one of the key ways senior managers with critical gaps in their understanding of the institution perpetuate more of the same

Are there any lessons for the UK to learn hahahhahahaha of course not.

“The advice from these consultants is always the same (not much of a surprise since hawking the same goods around different captive markets is an efficient way to turn a penny)… www.ft.com/content/5032...

mathematicians writing about past mathematics

In today's AIP History Weekly Edition @janpotters.bsky.social looks at Tom Kuhn's frustrations interviewing ~100 physicists for the landmark Sources for History of Quantum Physics project. An important lesson in what we want from oral history and what it can give us. 📷Niels Bohr & Homer Dodge #HPS

"One of the recurring lessons—and this is not at all unique to mathematics—is that internationalism is always about compromises." - me, in @sciam.bsky.social

Extra wide rainbow at Granton yesterday needed 2 images blended together with jiggerypokery - was a beezer so it was worth it I think. #jiggerypokery #Rainbow #Edinburgh

👇👇👇👇👇👇

I’ve said it before and I’ll no doubt say it again. Universities are roughly 1000 years old. They predate most operating models including capitalism and have lasted for a reason. Installing insecure, helpless managers who ape business methods results in bad businesses, not good universities.

Can we have one of these inquiries here, please? #UKHE is also leading a stupid amount of money from the public institutions to these leechy private businesses. And yes, the lack of accountability is a key part of the issue about that.

"One of the recurring lessons—and this is not at all unique to mathematics—is that internationalism is always about compromises." - me, in @sciam.bsky.social

maths history gets into the congressional record so rarely, is it too much to ask that they don't get basic facts wrong?

One of the automated tasks Canvas is promising is "rubric generation." What if I said that moving away from rubric-based assessment is a necessity to preserve your labor and freedom to teach as you wish? We have to look underneath the hood of the systems this technology is shaping.

American universities meet the kind of New Public Management slop Brits have been dealing with since the 1980s. We feel your pain.

Never not shouting that this is DOUBLE wage theft, from the staffer who should be doing the work, and from the reimbursee forced to do it, purely for the purpose of channeling often public university funds into private app developer coffers and it sucks.

the tech isn't good enough for routine administrative transcription (in my experience of others trying to use it in meetings I've been a part of) nevermind scholarly translation

My fear: the work that will need undoing after this is unfathomable, and the resources to undo it will be gone. Consider how far a fake quotation spreads before it’s caught, and how rarely a correction happens even then. The legacy of slop scholarship is going to be several orders of magnitude worse

Will the ICM ultimately be cancelled because of A) visas B) US aggression C) the cost of fuel needed for travel to Philly from anywhere outside of Philly D) some other thing between now and July ?

New from me in AMS Notices: A Very Brief Political History of American-hosted International Congresses of Mathematicians https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/202604/noti3314/noti3314.html

Happy vernal equinox! On an armillary sphere and similar instruments, the equinoxes are the two points when the ecliptic (Sun's annual path) crosses the celestial equator.

As it did four years ago, the international mathematics community faces a clear choice about what its highest values and aspirations mean. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

You can read the full paper online here -> philsci-archive.pitt.edu/24208/

at the overflow-capacity seminar presentation of the season with Prof Dame Ursula Martin CDBFRSEEng @umartin.bsky.social , which has started with the traditional 15 minutes of nobody in a room full of computer scientists being able to get the slides to display on the big screen

Absolutely serious when I say the history of projecting is highly relevant to this moment in both its ludicrous/scammy and its epically/epochally destructive aspects

mathematicians you should sign this; it is morally correct

i'm not in the math(s) community but speaking as a US academic: international conferences should not be planning to convene here. 1) it's not safe; 2, we deserve to be boycotted

As an American and someone who knows how much work was put into obtaining and organizing the ICM, it pains me to sign this, but I must. We must face how unsafe of a country the US has become. We cannot selfishly host the ICM at this time. Pretending all is fine is how we got here in the first place.

As it did four years ago, the international mathematics community faces a clear choice about what its highest values and aspirations mean. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

"What...are we to make of white women physicians who opened doors to women in medicine, contributed toward improved care for women and children, celebrated women’s participation in civic and professional leadership, and were avid eugenicists?" lareviewofbooks.org/article/whit...

really like this take on one of the most overused tropes in many fields including mine

New from me in @amermathsoc.bsky.social Notices: A Very Brief Political History of American-hosted International Congresses of Mathematicians www.ams.org/journals/not...

conference history FTW!

You can read in the same issue a letter to the editor that I wrote, raising concerns about the International Congress of Mathematicians to be held in USA shortly. #MathSky

👀👀 "Some aspects from American congresses past, such as the conditions under which the United States bid to host the ICM, the role of private philanthropy in the Congress’s organization, and tension over travel and visas, may appear familiar to those looking ahead to the 2026 congress."

This is a great read. " In his plan for the medal, Fields included a number of stipulations intended to avoid international rivalry, including that the medal not be named for any person or place." 🙃

ok maths buddies, what are we doing this year for Hypatia's birthday?

New from me in @amermathsoc.bsky.social Notices: A Very Brief Political History of American-hosted International Congresses of Mathematicians www.ams.org/journals/not...

happy, copy editor's "appreciatoin week" to those whom celabrate

feels like genai "analysis" of written consultations breaks a fundamental compact of responsibility of governors to the governed. humans don't have a great record of taking in responses, but the practise of having a human read them is such a basic part of what political representation should mean.

I know not that it has been defined before.

hardened mobster in a white apron, brandishing a meat thermometer: The only FBI we worry about in *this* kitchen is Food Borne Illness 🧑‍🍳

These fictions degrade us both, computer.

"Although it is written in French, it should stand out as a major contribution" ❤️🇫🇷 www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....

about to see a lot of universities get much more committed to verifying 2FA for every single bloody interaction

Hey! Scholars! If you're using someone's work in your class, sometimes it's nice to email them and tell them, because then they might feel good about their research instead of entirely crushed by the academic humanities' ongoing descent into the grave

This is a shameful non-statement by the AMS. But 100% on brand for them.

I've seen the 50% cost unit spiral thing in action first-hand. What it inevitably produces, what it must produce in order to get to that magical 50%, is far smaller course teams (was less salary costs), and fewer courses on offer. It never, ever, goes the other way.

It's the caring labour of coding that is constantly rendered invisible. Real Men move fast and heroically break things, ripping the future into the present whether we like it or not. Caring whether it's fit for purpose and methodically examining what's being proposed to assess it is for pussies.

Time for our weekly reminder that there is only one ed tech investment that is proven to work, and it's hiring more teachers and paying them better.