Owen Biesel
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owenbiesel.bsky.social
Owen Biesel
@owenbiesel.bsky.social
620 followers 540 following 360 posts
Math prof, dad, gardener, knitter, cyclist, community member, friendly introvert. he/him 🏳️‍🌈

Also on mastodon as @[email protected]
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owenbiesel.bsky.social
This sunday is Sun Day: a pro-social, pro-solar day of actions around the world. I'll be going to a family-friendly E-bike / EV event I only just heard about today — you can find an event near you here!

www.sunday.earth/events

Hat tip: @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social 's latest newsletter!
A map of the continental US and southern Canada showing a dense sprinkling of colorful Sun symbols, one for each Sun Day event.
September 17, 2025 at 11:04 AM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
It was a good haul at the library this morning :)
Photo of my hand holding three library books: "Bullshit Jobs" by David Graeber, "The Grid" by Gretchen Bakke, and "The Lost Cause" by Cory Doctorow
September 6, 2025 at 3:52 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Biked from work to my kid's school to pick her up for a swimming lesson across town. Here's my view of her school stuff, my bag of work stuff, and her wet towel drying in the milk crate zip-tied to the handlebars.
Photo from the perspective of riding a bike. Attached to the handlebars is a black milk crate with a pink backpack, a hi-vis bag, and a rolled-up beach towel. Ahead of the bike is a road intersection, and behind it, a large natural cliff rising against the horizon.
September 3, 2025 at 11:43 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Alignment chart for different ways to write nonabelian. Lawful good: non-commutative Neutral good: noncommutative Chaotic good: non commutative Lawful neutral: non-Abelian True neutral: nonabelian Chaotic neutral: non Abelian Lawful evil: non-abelian Neutral evil: non abelian Chaotic evil: nonAbelian
August 18, 2025 at 11:54 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
The matrix product (3 4 \\ 8 7) (7 2 \\ 4 9) = (37 42 \\ 84 79), with the entries from the first matrix colored red (along with the matching tens digits in the product) and the entries from the second matrix colored blue (along with the ones digits in the product). Shown with the "Well yes, but actually no" Pirate Captain meme.
August 18, 2025 at 11:52 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Spiderman pointing at Spiderman, but with seven Spidermans (Spidermen?) labeled "det(A)≠0", "columns form basis", "rank(A)=n", "No free variables", "Ax=b unique solution", "A invertible", and "0 not an eigenvalue."
August 18, 2025 at 11:49 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
The aurora borealis part of the "Steamed Hams" Simpsons sketch, with the following dialogue: Chalmers: You're saying there are exactly n complex roots for any nth-degree polynomial? Skinner (labeled "Gauss"): Yes. Chalmers: May I see them? Skinner (labeled "Galois"): No.
August 18, 2025 at 11:46 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Three cats snuggling. The cat on the left looks happy and is labeled "midpoint sum." The cat on the right is also happy and labeled "trapezoid sum." The cat in the middle looks irritated at being squished and is labeled "definite integral."
August 18, 2025 at 11:39 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Photo with the heading "Correlation Vs. Causation" Shown is a railing on a grassy beach with two seagulls. One seagull is perched on a straight section of railing. The other is at the bottom of segment bent into a V-shape, suggesting that the weight of the seagull bent the railing.
August 18, 2025 at 11:37 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Meme format "Depends on the context" with the following panels: Clara: Is f continuous? Doctor: Depends on the context. Doctor: In the standard topology? No. Doctor: In the discrete topology? Yes.
August 18, 2025 at 11:36 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Here's a photo of me from when I visited Minneapolis earlier this summer. I happened to come across the same style bus shelter, and wearing the same shirt, as in my profile picture. Please pardon my facial expression; I seem to have gotten worse at selfies since 2022.
Photo of me using my finger to indicate the square spiral pattern of a glass bus shelter. My face is showing excitement, I guess?
August 10, 2025 at 7:07 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
I had a lot of fun trying to make a Venn* diagram with a kite-shaped region for kites, and a parallelogram-shaped region for parallelograms, and so on... It's a great exercise for people who feel like they "know this already"!

*Euler, I know

www.owenbiesel.com/2020/11/30/a...
A Venn diagram of quadrilaterals, where each region is shaped like the type of quadrilateral it contains. For example, a brown rectangle intersects a teal rhombus in a pink square, because the intersection of the set of rectangles and the set of rhombi is the set of squares.
June 9, 2025 at 6:05 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Here's one I saved — apologies, I can't remember the source:
A multiple choice survey question with options "None", "Mild", "Moderate", "Severe", "Extreme", and "Prefer not to say". The question is "Age".
June 4, 2025 at 2:16 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Just cancelled Paramount+ for this reason!

The terms of cancellation say "You acknowledge and agree that cancellation of your subscription is your sole recourse if you have any dissatisfaction, issue or concern related to Paramount+, ..." Well okay then!
Screenshot of Paramount+'s "We're sorry to see you go!" survey. The "Other (provide feedback below)" option is selected, and the provided feedback is "The loss of CBS's editorial independence means the loss of its customers."
May 20, 2025 at 2:13 AM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Photo of a mug on a store shelf. The mug has a slogan, the bottom half of which is obscured by a sticker. The slogan and sticker together say "The future is / reduced for quick sale: $2"
May 16, 2025 at 2:34 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Uh, do we really fund pediatric medical research and presidential election campaigns out of the same pile of donations?

Definitely not the *biggest* US issue right now, but still: what??
What is the Presidential Election Campaign Fund? You can choose to have $3 go to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. This fund helps pay for Presidential election campaigns. The fund reduces candidates' dependence on large contributions from individuals and groups and places candidates on an equal financial footing in the general election. The fund also helps pay for pediatric medical research. Your tax refund won't change if you choose this option.
April 10, 2025 at 7:21 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system:
Message Regarding Pause on Federal Grants and Loans Dear CSCU Community, The White House Office of Management and Budget sent a memo to federal agencies Monday, ordering a temporary pause to all grants and loans disbursed by the federal government effective at 5:00 p.m. today. At this moment, the scope of the impact of this memo on higher education and CSCU remains unclear. However, the memo does indicate that the term federal financial assistance does not include assistance provided directly to individuals, nor does it impact Medicare or Social Security. Our immediate concerns surround not only financial assistance to our students in many forms and other higher education grants, but also the other federally funded programs that so many of our students and their families rely on. CSCU is closely monitoring the situation and has reached out to our partners at the state and federal levels. We understand the challenges this situation presents, and we will provide updates to you as new information becomes available. Thank you, Terrence Cheng CSCU Chancellor
January 28, 2025 at 11:14 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Here's a pictorial illustration I made the last time I saw this problem, showing the case 16 + 17 + 18 + 19 + 20 = 21 + 22 + 23 + 24:
A diagram showing a three-dimensional array of balls, forming a brick with a 4x4 base of balls and 5 balls high with an extra triangular array stuck to the side. The slices from top to bottom have 16, 17, ..., 20 balls, and the slices from front to back have 21, 22, ..., 24 balls.
November 19, 2024 at 5:04 PM
owenbiesel.bsky.social
Corvid question that's been bugging me: I often see cartoon depictions of crow-like birds with yellow beaks, as in the picture book and board game shown here. Are corvids like these common somewhere?
The cover of the children's board game "First Orchard", showing a black crow-like bird with a yellow beak. The cover of the picture book "In the Town All Year 'Round" by Rotraut Susanne Berner, showing a bustling town square. In the center of the illustration is a raven-like bird with a yellow beak perched on a large shade umbrella.
August 23, 2024 at 10:31 PM