33-year-old mathematician Wang Hong from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (CIMS-NYU) has proved the century-old Kakeya conjecture in three dimensions with collaborator Joshua Zahl!

The problem is rooted in the question: what's the smallest area that an infinitely thin needle can sweep out if it has to be turned to point in every possible direction?

News:
[1] https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3300958/chinese-maths-star-wang-hong-solves-infamous-geometry-problem
[2] https://english.jagran.com/world/chinese-student-wang-hong-cracked-an-impossible-geometry-puzzle-that-stumped-mathematicians-for-over-a-century-10221886

2023 piece from Quanta Magazine on their earlier progress on the problem:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-proof-threads-the-needle-on-a-sticky-geometry-problem-20230711/

@tao
#WangHong #CIMS #NYU #JoshuaZahl #Kakeya #KakeyaConjecture #ThreeDimensions #Needle #Geometry #QuantaMagazine #Conjecture #AdvancingMaths #Maths #Mathematics #CenturyOld #Tao #TerenceTao

#Wanghong #Urbanism (internet celebrity urbanism): Me and my geographic pals (Amy and Asa) have written a small (5k) piece for the open access Mediapolis Journal on the idea of wanghong urbanism. It's something we've been playing with in our DMs for a while.

https://www.mediapolisjournal.com/2022/11/wanghong-urbanism/

We discuss urban-digital spectacles, relevant in relation to recent events maybe.

It was aa nice experience publishing with Mediapolis, you should do it too #China #ChinaStudies #DigitalGeography #HumanGeography

Me: Create a #wanghong / #internetcelebrity; it can be more-than-human.

Students:
- Llama cafe
- Lidl
- Tea house on a mountain
- Foreign lady who loves #China
- Tiny pig
- Bot network
- Virtual idol
- Haunted hotel

Many people wanted more-than-humans. Had to highlight difference between wanghong as 'unique' internet celebrity / #influencer vs #wanghong as repeatable #vibe #aesthetic

#Reflections on this: https://fediscience.org/@carwyn/109303351132213061 #Academic #AcademicMastodon #AcademicChatter #Teaching

Starting "Make-A-#Wanghong Company" (#internetcelebrity) #teaching activity in seminars. The students role play running an #influencer management company in #China and make a strategy document.

One of the readings I ask them to do is, "Historicising Wanghong economy" by Xiaofei Han:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2020.1737196

The activity is inspired by Crystal Abidin's teaching and extended to be a multi-week project:

https://wishcrys.com/teaching-syllabi/

#AcademicMastodon #AcademicChatter #Academic #AcademicFedi

Co-authorship practices: Just about to submit a co-authored paper with two friends, we're examining the idea of 网红城市 wanghong chengshi, or internet celebrity cities, in China. The paper develops the term #wanghong #urbanism (internet celebrity urbanism) and the idea of "urban-digital spectacle" through three case studies. We all did equal work, so what to do about naming order?

We drew the names out of a bag ☺️

I guess an #introduction : I research the #geography - #humangeography and #digitalgeography - of #China and am working at Leiden university in #Chinastudies .

I'm currently teaching digital society in contemporary china, china's digital geographies, and strategic communication and china.

I look at things like #migration, #wechat, #food economies, #wanghong (internet celebrity) urbanism, and broader politics of digital social life.

Currently confused by Mastodon :3 I also like #boardgames