Tony O’Farrell addresses the crowd today at Broombridge for the (36th?) annual Hamilton Walk. Eoin Gill, Marcus du Sautoy, Colin Wright and yours truly in the mugshot!

Today is the day that we walk from Dunsink Observatory to Broombridge and sing Happy Birthday to the quaternions. I once bought a telepathic abacus for a friend's birthday. They didn't really like it, but it's the thought that counts. #mathsweek @diasdunsink.bsky.social

Lots of people like Fractals, but they don't always make good friends - they are *so* full of themselves. #mathsweek

Since the president has zero actual power and is 99.99% ceremonial can we replace the debates/interviews with skill tests. Can they deliver a speech opening a civic centre in the rain? Can they learn the names and faces of 50 visiting dignitaries in 10 minute, then recall them in a receiving line?

On the one hand, it's quite nice to be proved right. On the other hand, that's 6000 companies due to report who now I have to catalogue or else the data is lost forever because the govt., once again, have failed to deliver on a promise... paygap.ie/blog/news/no...

For 85 years, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies has been a home for discovery, where curiosity meets innovation. Join us as we look back on more than eight decades of groundbreaking research, remarkable people, and the pursuit of knowledge that continues to shape our world. #DIAS85

While chatting to someone about #mathsweek, I was reminded that linguistics can be mathematical. A joke in that spirit: A large class is learning about the importance of clear writing. The lecturer says "Be careful with double negatives; in English a double negative makes a positive." ...

Each year, #mathsweek is a few weeks after the equinox. So, this year some mathematicians were given the job of studying time. They started out by counting seconds. However, they quickly got bored and after 24 hours they called it a day. @diasdunsink.bsky.social

Cén fáth a raibh eagla ar 6 roimh 7? Mar nach n-oibríonn jócanna dátheangacha scaití

As part of #mathsweek, there is a special Lá na Mata organised in Galway, including @davidstifter.bsky.social, @cathal.bsky.social and others. So, I have a few as Gaeilge maths jokes...

www.youtube.com/shorts/i4w5d... Might amuse @abeba.bsky.social and others...

Accurate. #academia #academy #philsky #philosophysky #philosophy #science

Studying for a geometry exam during #mathsweek? My top tip? Make sure to cover all the angles.

Sad to hear of the sudden death of Mike Coey, a magnetic personality both literally and figuratively! A great loss for #trinitycollegedublin and for physics in Ireland.

Death in a Shallow Pond by @davidedmonds100.bsky.social is a fascinating account of Peter Singer’s controversial “drowning child” thought experiment—and how it changed the way people think about charitable giving. Out now. Learn more and explore a free sample: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Robert Troy to issue statement saying these are rookie numbers www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

More .well-known Scans https://isc.sans.edu/diary/32340

Tarbh (OIr. tarb) is the genitive plural. The genitive singular is tairbh/tairb. You don't necessarily need an article in old placenames. Here's the entry from e-Hogan (pp. 1079-80 = Edmund Hogan's Onomasticon Goidelicum, digitised by Donnchadh Ó Corráin c. 2015). It is online at... /1

Q. Can you vote in the Presidential election next month? A. Of course I can. I always vote. Q. Are you on the Register? A. Why wouldn't I be? *Checks Register. Name absent* Q. Who erased me? *Applies to be registerred* There are only a few days left to register.

Clontarf in Irish is usually given as "Cluain Tarbh", which is often casually translated as something like "Meadow of the Bull". Loganim gives "pasture of (the) bulls", even though I don't see a plural, maybe it wouldn't be natural to indicate it. @davidstifter.bsky.social @cathal.bsky.social

I was part of a working group on AI and Fraternity assembled by the Vatican. We met in Rome and worked on this over two days. I am happy to share the result of that intense effort: a Declaration we presented to the Pope and other government authorities coexistence.global

"Oh my days" is a relatively new thing to me - I learned it from YouTubers and only say it if I'm imitating them. However, it has *really* taken off in the last few years - see the Google Ngram below (which does contain things like "oh! my days are spent in vanity" in the flat bit of the curve.)

This is today! Join me at 11 so I'm not talking to an empty meeting 🙈😂

Definitely not a bubble when the pick axe makers invest in the biggest gold mine to encourage others to join the mania and drive up pick axe prices further.

This whole "Ireland needs a right wing presidential candidate" and "I'm being prevented from running" thing is funny because you only need 20 Oireachtas backers. You couldn't get 20 people to like you. Sounds like a skill issue tbh. #aras25

A good point - everyone trying to run for president now had 7 years to try and get about 20 people to like them, and are still falling at this hurdle. Our elections are not a surprise. I'm a loser with deep social anxiety and even I reckon I could get 20 people to like me over the course of 7 years

Lovely mural up on the North Strand today. There's a few people about the place who like to think it belongs to them and them alone, but it belongs to us all. Thanks to @dwmalone.bsky.social for the pic!

today is a good day to watch sneakers 🖤

Maynooth University graduate Zoë O'Sullivan has been named the Irish national winner of this year's James Dyson Award for her invention "Lymphia", a device that allows patients to perform lymphatic drainage independently

We're thrilled to announce that Nobel Laureate Professor Kip Thorne will deliver the 2025 Hamilton Lecture at the Royal Irish Academy on 16 October at 6pm. Thanks to Ibec for supporting Hamilton Day. You can now book your tickets here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/royalirishacademy/1819191

You can also use this resource fightchatcontrol.eu to email your MEPs about your opposition to #EUChatControl in a few easy clicks

Maynooth University welcomed Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science James Lawless TD to officially open Teach Uí Bhuachalla Student Accommodation, its new purpose-built student housing in the heart of Maynooth town. www.maynoothuniversity.ie/news-events/...

@beatricetropea.bsky.social presenting our new work with @benschulz.bsky.social (fresh 2-hand 🧵 below ⬇️) on the regulation of N-glycosylation efficiency by eukaryotic OST @CECAM meeting in Cagliari, Italy 🎉😎

Not too surprising: LLMs have their place, and using them outside that slows things down. Their place is much smaller than the tech marketers, and some comp sci academics, have been saying ... and probably a bit bigger than the most extreme critics suggest.

We're going to see a lot of bullshit in the coming days and weeks about "causes of autism", and most will be based on flawed, over-interpreted observational studies (1/n)

This is quite an interesting idea of how to measure the impact of AI on coding: mikelovesrobots.substack.com/p/wheres-the...

May be of interest to maths teachers - the Irish Maths Olympiad Round 1 will run Sep 15-19. If you are a teacher and you want to run it, see details here: www.irmo.ie/Round-1.html - letters are also being sent to schools.

Radical right accommodation really does not work. New paper out with this exceptionally talented team @katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk doi.org/10.31235/osf...

Two Maynooth University research projects aimed at addressing societal challenges have been awarded combined funding of more than €500,000 under the Research Ireland COALESCE programme. www.maynoothuniversity.ie/faculty-scie...

The team of the Glasgow-Maynooth OG(H)AM project invite you to the launch of the new Ogham in 3D website on Friday 12 September from 15.30–16.45 in the @ria.ie as part of the conference Teangeolaíocht na Gaeilge. All information and tickets available at www.tickettailor.com/events/mayno....

I've not been on here as much as I'd have liked lately - it turns out that being part of the @tmip.bsky.social committee becomes very full on and intense in the run up to and during the biennial conference. But #tmip25 is now done and dusted, so allow me to share a couple of highlights...

Anyone in the math GR / geometric analysis communiy know anyone who's in need of a postdoc around 1 year from now and would be interested in coming to the frozen wastelands of the north? (And has/will have a non-Euro PhD)

Some people might like www.dwmalone.net/warlock.pdf It is the connection graph for the sections in Warlock of Firetop Mountain. (Solid/dotted arrows show in-text/hidden links.) I've been working on graphs for a few FF books with the help of one of the kids. @hjdoom.bsky.social @niallm.bsky.social

We Have AI Now www.youtube.com/shorts/8-lgJ...

Here's the mean and median points achieved by LC students in this year's CAO. They are slightly down, but not a lot, as might have been guessed from the LC results. For comparison, I've included the average points for six LC subjects - it is below the CAO curve by about 12 points.

For your amusement, Births registered in Ireland from 1989 to 2024.

Blu Tack Art My attention was drawn today to this scuplture which is currently on display in the Department of Physics at Maynooth University. The artist and subject are unknown (to me) and the work is not dated, but the material is clearly Blu Tack, a putty-like pressure-sensitive adhesive…

Want a job? We're hiring for our #techsupport #custserv team www.irishjobs.ie/job/technic... #hosting #domains #broadband

The number of people doing the Leaving Cert is now higher than in 2000, though it has some way to go before it beats the number doing the leaving in 1995.