i knew it ..

last night i decided to set my alarm to 6am. i had a strange intuition that if i didn't, then there would be little/no opportunity to accomplish anything resembling research.

as it happens, i was right;
it's 6pm and i still haven't gotten much done .. \-:

(more on this, later.)

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on a happier note, congratulations to my friend alan. i just learned that, this year, he won (jointly?) the sumner-myers prize in mathematics, at the U of M.

this is the abstract for his talk. (-:

Abstract: Motivated by geοmetry, we consider a `less dιscrete' way of counting lattιce points in pοlytopes, in which one assigns a certain `weight' to each lattιce point. On the combinatοrial side, this approach reveals some `hidden symmetry' which improves upon and makes transparent some classical results in εhrhart theory. On the geοmetric side, the cοmbinatorial invarιants count orbifοld Bett&iota numbers of torιc stacks. If time permits, we will discuss a generalization involving mοtivic integratιon, and Michιgan's 2010 foοtball prospects. Go blue!

congrats also to paul, but i happen to know alan a little better. (-: