Exports

The university, in its wisdom, has added another annual mandatory training session. Every faculty member (and a fair number of the support staff) must now undergo training in the export control laws.

Most of us will be able to do this online. A few select departments will have to undergo in-person training, at one of five one-hour sessions on campus.

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics is one of them.

What, am I going to illicitly export the secret of the multiple characterizations of centrodiagonal hexagons?

[The song is perhaps apropos.]

Unusual Songs, #1: "The Piper"

The Piper is one of Abba's most unusual songs. Poking around, I see many interpretations of it, tying it to the Pied Piper of Hamelin, to the Antichrist, to fascistic leaders, and no one seems to see that it's obviously about the Great God Pan.

"He gave them a dream
He seduced everybody in the land
The fire in his eyes
And the fear was a weapon in his hand."

I mean, come on! Where did you think the word "panic" came from?

(A lot of the song, especially the chorus, is rather twee, but I like that one verse.)