I also want to note we'd be very happy to hire someone with a PhD in mathematics or computer science. We're advertising this position on MathJobs.org, so please pass on this link to anyone you think might be a suitable candidate.
www.mathjobs.org/jobs/list/28...
• Discontinue the idea of introducing a levy on higher education provider income from international students. • Reduce visa costs to ensure they are at least as competitive in cost as other leading science nations, and preferably have a target to become the mos competitive in the G7. • Provide immediate clarity that the current time length for Indefinite Leave to Remain is kept in place for current and future Global Talent visa holders and their dependents.
We are calling on the UK Government to not introduce a levy on higher education provider income from international students, reduce visa costs to attract global talent, and to review higher education funding to create a sustainable model
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/58...
If Arsenal do win the Premier League this season, they'll need to have the parade in the Cardiac Care unit because that's where everyone will be.
If you're a USS member of @ucu.org.uk , then you've probably heard some talk of Conditional Indexation. It'll likely be on the agenda at this year's HE Sector Conference, and I've written a very basic primer for anyone that's interested.
open.substack.com/pub/dyfrigjo...
We’re open to applicants who don’t have their PhD in hand yet (the details are in the advert). But we’re very much looking for someone who can come in and do great work and take us in directions we haven’t thought of. High quality publications are of course important, but mere numbers are not.
Realising I haven't advertised this here—I'm hiring! Walter Dean and I have a project on measuring the strength of mathematical theorems used in philosophy, and we're looking for a postdoctoral researcher to join our team.
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQO344/r...
UK Home Office now only accepting 4.5% of Ukrainian asylum seekers because it’s a “safe country”. Families sent to cities being bombed, told to use noise cancelling headphones to block out the horror.
news.sky.com/story/ukrain...
The project is joint with Martin Fischer at the MCMP, and is funded by the AHRC and the DFG. A brief description is available on the project web page:
warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/phil...
Realising I haven't advertised this here—I'm hiring! Walter Dean and I have a project on measuring the strength of mathematical theorems used in philosophy, and we're looking for a postdoctoral researcher to join our team.
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQO344/r...
Teaching the diagonal lemma today, I wondered about its connection to the second recursion theorem. Moschovakis's 'Kleene's amazing second recursion theorem' (BSL 16(2), 2010) proves the diagonal lemma from the second recursion theorem (p. 201), but presumably one could go the other way too.
People explain the real impact of politically-motivated changes to the settlement rules on their lives, the Home Office responds with "We make no apology ..." IME people in power who use the "no apology" formula know full well that they are doing something very wrong
Asking for a friend, obviously!
Is it more intimidating to give an academic talk at a conference or colloquium, or in your own department? On the one hand, your colleagues might be kinder than the median conference audience. But on the other, you have to live with them—and their judgement of you—for (hopefully!) a long time.
At the insistence of the publishing companies, the UK govt prevents residents from accessing Sci-Hub, a free site containing academic literature, otherwise paywalled. Now they plan to let AI companies use any music, writing, art… to train their crappy programmes WITHOUT PAYING US A PENNY. Thieves!
Those fleeing disaster and conflict deserve certainty and dignity, not repeated questioning of their right to feel safe.
Progressive, humane policies strengthen communities.
Division does not. We can choose compassion, and we should.
Interested if anyone has a take on this recent Quanta article on Cantor's publication of Dedekind's theorem that the algebraic numbers are countable. It's obviously good for history and philosophy of mathematics, to see these topics in popular publications. www.quantamagazine.org/the-man-who-...
Ferreirós also discusses the issue in his entry on the early history of set theory in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. One can find his discussion of the issue, including references to others who address it, in the final paragraph of §1. plato.stanford.edu/entries/sett...
Ferreirós's article appears in Historia Mathematica. doi.org/10.1006/hmat...
Irritatingly, the Quanta article doesn't link to either Goos's 2025 article or Ferreirós's article. Goos's article appears in a seemingly obscure Serbian journal (I don't know why he didn't send it to Historia Mathematica or similar). www.scribd.com/document/977...
This seems very surprising—Müller-Stach, for example, in his book on Dedekind, mentions this as a "priority dispute" and discusses it in some detail (the book appeared in German in 2017, and an English translation in 2024).
But my sense—which may be wrong, of course—was that Ferreirós's view was now pretty widely accepted. The article writes that "[Goos] could only find one piece of writing that explicitly discussed Cantor’s wrongdoing", namely Ferreirós's 1993 paper.
A more substantial concern I have is whether this is really all that new. Of course it's important to have more evidence corroborating the claim that Dedekind proved that the algebraic numbers are countable, and Cantor basically lifted both the proof and the result wholesale from Dedekind's letters.
The article itself does have a slightly sensationalist feel—that's just the nature of the beast, and perhaps not ultimately too objectionable.
Interested if anyone has a take on this recent Quanta article on Cantor's publication of Dedekind's theorem that the algebraic numbers are countable. It's obviously good for history and philosophy of mathematics, to see these topics in popular publications. www.quantamagazine.org/the-man-who-...
Nothing more articulate to say at this point than FUCK OFF
Painting of the Port Royal Monastery
On today's new episode we tackle the Port-Royal Logic, the most influential philosophy textbook of early modern Europe, which combines ideas from Descartes with scholasticism:
www.historyofphilosophy.net/port-royal-l...
#logic #podcast #philsky #philosophy #podcast #earlymodern #hopwag
On which note, if you haven't yet voted in this year's NEC election, I recommend @ucucommons.org candidates! ucucommons.org/election26/
ACAS summary of changes to workers' rights rules: August 2026 changes Trade union ballots These changes will happen in August 2026: 1) trade union members will be able to vote electronically or in-person in ballots for industrial action, union elections and other statutory ballots – if the employer and trade union agree 2) the requirement for a 50% turnout for industrial action ballots will be removed – this had originally been expected in April 2026
The rollback of Tory anti-union legislation, and restoration of workers' rights, is happening incrementally. For #UCU, the really big change is going to be this one in August. That's going to make it even more important for members to engage in internal union democracy!
