Retirement Conference for Colin Please

Unfortunately, I just checked and I am still COVID positive, so regrettably I will be missing the retirement conference and party for my Oxford colleague Colin Please. (Alhough I am far from perfect, I feel well enough to have attended if I weren't still testing positive. I may chat with some people during a break outside and from a safe distance.)

A more general thing to point out, and it relates to the fact that I already interacted with Colin several years before he joined the Oxford faculty — I wonder if he remembers my antics during the 'mock tutorial' part of his Oxford interview? — is that I have always admired and enjoyed just how tightly know the British applied-mathematics community is. People across some many of the institutions know each other really well and often "randomly" show up at events in nearby cities even when their affiliations are different. I miss that.

Congratulations to Colin on his retirement!

What Happens in the United Kingdom Stays in the United Kingdom

I arrived in Oxford a bit over a week ago, but I forgot to blog about it. I then visited friends in Newcastle during the weekend and returned to Oxford on Monday. Unfortunately, I caught COVID and have thus delayed my return flight to the US. I am currently in a room in Somerville College (in Oxford) struggling through COVID and gradually (but bumpily) improving.

Workshop on Evidence-Based Diversity Initiatives

I hope that some of my mathematics, networks, and complex-systems peeps attend this workshop! It looks good.

Tired of expensive diversity initiatives that haven’t really changed much? So are we 😴. We want to give you 💰 to work on projects based on evidence. Meet new people, change the game. Join us on Sept 21 + 22 @turinginst: https://t.co/gOH4KvRQM7 #womeninSTEM x @STEMGamechange pic.twitter.com/PPgDvIqqy9

— Dr Jess Wade 👩🏻‍🔬 (@jesswade) July 25, 2018

(P.S. Jess Wade has been doing amazing things in her prolific writing of Wikipedia entries.)

Proof of Existence of Sunlight in England

At least it was a book that was published in The Other Place. ;)

“Mason’s knowledge was as faded as the book from the British sun.”

Proof of existence of sunlight in England. :) pic.twitter.com/d7z7YbgLAy

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) July 20, 2018

What Happens in Newcastle Stays in Newcastle (2018 Edition)

I've been visiting friends in Newcastle the last couple of days.

A Dozen Ways to Divide the United Kingdom

There is some great snark in here!

A Dozen Ways To Divide The United Kingdom pic.twitter.com/LuMZ8hC3tG

— Terrible Maps (@TerribleMaps) February 1, 2018

(Tip of the cap to Melina Freitag.)

Travel Time from London in 1881

This is really cool!

My favorite part of this visualization is for a trip to Africa, as the rapid change in colors once you arrive on the content very nicely and tersely tells you something about the change in transportation mode (and topography, etc.).

I'm sure there are plenty of other similarly interesting things if one looks closely.

This map shows travel time from London in 1881 pic.twitter.com/CbMNxcDEpu

— Conrad Hackett (@conradhackett) December 23, 2017

(Tip of the cap to Sydney Padua.)

Jeremy, the Left-Coiled Snail

I'm not sure how I managed to miss this story before, but Jeremy the Left-Coiled Snail (who died in October, at the ripe old age of 2 or so), who was named after Jeremy Corbyn (on account of his being a 'lefty' snail), had a chance to shine in the spotlight earlier this year. And he even had scientists to help him with his sex life, though all of his 56 children ended up being righties.

In the Wikipedia entry, I am amused by the deadpan nature of the information box in the upper-right corner.

(And, in case you're wondering, there are really good reasons to study genetically unusual orientations like this.)

What Happens in Newcastle Stays in Newcastle

I just spent much of the weekend in Newcastle hanging out with old friends.

Perceptions of the Probability of Ambiguous Statements

You can completely mess up this chart in the UK simply by using the word "quite". That will do quite an ambiguous number on the perceived probabilities.

(More seriously, I really like this visualization.)

Fantastic enumeration/visualization of qualitative statements re probability via @amandacox https://t.co/XtFnHD2Zgp | @rsimmon @johnjhorton pic.twitter.com/DeByHToazi

— Nicholas Christakis (@NAChristakis) April 25, 2017

The Grammar Vigilante

Superheroes come in all shapes and sizes. In Bristol (U.K.), they have The Grammar Vigilante. I approve!

(Tip of the cap to Mark Newgarden.)

Nomenclature for a Few London Tube Stations

This very interesting article has some really cool stuff about the origin of the names of a few stations in the London Underground ("The Tube") transportation system.

Proof that England has Sun

"Women, Mathematics, and the Periodical Tradition in Britain: or a History of Women Rocking Math from the Beginning"

Jacqueline D. Wernimont has written a very cool blog post about The Ladies' Diary.

Here is a quote from her post that describes the publication venue:

"One way to look at it is as a chimeric text with the head of an almanac, the body of a literary-mathematical periodical, with commonplace wings and a tail of recipes. It is fantastic.

Without question, it is the first mathematical periodical in Britain and it was designed explicitly for women and was published as such for more than five generations."

Very cool!

(Tip of the cap to Rachel Levy.)

Replying to All: Million-Person Edition

Well, this story puts my dark sense of humor on overdrive.

It's probably not a good idea to reply-all when there are more than one million recipients. At least we know why people are getting slow e-mail responses from NHS employees at the moment.

Awesome UK Location Names

When it comes to naming locations, the UK definitely wins big!

Take this "Brokenwind"... (and learn to name again?)

Map of the #UK's weirdest place names.https://t.co/q4M1qbnOgo pic.twitter.com/hVVNBEfP4y

— Randy Olson (@randal_olson) November 11, 2016

An Optimal Tour of UK Pubs

For my friends who are still in the UK, here is the optimal tour (TSP-style) of UK pubs.

You're welcome.

Shortest-possible walking tour to 24,727 pubs. By far the largest road-dist traveling salesman problem ever solved. https://t.co/7KTWFBSdmD pic.twitter.com/7rNPch59wE

— Bill Cook (@wjcook) October 19, 2016

(Tip of the cap to Marc Abrahams for reminding me of this. Bill Cook showed a version of this plot in a London Mathematical Society meeting in 2015.)

Alas, Poor 'E.G.'! I Knew it, 'I.E.'

In the interest of accessibility, UK government websites are now going to remove Latin abbreviations such as 'e.g.', 'i.e.', and 'etc.' from its websites. Good!

Alas, poor 'e.g.'! I knew it, 'i.e.': a construction of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: it hath
borne me on its back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!

Oh, wait: et tu, 'i.e.'?

(And now that I am looking this up, is a double colon like the above really legal? That seems extremely odd to me; and it also makes me want to construct a sentence with infinitely nested colons.)

Britain's First Fast-Walking Lane Opens in Liverpool

Great Britain's first fast-walking lane has opened in Liverpool. I approve! (And I would totally take advantage of this.)

(Tip of the cap to Guillermo Valle Pérez.)

Rick Astley for U.K. Prime Minister?

The reason is obvious, isn't it?

(Tip of the cap to Alan Champneys.)