Paul Goldberg

If anyone cares, I automatically unfollow anyone who uses the word "bigot" (or related ones like "bigotry"). It's a crass left-wing term of abuse that has no meaning beyond being a term of abuse. It's as bad as "woke".

No-one that age does that stuff, any more

I agree with what you wrote, but can we at least be cheerful that they are now going to support the policies that delivered improved air quality? (I hope so...)

Excellent article. I added a comment there about the knock-on incentive for people from wealthier families to seek higher-paid work, as a consequence of not having student debt. Rich get richer!

If we're going to judge a paper on how many cites it gets, let's give higher value to cites long after the paper appeared, since those better reflect long-term impact vs. short-term fashionability. You might say that helps researchers who are older. But we all get old, so it's still fair!

Quick fix is to stop self-identifying as a rich country

I don't think they view the system as something immutable, and moreover they see themselves as victims not members. They see the system as something to be smashed up, and if that means voting for irresponsible people, so be it

It may be fine for most voters that the system is breaking even, but that's not going to be the sort of issue that affects how they vote. For graduates with debt, what's happening is becoming a salient political issue, and it will affect how they vote.

To answer your question, voters (the ones who have debt) are increasingly angry about being victims of a loanshark state. For them, doing nothing is not an option. Change for the sake of change is better than the status quo.

A suggestion: cut the interest rate to zero, and do what you like with the repayment threshold. That way, when a graduate makes any repayment, they're assured they're making headway against the debt. Meanwhile, government gets an incentive to keep inflation under control.

HONK TAKE YOUR TIME… I’M THE BOSS AROUND HERE HONK HONK HONK HONK NANCY IS THE SCHOOL CROSSING GUARD, AND SHE HAS STOPPED TRAFFIC, TO ALLOW A TURTLE TO CROSS THE ROADS

IT’S MONDAY
TAKE YOUR TIME- - -
NANCY’S THE BOSS
AROUND HERE

Thanks for the link! I always like your posts featuring Iranian architecture, and the article provided some interesting context.

Joe Halpern passed away Friday at the age of 72. He was a leader in mathematically reasoning about knowledge.

www.linkedin.com/pos...

Whenever I pay attention to the UK university tuition fees regime, I can see why some people feel the urge to push a big "reset" button on Brititish politics. As the number of debtors increases, there's a risk you get more and more people feeling that way.

I thought I'd try to boost my productivity by applying the "eat the frog first" principle, but now can't decide which of several frogs I should actually begin with 🐸🐸🐸

I recently heard about a review of a research paper that used the sentence "This paper fills a much-needed gap in the literature." (It is suspected that the reviewer intended it to be taken at face value.)

The fact that China's population is declining must have something to do with it. A declining population makes it easier to cut CO2 emissions. You don't have to cut per-capita consumption of carbon.

Is a secure AI assistant possible? Experts have made progress in LLM security. But some doubt AI assistants are ready for prime time.

AI agents are a risky business. Even when stuck inside the chatbox window, LLMs will make mistakes and behave badly. Once they have tools that they can use to interact with the outside world, such as web browsers and email addresses, the consequences of those mistakes become far more serious.

An interesting report imagining three futures for Europe in 10 years' time, and the role played by universities. The future scenarios are "Europe's resurrection", "Tech oligarchy under US hegemony", and "Fragmented society".

This is a great website, and yes I managed to find myself! Also spotted various other people that I should probably follow.

It's a good job I did not end up under "comic creators and enthusiasts" since that's a rather unstructured cluster, would be hard to find oneself there...

I saw this ad in an Aegean (airline) mag, and was pleased to see the 15-minute city aspect being pointed out as a selling point. I like to imagine the howls of outrage from the 15-min city opponents "no no no, you're not supposed to want that stuff!"

over 100 Tintins, and none of them are projectile sweating

This would make a nice illustration to accompany reminders about impending conference submission deadlines, especially AI conferences

reminds me of a science-fiction short story I read ages ago, about some future people who rediscover how to perform calculations on numbers. I can't remember what they actually do with that rediscovered skill, I think they try to weaponise it somehow...

Great photo! If I’ve got it right, it’s not just crabs, there’s a glorious abundance of miniature critters…

The worst aspect of UK tuition fees is that it involved government selling a dodgy product to naive 17 year olds. The notion that govt has citizens’ interests at heart, is undermined. Trust takes minutes to destroy and years to build.

El Roto

A graphic with a dark blue background and a bright turquoise rounded box with text reading '‘I'm delighted to be a Fellow of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences. Its simple mission - to benefit society through the power of mathematics - is something that I completely support.’ Professor Leslie Ann Goldberg, Head of Department of Computer Science’. On the left there is a circular photograph of Professor Leslie Ann Goldberg. There are bright turquoise lines with dots that represent circuit boards. At the bottom right there is text reading '@compscioxford #compscioxford'.

Professor Leslie Ann Goldberg has been named an inaugural Fellow of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences. The Academy brings together leading mathematicians to address national challenges through the power of mathematics. Read more: www.cs.ox.ac.uk/news/2507-fu...

The Academy for the Mathematical Sciences has announced its first cohort of fellows, 100 in total from academia, teaching, science communication and business. Twelve of those fellows are from Oxford.

Who's who: www.maths.ox.ac.uk/node/80068

I've never understood why it's considered to be a bad thing when a public policy happens to raise money, as opposed to lose it. Would the Oxford Times like it any better if the money received from fines somehow disappeared into a black hole?