iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by David Bindel

AgonyFlips @agonyflips.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

When you're ticked off and a friend sends you something to make you feel better. 🐑🔊

David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

In early summer of this year, one of the applied math PhD students asked whether we could have a panel on AI and mathematics in the fall colloquium series. I said yes, and we started planning it on earnest about a month ago.

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H. P. Read @readhpr.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Lovely article about a 99-year-old retired math professor who recently published a major result. It's the story of mentorship and multi-generational collaboration. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/s...

nytimes.com

The 92-Year-Old Mathematician and the Teenage Apprentice (Gift Article)

Joan Birman thought her major discoveries were behind her. Then came an email from a young neighbor — a girl who knew little but wanted to learn.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The SF fountain pen show was this weekend, and I have been admiring from afar on Reddit. And sometimes on Mastodon. And somehow on Bluesky, I am mostly finding people who mentioned a fountain pen once and now want to express their anger about politics.

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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 30/08/2026

come on outlier, why is "eigenvalues" not a word????

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Every so often, I remember being a youngster who thought we had about even odds of a major nuclear war killing off most of humanity before I got to high school. So, I suppose, the current moment could be worse.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Students returning, and the woodchucks are freaking out. I saw two of them practically sprinting across the path on my way in.

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Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Just one extra week, bro. That’s all I’m asking. One additional week before the semester starts, bro, and I’ll have cleared my to do list and be ready to hit the ground running. Honest, bro.

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Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

"Coffee. The bitter liquid that provides the only semblance of pleasure left in these dark times." From, of all places, Lego Movie 2 😂

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I spent much of today and yesterday working on a draft of something that I'm excited about. There are arguably more urgent things on my list -- overdue reviews, urgent admin tasks, classes that start in two weeks. But I'm struggling with some things, and research can be soothing.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Avogadro's number is very close to 2 to the 79. That's all. Go on with your day.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

I don't know if compactness or anything else applies, so maybe it should be called HBO Sup?

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

This editorial is indeed blunt, in your face, sweary, and absolutely 100% correct. I'm happy Science published it. It needs to be spread far and wide, because it strips away all the usual mealy-mouthed crap when it comes to discussing Trump and makes it clear who he is and what he's doing.

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Diana Cai @dianarycai.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I’m joining Cornell as an Assistant Professor in Computer Science this fall! My group will work on probabilistic machine learning for scientific discovery. I’m recruiting PhD students to start in Fall 2027 -- and stay tuned for postdoc opportunities!

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Five bunnies so far today on just a couple short walks around the neighborhood. Two adults, three young'uns. They have eaten most of our garden (they don't like collards), and that's not great. But they are cute.

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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 23/06/2026

My new book! Written w my pal Alex Townsend, it's about the math behind enormous systems (medical scans, AI, etc.) and what happens when they outgrow our ability to understand them. Pre-order at @barnesandnoble.com for 25% off -> www.barnesandnoble.com/w/big-math-s... @littlebrown.bsky.social

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Anyone else hum the Ghostbusters theme to themselves when a story about the reflecting pool passes by?

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Grant @syncingsinking.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

The Strait is open The Strait is closed The Strait is second countable The Strait is totally disconnected The Strait is perfect The Strait is normal The Strait is Hausdorff The Strait is a Polish space

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

"How many AI monkey butlers will there be?" "Oh, one at first, but he'll train others."

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Pete Stewart passed away this week at the age of 85. He was a mentor when I was an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, and somebody I looked forward to seeing at conferences for a long time after.

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Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · 07/06/2026

After the Odyssey, Christopher Nolan is working on an adaptation of the myth of Sisyphus. According to sources, they've already cast The Rock

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Tiago Peixoto @tiago.skewed.de · 24/05/2026

Dijkstra, “On the foolishness of ‘natural language programming’”: “When all is said and told, the 'naturalness' with which we use our native tongues boils down to the ease with which we can use them for making statements the nonsense of which is not obvious.” www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...

cs.utexas.edu

E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667)

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Thinking about my fall teaching, an upper-division undergrad systems programming course. And I am at 75% planning to use Rust (it was in C++ when Ken Birman taught it the past several years). Pointers to good models are welcome.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

2.25 hours into my 2.5 hour final. Nobody is leaving early. I hope I did not badly miscalibrate the difficulty.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

I used to joke that our department should offer a masters in computational evil, and had ideas for courses we could all contribute. I stopped telling it years ago, though.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

A math degree is also great!

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Spring in Ithaca. Mid 70s on Saturday, snow flurries yesterday and today.

A bush covered with snow in the foreground. In the background, a cherry tree in bloom, with snow dusting the top. Ithaca campus April 20, 2026.

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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 16/04/2026

Massive Attack. And Tom Waits. I mean just holy shit y'all. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVTV...

youtube.com

Boots on the Ground

YouTube video by Massive Attack - Topic

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Good to know the "say Chebyshev three times" proof technique on a alive and well outside numerical analysis, too.

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Dear GOP: Please send Vance out to campaign for your candidates in the midterms.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

This afternoon, we had a memorial seminar on the scientific legacy of Joe Halpern.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Lots of science fiction writing is as much (or more) about the some aspect of a cultural moment than it is about realistic projection. What's disturbing is when folks don't see the distinction.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

I spent some of the spring break week catching up with various research collaborations and some of it dealing with a backlog of email and administrative tasks after two weeks of a lot of travel. In between, I did some of my favorite type of sleuthing, which is too good not to share.

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Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · 01/04/2026

So, yesterday we had two consecutive meetings scheduled over the lunch break, with food provided. Which made me wonder if that was the worst possible. Turns out, yes: it is provably impossible to schedule more meetings in that time slot! This is called the No-Three-Lunch Theorem

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I would rather have more certainty for science funding generally (for things other than AI), and it's a little sad given what happened to the rest of NASA, but part of me still gets excited about Artemis II. I surely hope there is a safe and successful launch this evening.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

I'm visiting Colorado School of Mines for a couple days to meet up with people and give a talk at the applied math and stats colloquium. And it feels like summer! It's incredible!

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Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · 19/03/2026

"For sale: metaverse, never used."

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

I often write "sermons" to our applied math PhD students as part of my Friday roundup email. This week, I wrote about the use of AI (and specifically LLMs) in applied math research: www.cs.cornell.edu/~bindel/serm...

cs.cornell.edu

CAM Sermons

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Reposted by David Bindel

arXiv @arxiv.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Today arXiv remembers our colleague Joe Halpern, who was instrumental in founding arXiv's CS section. Joe's passions ranged far & wide and we're lucky that arXiv was one of them. Joe, thank you for giving so much to arXiv - you are missed. blog.arxiv.org/2026/02/27/remembering-joe-halpern

A picture of Joe Halpern smiling in green shirt in front of a blue background.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 27/02/2026

In my utopian vision of the future, instead of offloading all the pointless, annoying work tasks (like reports that none one will read and needlessly opaque forms) to robots, we restructure work and society so that the pointless tasks don't happen at all.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

We are hitting the leading edge of spring in Ithaca. I love my walk home this time of year.

Sunset behind the bell tower on the Cornell campus.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Ain't nobody here but us chickens, now!

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

There are some mentors that inspired me at a technical level, and others who inspired me as people I would like to be like as a human. Beresford was both.

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

I am sure that in my lifetime I have run over 1000 simulations that produced ridiculous results. That's why I'm now reasonably good at debugging simulations.

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