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Robert Low

@robjlow.bsky.social

190 followers 140 following 1K posts

Ex maths lecturer. Now classics postgrad (MA) @ClassicsWarwick. Also @[email protected], mostly maths there. Mostly lurking for the moment, haven't yet given up on Twitter completely.

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Reposted by Robert Low

Anthony Etherin @anthonyetherin.bsky.social · 13h

THE CALL OF CTHULHU (Palindrome)

Do glassy
bays tug
at a gutsy
abyssal god?

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 5h

Asleep usually. Just can't concentrate on them.

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 9h

"But apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you like the play?"

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 10h

There's also the issue that it might converge to the wrong thing...

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 10h

Somebody needs to learn about the difference between C^\infty and analytic.

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 1d

My dad got his revenge differently. He drove down to the house I eventually bought loaded up with all the books from my (old) bedroom. There were a couple of thousand... Most of them spent the next <mumble> years in boxes in the attic.

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 1d

"The reason the arguments are so vicious is that the stakes are so low."

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 1d

I do recall a minor cultural conflict about whether the fifty minute hour was on the hour till ten to, ten past till on the hour, or five past until five to. (There was a university policy, but surprisingly many people that that 'this was how we did it at my last place' overrode that.)

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 1d

As long as they don't count a picture as a thousand words...

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 1d

And it's not as if there hasn't always been a thriving trade in getting somebody else to do the essay - it's just that now it isn't restricted to the affluent ones. 2/2

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 1d

I remain convinced that the only way to get students not to use AI is to persuade them that the process they go through to write the essay is where the value of the exercise lies, not the submission of an essay. This may, of course, be quite hard. 1/2

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 3d

Practising for the great Xmas light battle to come.

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 3d

Clear from the context

#MathSky

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 3d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 3d

"The chancellor approved it"

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 3d

I got lucky - three possibilities for the first letter with two goes left.

Wordle 1,576 5/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 5d

Yes: either a really tedious grind or, if you spot it, an 'ah-ha!' moment. I don't like the ones that are just a really tedious grind. (That may, of course, just mean that I don't always have the moment 😬.)

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 8d

Keep pushing! Things must be due to get better again: in my state school (the local comprehensive) Latin was available as a matter of course, and Ancient Greek by special request (which, to be fair, was not common). But things changed a lot in the half century since then :-(

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 8d

It's all part of the Brexti bonus.

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 11d

The (unfortunate) fact that it also means 'date-palm' has, on occasion, caused me considerable confusion. (Always clear from the context, indeed :-()

Reposted by Robert Low

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 13d

So much this (the "but" part).

Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 18d

New analysis of a 1-million yr old fossil skull captured worldwide media attention this week, with many headlines saying it requires a complete rewrite/rethink of human evolution. This is an intriguing study & it's brilliant to see so much public enthusiasm for deciphering our origins, but....1/n 🧪

Image shows just two example headlines from prominent media outlets earlier this week, heralding a newly published discovery that supposedly "rewrites human evolution". Left side, from the BBC: "Million-year-old skull rewrites human evolution, scientists claim"; right side, from the New York Post: "1M-year-old skull discovery could change everything we know about human evolution".

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 13d

...the sort of nonsense up with which one should refuse to put.

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 13d

Finally, a real use for those addition formulae :-)

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 15d

Ok the other hand, maybe if he thinks about it hard enough he'll have the genius idea of reclassifying some fraction of universities as polytechnics. (As it happens I think that dissolving the binary divide was really harmful to HE.)

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 15d

This is nice: a real grind (probably need a computer to do the arithmetic), or a flash of insight that makes it doable without even pencil and paper.

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 18d

Somebody took seriously the injunction to "let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth" (and maybe also took it a tiny bit out of context).

Robert Low @robjlow.bsky.social · 19d

Pretty sure i remember when "everybody knew"* that prehistoric society was matriarchal and they all worshipped the Great Mother Goddess.

*They didn't really know that.