Timothy Gowers

Oops, missed this. Quite remarkable.

Stop the Tories and Reform in House of Commons Vote tactically in House of Commons to stop the Tories and Reform

If your priority is stopping Reform you need to know who to vote for to do it. This site has the answer. 👇🏻

I get two or three emails a day from people wanting me to comment on their new mathematical theories, but today marked a first: the email began with the words "Dear Terence Tao". (To be clear, I wasn't being cc-ed in to a message to Terence Tao.)

With the wrong sort of question that could be a terrible idea: there are many questions where a simple yes/no answer is insufficient. For example, it would leave no room for a proper nuanced answer to the question, "Should we reduce our standard of living in order to combat climate change?"

In fairness, we did get a very lucky two points against Wolves at home.

I'm not sure mentioning that they beat Spurs strengthens your case.

Something tells me my prime minister would find this sign less amusing than I do.

The two closest people to me in this map turned out to be @teorth.bsky.social and @gregegansf.bsky.social -- I couldn't be happier.

A complaint I have about intelligent extraterrestrial life in almost all science fiction is that the beings are boringly humanoid. I was recently given Diaspora by @gregegansf.bsky.social, an author I've been meaning to read for a long time. It turned out to be a glorious exception to this rule.

There's plenty of luck involved once you get the knockout stage. Even if they are correctly judged to be favourites, the chances that they will win are well below 50%.

Another principle that is lost on many: if you condemn A and not B then you may still disapprove of B. The fact that I didn't mention the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China's treatment of the Uyghurs, civil war in Sudan, anything to do with Trump, etc. doesn't mean I don't find them appalling too.

Some seem surprised that one can hold the following three beliefs simultaneously.

1. The October 7th attacks were appalling.
2. Israel's response has been appalling.
3. The Iranian regime is appalling and it would be great if it were overthrown (assuming something worse didn't replace it).

I read that they did.

That's roughly when I started supporting them.

It may not be the worst aspect of the US invasion of Venezuela, but the fact that Trump cites Venezuela's failure to pump enough oil out of the ground as one of his reasons for invading is nevertheless deeply depressing.

Came here to post the same, but you've saved me the bother.

This, but adding 1.

My main non-plane trips in 2025 were one train journey to Venice, one to Leiden, and one to Saint Jean de Luz in the south west corner of France. All three went smoothly -- as last year my main gripe is that it is quite a bit more expensive to go by train than to fly.

Condescension seems to come across much worse than out and out hostility.

That makes me feel very good. As it happens I’m on my way from Cambridge to the France/Spain border (stopping off in Paris) and will soon have completed a second flight-free year. Oslo to Rome sounds pretty cool.

(That "you" is of course a "one" and isn't referring to you.)

If you think "edging down" is getting better, rather than continuing to get worse at a slightly slower rate.

British news a bit more coy about it for some reason.

Sorry, I should have explained in more detail. But instead of doing that, I'll give you a direct link to the most recently published article of the journal: arxiv.org/pdf/2307.15822

Do you think the papers in this journal look like undergraduate essays?

discreteanalysisjournal.com

Maybe he's secretly trying to do something about climate change.

I can't decide whether it's that or just appalling tactics -- making huge compromises in order to win a second term, which in practice have had the effect that he almost certainly won't win a second term (unless he's very lucky and Reform self-destructs).

Have you watched the Liz Truss Show? After five minutes of that I think you might be forced to admit that Starmer is the lesser of two evils.

Even if she does give two shits, she would probably be far too afraid of the inevitable reaction that the right-wing press would have to such a measure.

End of fossil fuel era inches closer as Cop30 deal agreed after bitter standoff Wealthy countries should triple funds for countries to tackle climate impacts, but deforestation and critical minerals blocked from final deal

Four degrees of separation: "Countries meeting in Brazil for two weeks could manage only a voluntary agreement to begin discussions on a roadmap to an eventual phase-out of fossil fuels ..."

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This comment has a strong guns-don't-kill-people vibe.