ONT YWT 15 Dec 2001
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for the convenience of my readers and non-readers alike,
i will experiment with a new format in which i sum up
my whole day's reflections on the activities of the
suo working group in a single end-of-the-day report.
nothing much today.
the sumo group continues to display their near total lack of acquaintance with
the letter and their complete lack of appreciation for the spirit of almost all
things mathematical. today it was graph theory, and i almost had to sympathize.
there are six distinct dialects of graph theory that are currently being spoken
in the usa alone, roughly aligning along coastal lines: east coast, west coast,
great lakes, gulf coast, alaskan, and hawaiian. i will pass over the last two
on account of their more recent up&comingness and my own lack of familiarity.
the great lakes and gulf coast schools of thought were for many years very
compatible, due largely to the migration of michiganders & michigooses to
winter at combinatorics conferences in baton rouge and other points south,
but i cannot say if that is still the customary pattern of flocking today.
now, graph theorists themselves, being a very congenial and gregarious species
so far as the general run of mathematicians go, long ago worked out intricate
patterns of complex protocols for maintaining intra-species harmony, and so
the general state of affairs is not really as bad as it might otherwise be
imagined to be, and indeed, once was. in fact, this working group would
have a lot to learn about strategies for inter-comm & inter-ops if they
could find the time to study how it's done in practice, but i begin to
sense that feeling of futility that i always get when suggesting such
a course to this gdi body.
anyway, the sumo group, true to form, has unerringly managed to avoid every
standard convention already standard in the field and to invent a brave new
panoply all their own, and by this "new" i say a bit reminiscent of a style
of graph theory that has scarcely been heard since the 40's.
it was a day like any other day,
only you were there 15 Dec 2001.
jon awbrey
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