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Joshua Bowman

@thalesdisciple.bsky.social
1.5K followers 598 following 1.6K posts

Associate professor of mathematics. Hymn aficionado. Large absent-minded spirit. Resist simple narratives. Cultivate an abolitionist imagination.

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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 8h
I’m sure I learned this (the symbolic version) at some point as an undergrad. It didn’t stick until I had to teach it in algebra, however. Before that I always found the gcd through prime factorizations. But this is so powerful! You don’t need to know prime numbers! And it works for polynomials too!
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Antonio E. Porreca 🐳 @aeporreca.org · 30/09/2026
The president of the United States of America is authorising us to openly mock AI by referring to it as Super Intelligence. Should we seize the opportunity?
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 23h
Trying to calmly explain to my family that there is an entire French episode of Animaniacs while “I am definitely Runt Val RUNT!” has lived rent-free in my head for thirty years
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Dave Kung @dtkung.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Help, #MathSky community: Trying to get a handle on how different techniques of integration are covered at different types of institutions. Take 2 minutes (I swear) and fill out this quick survey: forms.gle/hk9nfSwwme82...
Different techniques of integration, including integration by parts, trig substitution, trig integrals, and partial fractions.
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 24/09/2026
This is a SMALL version of the largest JWST image released so far—of IC 348, a star-forming region about 1,000 lightyears away. Open up the image and marvel in the incredible beauty even in our galactic neighbourhood. This is what it looks like when stars are born.
From the source: "A star-forming region. It is blanketed in thick clouds of gas and dust, millions of kilometres across, that form swirling patterns. Bright stars are scattered throughout the clouds, with the densest cluster situated in the centre of the scene. Each is crowned with six long points created by the optics of the telescope’s mirrors. In the upper right, a couple of hidden stars blast out long, glowing jets of material."
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Cyan Worlds @cyan.com · 25/09/2026
33 years ago today, the Stranger stepped onto the dock of Myst Island for the first time. We can still hear the water splashing against the pilings.
The dock of Myst Island from the original version of the game. A wooden dock ends at a spiral staircase that leads up to giant gears on a hillside. A ship is sunk in the water on the right, and parts of buildings are visible on the left.
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I showed this to @hannahnpbowman.com and she said, “Wait, you mean the notification about the Super Partial Laughable Early Dismissal Day came by *email*?!? I didn’t have to download three new apps to receive it?”
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St. Simeon the Holy Fool @simeonthefool.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Inside you there are two brains
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Scene from The Fellowship of the Ring

Pippin says, “We've had one brain, yes. What about second brain?”
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Scene from The Fellowship of the Ring

Pippin says, “We’ve had one brain, yes. What about second brain?”
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Usually I try to be like Frog. But where gardening is concerned, I am 100% a Toad.
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Has anyone written an essay in which they analyze the meaning of Toad’s dream in this story?
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This is one of the best lines in any Frog and Toad story and possibly in any story ever
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Egads! You’re right!
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Henry Segerman @henryseg.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
New paper on (among other things) generating Cannon-Thurston maps from veering triangulations, joint work with Jason Manning and Saul Schleimer. arxiv.org/abs/2609.14598. We also made lots of pictures of these space-filling curves, available at math.okstate.edu/people/seger...
A sphere patterned by two different space-filling curves, one drawn as a black line and one as the boundary between green and purple regions.
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Who wants to join a writing group with me so I can get my math papers finished? My available times are Sunday 5:30-6:30 a.m., Monday-Thursday on lunch break unless I have grading or a faculty meeting, and Friday from 1:30 to oh shoot I have to pick up my kid o’clock.
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
When writing test questions about vector operations, I get so much mileage out of examples in R^3 that have one component that is ±1 and two components that are ±2.
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A few days ago I discovered the “new” (2020) Animaniacs on Hulu and I wondered if it was any good. Five episodes in, so far it has been better than I expected.
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Matt Bors @mattbors.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
It was exactly ten years ago today, on my 33rd birthday, that I posted this comic online.
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Matt Henderson @matthen.com · 13/09/2026
Approximating the Lorenz attractor with a chaotic leaky water wheel. The orange dot is the centre of mass of the water. It traces (a projection of) the familiar attractor as the wheel spins seemingly randomly left and right.
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Catriona Agg @catrionaagg.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
This is a great blog, and there’s even a whole resource of example questions - from multiple topics - to download at the end! Has anyone else used this idea? What examples did you use, and what changes did you consider?
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Paul Rowlandson @drrowlandson.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
New blog post - Explores one of my favourite questions to ask after finishing a worked example: What would happen if I changed the question? wp.me/p9t8DE-s8 #mathschat #MTBoS #ukmathschat #iTeachMaths
wp.me
What Would Happen if I Changed the Question?
After completing a worked example on the board, one of my favourite questions to ask is, “What would happen if I changed the question?” More specifically, point to a number or term within the quest…
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
From this year’s Ventura Art and Chalk Festival! Day one, so some works are still in progress.
An artist working on a piece that has a smiling crescent moon, a whale, and a lighthouse A chalk art picture of a sunset on the ocean, with boats in the foreground A large chalk art picture of a seahorse Chalk art picture, incomplete, showing the head of a cat wearing a pirate’s hat
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nat alison @tesseralis.site · 10/09/2026
mathematicians now feel like they have to be secretive about what they do in case it gets stolen by AI. graph theorists arent too worried about this though because they’ve already been doing discreet mathematics
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Kevin Kasch (他妈/他妈的) @tenletters.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
This is happening again today, so I imagine I'll stop by as I pass through Ventura, and maybe top up the battery on the EV while there. Link preview a bit underwhelming when they had a range of visuals they could have gone with, but anyway: www.venturaartandchalkfestival.com #ChalkArt
venturaartandchalkfestival.com
Home | Ventura Art And Chalk Festival
The Ventura Art and Chalk Festival - a celebration of art, artists, and craftspeople. Chalk art will be created and enjoyed, arts and crafts displayed and sold by selected vendors. #chalkart, #artfest...
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Shaenon K. Garrity @shaenon.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
When reactionaries advance some bullshit, the FIRST thing to do is identify the framing and reject it They're selling this as "trans rights vs. women's sports" when they hate both those things and want to ruin them both Accept the frame and you've lost Reject the frame and call bullshit
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
it's two things, to me: 1) trans rights matter because trans people matter and deserve rights, not just because failing to stand for trans rights is a bellwether for inauthentic progressivism more broadly 2) if you can't be trusted on trans rights you can't be trusted on anything
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Waiting for revelations to come out regarding the creator of the Bayeux Tapestry.
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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
geez, spoiler alert on this art review not all of us can make it to London for the opening day, should've had a spoiler-free version www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
theguardian.com
The Bayeux tapestry: a stupefying, thrilling, horrifying masterpiece that shakes the earth
The greatest battle ever depicted in art is here at last – and it hurtles along, making your heart pound with its sense of doom and destiny, culminating in fires and corpses on a battlefield full of p...
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
My favorite linear algebra exercise ever was proving that the Grassmannian is a manifold. I’m not sure if that counts.
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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
An important part of being an academic is developing a rigorous critique of the fundamental flaws in institutional evaluation practices while spending increasing quantities of your soul fulfilling the endless poorly defined requirements of those selfsame practices.
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
My analysis professor called this the “two trains and a bug” theorem, because if two trains are racing towards a collision at some point, and a bug stays between them, then the bug will be part of the collision at the same point.
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Dr. Marissa Kawehi Loving @marissakawehi.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
An interesting read (aimed at graduate students) from one of my closest collaborators. arxiv.org/abs/2609.06889
arxiv.org
Navigating the AI crisis: a humble guide for students
We present some basic recommendations for (mostly graduate) students when it comes to choosing to use, or avoid, AI in their mathematical research and education. These include: maintaining a connectio...
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I will only pay $1999 for an iPhone if its capabilities are limited to calls, texts, and a weather app.
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Jessamyn Dukes @rhymeswithspecimen.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
struggling with quantum superposition? don't worry! just follow this helpful diagram drawn by my kiddo
a person's hand is holding a folded up piece of printer paper on which there is a pencil drawing, ostensibly of Schrodinger's cat
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samuel @gaymath.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
residue theorem is biblically accurate integration
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Spencer Bagley @sbagley.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
All the wings is actually just, like, monodromy issues
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Since “Biblically accurate” seems to have taken on the meaning of “having lots of eyes” I posit that the most Biblically accurate subject is complex analysis.
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Dr. Courtney Gibbons (she/her/xlookup) @courtneygibbons.phd · 09/09/2026
Ah, mid-40s. The time of life when you discover "rapid onset" can be applied to almost any kind of medical condition, no matter how small. What about rapid onset sleeps-well-wakes-rested syndrome? Rapid onset great parenting skills? Hit me with rapid onset deadline management at the very least.
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Michael Barany @mbarany.com · 08/09/2026
literally this is the main thing sociologists of mathematics have been trying to tell you all this time
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ꭓle Ormsby 𓆙 @e-infinity.space · 08/09/2026
Now ready for you to enjoy: e-infinity.space/picture-book/ #MathArt #MathSky
figure-8 immersion of the Klein bottleEnpepper minimal surfacegyroid cut by boxgenus five 'puffy cube skeleton'
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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I am taking a harder line on no LLMs for my gen chem class starting tomorrow. I will not be surveiling my students in any way, but I want them to know that my expectation is for them to not use LLMs in any way for my course. Would love to hear other #chemsky #chemchat folks approach!
6. Avoiding Generative AI
In this class, my expectation is that all of the work you submit (including homework) is done by YOU.  Please do not use generative AI/ Language Learning Models for any assignment in my course.  In return, I promise that I will never use LLMs/genAI as your instructor.  

Some ways that you can avoid gen AI:

To avoid genAI in traditional google searches use https://udm14.com/Links to an external site.
Switch the default search on your computer/phone to DuckDuckGo instead of google. 
(I personally pay $5 a month to use Kagi, but that is because I rely heavily on a functioning search engine.... https://kagi.com/Links to an external site. 
More resources on how to avoid intrusive genAI for a variety of settings: https://www.librarian.net/notoai/Links to an external site. 
ChemLibre is a great resource for chemistry content.  Try searching their pages for additional support.
Come to office hours!  Learning with human experts and peers >>> generative AI.   

My goal is for you to learn how to think critically as a chemist.  Currently, I see no value in LLMs for your education at this stage.  To understand more where I am coming from :

https://refusal.blog/Links to an external site.
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Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 07/09/2026
professors are workers
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Also worth re-upping: Mathematicians standing up against how their field is being used as marketing for OpenAI and the like: leidendeclaration.ai >>
leidendeclaration.ai
Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics
This declaration calls for action to address the challenges posed by the use of artificial intelligence within mathematics research.
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JRho @jrho.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The most absolutely massive flex from the state fair exhibit. This quilt is made of 40 years of prize ribbons from various categories at the New Mexico State Fair won by Carol St. Clair Johnson. She also won a prize for this quilt.
Massive quilt made of prize ribbons in blue, red, yellow, and whiteCenter square of quilt made of yellow and red ribbons and yellow rosettesBlock of quilt made of blue, yellow, red, and white ribbons. Ribbons state the year. Some have the prize winning object written on in markerCarol St. Clair Johnson
born 1954; resides Albuquerque, NM

O Fair New Mexico-41 Fair Years
2023
satin ribbons

After unexpectedly winning her first blue ribbon for a sewn cape in 1981, Carol St. Clair Johnson developed an enduring love for the New Mexico State Fair. The quilt Fair New Mexico-41 Fair Years incorporates more than six hundred of the ribbons she won at the fair every subsequent year except 2020 (when the fair was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic). Johnson earned ribbons for needlework, knitting, crochet, pies, cookies, cakes, canning, jewelry, flowers, vegetables, and potted plants. The title of the quilt is a reference to the state song, and the design places the state's Zia sun symbol at the center. The quilt earned Johnson yet another ribbon: Best in Category (miscellaneous quilt) at the 2023 New Mexico State Fair.

Courtesy of Carol St. Clair Johnson
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Liℤℤy Kodpuak née Acid Lich (can’t spell sheaves without she) @acidlich.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
🪷 水到渠成 🪷
Illustration made in procreate which is a combination of two tilings which are dual to each other. For now it is just linework and they are knit together in such a way that it almost could be water lilies or lotus blossoms floating in a pond. Name in pinyin is ’Shuǐ dào qú chéng’ and means when the water arrives, the channel forms naturally
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Just in time for the 2026-2027 vaccines, a new review shows that COVID19 vaccination significantly reduces the risk of severe illness and hospitalization across all age groups, including kids. Pregnant women were also protected, as were their babies. Don’t forget to schedule your vaccination!
jamanetwork.com
COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness and Safety for the 2026-2027 Respiratory Season
This Special Communication aims to identify and summarize the most recently published evidence evaluating the effectiveness and safety of US-licensed COVID-19 vaccines and report on the epidemiology o...
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 03/09/2026
Tonka’s line of tie-in toys for Willow (1988) www.tumblr.com/vintagerpg/8...
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Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
What school district will be next to implement some kind of ban or moratorium on generative AI?
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