Local points on quadratic twists of X_0(N)
A new paper on the subject by my Ph.D. student, Ekin Ozman, is up on the arXiv today. The twists in question are isomorphic to X_0(N) over a quadratic field K = Q(sqrt(d)), but not over Q; the twist is via the Atkin-Lehner involution w_N, which is to say that the rational points on such a twist are in bijection with the points P of X_0(N)(K) satisfying where

well, did we, okay did we determine that Moebius maps were like isometries or whatever?
From the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English, a 16,000 word transcript of an undergraduate math study session.  In case you ever wanted to know what it really sounds like when students work on our homework. S1: what if- what if A plus B, equals two times Y and C plus D equals two? [S3: yeah. ] it just has to be proportional so you can’t break it up… but if we have A and C being whatever, then let’s make them something that works.

Cinnamon garlic eggs
CJ wanted scrambled eggs for lunch today.  While we were making them he said he thought they needed some spices.  But which ones?  He went over to the cabinet and picked out some cinnamon (“because that will make the eggs really sweet.”)  Then he dithered a bit between dried dill and garlic powder, but decided on the latter (“because that will give the eggs a nice spice.”)  A little black pepper, too, as usual. And you know what?  Cinnamon garlic eggs are awesome. Per Google we are the first people ever to make them.  Don’t let us be the last!

Mihailescu on the Leopoldt conjecture
You might have heard that Preda Mihailescu claimed a proof of Leopoldt’s conjecture earlier this year.  He just gave a series of lectures on the paper at Cambridge, and Minhyong Kim was there to blog about it.  Mihailescu has provided an “executive summary” of the argument.

Things I now know how to do: signal apology from inside a car
I mentioned a couple of months ago I didn’t know how to convey the sentiment “I’m sorry” while driving.  Why didn’t I think of this? (via MetaFilter.)