Oh you guys...

Just in time too.

@AsafKaragila You squeaked in over 200, but didn't cap :-(

@robjohn I hit 205, this is enough :-D

: ) What an infinitely pleasant evening. Blissful drunkness.

@Matt Are you waltzing?

@Matt Blissful drunkness, I haven't had that in months now.

Darn, it changed to Matt! :-(

Poor you. Me neither as I quit drinking 2 weeks ago.

@robjohn You weren't here for the whole ordeal... :-)

@AsafKaragila ordeal?

My bottle is empty. I'm worried.

She's so cool and too pleasant to talk to : ) She thinks we should prove "Navier-Stokes" (whatever that means) and go for a Field Medal : )

@robjohn Oh yeah, there was an ordeal regarding the intermittent username.

@Matt Who is she?

Prove the uniqueness of the weak solutions?

@JonasTeuwen You know what is a really pleasant wine? Chianti (il roccolo) and it's not expensive

@robjohn What does it mean?

@JonasTeuwen again? isn't that the second time today?

@AsafKaragila I saw part of it... but I was too late to get the Waltzing Mattilda reference in.

(and you were drinking whisky :S )

@AsafKaragila She is a good friend of mine. One out of two female friends who's company I enjoy very much : )

@tb Yes, but the first one was not completely full (whisky) and this one was wine!

*pheeew*

@Matt You should like several girls I know, not liking other females very much.

@JonasTeuwen No idea.

After two bottles of whisky I would be totally wasted.

Actually, like most girls I know... not liking females very much.

@JonasTeuwen Tell me about it :)

@Matt I'm trying to recall if I had that one. Some Chianti's are very good and some are buergh.

@AsafKaragila The problem with females is you never know what they're on about. With males it's alway clear. I prefer males for this reason.

Which year?

Today I told one of my students, a female, that I would challenge her to a drinking contest after the semester ends and whatnot. She said she could easily take me on, not knowing that I am 60% liver :-P

@Matt Have you never heard the song Waltzing Mathilda?

@JonasTeuwen Just handing in her thesis.

@AsafKaragila I have twice as many, in fact.

@robjohn No. : )

@Matt No I mean the wine :-).

Whee, I'm too wasted to be on here.

I have like six more hours to sleep.

@JonasTeuwen lol give me a sec.

@Matt It's one of the songs from Australia that we learned in school and I've heard quite frequently.

I suggest that all those in timezones UTC+$c$, where $8>c\ge 0$ will go to sleep now.

What? It's +8 over here...

@robjohn Fan of Tom Waits?

@JonasTeuwen: 2009.

Wow. We did 2 bottles of fizzy wine plus one of Chianti. I think I'm getting stronger at drinking without practice.

@robjohn Heh? You're an aussie? I quite like some of the accents!

It's 1:09 am over here.

Don't think so, I don't really know who that is.

@JonasTeuwen there are about ten million incarnations of that song... On youtube you find Tom Waits and about a dozen horrible country versions. I didn't dare posting any of them here.

@Matt Not an Aussie, but that is one of the most famous Australian ballads.

I think she's cool. Her plan for life is: work for bank, make a lot of money in 5 years, retire for rest of life and do whatever she likes.

Oh I can only recall Tom Waits singing it.

see the link in my earlier comment.

@Matt: here

Yeah I saw but I think I'll have to listen to it on youtube. Just a sec.

@JonasTeuwen Oh, I don't know who I've heard singing it. We've heard it so many times.

@Matt somebody suggested to me this week end that I do the exact same thing :)

@Matt Well, I can't find that wine in any of my books which probably means it is very rare or not so good.

@robjohn: this?

@Matt wish her good luck with that plan.

I'll see if I can obtain one of those bottles.

@tb Well, if you can, why not? One weekend would be pretty amazing.

This swagman is awesome.

@robjohn Me too.

If I ever live to an old age, I want to be a swagman.

Have to say I don't like the song.

@Matt That's the one.

@Matt better?

@JonasTeuwen If you live next to Italy I guess the choice is bigger : ) I don't think it's rare and I think it's according to my taste : )

@AsafKaragila Well, you've already got the looks for that.

@JonasTeuwen One can say that.

Hmm, we can buy a lot of wine here.

Let me send you a pic... (we order it online from leshop, a website maintained by a chain)

I know how it looks.

I have found an image in a book but no review.

No they don't all look the same I noticed.

This is a Hebrew version of Waltzing Mathilda

Well, the 2009 version should?

Although the content of the song was somewhat altered...

Yes. That's the one in my book.

@AsafKaragila That must be one of the most awful things I have ever heard.

@tb ?

@JonasTeuwen Why?

Because it almost makes my ear bleed in despair.

@Matt I tried to fix my grammar but failed.

@JonasTeuwen Oh.

Hey wasted on here is even better than sober. : D

I read that "I tried to remix my grammar but failed." but what does it mean to remix one's grammar anyway?

@Matt Remember that these chat messages are stored forever.

@Matt This is true almost anywhere. Wasted > sober.

I'm so looking forward: she'll be back next week. This means we have another reason to drink and talk : D

Is work a null set then?

@JonasTeuwen I know. This chat is merciless.

@JonasTeuwen Yes, but it's also better to be wasted at the university. As long you don't smell like booze, it's fine.

In NL it is common that after your defense you have to take the commission out to a restaurant. My advisor said he had high expectations of the wine which I will serve :-/.

I think she should get all the money she wants and then come back and do a phd with me : )

Good job we have a guest room since we moved, having her sleep over is nice : )

Okay: Who are you talking about?

Not me. Possibly a female imposing to be me, but perhaps not. Regardless to that, I am not in Switzerland. I may eventually get there, though. Heads up for the Swiss, I expect a drink, and possibly to be ditched in the snow!

My friend who came over for dinner.

Too bad @JM isn't here I wanted to tell him a little anecdote regarding perverted messages online.

@AsafKaragila I wouldn't. Seriously. It's full of Swiss here.

Yeah whatever I'm too drunk to be negative.

@Matt Who cares about respect when you have chocolate, cheese, clocks and Nazi gold??

@AsafKaragila You want to retrieve your ancestors gold or what?

: )

I don't think these things make it worth to be here. But then again someone not speaking the language might find it easier to live with all this.

@Matt Nah, I am probably as far from materialistic as one can get in a capitalistic era - without going naked and homeless that is.

Me too. Then you don't fit in here. Here it's all about looks, dress, money and whatnot.

@Matt I find the terms "easier" and "to live" to be inconsistent with each other.

Huh?

@JM: ayt?

@AsafKaragila You rang?

@Matt Wait, I'm still reading the transcript... :)

@JM How long ago was it that I "predicted your return"?

Did you mean "predicted"?

Can't tell; I see no timestamps...

@JM If you quote it it should show, I think.

Also, if J.M. is back, I should probably get some of my "shut eye"...

@AsafKaragila Let him read the transcript so I can tell him a little story.

@Matt What story?

@Asaf: Why does your shut-eye time depend on my return? Now, give me a few minutes for transcript-reading...

@AsafKaragila Good night! See you tomorrow! : )

@JM It doesn't, your return just signified that it's really late here... and my "shut eye" is not really "shut eye", it's a lousy two bit replacement.

@Matt Quite. Watch your tongue. :-)

Woah, it is quite cold!

'Tis.

Actually, I can't feel the cold at the moment.

Yes. 7C at here right now.

20C in the room, though.

@Matt What did you drink?

@JonasTeuwen Antifreeze! :-D

2 bottles of Freixenett and one bottle of il Roccolo...

Hardcore.

Indeed. I'm surprised myself at how we're holding up here. : D

Is Freixenett some kind of cava? What is the %?

-> cava, I think around 12.5 or 13 %, just like non-fizzy wine.

Uh right, I'm tired.

@JonasTeuwen it's this

Means the same so never mind.

(but you must be over the legal drinking age to enter the page)

@tb Oh, just noticed I don't even know how to spell this.

Hmm. 12%? You drank two bottles of that and one bottle of wine and you can still type straight? :D. Cool.

Yes and then the bloody coop down the road only has the non-dry version which is too sweet and tastes awful : S

@Matt well, if you saw any of those adverts, it's not surprising :)

The website somewhat suggests that it tastes awful.

@JonasTeuwen More or less straight. Apart from "Freixenet"...

The dry one is quite alright.

Cheers!

I have two bottles of champagne left.

@JonasTeuwen 乾杯！ (read: kanpai!)

Demoiselle Brut.

Kanpai? What does that mean?

"cheers"?

Brut sounds good. It means cheers.

@JM: Are we nearly there?

The transcript's long...

@JonasTeuwen It literally means "dry glass". :)

I can speak French 8-).

Or you mean kanpai?

That's Japanese?

@JonasTeuwen That answers one of my questions : )

@JonasTeuwen Yes.

Oh. Head is spinning.

That sucks if you try to lie down.

Nah, I'll just chat some more while drinking water. I'll be fine : )

8-).

Why is the transcript so long? He's only been away for a couple of hours.

We are chatty bastards.

Bah, that was long. :P

Maybe he is studying Hardy spaces as we speak.

@Matt: you were saying?

Maybe forcing!

@AsafKaragila Weren't you going to go to sleep?

@Matt Weren't you telling a story?

@JonasTeuwen I must confess that the only part I understood was the Hermite polynomial... :D

:((.

@JM I don't think that you're missing too much :-P

@AsafKaragila Coming from you... :P

@JM So you know how you said that the perverted random messages in forums made you feel ashamed to be a guy? I think they are easy to ignore. On the other hand, I have an anecdote based on a true story that I find not so easy to ignore:

@AsafKaragila That will completely destroy your kidneys, BTW.

What will?

@JM Coming from me means that it's absolutely true!! I am the Koenig.

@JM There are fish in the antarctic oceans full of antifreeze, their kidneys work fine!

@JM: Girl studying maths undergrad is asked by classmates if she's taking any courses apart from Lie groups. She says "yes, for example 'set theory and logic'". They answer "huh? I didn't know women were capable of logic."

@JonasTeuwen Antifreeze.

@AsafKaragila Not the sort of antifreeze you put on the radiator...

@Matt Hihi. That is probably just to provoke you.

@JM I wouldn't put any sort of antifreeze on any radiator...

@Matt "They" is a bunch of guys?

@JM Yes. They answer in unison.

@Matt Screw them.

(but certainly not literally)

Yep, definitely a gothic church.

@JM Well one person said it. But the other one chimed in.

@JM : D Obviously.

Today at the office hours a female student tried to explain a proof she wrote, and it was completely awful (and she knew it), so I told her that it would be sexist to say that I couldn't follow the logic because she is a woman, and in fact there are women in mathematical logic, instead I related it to the fact she is a freshman.

@JonasTeuwen You and your whiskys. : D

@Matt I wanted to be sure!

I'm going to join the wine & beer club here! :).

@Matt What did the schmuck say?

You could have kicked him in the nuts you know.

If a mathematician's main research area is Lie groups, does that make him a Liar?

@JM The full context is: he's the maths olympiad sort of person and is a year younger than everyone else. He was hitting on me a year earlier and because I don't like games and beating around the bush I told him straight that "no". He seemed grateful at the time that I didn't waste his time... but maybe not.

@Matt Full of himself, ain't he?

@JM I don't remember exactly. I think they just laughed and thought it was funny.

@JM No, I don't think so.

:2651031 I know. No need to remove that, it's natural. And it's good because it makes it easy to understand them.

Just making sure :-P

Wait a minute. Define 'girl' @Asaf.

@JonasTeuwen Something you'd sleep with after three beers. :-P

I want to marry a girl called "Bruichladdich".

Now, it is time to go to sleep.

This time fo' real.

@AsafKaragila might be too broad a category for some...

@robjohn Well, it was directed to Jonas...

@AsafKaragila Good night :)

I wish... but thanks.

I'm going to bed as well.

I need to be at work in 6.5 hours 8-). Will fail I reckon.

@AsafKaragila sleep well...

Nooo why is everyone going to bed now?

@Matt Because it is almost 2AM?

@Matt Have a good rest.

@Matt Not me, I'm done with jogging and breakfast...

@JonasTeuwen Good night : )

Hey @Sri: I did intend it to be a comment... ;)

Morning, @JM.

I just meant it as a light-hearted comment =)

@Matt If I may: "I don't like games and beating around the bush" - you're a rare sort, I'd say.

@JM I'm "spikey" or "too direct", I've been told. I just don't like wasting time.

I think everyone should be more honest then life would be less difficult.

Woow, that layperson thread degenerated quite quickly.

(sorry for going off-topic)

@robjohn: are you still there?

@Matt Indeed.

@tb Damn, too early for protection...

@tb I don't like this thread.

Close?

23 up votes? Why?

@Matt It is a pretty common problem...

Can someone explain this comment? "A mathematician walks into a party. He was asked to leave and never come back." Am I missing a joke?

@Srivatsan A lame one, but yes.

@Srivatsan: It's quite literal...

@Srivatsan I'm struggling to find words.

It still needs two jurors. I want to be executioner today...

I volunteer.

@JM Any mathematical tidbit? E.g., does the joke get any worse if I replace "mathematician" by "shoe salesman"?

@Matt I can be another.

Needs one more.

@Srivatsan It's actually replaceable by some other job. Personally, I prefer "lawyer".

@Matt There are 2 votes already, then Matt, me, JM. Done, no?

As I said, I wanted to be executioner... :)

@Matt here's one for you again.

@Srivatsan True. : ) Good job this abomination of "question" got closed. This really offended me for some reason.

@JM - which post? The soft question?

I would have liked a good answer though. I have a hard time explaining what mathematical research is...

@Srivatsan Yup.

And there's already a vote to re-open.

@ZhenLin Well, seriously, how tenuous a connection to "real life" (whatever that means) could you claim?

@ZhenLin How can you possibly expect to condense years of learning into a 30 s explanation?

Two more votes here and here (but please check, I didn't look myself)

In my area? Hardly any at all. But it's a long struggle to describe what I'm interested in when people think maths = numbers...

@tb I'm back.

Maybe skip saying "math" and just tell them straight on what you're doing?

What's wrong with riddle about a friend of a friend? I'm too drunk to check, sorry.

@robjohn: I noticed a strange bug in the MathJaX engine here, unfortunately I lost the cached toy example by the closure of a thread :) Let me try to build another one.

@tb The reopen seems to be genuine; I see it in the mod panel...

@JM: My main area of interest is an unfashionable/dying/obscure subject called ‘topos theory’. :p

@JM I know, I wasn't thinking of the undelete bug.

@ZhenLin So say "I'm doing topos theory. It's a bit too gnarly to explain unless you want a lecture..."

"gnarly" : D

This is quite 60ies, I've been thinking it before when you said "It bums me." : )

@tb does this bug also show up on the main site?

Or maybe seventies? I don't know, I wasn't born yet : D

or just the chat?

@ZhenLin I'd go with "obscure"; I know what it is, but I wasn't sufficiently interested in it... just like with forcing. ;)

BTW @t.b.: I had to quote you. It was too funny...

@robjohn just the chat.

@JM heh, nice!

fastcache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/7/2011/12/… - Note the totals...

@robjohn: see this?

yeah, just a sec

Sleepy time here, head stopped spinning. Have a good night folks!

(I know it's probably far from minimal, but I wanted to make sure it works) here's the code $\stackrel{\stackrel{\Large\stackrel{\frown}{\smile}}{\cup}\stackrel{\wedge}{\b‌​igvee}\stackrel{\Large\stackrel{\frown}{\smile}}{\phantom{\cup}}}{\huge{\frown}}$

@tb Problem shows up on codecogs, too..

@robjohn I'll try the sandbox here

@tb and shows up on the main site.

@robjohn how do you know?

@tb I tried it in a message I'm composing.

hang on...

Preview sometimes behaves differently from an actual post, BTW.

Hmmm, does a question about Euler characteristic / genus count as general topology, geometric topology, or algebraic topology? We don't have a tag for combinatorial topology...

@ZhenLin Why not geometric topology?

@ZhenLin algebraic topology

...and why not make a combinatorial-topology tag if you think it should have one? :)

@tb I made sure that the bookmark wasn't active on that page. It definitely shows up on the main site...

@JM: Combinatorial topology is a dead subject... it's been superceded by algebraic topology.

@robjohn: this one's stable on the main site, but it isn't here: $\stackrel{\stackrel{\Large\stackrel{\frown}{\smile}}{\cup}\stackrel{\wedge}{\la‌​rge \vee}\stackrel{\Large\stackrel{\frown}{\smile}}{\phantom{\cup}}}{\huge{\frown}}$

@tb: \large shows up as code for me.

@ZhenLin I see. Thanks.

I still see it on the main site.

There is no $\large{B}$

hmmm

the other one isn't stable when posted, either.

$\stackrel{\stackrel{\Large{\stackrel{\frown} {\smile}}}{\cup}\stackrel{\wedge}{\b‌igvee}\stackrel{\Large{\stackrel{\frown} {\smile}}}{\phantom{\cup}}}{\huge{\frown}}$

(I should have made a more cheerful guy :))

I suspect there's some script which inserts spaces in overlong words.

@JM Sorry I was distracted. That was in all seriousness... I especially appreciate to have the place previously occupied by people like Rush and whatnot (as Asaf would put it)

@tb Heh. You're welcome. (Okay, you're the only mathematician so far to show up there... ;) )

that makes it even better!

Is there such a word as "frownie" as opposed to "smiley"?

Hmm, not that I recall. They call :( a smiley too.

$\stackrel{\stackrel{\Large{\stackrel{\frown}{\smile}} }{\cup} \stackrel{\wedge}{\bigvee} \stackrel{ \Large\stackrel{\frown} {\smile}}{\phantom{\cup}}}{\Large{\frown}}$

How about that?

But "emoticon" is still the better and more general term...

@JM sure, but smiley was invented when the internet wasn't even conceived.

@robjohn what did you change?

@tb Oh, did you mean this? I don't think anybody considered frowning faces at the time... :)

I added a few spaces, changed \huge to \Large and replaced \bigvee, which, though it looked like it started with a b looked weird in my editor.

$\stackrel{\stackrel{\Large{\stackrel{\frown}{\smile}} }{\cup} \stackrel{\wedge}{\bigvee} \stackrel{ \Large\stackrel{\frown} {\smile}}{\phantom{\cup}}}{\huge{\frown}}$

@tb Have you seen this?

There, I replaced the \huge

@robjohn are you saying my "b" wasn't a real "b"?

@JM Oh, yes, sure, they were all (still) happy about JFK and the baby boom back then :)

@Srivatsan No, I haven't. I'll take a closer look later on. Thanks!

@tb Precisely. :)

@tb I don't know... let me grab the first and change that.

@Srivatsan You sure like pimping your alma mater... :D

@JM This is the first time I ever spoke about my univ. :)

Mmmm... I should probably finish up my CMU application soon.

@tb what I see on closer inspection is some garbage after the b

$\stackrel{\stackrel{\Large\stackrel{\frown}{\smile}}{\cup}\stackrel{\wedge} {\bigvee}\stackrel{\Large\stackrel{\frown}{\smile}}{\phantom{\cup}}} {\huge{\frown}}$

And now the garbage has moved to \frown

And now it's gone. I'm confused.

Okay, I've noticed this before...

sometimes spaces need to be inserted at some points in MathJax.

@robjohn: right. That must have happened by copy-pasting. Anyway, I don't think it's a bad problem.

@tb no, it was not your copy-paste, it was MathJax inserting garbage when spaces were needed.