@ijk@mathstodon.xyz
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

ijk

@ijk@mathstodon.xyz

Master's student; interested in general relativity (differential geometry & analysis of PDEs), analysis generally, combinatorial game theory, and cryptography. Avowed platonist.

(Profile pic is of a bumblebee on a yellow flower; banner is the bisexual pride flag with each colour made up by a starry nebula.)

#BiInSci
#ActuallyAutistic
#SocialismOrBarbarism
#TransRightsAreHumanRights
#FromTheRiverToTheSea

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ijk, to random
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

You would not believe the struggles I've had sourcing footwear. For five years now, I have been completely unable to find a shoe that satisfies all three of:

  1. Fits me and is comfortable to wear and put on;

  2. Doesn't break within weeks (including not just aesthetic damage but breakage in the sole letting water in, which is both uncomfortable – I've had to buy waterproof socks – and makes the shoe stink and therefore unusable long-term);

  3. Is of even a broadly acceptable style.

Ordinarily, "get an artisan to make you one" is not the most helpful answer to the question of how to acquire something, but in this case I'm desperate. Hence, this #AskFedi, where I'm seeking a shoemaker in the South East of England who I can commission to tailor me a pair of shoes.

I'm willing to pay a fair bit of money (but not huge prices), because I can't afford to keep replacing shoes that are functional for maybe a whole fortnight if I'm lucky, or taking a punt on the latest shit that Long Tall Sally assures me will actually fit on my feet at all this time.

Boosts appreciated; thank you.

ijk, to books
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Where (in England) do they sell physical copies of mathematics and physics textbooks that you can pick up and peruse before buying?

The obvious answer is Foyles on Charing Cross Road, but lately the selection of maths & physics textbooks there has been pitiful. They're barely bothering to stock textbooks any more (it didn't look much better for the adjacent chemistry and biology sections either), and lately when I've gone, it's not sated my need to physically shop for textbooks.

But where else sells such niche books?

#AskFedi #Books #Bookshop #Textbooks #Mathematics #Physics

ijk, to philosophy
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

An oddly specific #AskFedi, but Mastodon is the kind of place where I feel comfortable making a request like this, so here goes.

My request is for a female ethicist/moral philosopher (not necessarily a current or former professional philosopher, but someone who has at least a PhD in ethics/moral philosophy) who is a trans-inclusive feminist to DM me to advise me on a moral quandary I'm having relating to reproduction (not an urgent one, I should say, not remotely). I'm at the point where I cannot resolve the problem myself, but I don't feel like any of my female friends or family are capable of the kind of perspective or moral clarity that I need here. It's quite a big ask, I know, but for the first time in my life I need the services of a professional.

Boosts are much appreciated. Thank you.

#Philosophy #Ethics #MoralPhilosophy

ijk, to random
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Is there any equivalent of Windows's Snipping Tool for iOS? I'm finding it really limiting to have to take entire screenshots on my phone, and my laptop is out of commission. Boosts appreciated.

#AskFedi

christianp, to random
@christianp@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Today in colourblindness: my mum's picked up my son from nursery. She's sent me a photo of his hands, which seem to have some dark marks on them.
Is it mud, or is it blood? I've had to ask!

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@christianp What was it? Is your son okay?

ColinTheMathmo, to random
@ColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Well, that was a very disappointing sausage roll.

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo My condolences.

ijk, to random
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

This is your periodic reminder to NOT censor trigger words in your social media posts, because the people most affected by those triggers use the word-muting feature present on most social media to censor posts containing them automatically, and they cannot anticipate the myriad ways of censoring any given word so they can feed it into their mute list.

ColinTheMathmo, to random
@ColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyz avatar

You don't understand. Ferengi workers don't want to stop the exploitation. We want to find a way to become the exploiters. -- Rom in DS9, 'Bar Association'

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo "He was more than a hero: he was a union man!" – Miles O'Brien

ColinTheMathmo, (edited ) to random
@ColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Something someone mentioned recently started me wondering. So if you generally take showers (rather than, say, having a bath) then what gender are you mostly, and which way do you face?

I know gender is difficult and I'm excluding people, but I only have four options. I might try to create a 2D plot that lets people pick a point, but let's go simplistic for now.

If you feel excluded by the options, please feel free to let us know your preference in the comments.

Please feel free to boost for coverage.

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo I'm a woman, and it's always back to the water except where noted. I have a specific thing about keeping my (rather voluminous) hair as wet as possible, and back-to-the-water is the easiest way of managing that.

ColinTheMathmo, to random
@ColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Which letter in 'Scent' is silent? The 'S'? Or the 'C'?

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo Pedantic linguist answer: neither. <sc> here is a digraph whose phonemic value is /s/; asking which letter is silent is like asking which letter in <ch> is silent.

shriramk, to random
@shriramk@mastodon.social avatar

A British man in this airport is telling a Moroccan waiter that he's never before been to Morocco despite having a house "in Gibraltar". The Moroccan has trouble understanding so he repeats, "Gibraltar, in Spain".

I may have just witnessed the birth of an international incident.

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@johncarlosbaez @ccppurcell @christianp @shriramk It's common simply to refer to "these isles/islands", at least when we're actually on them.

christianp, to random
@christianp@mathstodon.xyz avatar

It looks like my extremely simple auto-moderation script is working now. It's doing nothing clever, so will have to change if the spammer changes pretty much anything about what they're doing, but they seem to have stuck with the same format for about 24 hours now.

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@christianp You're doing the Lord's work, and this denizen of the server appreciates it.

christianp, to random
@christianp@mathstodon.xyz avatar

When your son starts saying seemingly random numbers and you wonder if he's a numbers station sleeper cell

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@christianp "THE NUMBERS, MASON, WHAT DO THEY MEAN?"

(I don't know why I'm admitting to having played that game; even as a kid I knew it was shit. But you can play Zork on it, so there's that.)

ColinTheMathmo, to random
@ColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Apparently the DLR is planning to put cardboard steering wheels in their trains so passengers can pretend to be driving ...

I'm not sure how to react to that. On the one hand it's bonkers, and on the other hand it's bonkers.

But on the gripping hand, it's charming.

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo When I first rode the DLR as a little girl, I got on at an initial station underground, and got to sit at the front, and it was awesome!! It made me wish even harder that I could sit in the front of an actual Tube train; I would legitimately find the sight of the tunnel gripping, as I always lament that I can see so little out of the side windows.

jackhutton, to random
@jackhutton@mstdn.social avatar

After Joe Biden finishes his second term, Kamala Harris will be president. She’s doing a great job and she will be a fine president.
Now that’s settled we can get on with it all.

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@jackhutton lol. lmao, even.

ColinTheMathmo, to random
@ColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyz avatar

My friend, Alex Bellos, has achieved one of his life goals!

He is captaining his alma mater on this year's Christmas University Challenge. The series begins tomorrow, Dec 18, and his episode, against Edinburgh, airs on Thu Dec 21, BBC2, 8.30pm.

I was at Corpus Christi Cambridge, so fellow Corpuscles (and others), spread the word!

I note that the pelican mascot is squatting on the fake snow. Apparently it was so large it was banned from the table.

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo Nice; my uncle read English at Corpus Christi.

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo My dad says he was there "around 1990", which is a bit vague. He was friends with the author S.F. Said (he even came to my dad's wedding), and judging by his Wikipedia page, I think you would have just missed them.

christianp, to random
@christianp@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Since people are talking about Meta's Threads starting to test federation:
On mathstodon.xyz we decided to pre-emptively block Threads until it's clear how they will federate, and what impact that will have on the fediverse.
It looks like they're using www.threads.net instead of just threads.net, so I've added that to the block list for now.

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@christianp Nice, thank you.

ijk, to random
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

It's astounding how badly ostensible professionals fuck up software design. I'm trying to search my chat history with my best friend for the word "anime", and it's giving me hits for the word "animal" -_-

christianp, to random
@christianp@mathstodon.xyz avatar

I started thinking about the anti-aliasing of text on my PC and now it's like seeing the fnords. Everything seems annoyingly blurry now.

I want to go back! I do not want this knowledge!

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@christianp What is anti-aliasing? It's always a graphics setting in games, but they never explain what it is or whether having it or not having it strains my computer.

ColinTheMathmo, to random
@ColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyz avatar

I shouldn't've, but I did ...

Reader ... I catillated.

The dessert sauce was simply too good to leave ...

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo Have no shame! Some things are just too good not to lick off the plate.

ColinTheMathmo, to random
@ColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyz avatar

I am unexpectedly at Euston station in an hour from now, for about 90 mins ... Anyone want to say hi?

Or just say hi here ...

ijk, (edited )
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo Hi, from several hours after the fact. Since you're at Euston, I will share some wisdom of the Tube: never attempt to change branches of the Northern line at Euston. You will go insane trying to navigate it. The handy mnemonic is "Euston begins with E; E is for evil".

The corollary of this is that you should change branches at Kennington: "Kennington begins with K; K is for kind". It is well worth it and more to spend the extra time going to Kennington if you're close to Euston.

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo I came up with the mnemonics myself, after discovering their wisdom through hard experience. My third one is "Bank begins with B; B is for BASTARD". It's got to be the worst station on the entire London Underground. Never go to Bank, unless your destination is Bank, in which case is it really? Is there not another station you could go to where you could travel above ground to get to where you're going?

ijk, to random
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Where are all the analysis-y people on Mathstodon? It seems like everyone I follow does algebra or category theory or suchlike.

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@johncarlosbaez I would be absolutely fascinated to hear your theories on this matter.

ijk,
@ijk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@johncarlosbaez That's interesting. I think I can kind of see that. Certainly, I've heard of or seen a lot of analysis where you get quite deep into the weeds in a way that makes it hard to be pithy enough to get across when microblogging.

I suppose the solution is to start being the analyst I want to see on Mathstodon, but the trouble with that is that I just don't feel like I have anything interesting to say. Even after completing my undergraduate degree, I still feel like I barely know any maths at all.

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