After Manhattan -> Jyväskylä -> Kilpisjärvi -> Oslo -> Toronto, I’m back in MN. That’s the ARPM bootcamp in New York and met lots of cool quant-y people, then Finland and uncles and aunts and just one sister :), then Lapland with the in-laws for an amazing few days of hiking, then Oslo to visit a cousin and enjoy Norwegian civilization. And then the Actuarial Research Conference, where I learned more about current trends in actuarial research than I ever knew. Truly.

Now I’m back to Minnesota, being bitten by mysterious insects in the garden. On the plus side, we’ve got corn and squash and herbs galore. On the minus side, not weeding for four weeks of rain and sun was the expected disaster.

• Upgraded my Matlab skills a bit at ARPM bootcamp and need to work to extend them. Upgraded my knowledge of portfolio selection even more — this is going to change how I teach my intro to math for finance course at the U!
• Learned a lot from Sarah Mathieson, Head of Research and Knowledge at the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, about climate change, sustainability, and what actuaries are doing to understand how this will affect insurance and global markets. This is an interest of mine that I’ve been approaching from different angles for a while — clearly the linked EarthCalculus material doesn’t have finance involved yet, but take a look at previous posts for a peek at the weather derivatives research I’ve been doing.
• Speaking of earth-y stuff, in Kilpisjärvi I saw voles and lemmings and a least weasel and all sorts of birds and lichen. I need to share those pics and some of those experiences! They were so cool, and arctic ecology is both changing as our climate changes and has tons of math….
• Speaking of math and math ed, my friend Rob Edman wrote a post on the IMA Math Modeling Camp this summer. I worked on it last year and led two groups who looked into mercury toxicity in small and large-mouth bass in the Mississippi, but this year I was in Finland.
• The semester will start soon. If I’m going to overhaul FM 5001/5002 and improve our online probability learning resources, there’s a lot to do! Recorded two probability problem-solving videos today; need to edit and post them tomorrow.

Ok. Did you know that undocumented immigrants generated surplus Medicare contributions of $35.1 billion between 2000 and 2011? That extended the solvency of Medicare for a year. Reference: Journal of General Internal Medicine, June 23, 2015. This is what you get to hear about when you have a health care policy wonk spouse. And now it’s time for bed.