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Matthew Donald

@mjd1014.bsky.social
147 followers 320 following 2 posts

Mathematician, Quantum Theorist, Philosophical Idealist, Developer of a Many-Minds Interpretation of Quantum Theory.

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Reposted by Matthew Donald
Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 09/10/2026
"We, the undersigned States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), reaffirm our continued and unwavering support for the independence, impartiality, and integrity of the ICC." JOINT STATEMENT by CANADA, DENMARK, GERMANY, FRANCE, ITALY, JAPAN, NETHERLANDS, UK
auswaertiges-amt.de
JOINT STATEMENT OF THE FOREIGN MINISTERS OF CANADA, DENMARK, GERMANY, FRANCE, ITALY, JAPAN, THE NETHERLANDS, UNITED KINGDOM
We, the undersigned States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), reaffirm our continued and unwavering support for the independence, impartiality, and integrity of the...
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
There is no faster way to lose the future than to turn away the people who will help build it. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
US proposes $100,000 charge for international students to do post-graduate work
Proposed rule would choke off a crucial STEM talent pipeline, policy specialists say
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Alexander Kasprzyk @amkasprzyk.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician are at a high-school math event, and have been asked to explain a trigonometry problem to the students. #MathSky
XKCD cartoon #435, expressing the purity of mathematics compared with other subjects. An axis along the bottom represents "purity", with socialists followed by psychologists followed by biologists followed by chemists followed by physicists. There is then a vast gap, after which appears the mathematician.
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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
when I am god-empress of the universe it will be illegal for people to disable the ability to paste into a password field
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Ed Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 01/09/2026
I've written to the Prime Minister ahead of his first statement later today, with a clear message: Our politics is broken and we can’t fix our country until we fix our politics.
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Kim A. Wagner @kimatiwagner.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
A decade ago, I gave a paper to staff at West Point - on American atrocities in the Philippines and the colonial origins of the use of pig's blood to fight Muslims. Much to my surprise, the paper was well-received and we had a great discussion. Inconceivable in today's political environment...
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Make Votes Matter @makevotesmatter.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
🚨 If the next general election is held under First Past the Post, it will deliver the most chaotic and unrepresentative results we've ever seen. By then, the damage will be done. But we can still prevent a full-blown democratic crisis. We agree with the Guardian: it's time to act.
theguardian.com
The Guardian view on electoral reform: don’t wait for a crisis to fix a broken system | Editorial
Editorial: In an era of multiparty politics, first past the post risks generating perverse outcomes that delegitimise the democratic process
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Nalini Joshi @monsoon0.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I’m sorry, does anyone else believe that we’re “pretty clearly [in] the last year of math and theoretical computer science research in the style we’ve known it“? From @scottaaronson.blog.web.brid.gy » Enough with all the world-historic milestones scottaaronson.blog?p=9979
scottaaronson.blog
Enough with all the world-historic milestones
Whatever you’ve been writing to me to ask if I’m aware of: yeah, I’m aware of it. In particular: I’m aware that, as announced by my former student (and now superstar profess…
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Leo Hickman @leohickman.carbonbrief.org · 15/08/2026
The Times has just published these two reader letters in response to a column by @hugorifkind.bsky.social headlined: "Where are all those climate deniers now?" I just googled them. The first is a "retired consultant in rheumatology" The second is "UK former chief geologist, BP North Sea"
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karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Corrected headline: OpenAI just added a keylogger to ChatGPT for Mac
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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Glad to have added my name to a letter from 50 green groups urging PM to be clear that #climate breakdown is the cause of the current extreme heat crisis. The public deserves leadership that speaks honestly about the nature of the challenges the country faces & offers a robust plan to tackle them
theguardian.com
Green groups urge Andy Burnham to break silence on climate crisis
More than 50 organisations say PM urgently needs to show leadership and prepare British people for scale of change needed as UK struggles through another heatwave
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Antonio E. Porreca 🐳 @aeporreca.org · 15/08/2026
You can register for attending Max Weinreich’s talk “The crisis of AI-generated mathematics” via Zoom on 11 Sep 2026, 1:20 ET at www.math.fsu.edu/~bauer/AI-Ma.... (Abstract²: I present the case for total opposition to the use of artificial intelligence in mathematics doi.org/10.48550/arX...)
math.fsu.edu
Register — The crisis of AI-generated mathematics
Register for Max Weinreich's talk, The crisis of AI-generated mathematics, in the Math and AI series.
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Alix Mortimer @alixmortimer.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Real misfire this, we could talk about shutters (new and old builds), tree planting, restrictions on hard surface in new public realm, restrictions on paving front gardens, reuse canals for cooling, solar panels in car parks, solar panels in playgrounds, dozens of low effort things to investigate!
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Lauren Leek @laurenleek.eu · 10/08/2026
We have more data about ourselves than ever. So why is everything converging on the same? In my new post I use data on high streets, Billboard hits, a million films and my own AI personas to expose the algorithms behind the sameness and how to regulate them. laurenleek.substack.com/p/temperatur...
laurenleek.substack.com
Temperature Zero for Culture: Why Everything Is Starting to Look the Same
What 640 London shopping streets, 4,000 Billboard hits, a million films and synthetic AI personas tell us about why everything is flattening into sameness and how to regulate the algorithms behind it.
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 12/08/2026
In a *stellar* essay entitled "Temperature Zero for Culture: Why Everything Is Starting to Look the Same" by the data scientist Lauren Leek, we get a top-notch example of "putting things together": laurenleek.substack.com/p/temperatur... 11/
laurenleek.substack.com
Temperature Zero for Culture: Why Everything Is Starting to Look the Same
What 640 London shopping streets, 4,000 Billboard hits, a million films and synthetic AI personas tell us about why everything is flattening into sameness and how to regulate the algorithms behind it.
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Chris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
This is Packard's The Hidden Persuaders for the 21st C: whereas our preferences then were shaped by advertisers, now they are shaped by algorithms. Both undermine the neoclassical fiction that preferences are autonomous: laurenleek.substack.com/p/temperatur...
laurenleek.substack.com
Temperature Zero for Culture: Why Everything Is Starting to Look the Same
What 640 London shopping streets, 4,000 Billboard hits, a million films and synthetic AI personas tell us about why everything is flattening into sameness and how to regulate the algorithms behind it.
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
This is how you know we need a wealth tax
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Camcycle @camcycle.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
What does good cycle parking look like to you? We’d love to hear about good and bad cycle parking in Cambridgeshire to help inform our responses to planning applications. Can you give us some examples? 👀
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
It will blight cities and towns and drag down their property markets. It will lead to a savings crisis. It could even lead to an overall debt crisis. Yet MPs and officials seem not even to know this or understand what they're facing. DfE in particular is just not a player: not relevant in any way.
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Successive govts have constructed one of the biggest unexploded bombs ever seen in British public policy. Higher Ed is a huge UXB. It will blow up and massively push up graduates' taxes, destroying their life chances while universities still mostly fail. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Students face ‘ticking timebomb’ of debt and higher taxes
Exclusive: Analysis finds cost of higher education ‘falls overwhelmingly on the individual’
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Phil Rodgers @philrodgers.co.uk · 10/08/2026
Wednesday evening's solar eclipse will reach about 90% of totality in Cambridge, so you will certainly notice it, but it won't be anything like as spectacular as a total eclipse. "A partial eclipse is like a cool sunset. A total eclipse is like someone broke the sky."
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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
I believe Clacton deserves an MP who will spend their time shining a light on everything the area has to offer. And why wait till I'm elected? I've been to visit one of the constituency's most stunning landmarks.
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Government destroys very successful export market, just to appease ignorant racists. As ever.
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
When you don't listen for *years* to what loads of us who actually understand universities say, when you listen to a load of know-nothing frauds from think tanks and consultants and media loudmouths instead, this is the university disaster you make. Govts could have listened. They didn't.
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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
This article quotes Matthew Elliot & Toby Young on how Arron Banks is a threat to free speech. There aren’t enough lolz in my body to respond to that. These men. All these men. Completely silent for the years when Banks waged a brutal & highly public war on my reporting
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Leah Stokes @leahstokes.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Republicans in Congress are threatening Canada's sovereignty over climate change fueled wildfires. Here's how much money they've taken from the fossil fuel industry recently. James: $308k+ Bergman: $175k+ McClain: $105k+ Moolenaar: $133k+ - oh and he's a climate denier. Completely shameless.
globalnews.ca
‘Sovereignty comes with responsibility:’ U.S. lawmakers to Canada on wildfires - National | Globalnews.ca
As wildfire smoke blankets parts of the country, and spills into the United States, some U.S. lawmakers are calling on Canada to do more.
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
I genuinely feel sick. A company reached out to me on IG, linking me to an AI version of myself. You can even ask "me" questions. They are also advertising it using an AI photo of me. They told me if I like it, they will give me free access... to my own fucking content that they stole. /1
A screenshot of the advertisement with an AI image of Lindsey and a brain, with text that says: YOUR BODY HAS A HISTORY. ASK ABOUT IT."
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Pippa Heylings 🔶 MP for South Cambridgeshire @pippaheylings.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
The transition to secure, green and affordable energy requires action nationally, regionally and locally - and that's where community energy comes in. Lib Dems are calling for communities to have the power to buy and sell energy locally, and to benefit fairly when they host renewable infrastructure.
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
I have just read the second butchering I've seen in two days of the story of Max Planck's quantum hypothesis. So I've posted this extract from the initial draft of my forthcoming book in the vain hope that it might avert a few such butcherings in future homunculusmusic.wordpress.com/2026/05/26/p...
homunculusmusic.wordpress.com
Planck’s quanta
This is an extract from the original draft of my forthcoming book The Man Who Broke Reality, a biography of Niels Bohr. Here I explain how Max Planck came up with his quanta. I’m putting it u…
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MetJam @metjam.co.uk · 26/05/2026
We have broken into new territory with a maximum temperature of 35ºC at Heathrow and Kew Gardens within the last 15 minutes - the old May record gone by 2.2ºC and only 0.6ºC from the June record set in 1976. This should not be happening in late May, but it is.
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Heather Burns @heatherburnstech.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Me in @scotnational.bsky.social, being crotchety
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Lib Dem Peers @libdempeers.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
35°C in late May. Records broken. The country woefully unprepared. @earlrussell.bsky.social, Lib Dem Energy and Net Zero spokesperson in the Lords, on why this country cannot afford to wait any longer.
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@janettes-999.bsky.social @janettes-999.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
The citizens of Festus, Missouri, population approximately 14,000, just voted out every single city council member who secretly approved a gigantic data center. A recall petition is also being circulated to remove the mayor and council members who were not on the ballot.
m.youtube.com
Festus, MO Voters Oust EVERY Council Member Who Approved Data Center
YouTube video by Derrick Evans
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Gro-Tsen @gro-tsen.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
🔽 Announcement is at openai.com/index/model-... — with links to the annotated proof and comments by various experts. Interestingly, these (OpenAI-chosen) experts seem to mostly agree the main reason humans were stuck on the problem is they were trying to prove it rather find a counterexample.
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Two officers who defended the Capitol against the Jan 6 rioters just sued to block Trump's $1.8 billion slush fund. Check out their standing argument, it's pretty interesting:
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
- Subsidising consumption in the face of a supply shock - reducing incentives to drive less/switch to EVs - using up limited fiscal space to help better-off drivers rather than the most vulnerable. Hard to think of a worse policy right now.
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Doremus Schafer @doremus-schafer.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Elon Musk: Watch me take a trademark that achieved the Holy Grail of branding by ascending to verb form, and replace it with a single letter which can't even grammatically become a verb. Google: That's not just innovative --- it's transformative! If you want me to hold your beer, let me know!
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th1rtyf0ur @th1rtyf0ur.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
as someone who’s been running web sites since the mid-90s, seeing my traffic go from about 50% crawler bots to almost entirely AI bots (who ignore robots.txt) is almost enough to make me wanna pull the plug. maybe it’s time to set up nepenthes, but idk that my tiny server could handle the load 😑
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Absolutely horrified at this planned study from my own institution: www.404media.co/researchers-... >>
404media.co
Researchers Wanted Preschool Teachers to Wear Cameras to Train AI
“With your permission, your child’s lead teacher may wear a small teacher-worn camera that captures the teacher's approximate first-person perspective, and/or we may place a fixed video camera in the ...
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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
I hope this isn’t true. There are times when it’s more important to put country before party. This is one of them. Burnham’s longstanding commitment to a fairer voting system could transform our democracy & counter the dire threat of a Reform UK government elected on a minority of the vote
theguardian.com
Greens suggest they will properly contest byelection in blow to Burnham
Statement follows speculation party would not field candidate in Makerfield or barely fight seat
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Ross Floate @rossfloate.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Oh my. This is spectacular. sinceyouarrived.world/taken
sinceyouarrived.world
taken.
A web page that tells you what your browser gave away the moment you arrived. No login, no form, no permission. Most pages do this. None of them tell you.
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 08/05/2026
The Washington Post is just so profoundly embarrassing now
WAPO Op/Ed headline: You can earn a billion dollars
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Hugh Brechin @hughrbrechin.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
'summarise the failure of Labour's political strategy in one graphic'
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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Bloody hell!
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
How about this as some headlines: *Reform went backwards on last year *Results in line with their falling poll score *They underperformed their polls in Scotland *If this had been a General, they wouldn't have won a majority even when the govt is phenomenally unpopular Bit of a different story?
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Phil Rodgers @philrodgers.co.uk · 08/05/2026
And finally West Chesterton, where the usual two-way battle turned into a three-way contest with Labour just holding on. (Last year's Lib Dem by-election win isn't included because I generally don't include by-elections)
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Phil Rodgers @philrodgers.co.uk · 08/05/2026
So overall: Labour hold four: Cherry Hinton, East & West Chesterton, King's Hedges. Labour lose six to the Greens: Arbury, Castle, Coleridge, Newnham, Petersfield and Romsey. Greens hold Abbey. Lib Dems hold Market, Queen Edith's and two in Trumpington.
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Ari Berman @ariberman.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Absolutely outrageous Virginia Supreme Court invalidated redistricting referendum approved by the voters when voters haven’t been able to weigh in on a single gerrymander passed in red states
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Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Crikey! Tories lose their only seat in the rapidly-growing new town of Cambourne - where a new East West Rail station is being built. This is a catastrophe for the Tories in South Cambridgeshire District. And just over a decade ago they had Andrew Lansley as their MP!
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