iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 25/09/2025

For their first project, my Kids and Society students have to create an infographic clarifying a common misconception about "kids these days." I'd prefer that they not use AI to create their projects, so I made my own infographic explaining why : )

Infographic titled "AI Isn't a Ticket To an A," explaining how chatbots work, what the data show about the prevalence of these technologies and how they're used, what we know about the quality of their output, and what we know about the impact that frequent use of these technologies has on their users and on content creators, low-wage workers, and the environment.

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Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

“There is no joy more intense than that of coming upon a fact that cannot be understood in terms of currently accepted ideas." Astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, who decoded spectral lines to deduce the elemental composition of stars, was born #OTD in 1900. 🧪 🔭 ⚛️ 👩‍🔬 Image: Harvard Observatory

A black and white photo of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. She is sitting at her desk and looking up at the camera, which is in front of her and to her left. Payne-Gaposchkin is wearing a baggy, ribbed sweater and has a wristwatch on her right arm. A pair of glasses rests on the desk in front of her, next to open books and papers which are just visible at the bottom of the photogaph. Filing cabinets, drawers, and another desk are visible in the background. She has short, dark hair which is no longer than chin-length, pulled out of her face behind her left ear.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

New paper out in J Theor Biol! I make the case that "normal" phylogenetic networks are the gas. #mathsky www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 09/04/2025

The problem with most machine-based random number generators is that they’re not TRULY random, so if you need genuine randomness it is sometimes necessary to link your code to an external random process like a physical noise source or the current rate of US tariffs on a given country.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

I have this beautiful old pedal organ at home in Sydney. I think my parents were given it in the late 70s while we lived in Cooma, NSW, but clearly it comes originally from Vermont. I want to offload it, but how? Who would want a pedal organ now?

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

That's hilarious. The banal ignorance of the anti science, mediocrity now in charge.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

I must say, this is the first summer in such a long time that I'm not working on an ARC #grant , unable to actually have down time. So hats off to the ARC for making the schedule change! #academicsky #research #mathsky #sciencesky

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

I think we found an Australian funnel-web spider today in this little tunnel on St Georges Basin in NSW. Cute little thing came out to grab a pine needle we tickled its web with, and dragged it back, holding tightly.

Australian funnel Web spider hiding in its funnel.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

My father died over 8 years ago, which means it's time to sort through more boxes of stuff from his life. Why did he keep so many pencil stubs? Needless to say, I'm keeping them too.

A row of about 25 pencil stubs, some just a few centimetres long.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

Well that ending left a sour taste in the mouth after a great day's cricket. Unnecessary niggle. #AUSvsIND

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Lani Frank @lanifrank.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Gotta also love that with the gender pay gap already a big problem, it's only the blokiest cars for blokey blokes that get subsidised.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Good morning Sydney! I guess it's huntsman season again 😬. This one was released into the backyard after delaying my morning coffee.

A large huntsman spider in a kitchen sink

A large huntsman spider being carried between a plastic box and a folder, heading outdoors

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Welcome to all recent arrivals! It does seem a lot more civil here.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Phylogenetics hits the big time!

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Reposted by Andrew Francis

Micah @rincewind.run · 13/11/2024

we are, in the end, responsible for ourselves, and one of the longrunning themes of Discworld is how important it is to make the right decisions simply because they are right

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Micah @rincewind.run · 13/11/2024

Discworld QOTD, from Feet of Clay "You couldn't say 'I had orders.' You couldn't say 'It's not fair.' No one was listening. There were no Words. You owned yourself. [...] Not 'Thou Shalt Not'. Say 'I Will Not'."

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 03/04/2024

RIP Daniel Kahnemann. I gained a lot from the two books of his I read: Thinking Fast and Slow; and Noise. He made a difference with his work, and I'm glad to have known of it and of him.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 21/03/2024

Other big thanks goes to Profs. Margaret Sheil, Susan Dodds & Mark Hutchinson for undertaking the #ARCreview!

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 21/03/2024

A huge thanks to the Minister Jason Clare for taking the #ARCreview seriously and putting its recommendations into legislation. Massive credit & thanks to Senator Mehreen Faruqi for initiating the 2018 Senate enquiry that set parliament on this course, & for pushing it so hard.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 21/03/2024

🚨🚨🚨 IT’S DONE! ❗️The ARC Review Response Bill just passed parliament❗️ No more political interference in individual ARC grants! The ARC will get a Board, who will approve individual grants. It’s a wonderful day for Australian research!

Screenshot of the Dynamic Red listing of the Senate passing the ARC Review Response Bill.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 17/03/2024

I keep thinking about the aviation and shipping sectors as major targets to transform. But cloud computing was something I hadn't put in the same category.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 10/02/2024

What other jobs are there where people internally flinch before saying what they do? I'm a mathematician, and without a doubt, before saying that, have to consciously try to normalise the fact that we exist and are otherwise unremarkable. Sometimes I say "I work in a university" to avoid it.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 09/02/2024

Anyone know how to get posts on the Discover feed in order of posting, new on top? I'm only seeing posts hours old.

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 07/02/2024

Log Cabin xkcd.com/2891

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 07/02/2024

In clinical trials of new treatments, when the treatment is clearly and obviously immediately effective it is sometimes considered unethical to continue to withhold it from the control group. Pretty sure we passed that milestone about a decade ago with basic income experiments.

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Amie Albrecht @nomadpenguin.bsky.social · 04/02/2024

A re-read, because Francis is giving a public lecture at UniSA next month! This really is a beautiful, nourishing book. #read2024

Book cover: Mathematics for Human Flourishing, by Francis Su

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Nick Hedley @nickhedley.bsky.social · 31/01/2024

What the world can learn from Copenhagen’s cycling revolution “When mayors in other cities ask me how Copenhagen afforded to invest in its cycling networks, I ask them how on earth they have been able to afford highway projects." theprogressplaybook.com/2024/01/31/w...

theprogressplaybook.com

What the world can learn from Copenhagen’s cycling revolution

Close to two-thirds of the city’s residents commute by bike to school or work every day.

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Dave Osmond @davidosmond.bsky.social · 17/01/2024

Thread: Each week I run a simulation of Australia’s main electricity grid using rescaled generation data to show that it can get very close to 100% renewable electricity with just 5 hrs of storage (24 GW / 120 GWh) Results: last week: 100% RE last 125 weeks: 99.0% RE (1/3)

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 15/01/2024

Some big news for me professionally today! I'll be shortly changing university, for the first time since I got my first tenured position in the year 2000. A very big moment. 😬😱 In May, I'll start a new role as Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at UNSW!

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Micah @rincewind.run · 25/12/2023

Discworld QOTD, from Hogfather this is my favorite quote in the entire series merry Hogswatch, everyone

All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 24/12/2023

New book to read! I'm such a sucker for books while at airports.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 20/12/2023

Excellent article. Glad he's spoken about this.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 13/12/2023

Yikes. Musk's hubris and over reach is some day going to catch up with him where it really matters.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 08/12/2023

It's 10.20am in Sydney, and the temperature where I am is 35.5C. Forecast for the day is 42C. For those who speak Fahrenheit, that's about 107.5F. Unpleasant.

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Tomer Ullman @tomerullman.bsky.social · 30/11/2023

asking for an image of a professor and asking to make it "more professor", a thread.

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Tamreen @scriptor.bsky.social · 30/11/2023

finally they got the guy who kept tying people to trolley tracks

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 30/11/2023

I never. Never. Get tired of discworld quotes.

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Andrew Francis @arkfrancis.bsky.social · 26/11/2023

This article captures really well our key problem with housing in Australia. We have to shift away from the attitude that housing is "an investment". But as long as it really, functionally, IS an investment, that will be impossible. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

theguardian.com

Australian housing wealth is meaningless, destructive and fundamentally changing our society | Alan ...

High-priced houses do not create wealth, Alan Kohler says, they redistribute it. Now financial success is largely a function of geography, not accomplishment

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