Monthly Archives: February 2010

While I’m in Christchurch, we’re having a reading group on Charles Parsons’s Mathematical Thought and Its Objects. I’ve blogged about this challenging book before, when we had a reading group in Cambridge. But, with inspiration from new NZ colleagues and … Continue reading →

I have to start singing for my supper today, and earning my keep as an Erskine Fellow. This  means giving a dozen lectures on Gödel, plus a few talks to various seminars. The Gödel lectures kick off today, and I’ve … Continue reading →

The guidebooks say that the four hour train journey from Christchurch, up through the Southern Alps over Arthur’s Pass and on down to Greymouth is one of the great railway journeys of the world. The guidebooks are right. Especially when … Continue reading →

Another rainy day   — so we made a first foray to the rather impressive Christchurch Art Gallery. The building is terrific: it sits handsomely into the surroundings, without shouting its modernity too loudly. And inside it is just wonderfully … Continue reading →

The view from my office in Christchurch is quite terrific — over the wonderful trees on the campus out towards the Banks Peninsula (I think!). The best office view I’ve had since the long off days in the Hugh Owen … Continue reading →

A surprising coincidence: Christchurch is 43° 32′ south, Siena (where we’ve spent a lot of time in recent years) is 43° 33′ north. The latitude explains why, when the sun does come out, it is burning hot. But since we’ve … Continue reading →

There couldn’t be much greater a contrast between LA and Christchurch — and, for us, the differences all favour Christchurch, hands down. It is human-scaled, wonderfully green, relaxed, and somehow comfortingly familiar in its almost-Englishness. Though there are more than … Continue reading →

Even after two full days at the Getty, we were very tempted to spend a third there. But we were spending an arm and a leg on taxis, so we decided to try the Los Angeles County Museum of Art … Continue reading →

We’ve been in LA for two days now, stopping over en route to NZ. Or more exactly, we been visiting the Getty Museum for two days, pretty much from opening time to closing time. We’ve been bowled over. The buildings, … Continue reading →

I’d hoped to have time, before setting off for a “term” (i.e. half a semester) in New Zealand, to comment in a bit of detail on Berto’s discussion of the dialetheist riff on Gödel’s theorem. But that’s not going to … Continue reading →