Well I’m at band camp.* *Technically, it’s a chamber music festival and I’m a string player. But spiritually, it’s band camp.

Anti-evaxers.

I mean is there anything more American than ignoring science-based evacuation orders?

"Crystal Bridges sounds like the name of a country singer and not an art museum" is a hill I will die on.

Status update: I'll be posting somewhat less dog, fireworks, math, and nerd related content over the next week as I do a side quest, namely, my alternate life as a musician. Chamber music festival time! (1) Dvorak piano quartet in e-flat (2) Copland piano quartet (3) Harbison Six American Painters

Did you hear about the DC July 4 fireworks show? It promises 850,000 fireworks in 40 minutes. That's 354 per second. You'll miss up to 142 of them every time you blink. For your edutainment, I proudly present the nerdiest thing you will read about this dangerously absurd / absurdly dangerous event.

Did you hear about the DC July 4 fireworks show? It promises 850,000 fireworks in 40 minutes. That's 354 per second. You'll miss up to 142 of them every time you blink. For your edutainment, I proudly present the nerdiest thing you will read about this dangerously absurd / absurdly dangerous event.

For all the people who liked my dog story yesterday... see below for a pic of my two buddies.

Note, Republican caulk is oozing.

Dog #2 is unable to activate “down” mode for the steep stairs in our townhome. He stands at the top and whines to be carried. Helpless. Or so I believed, until I just caught him bounding down. Then he saw me, stopped midway, and whined. I actually admire the laziness + deception here. Impressive.

What if I decided to have a midlife crisis right about now? Sound ok?

Sport can be an important place for queer people to come into their own—when they're included and safe to do so. The Supreme Court decision to allow states to ban trans athletes from sports is horrendous. Here is @katelynburns.com's piece on what sports has meant to her as a trans woman:

I don’t see SCOTUS and will henceforth be operating as if the institution does not exist.

Give no cover to anyone aligned with the six hateful SCOTUS justices. The system won’t deal with them but we can legally make the lives of these powerful individuals extremely uncomfortable if we are willing.

Trans people are humans. But several SCOTUS justices sure are not.

No matter what SCOTUS says today, brace yourself for some hot garbage out there in the world today. I'm sending hugs.

The bad news is 36 people unsubscribed from my newsletter. The good news is 1,055 people did not! 😍

Announcement! I have a new newsletter about social justice, data science, and their intersections. In its former incarnation it was an email blast about my book, but now I am broadening things (and I moved to Buttondown as a platform). I hope you will subscribe for the low low price of $0!

Democracy doesn't need a majority of authoritarians to erode. It just needs a public that won't punish on norm-breakers — and saves its disapproval for the people making a fuss. Says who? Says math. Too bad about the drama below. I withdrew from that journal, revised, and submitted elsewhere.

When I tried to check in the desk attendant called me classist for wanting to book a room when some people have never had a room

Democracy doesn't need a majority of authoritarians to erode. It just needs a public that won't punish on norm-breakers — and saves its disapproval for the people making a fuss. Says who? Says math. Too bad about the drama below. I withdrew from that journal, revised, and submitted elsewhere.

I think you mean human-Rey.

Just reminding you (spoiler alert) that in Chicago Med Season 1 Episode 3 a dude gets impaled by a Chihuly.

Confession. @katelynburns.com, every time I see you here, the first thing my brain does is

I want to thank everyone here for the amazing support and good cheer yesterday, my book's publication day. The kind words and pix of y'all with the book are deeply appreciated. I sincerely hope that it's a worthwhile read for you, and that it spreads some knowledge, humor, inspiration, and hope.

Today is — at long last — official launch day for my book, "Unlocking Justice." I wrote it to help and to be hopeful. Tradition says I post a pic of me with the book. 🤷‍♂️I'm overthrowing tradition and posting (abbreviated) acknowledgments. This book exists only because of so many people. I feel moved.

Harvard has just voted to cap grades: instructors may assign A's to a max of 20% of students (plus four) per course. The outcome will unfairly harm racially minoritized students and, through course evals, gender minoritized instructors. My new piece in Inside Higher Ed. #AcademicSky #EduSky

A federal judge had sex with a police officer in chambers, lied about it in writing twice, and got a private reprimand. The public can't learn the judge's name. The system worked, judges say, because no conflict of interest landed on the docket. I am not having it. Read and share. #LawSky

Since I was feeling a bit salty about math world over the last few days I decided to punish us all with this literal hell. You're welcome.

I promise not to post every positive thing someone says about my book but since it's my first one and I am unreasonably excited I hope you will indulge me a little. I am so moved that people are getting something out of it. If you decide to read it I hope you do too: www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Ju...

So, @tressiemcphd.bsky.social writes a brilliant (as usual) op-ed about genAI and some tech bro attempts to ridicule it. The guy, Mike Solana, is probably not worth my time but it seems he's gay and as a Gay, I am unduly annoyed by evil gays. Also, I'm bored. So here's my debunking of this guy.

I am very pleased to have this op-ed about the Federalist Society out as of just now. Except that I would be more pleased if FedSoc did not exist. #LawSky

Many of us are livid about Kickstarter's new "mature content" rules. Over the past day, I have looked at a decade of data to see who may be harmed. Comic artists. Gender minorities. Disabled, deaf, blind, queer, and chronically ill users. Sex workers. International creators. A data-driven look:

Hey queers and our allies, you know how we've all been EXTREMELY BUSY for the past year ostentatiously not-shopping at Target? Please keep it up.

Goddess help me, I'm diving into the AI-in-math convo. Tim Gowers says ChatGPT 5.5 Pro did "PhD-level" math in an hour with no input from him. Terence Tao tells Nature the job description is changing. I wrote up what I think, including what could be lost: people, training, equity... #MathSky

Obviously. It's only legal when Republicans do it.

If an op-ed is trying to come off as data driven, it really helps when the data says what the author claims it says. Annotated edition of an NYT op-ed that defends school phone bans, but with the actual findings from every paper cited. chadtopaz.com/rebuttals/os... #AcademicSky #EconSky

I am completely gobsmacked and honestly kind of emotional to hold a physical copy of my book in my hand for the first time. Just now. Available June 2 but you can preorder: www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Ju...

News: I am very honored and extremely delighted to be giving the Dr Mandawuy Yunupingu Lecture at the 2026 meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society this December. This lecture is dedicated to celebrating Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in math. 😍 Hope to see you in Perth! #MathSky

🧵Here's a story of people doing things RIGHT in academia. Why? Well, I am not shy about critiquing higher ed and associated industries, so I figure it might be useful to share examples of good behavior. This is the story of the best rejection I ever got. It was from McGill University. #AcademicSky

@yale.edu released a report on why the public (allegedly) doesn't trust higher education. The @nytimes.com covered it uncritically. So... I'm "pleased" to unveil my next debunking: an interactive annotated doc that points out factual, logical, and rhetorical errors. Enjoy! #AcademicSky

Another professor wrote a campus paper piece arguing that the economics gender gap is mostly biology. This... did not survive close reading. So because I am this way, I made an interactive annotated edition cataloging the factual, logical, and rhetorical errors. Wheee... Enjoy! #EconSky #AcademicSky

Dear University of Iowa, I am, uh, a lot more qualified than Chris Rufo and would gladly come speak for LESS than $34,000, call me. Also, the actual conceit of my platform will NOT be that you should cease to exist.

Disclosing for first time: I’m thinking of how I resigned from the SBE Committee of Visitors (basically, external review) a year ago because I wanted our report to address Trump’s cuts/directives and NSF leadership’s compliance and I got told no, I was being too political. 🤷🏻‍♂️😭

"Liminal Spaces," an academic found poem in 12 parallel acts Submitted Under Review In Review With Editor Editor Assigned Out for Review With Editor Under Evaluation Under Review Submitted Editorial Assignment In Review

I am FLOORED that my book—out May 19—is the #1 new release in general elections and political processes. I want to disseminate its justice-focused message as widely as possible. Can you support the momentum by sharing this post or preordering at www.amazon.com/dp/0691276153 or your fave bookseller?

🚨 80% of Nobel Prizes go to folx in 5 countries. Why? We analyzed 75 years of prize committees, nominators, nominees, and laureates... a network of 500k edges. Turns out nominators choose compatriots at 5x the expected rate — amplifying geographic bias. Read: osf.io/preprints/so... #AcademicSky

My Boston Globe op-ed this morning asks: why is Massachusetts Governor Healy nominating so many former prosecutors to the bench despite strong evidence that prosecutorial backgrounds can worsen bail and detention outcomes?

I've been busy all weekend rage-coding and rage-writing this, which goes out to #LawSky. Behold a mathematicians' wrath at the mindboggling law review publishing system. Basically, I build a gigantic simulation model to show how much the system sucks. Hoping to get this up on SSRN before long.

My entire feed rn is: may Kristi Noem burn in hell, experience the suffering she had caused others, etc etc and I kind of love my feed.