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Mark Mac Lean

@marktmaclean.bsky.social
513 followers 499 following 912 posts

Mathematician. Full of contradictions. Opinions are entirely my own. Reposts =/= endorsements. Likes are often bookmarks or acknowledgements. He/him/his.

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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
OpenAI has already begun retracting some of the mathematics papers it posted this week because of errors in them. Several retracted as a result of a sign error in a key argument. To lighten the mood, here is a classic Gary Larson cartoon.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
At this point in the vote counting, it looks like a strong PQ minority with about 27% of the vote overall. Note the Liberals are now ahead in the count. It is still early, so these numbers are still in flux.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
There are serious things to talk about wrt the age distribution of university faculty, but this needs a good factual edit. Federal tax law forces anyone in a defined contribution pension plan to take it at 71. Which universities let senior (or any) faculty control their teaching loads? UBC data:
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The Age does headlines well.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The office of Professor Mus Musculus of the Mathematics Department. Professor Musculus is an expert on subhumanian geometry.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
UBC. We have a defined contribution pension, which means it must be taken at 71.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
UBC data for 2025 (the latest year with confirmed data). Colour coding by gender.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Meanwhile, in Australia...
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
It is eerie flying into Toronto this evening. The smell of smoke has seeped through the plane's air filtration system, as well.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
In terms of Metro Vancouver vs Outside Metro Vancouver, we see a real split in voters between Elliott, who was more popular in Metro Vancouver, and Findlay, who was more popular outside Metro Vancouver. (The mixed ridings are West Vancouver-Sea-to-Sky and Langley-Abbotsford.)
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Elliott won the urban/suburban vote and points, and Findlay won the rural/small town vote and points. In terms of points, the rural/small town points were about 9% more effective than the province-wide average.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Here are the urban/suburban vs rural/small town voter distribution and the resulting points distribution.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
So, the BC Conservatives use a points system for selecting their leader: 100 points per electoral district (unless <100 members, then # points = # members. Here is the leadership vote distribution in the final round and the distribution of voter effectiveness (points per valid vote).
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
This portrait of me was done by Aleteia Greenwood about 20 years ago. The Mathematics in it illustrates the Lie integral Gauss-Bonnet Theorem, which is a noncommutative version of the classical theorem. The underlying noncommutative Stokes theorem is central to my work on asymptotic homotopy.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Apparently I haven't completed my New Worker Safety Orientation at UBC, a place I have worked since 1989. Oops.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Kathy Scout-Bastien of Piikani Nation has passed away. She was a teacher and keeper of Blackfoot language and ceremony. She touched my soul, and I shall miss her greatly.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Decades ago, a history teacher I had talked about the "leader principle." Arendt elucidates this principle by comparing Nazism and Bolshevism. She discusses the mixture of gullibility and cynicism as pertains to the masses, and how such movements take advantage of it.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
I spoke about disability advocacy at the last show in September. So I wasn't out of place, Theo Rhetical, one of my favourite Indigneous drag kings in Vancouver, spent 3.5 hours turning me into Rhet Mathison.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Much of the best disability advocacy work is done by disabled persons themselves. Disability advocacy drag show on Friday, January 16th at the Birdhouse in Vancouver, with livestream. Neurodivergent organizer and cast. ASL interpreters who rock down the house! www.eventbrite.ca/e/access-gra...
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
'Tis the season....though today it was helping grandma move...at least she didn't die because of our calculus exam.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
My father passed away one year ago today. I miss him. He was a kind, caring, and selfless man.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
The Vancouver ISI enrolments 2022 to 2025, with relative changes over this period, and over the last year.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
The Okanagan ISI enrolments 2022 to 2025, with relative changes over this period, and over the last year.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Okanagan: Note: I included Creative and Critical Studies at UBCO as this contains programs that are in UBCV Arts.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
I am writing a blog post that includes a discussion of some of the challenges UBC is facing. I have been looking at international student (ISI) enrolment since 2019 and have plotted data for the largest ISI undergraduate faculties. Numbers are Winter+Summer 30-credit FTEs. Vancouver:
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Always a good plot in Justin's reporting. This one shows a 42.2% increase in the police budget since Mayor Sim too office. Police and Fire fighters, but does we ever talk about our failing paramedic system?
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Remarkable paper.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Yeah, but the eastern Blue Jay really is the bedazzled Elvis.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
On the right there should be a menu that includes Choose Home Page:
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Food delivery apps have taken off in Melbourne. I would be interested in seeing these numbers for Vancouver. (From The Age)
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
The Consultancy Condundrum: The Hollowing Out of the Public Service. In many ways, large consultancy firms are aluminum siding salesmen -- they market questionable pre-packaged management/strategy advice. And who really thinks aluminum siding is worth buying?
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Canada's election outcome represented in a way that reminds us land area in ridings isn't a measure of political support for parties.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
Australia uses preferential voting for its elections. In the current race, the two parties are tied for first-preference, but Labour comes out ahead on 2-party preferences (second choice matters in a preferential ballot).
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
And the wild ride begins...
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
UBC's rentention rates out of first year are high. We have a gap between domestic and international students, however.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
What does this say about Vancouver ABC's candidate for city council Jaime Stein?
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
The US has huge trade surpluses when it comes to services sold to the rest of the world. The US dominates in financial services, software, etc. Maybe it's time we added tariffs to these imports into Canada.
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Who's missing?
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
UBC Okanagan
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Mark Mac Lean @marktmaclean.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
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