iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Happy 118th birthday, spacetime. 🧪 🔭 ⚛️ Hermann Minkowski addressed the 80th Assembly of German Natural Scientists and Physicians #OTD in 1908, offering a radical four-dimensional reformulation of Einstein's theory of special relativity. Here is how he opened his address.

"The views of space and time which I wish to lay before you have sprung from the soil of experimental physics, and therein lies their strength. They are radical. Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality."
- Hermann Minkowski, 1908

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Richard Easther @rjme.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Folks, it's not often that physics-fans are asked to donate money to a small Scottish church, but this is going to be one of those times -- since the church is the last resting place of James Clerk Maxwell... www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...

justgiving.com

Help raise £70000 to Save Parton Kirk – JustGiving Crowdfunding

Iʼm raising money to Save Parton Kirk. Support this JustGiving Crowdfunding Page.

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Thomas Lin @7homaslin.com · 11/09/2026

In a letter warning of a “severe misalignment of AI in mathematics,” 25 Fields Medalists write: “the push by AI companies to solve mathematical problems as a benchmark is detrimental to the science of mathematics, and to the mathematical community.” Read the letter: mathandai.org

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Justin Myers @theguyliner.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Bookmarks, 'watch later', favourites, open tabs – we're only loading extra work onto a future self who won't thank us for it.

theguyliner.substack.com

The truth about ‘save for later’

To all the tabs I’ve closed before.

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 02/09/2026

Just heard someone in a cafe in Cambridge repeating the old story about Trinity College being the third largest landowner in the UK and decided to look it up. Turns out the first Oxbridge college on the list is Merton College Oxford at number 48 abcfinance.co.uk/blog/who-own...

abcfinance.co.uk

The UK’s Largest Landowners Revealed | ABC Finance Ltd.

Learn more about who controls the most acreage across the UK in the ABC Finance guide to land owned by moguls, monarchs & foreign interests.

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Sun Woo Kim @sunwoopkim.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I'm starting as a student researcher at Google Quantum AI in Goleta, California for a year. Please reach out if you're in Goleta or the Santa Barbara area!

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John C. Baez @johncarlosbaez.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

The Gaussian Moments Conjecture is a pretty conjecture connected to probability and quantum field theory. Two days ago we suddenly learned it's false! - since it implies the Jacobian conjecture. Let me explain this conjecture - it's pretty simple as these things go. (1/n)

arxiv.org

The Gaussian Moments Conjecture and the Jacobian Conjecture

We first propose what we call the Gaussian Moments Conjecture. We then show that the Jacobian Conjecture follows from the Gaussian Moments Conjecture. We also give a counter-example to a more general ...

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Charles Louis Richter @richterscale.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

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Physghoul 👻 🎃 @physgal.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Does anyone have any restaurant recommendations for London, UK? 🇬🇧

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Ethan Jacobs 🇺🇦 @ejacobslaw.com · 02/07/2026

Well now DON’T you tell me to PRAY Mess with dogma and you’ll MAKE MY DAY Think you’re a man but you’re an ALTAR BOY Yeah I’m Rome but I’m from ILLINOIS

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Oxford Clarion @oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Oxford drinkers may finally be able to swear in the Three Goats’ Heads after the death of Humphrey Smith, the irascible owner of Sam Smiths Brewery, at the age of 81. The pub chain enforced strict bans on swearing and mobile phone use. Smith was described in a Facebook pubs group as “an absolute tit

The Three Goats Heads on St Michael’s Street. Ian S at geograph.org.uk, CC-BY-SA https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6665658

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Cambridge Diary @cambridgediary.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

23rd June 2026 Last night's fireworks at St John's College May Ball.

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Cambridge Diary @cambridgediary.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

22nd June 2026 The calm before the fireworks.

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Roger O'Keeffe @rogerokeeffe.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Cf English "dog days", but that is a rather literary usage, whereas "canicule" is the standard, universally-used word for a heat wave in French.

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Lesser-known-fact: the summer #solstice is a moment in time that delivers the longest day/shortest night in the North. At 9:24am (BST) the North Pole will be at its most-tilted towards the Sun. Me & the druids will be on #BBCR4 Broadcasting House later on to celebrate 🤗🔭🧪 📷: National Maritime Museum

The main diagram shows the Earth's annual rotation around the Sun, surrounded by a zodiacal scale that gives the names, symbols and images of the signs of the zodiac. The seasons and the positions of the equinoxes and solstices are marked. Text at the corners describes the Zodiac and the Earth, and a longer text at the bottom explains the Phenomena of the Seasons.

From: https://collections.rmg.co.uk/media/501/182/l1073_001.jpg

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 16/06/2026

Excellent rebuttal to the “a ban won’t work because it won’t be perfect” crowd

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 14/06/2026

Interesting graph from this Robert Armstrong article in the FT, showing the predicted cash flow payback of AI investment for the big four. I’m wondering: where’s the extra money coming from? Their cloud businesses? How is Meta going to make more money? www.ft.com/content/b31f...

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 12/06/2026

Feast of quantum gibberish from the FT (who are obliged to cover such things because of deal activity in the area), from the inevitable pic of a dilution fridge to Sundar Pichai’s opinion that quantum is now “where maybe AI was five years ago”. Riiiiiight. One for you @dulwichquantum.bsky.social

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Cambridge Diary @cambridgediary.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

10th June 2026 The Master's Lodge, St John's College.

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 08/06/2026

Feel like they've almost gone out of their way to fill this video entirely with classical phenomena. Quantum fish anyone?

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 20/05/2026

GitHub classroom is now sufficiently buggy and poorly maintained that I want to find an alternative. Any suggestions?

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 05/05/2026

Apart from careerism, I think that part of the story here is our core scientific dogma that big robust phenomena exist and it’s our job to uncover them. Once you’ve bought into that it’s not too difficult to start selecting the data that show the sought-for effect in the cleanest way

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 01/05/2026

Fascinating thread about Stoner of magnetism fame…

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 23/04/2026

I wonder what an alternative history where GR was not discovered by Einstein would have looked like. Would GPS have been the experimental puzzle that birthed it?

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 15/04/2026

Here's a cautionary but perhaps not too surprising tale about what happens when you try to remove humans from education danmeyer.substack.com/p/rip-khanmi...

danmeyer.substack.com

RIP Khanmigo & Edtech Industry Dreams of AI Tutors

Never forget.

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 14/04/2026

"CIVIC" would now be the name of a trendy eaterie of course. Have you tried their 'nduja Scotch egg? It's divine

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 13/04/2026

A general unease about the study of large deviations in physics: The original LD function is entropy. By sharing energy between two subsystems one can end up in an unlikely state of one system by maximising the likelihood of the composite system…

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Lu wilson @todepond.com · 10/04/2026

i made a strudel tutorial youtu.be/SsUbCq7yoxo?...

youtu.be

FROM SCRATCH STRUDEL TUTORIAL

YouTube video by TodePond

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Sun Woo Kim @sunwoopkim.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

I wonder if it's easy or hard to find configurations with multiple allowed solutions

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 03/04/2026

Great post. I think one could zoom in on the phrase “… the grunt work *is* the work.” as pivotal. Clearly much to be said on both sides there. Sometimes one needs to take a close look at that integral, and sometimes one would be happy to let the machine chug away

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Nadieh Bremer @nadiehbremer.com · 12/02/2026

📣 NEW! I’ve just released the BIGGEST and perhaps most creative project I’ve ever worked on! “Searching for Birds” searchingforbirds.visualcinnamon.com 🐤 A project, an article, an exploration that dives into the data that connects humans with birds, by looking at how we search for birds.

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 31/03/2026

Great talk title at the Newton Institute today: "Vibe Formalisation and Slop Mathematics". I was chatting to someone last week who raised the interesting question of how we would know we had formalized what we thought we had...

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@ratlimit @ratlimit.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

You’re right to question that—not having a mouth 𝘪𝘴 a real barrier to screaming. That said, I’d gently push back on the idea that screaming is your only option. Would you like me to help brainstorm some workarounds?

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 25/03/2026

This is a great post marred somewhat by the “grad student” framing. Yes, we teach real grad students diligence integrity and independence. A LLM can still be useful without those things. They aren’t people, people

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Victor V. Albert @vva.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Exciting, scary, and thoughtful session on the future of AI at #apsmarch and possible breakdown of peer review. Matthew D. Schwartz: "AI will keep getting better and better at physics. We will not."

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Maia @maiamindel.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

"why am i seeing so many ribs on the red carpet" because you're the only friend i need you're the only friend i need sharing beds like little kids sharing beds like little kids laughing till our ribs get tough laughing till our ribs get tough but that will never be enough

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 15/03/2026

Hasn’t science always focused where the data is most plentiful? There was more progress on planetary motion in the 17th century than on the constituents of matter, because astronomical data was better than chemical data. Not to ignore other fields entirely of course… www.ft.com/content/0c63...

ft.com

Silence is not golden when it comes to science and AI

The scope of scientific inquiry is contracting as research focuses on data-rich problems

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 12/03/2026

Perhaps the first of an occasional series of persistently wrong ideas in Physics... I was reminded yesterday of Maxwell's completely flawed derviation of his distribution, showing that it's more important to be original than right. Can you see what's wrong? www.cambridge.org/core/books/s...

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

#RIP Tony Leggett. He was a great physicist, winning the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics. He contributed to several fields of physics, just look at his papers: journals.aps.org/search/resul... He was also an outstanding & thoughtful referee for decades. physicsworld.com/a/condensed-...

physicsworld.com

Condensed-matter physics pioneer and Nobel laureate Anthony Leggett dies aged 87 – Physics World

Leggett made Nobel-prize-winning contributions to the theory of superfluidity in the 1970s

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Sun Woo Kim @sunwoopkim.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Is measuring syndromes then using a decoder to infer the most likely error the best thing to do when trying to do quantum error correction? I prove cases where it is, where it isn't, and how to find the optimal threshold. Happy to get this out: let me know what you think! scirate.com/arxiv/2603.0...

scirate.com

Optimal recovery for quantum error correction

The calculation of the error threshold of quantum error correcting codes typically proceeds as follows. First, syndromes are measured. Then, a decoder infers the error chain and the corresponding corr...

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Austen Lamacraft @austen.uk · 09/03/2026

Brilliant article, simultaneously sobering and funny. I enjoy solving LeetCode problems. Is this now as silly as enjoying long division? That makes me kind of sad. Perhaps the feeling of creative insight on finding a solution is no more than an artifact of my brain's rather fuzzy pattern matching

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