Todd Kemp
todd-kemp.bsky.social
Todd Kemp
@todd-kemp.bsky.social
Professor of Mathematics at UC San Diego
Believe it or not, the same effect emanates from glass boards, and even digital boards.

Proximity substantially increases the likelihood of thinkos.
June 6, 2025 at 4:50 AM
That claim (made by some science shows) is an exaggeration. We get annular eclipses when the moon is farther in its orbit. In total eclipses, the moon covers well beyond the edge of the sun. In 620M yrs the moon will never cover the sun again. We're just alive during the right billion year window.
March 30, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Making them in response to demands from a government that is far exceeding its authority is problematic to say the least. Ultimately little to no good will come of this, as you predicted. But shouting about this with the same volume as shouting about ending aid to Africa makes us seem crazy.
March 24, 2025 at 3:32 AM
I was referring specifically to (some of) the terms they imposed on Columbia. The campus has been on fire with antisemitism (and lots of other problems). The situation was not improving. Some of the steps they made to try to appease Trump are changes they should have made earlier.
March 24, 2025 at 3:29 AM
I also think it is dangerous to paint EVERY thing that comes out of Trump administration actions as pure evil. I think this government *is* evil. But if we object to every action they take, even ones that are problematic (not horrific), we risk losing the script and sounding like the crazy ones.
March 24, 2025 at 2:42 AM
I absolutely agree that the Administration has no intention of acting in good faith, and I think it is a bad precedent for a University to cede independent governance to them. And you're probably right that, despite the exception, this will feed the anti-vaccine anti-science fires.
March 24, 2025 at 2:39 AM
The first post-intro line of the article includes "Face masks or face coverings are always allowed for religious or medical reasons."

Also, this is not a change. Columbia already banned full face coverings from campus protests. They're just agreeing to actually enforce it now.
March 23, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Yes, this is just false. The map fails to be a local diffeomorphism at the 6 "poles" (i.e. the intersections of the sphere with the coordinate axes).
March 18, 2025 at 10:57 PM
It was not so petty and irrational as it seems. It was an ambush, a planned setup, to manufacture a catalyst for Ukrainian regime change. The GOP is now, in one voice, calling for Zelenskyy to "step down" -- so Trump can end the war by installing a Putin-lacky to hand over the keys to the palace.
March 4, 2025 at 6:28 AM