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Joshua Grochow

@joshuagrochow.bsky.social

2.3K followers 480 following 1.3K posts

Research: TheoryCompSci, pure math, complex systems Other: climate; covid; equity, inclusion, & accessibility Assoc. Prof. @ CU Boulder Comp. Sci. & Math Views my own @[email protected] (& prev twitter) https://home.cs.colorado.edu/~jgrochow

home.cs.colorado.edu

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Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · Oct 25

New (*draft) slide just dropped, that I want to include at the start of all my online talks. Thoughts or feedback?

#MathSky #AcademicSky

Slide title: Thank You for Hosting Remote Talks

Body of slide:
Many researchers cannot travel because of:
- Visa issues
- Disability
- Personal or family health issues
- Money - personal, university, country
- Family responsibilities
- Work responsibilities
- (Climate change & environmental cost)

[Highlighted] Remote events help tie us to the community!

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Reposted by Joshua Grochow

Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 6h

When writing alt text for an image of text, it's not enough to just write "screen shot of text from article." Sighted users get to know what is in that screen shot, so why don't blind users deserve the same? The alt text should include all the actual text in the image.

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Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 17h

If you don't want to work that out as a fun little exercise, spoiler here: mathstodon.xyz/@joshuagroch...

Joshua Grochow (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image @massimolauria In the region you brought up there is a similar proof using the fact that the sum of interior angles of a quadrilateral is a constant: OVA is equilateral OAB is equi...

mathstodon.xyz

Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 17h

Oops, that proof only works when the triangle contains the center (pointed out to me by Massimo Lauria on mastodon).

A similar proof using isosceles triangles and the fact that the sum of the interior angles of a quadrilateral is constant works in the other case though.

Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 1d

Just learned about the inscribed angle theorem. I didn't like any of the proofs I found by searching at first (I mean, they were fine, but I found them...unenlightening), but eventually found this one which I really like:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiAc...

#MathSky

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Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 1d

If you're new to captioning videos for your content, you might feel as if you don't know what you don't know. Meryl Evans' "Does Your Video Make These 6 Common Caption Mistakes?" is a great resource to help make your captions better.

meryl.net/common-capti...

6 Common Caption Mistakes: Is Your Video Guilty of Any?

Your captioned video has standard captions that are accurate and in sync with the audio. It could be making one of these six mistakes.

meryl.net

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Reposted by Joshua Grochow

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 1d

New from 404 Media: the Discord hack is every users' worst nightmare. Yesterday the hackers started posting Discord users' selfies, identity documents, email addresses, phone numbers, more. I watched in real time. This is risk of tech storing ID for age verification
www.404media.co/the-discord-...

The Discord Hack is Every Users’ Worst Nightmare

A hack impacting Discord’s age verification process shows in stark terms the risk of tech companies collecting users’ ID documents. Now the hackers are posting peoples’ IDs and other sensitive informa...

www.404media.co

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Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 2d

Infinitely many instances like that isn't enough on its own. What if that infinite set was itself decidable? Thinking more, bc I think there should be a converse something like what you said

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Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 2d

Why would you want a computer to do something that is hard and/or boring for humans? We want them to do the things that are easy and fun for humans so humans don't have to! Oh wait...

Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 2d

...uh...why do you ask?

😬🧟

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Reposted by Joshua Grochow

Butlerian Jihadist of House Slytherin @shimminykricket.bsky.social · 3d

The crazy part about reading is it is a tremendous help with math. Once I started actually *reading* my math textbooks, especially the first few pages of each chapter, I started getting it.

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Dr. Kimberly Ayers @kdayers.bsky.social · 4d

We are hiring! We are looking for a new member to join our department with research experience in math education. You can apply on MathJobs: www.mathjobs.org/jobs/list/27...

MathJobs from the the American Mathematical Society

Mathjobs is an automated job application system sponsored by the AMS.

www.mathjobs.org

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Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 4d

Technically edit distance, but...yes

Reposted by Joshua Grochow

Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 4d

Really want to encourage libraries - especially school libraries - to put no-AI content into your collection development policy. At the very least, if you have a clause in there about requiring accurate information, you can use that to weed out or prevent genAI purchases.

Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 4d

“When you get a suspicious book, “you look it up to see what else the [author] has written. And you see there's 30 things, and none of them have any reviews, and they were all written in the last two years,” DeMeester-Lane says.”

How Local Librarians Keep AI Slop Off the Shelves

AI is being used to create nonsensical, sometimes dangerously inaccurate books. Local librarians are tasked with keeping these volumes out of their collections.

www.governing.com

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Reposted by Joshua Grochow

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 5d

Preliminary results show that the current framework of "AI" makes ppl less likely to help or seek help from other humans, or to seek to soothe conflict, and that people actively prefer that framework to any others, literally serving to make them more dependent on it.

Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence

Both the general public and academic communities have raised concerns about sycophancy, the phenomenon of artificial intelligence (AI) excessively agreeing with or flattering users. Yet, beyond isolat...

arxiv.org

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Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 5d

Dunno what uni you're at but mine is similar in this. FWIW most of our Comp Sci faculty (and related depts like Info Sci) agree with you and you could probably find faculty support there. We faculty would love to find such staff/admin support within our IT dept.

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Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 5d

Great article.

"You can prove your technology works and secure initial funding, but you can’t build a sustainable business model when the **entire system is designed to prevent adoption at scale**." (emph added)

STAT @statnews.com · 6d

Why promising women’s health companies die so often. No matter how innovative, women’s health startups can’t overcome the system. www.statnews.com/2025/10/02/w...

Why promising women's health companies die so often

No matter how innovative, women’s health startups can’t overcome the system.

www.statnews.com

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Reposted by Joshua Grochow

Sophie Huiberts @sophie.huiberts.me · 5d

Just learned that cryptographers are a lot more creative than the rest of us with their videos. Sharing my three favorites:

1: lattice-based zero-knowledge proofs rap

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Joshua Grochow

The Transfeminine Review @thetransfemininereview.com · 9d

Read bad art. Write bad art. Critique bad art.

Here’s a statement that might be radical in 2025: ‘bad art’ is still art, not content or slop. “But what about AI?” What about it? It demands that we interrogate the definition of art itself, and therefore here is mine: art is a practice, not a product.

Art is not something we consume. Art is something we do.

Artificially-generated ‘art’ does not fall beyond the purview of our definition of art because it lacks aesthetic merit. It has nothing to do with aesthetics. AI ‘art’ is not art because it is not something that the ‘artist’ has done.

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Reposted by Joshua Grochow

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 6d

Texas and California added more clean power capacity in 2024 than the next 30 US states combined. In California, two Bay Area refineries (around 15% of that state’s capacity) are closing as demand for gasoline falls into permanent decline. buff.ly/lLMyPU3
#ShareGoodNewsToo

California Refineries Close as Gasoline Demand Slips into Permanent Decline - CleanTechnica

California’s refineries are closing not because of regulation, but because gasoline demand is shrinking as EV adoption crosses tipping points.

buff.ly

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Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 6d

(Whereas on masto there is literally no way to take your followers with you if the owner of the server you're leaving doesn't want you to.)

Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 6d

This isn't an answer, but maybe a small piece of the puzzle: Moving servers when the owners don't want to help you is more doable with atproto than masto/AP bsky.app/profile/dana...

It's not user-friendly yet, but someone could build an app or tool that makes 👇 pretty seamless, IIUC.

dan @danabra.mov · 6d

not, but leaving adversarially requires some preparation in advance. see www.da.vidbuchanan.co.uk/blog/adversa...

Adversarial ATProto PDS Migration | Blog

www.da.vidbuchanan.co.uk

Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 6d

Ah nice, thanks! Am I understanding right that the key difference is that on masto/AP, you could backup everything "manually" (a somewhat similar prep-in-advance situation), but you'd lose your followers, whereas on atproto if you do the prep-in-advance you also keep your followers?

Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 6d

Q: on mastodon, one of the (perhaps smaller) issues is that moving servers puts you at the mercy of the owners of the server you're leaving. Is the same true with atproto and/or bsky?

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Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 6d

What is Knot Theory? Solve These Puzzles to Find Out www.scientificamerican.com/article/what...

Can You Solve Math’s Knottiest Puzzles?

Learn the fundamentals of the burgeoning field of knot theory while solving some puzzles along the way

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Joshua Grochow

Prof. Eliot Jacobson @climatecasino.net · 6d

Your 'moment of doom' for Oct. 4, 2025 ~ Forever.

"Advocates are particularly concerned over the facilities’ use of Pfas gas, or f-gas, which can be potent greenhouse gases, and may mean datacenters’ climate impact is worse than previously thought."

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Advocates raise alarm over Pfas pollution from datacenters amid AI boom

Tech companies’ use of Pfas gas at facilities may mean datacenters’ climate impact is worse than previously thought

www.theguardian.com

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