I submitted my OMB comment! When it's live, I'll share for anyone interested in my 14 pages of sheer brilliance. Bookmark this skeet to find it later. Don't forget to send your letter to your congressional reps! Tell them why to care: buttondown.com/crgibbons/ar...

@cdelawalla.bsky.social love your work! I also made a tool to help people write a comment that's original to them! tinyurl.com/MF-omb As you respond to prompts, you're building a comment and you can download the txt file at the end. Bonus on how to send it to your members of Congress!

Check out the latest edition of my newsletter, MOTHERFUNCTOR! ("structure-preserving political commentary for mathematicians")

I get too many emails about AI* powered apps that will change my life as a professor…! But what's the actual economic plan? There's no way these apps are sustainable at the current price points & no way most schools will justify paying the real price tag. So is it just a bunch of get-rich-now shit?

Check out the latest edition of my newsletter, MOTHERFUNCTOR! ("structure-preserving political commentary for mathematicians")

I got a targeted job listing on LinkedIn that said "at least 5 peer-reviewed publications" and then, a few bullets down, "h-index of at least 20" Ah yes. I see now why you want to hire people to improve the output of your garbage LLM output, @handshake.bsky.social

My kid is obsessed with the Rhubarb Barbara tongue twister and has made it all the way to the final Bärbel in German. I really don't know what he and his dad get up to while I'm at work, but evidently it's not just polyhedra influencers in their YouTube rotation.

Hi mutuals! I'm seeking a writing buddy (on zoom or discord or whatever that's not a Meta product) for a couple hours a week. I can't seem to self-motivate but knowing that you are *also* trying to write is helpful. (I have a book deadline that's too far away for adrenaline or panic to help...)

I was expecting more Ted Lasso tbh

Every humanities professor from the last 20 years

The humanities are back, tell everyone

"I know you are but what am I?" is the only possible response.

A dessert for your holiday menu: Reflecting Pool Jello. 🇺🇸 💚

buy @chanda.blacksky.app's book! bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

Sylvia Serfaty, prix Riemann 2025

Math peeps, whomst among you is a Lean person? I want to use the game skeleton to create a game for my algebra course, but... I don't really know Lean! (Alternatively, short Lean challenges in my perfect book?) #mathsky #pretextgang CC: @clontz.org

None

Some glassmakers got together in my yard, but I told them to pound sand.

DUE TOMORROW (6/29) USFS using a SIX DAY comment period is trying to rush forward with a logging project that targets 11 million acres of our national forests. Please comment here cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/Comme... My comment if you need talking points: birdsmatter.wordpress.com/2026/06/28/u...

The best sleep I've ever gotten was in Germany, in Berlin, after taking something called Rhinopront with a picture indicating it was for sinus stuff (maybe an antihistamine)? But then I barely move the next day and the person I was traveling with had to call the front desk and add a day to our stay.

You've Skanked your last Pickle

I'm having trouble squaring "we don't want students using AI to try to get ahead" and "here's another way in which high GPA will be rewarded" conversations. Let's reward students who engage with hard material, even if they get B's/C's sometimes. Remove the 4.0 incentive. Define "best" differently.

I was sick of seeing JD Vance's memoir get all of the book coverage. So I asked a bunch of writers I know and love what recent books they think should get more attention. These are books for people who actually like to read. Please check them out! lithub.com/40-great-new...

Amazing, but deeply sobering, insight into an AI predictive policing program and its impacts thanks to records requests and a full investigation by @mattburgess1.bsky.social and Mark Wilding www.wired.com/story/britis...

10/10, perfectly executed

Today was a long day and it ended with me losing my fight with JavaScript among other things, but tomorrow is a new day (unless that erase-everything particle decides otherwise) Cf. www.sciencefocus.com/space/how-th...

I know it's possible to call an election with only 30% of the ballots in, but it still irks me when it happens. DiNapoli is a fine comptroller, but I hope he takes a look at how much of the vote went to the other candidates whose platforms are "just like DiNapoli, but divested from Palantír etc"

Thinking about ... taking a vacation? Is this real life? I can just rent a small house by a beach for my family for a week? And it's somehow not much more than a hotel? (I'm sure tomorrow I'll wake up and realize why it's impossible but it's fun to dream.)

💀

None

It's Juneteenth. It feels like the US is running backwards in time, looking for its worst self, and I will spend some time today thinking about how I can use my strengths to be part of getting things moving toward justice again.

More advice on writing a comment on that kerfuffle of a grants regulation docket. You can pick a starting persona to get some ideas! buttondown.com/crgibbons/ar...

For those with PTSD, a stressor linked to a memory of a harrowing, traumatic event produces a grave sense of danger or fear — inducing a pronounced fight-or-flight response. #PTSDAwarenessMonth vist.ly/583t8

Ring the bells (and strike the modifiers): I've been promoted to Professor effective July 1!

Did I mention my GUIDE to math people whose WELFARE I'm trying to protect by urging them in a NEW DIRECTION? buttondown.com/crgibbons/ar...

A guide for writing a comment on a federal docket! Part 1 of 3! For math people, broadly construed. Send it to the folks in your life you know WANT to write a comment but feel a little scared. buttondown.com/crgibbons/ar...

I wrote 25K words about the OMB nonsense, trimmed it down to 15K, split it into pieces of roughly 5K words each, then expanded one back to 15K words, so anyway, the newsletter this week is going to be a bit dense

"[Hampshire College] was intellectually engaging and exciting, and at the same time an economically efficient and effective educational institution." www.amherstindy.org/2026/06/05/h...

Every so often, I wake up thinking about Walden Pond and how Thoreau's mom still did his laundry while he was living his solitary reflective life. Reminds of a minimalist ex-partner who proudly didn't own much, not even a bike, but encouraged me to have *two* bikes so we could go on bike rides.

I'm just gonna leave this here.

Looking for positive, community-oriented ways to encourage pro-social student behavior. I have a few thoughts (below) but want to hear your ideas!

I think states need to treat trillionaires as a national security threat.

This is why the refusal to allow a Somalian citizen in the country to referee a soccer match is so disturbing: it is an attempt to demonize Somalis, and to try to otherize them before the election. What a ghastly set of ghouls that populate the Trump Administration: those lovely white indentarians.

🧪⚛️ For scale, this is roughly 25 years of NSF funding, or 5 years of NIH funding. This, from people who claim that we can’t afford to support research, or public health.

Couldn't stop myself from commenting (politely but critically) on an "AI could do anybody's dissertation in 30 min" post on linkedin, only for the author to reply and immediately like his own comment. Sorry, but AI has "done" what, 2 math problems? Matrix multiplication and Erdos distance? 🙄💅🏻

AI reviews are especially annoying because they are great at raising issues that appear to be legitimate to overworked associate editors, but which are in fact nonsense.

Read, share, subscribe, get mad, get busy! buttondown.com/crgibbons/ar...