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I had a conversation last night with a good friend of mine about beliefs. For those of you who don’t know, I classify myself as a tolerant atheist, not a fundamentalist atheist. I realized during this discussion that over time my views have softened a bit.

My friend Jeff Tripodi actually called me “Brian ‘Cold Uncaring Universe’ Bishop” in college because I was adamant that there was no purpose to life (save the one we give it). It’s amusing when you look back on yourself and realize that only someone so young could be so unflinchingly uncompromising. Given enough time and diversity of experience, I think it’s inevitable (and desirable) that most absolutist positions get moderated. Where I used to be …

Dubai photoset on Flickr

I’ve been fortunate in my life to have lived in a few great cities (London, Paris, Hong Kong, Seoul) and travel to many many more. Travel is one of the experiences I value the most for its amazing ability to transform people: by embedding yourself into other cultures, by experiencing other lifestyles, you gain an understanding not only of the rest of the world, but also about yourself and your own culture.

That said, one of the areas of the world that I had been really interested in visiting is the Middle East. It’s a part of the world with a disproportionate influence on our lives, not just …

So I’ve seen two great examples of extremely thoughtful gifts in the past month, and thought that now would be a good time to give some credit to these extremely generous and caring people: Pamela Seaton (my girlfriend’s sister) and Mark Bishop (my brother).

[EDITOR'S NOTE: It should be assumed by the reader as a given that of course the most thoughtful, generous, caring, and all around best person in the world is, of course, the author's girlfriend.]

I think these two make fantastic goodwill ambassadors and here’s why:

This Christmas I had the pleasure of experiencing Christmas in lovely (freezing) Scotland with Lynn’s family. While hanging out with her sister Natalie one night, she looked at us excitedly and asked, …

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Journals: Acta Mathematica

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