referring the results of the recent poll conducted on MyUVM where students indicated, by an overwhelming majority of 95%, that you – yes, YOU – were the thing they most loved about UVM. ... Read more …

Tags: uvm

McCullen Pi and Arduino Show and Tell

2017 January 19

I had the pleasure today of attending Kevin McCullen’s IEEE-sponsored presentation of… well, honestly, gadgets, doodads and the fruits of his tinkering. The presentation was hosted by Global Foundries, in Essex, VT. Kevin is an assistant professor of computer science at SUNY Plattsburgh and long-time friend and associate of David Hathaway (who taught computer architecture / CS 222 when I took it at UVM). Kevin presented a number of projects he’s worked on in his spare time using Raspberry Pi and Arduino. ... Read more …

Tags: gadgets