Old age blues

Last few weeks I have been thinking of accessibility of finitely presented groups proved by Martin Dunwoody in 1983. I thought about it around 1974 and had the right ideas. But at that time algebra was not really my area and I gave up on some good problems after getting the right ideas. I also thought that may be one can use minimal surfaces but knew very little of the area. I gave a talk in Stoney Brook around 1979-80about it and Gromov was in the audience. Then after coming to Melbourne, in random browsing of our departmental library, I saw a volume in honour of some mathematician, may be I.M. Gelfand, and there was a paper by Gromov proving accessibility using minimal surfaces in higher dimensions. I even remember he used dimensions bigger than 6. I have a visual memory of the book and the paper. Recently, I started thinking about it since Peter Scott with me and two others developed an analogue of minimal surfaces for groups. I tried to ask friends about it but nobody knows about Gromov’s proof. Meanwhile our departmental library closed and the books were sent other libraries in the University. I cannot find the book. I wonder what is happening. Did I imagine all this. My working on mathematics is very haphazard. I basically learnt by myself. It was more passion than ambition. So there are lot of gaps in my knowledge of the areas I work. I often follow the general outline and try to fill the gaps later. For example, I did not read some of Waldhausen’s papers in 1969 but found simple proofs around 2002. I do not know whether it is one of those things or whether I really imagined the whole thing. I wrote to Gromov yesterday and I do not know whether he will reply. It surprises me that i did and can do some mathematics. I have no confidence in my abilities or any ambition. But if some thing bugs me, I keep thinking about it sometimes for years. I have also been lucky with collaborators, that after the age of 45 or so. But I did a few interesting things before. Anyway, I am puzzled by how I have been able to do some mathematics and even made a living given that I come from a farming family.

Russia reorienting towards the Arabs says John Helmer

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/10/the-silence-of-the-bears-russia-is-reorienting-towards-the-arabs.html

Hellaro song with English subtitles

Langlands on Harish-Chandra

https://publications.ias.edu/sites/default/files/harish-chandra-biographical-memoirs-rpl_0.pdf?fbclid=IwAR27eTkSlZuyJcDCmgCsVcj2rKQ1UC2inFWRf47Coc_9SeBJ72JQfT0Nl7A

Brian Berletic on Hamas-Israeli cinflict

He also discusses the military resources and the geopolitical problems particularly with neighbours

Hamas used Huawei phones and tablets

Douglas Macgregor on the Hamas-Israel conflict

The Duran on Hamas-Israeli conflict

Claudia Goldin

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/10/claudia-goldin-wins-nobel.html

More guesses about the Hamas -Israel conflict

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/10/the-top-ten-takeaways-from-hamas-sneak-attack-on-israel.html some suggest that US has been looking for an exit from the Ukraine conflict and this lrovides with various further possibilities. But so many Israeli casualities do not suggest a deliberate neglect; though it is possibilities that it exceeded expectations.it may delat Saudi-Israeli rapproachmdnt which may point the finger at Iran. Again it may spoil the relations between Saudi Arabia and iran and provide a way to disrupt Brics. Nobody seems to know and all seem to agree that it is bad news which will lead to worse things to come.

Various theories of Hamas-Israel conflict, some more unbelievable than others

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/israel-flashpoint-localized-skirmish

Scott Ritter on Israeli intelligence failure

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/08/scott-ritter-israels-massive-intelligence-failure/?fbclid=IwAR3J3aTwrJNM_1vCEmN5zc1CUHrMFDmAFRjKB72gQojUFENh0TldLGa207w

Alex Christoforou describes the latest Putin speech

https://youtu.be/YX_s8NqvWEk?si=_5tMy7htNBjqsHf6 problems with posting links. It seems that these links have to be copied and then tried on the browser.

The beginning of the long fall for Ukraine

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-10423-the-beginning-of-a-long

Simplicius on Army War College report

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/army-war-college-report-predicts "But alas, ever the stoic practitioner of the ‘long game’, I doubt Putin will give them the uncharacteristic slipup they’re counting on to salvage their disastrous Ukrainian campaign. Painful as it might be for us to take some of the obviously deliberate provocations ‘on the cheek,’ good chance remains that sometime in the future, after Ukraine’s rapid disintegration and subsequent capitulation—perhaps even only a year or two from now—we may recognize, in hindsight, the wisdom of the strategy which staved off nuclear war by way of a methodical, unwavering, and strategically disciplined approach."

Two posts on Indo-US relations

https://www.indianpunchline.com/india-wont-be-bullied-in-multipolar-setting/ from Bhadrakumar, and https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/10/us-tries-to-play-hardball-with-india.html?fbclid=IwAR2bpI8Ii5x9GSpgSP5yzWtMFkcKxWvWb6oiEGbnYhHA12Bx_vkYCLMazqk from Conor Gallagher in Naked Capitalism

The ends of knowledge

https://aeon.co/essays/should-academic-disciplines-have-both-a-purpose-and-a-finish-date from Aeon.

My first trip to the west

From Facebook: Ramarao’s post below reminded me of my first trip abroad to England in 1968. My English was poor (then and now) even by Indian standards and the first problem was English. I grew up in villages, studied in Telugu medium. When I went to study in Madras, the college authorities appointed an English tutor to coach me. It did not have much effect I think. I had the naïveté and stubbornness of the farming community I came from and was not fazed by what others thought of me. The reason for going to England was mathematics. When I was in Madras, I came across a book called ‘Set Theory’ by Felix Hausdorff and Brouwer’s theorems fascinated me. And I decided to learn topology. When I Joined Tata Institute, MS Narasimhan took some interest in me perhaps because he too grew up in Andhra for a few years. After I showed some promise he decided that I should go abroad for further studies. When he asked me where I wanted to go, I said Liverpool because I already read several papers of C.T..C. Wall. Then I got a Nuffield Fellowship after a bit of coaching by him and landed in London. If language was problem, food was more difficult. Only thing I could eat was toast and butter and coffeee was undrinkable. It was cold; it was September I think, and Nuffield people gave me some money to buy warm clothes and sent me off to Liverpool. By that time there was no place in university hostels and Wall took me home. Though one read books and saw films about foreigners, I did not really know or was coached about everyday living. MSN greatly neglected this aspect. I did not really understand the sleeping arrangements. I just covered myself with the bed cover and it was still cold and kept the heater on through out the night. Instead of a shower, there was a bath which I did not know how to use. But the food was better than in the hotel. The family must have got tired of cleaning the bath tub and after a couple of weeks, they found me accomodation in a seminary, where there were plenty of rooms since theology was not too popular. Thus my sojourn abroad started. A bit more about my life in Liverpool. Life in the seminary was good. The students showed me how to get in to the bed and how to make the bed. The food was ok. Not all the students believed in god. They introduced me to Bob Dylan and the pub culture. Terry Wall ( coming from india it was difficult to call him by his first name which I generally avoided) told me what I did was enough for a ph.d. So I took it easy and read what I liked and made friends in the department. One of the things I read was Wall’s long paper which was coming out then called ‘Surgery on non simply connected manifolds’. I even gave a course on it in Yale. I do not know how much I understood. Kervaire who listened to a lecture by me later told Raghavan Narasimhan that I did not know what I was talking about. But the English do not tell you that you are a fool even if they think you are. So I got along splendidly. I started going out with students for dinners and with some staff for lunches. With students I often went to Indian restaurants where the food was not that good. I asked the staff why they were making such food which was not really Indian. They said that it was the way the English liked it but they made a separate curry for themselves called ‘staff curry’. From then on we started having staff curry and the food problem was partially solved. The food situation has improved considerably since then. Soon I met a girl and it seemed better to shift from the seminary and I shifted to a room near Sefton Park from Birkenhead. I thought I was too old to fall in love. My office was next to women’s toilet and soon I started recognising her presence by the way the taps turned in the toilet. By the time I realised that I was in love, it was too late and it was time to leave Liverpool for Yale in America. So the last few months in Liverpool were tough. Even though I was always a bit rebellious, it was only in Liverpool that I realised how Indian I was. The first few months were lonely. I always hated Indian classical music and dance for what I considered gymnastics. But Ravi Shankar came to Liverpool and I attended the concert with John, an American. He thought that it sounded like cows mewing but it was all very sweet and like homecoming to me. Also I met Jo Marks and Peter Scott there and the friendships endure to this day. But Jo refuses to tell me any thing about that girl.

Lorca’s influence on Leonard Cohen

https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4010&fbclid=IwAR3VWN_yBeVAJyxghX89LyyJdAEy-c2MiXT4OzgfnXonoLnvG1hNNOQsR6M

Larry Johnson on Russia’s slow approach

https://sonar21.com/a-russia-question/