Winter Break

Blogging here should be light to non-existent for a while, with family holiday celebrations tomorrow and departure for a trip to Europe the day after. Travel plans still in flux, but the general idea is to head south after arriving in Paris, spend a couple weeks on the road and mostly in Italy, end up back in Paris January 6, back to New York on the 11th.

I somehow seem to have caused in the last posting (see the comment section there) an eruption of an even odder version of the kinds of attacks from string theorists that were common in 2006, a period known to aficionados as the “String Wars”. The new version is more like the “Multiverse Wars”. From past experience I know that involvement in such things is not a good way to spend your vacation, so I think when I head to the airport I’ll likely shut off comments. In the meantime, I hope the holiday spirit will reign…

Update: Off on vacation, comments will be off. Some last minute links that may be of interest:

• A paper on the hot topic of black holes and quantum gravity that at first glance looks quite interesting (also this). If this is new, surely by the time I get back experts will have been heard from.
• Mochizuki on efforts to understand his proof of abc.