Rowena Ball
@rowena-mathscieng.bsky.social
Professor in mathematical sciences, Indigenous and non-Western mathematics, Origin of life, Cross-disciplinary interests in all STEM, Railways, Country pub lunches She/her, widowed, with 3 children and 5 grandchildren
When did school mathematics become re-branded as 'numeracy'? Why? Was it just because of some sort of imperfect rhyming ring with 'literacy'? #mathematics #mathsky
ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · yesterdayNAPLAN results a 'national tragedy' as one-third of students not meeting literacy and numeracy expectations
The pleasure was all ours! Isn't it great to have maths visitors? The conference was a huge, exciting success – thanks entirely to Parisa and the other brilliant, generous invited speakers and the students! #mathematics
Parisa Kharazmi@parisakharazmi.bsky.social · yesterdayGrateful to have been a guest lecturer at MSI, ANU. Heartfelt thanks to Prof. Rowena Ball @rowena-mathscieng.bsky.social for her generous support, which opened a new world for my research, and for organising "Global Mathematics Histories and Futures," a one-of-a-kind event in Australia. #MSI #ANU
'Managerial roles such as “associate pro-vice chancellor for education and student experience” have been created' These useless overpaid appointments are made at Oz universities. They are an insult to research and teaching academics at the coalface, who DO student education and experience every day
John Heathershaw@jheathershaw.bsky.social · 5d agoI never thought that I would have to write this piece about my university. But after weeks of demonstrating privately to senior managers that their case is based on a false prospectus, that their data are inaccurate and their claims misleading, there was little choice. substack.com/@lucasamin/n...
More little fractal frosticles on the windscreen this morning, but fog has descended so not as sparkly as yesterday
Oho, something new on an Aussie country pub menu! Galway Spice Bag: fried chicken, chips, McDonnell's curry sauce, onion, capsicum, Chinese sauce. So of course I absolutely had to order this culinary marvel!
Victorian cult and fringe group inquiry recommends criminalising group coercion
Cult inquiry recommends outlawing coercive control in groups
A Victorian inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups is recommending world-leading laws against group coercive control.
abc.net.au
Before colonisation Aboriginal children played and 'lived' mathematics brilliantly. This account is from the early 1900s: "In far north Qld the Aboriginal youngsters would make their own fun. After making a dense black column of smoke, girls and boys would ‘spear’ long leaves into it. 1/n #mathsky
Nalini Joshi@monsoon0.bsky.social · last wk.“Ambition of the highest order and play can live in the same person. Which leaves the question I really care about: not why these four still play, but why so many people stop.” The four here refer to the 2026 Fields medallists: Yu Deng, John Pardon, Jacob Tsimerman, and Hong Wang #ICM2026
Nearly jumped out me skin, office desk phone suddenly shrieked at me just now! Haven't heard a peep from it for years, nor used it, and it is covered in dust. Presumably the university just keeps paying a provider for this antiquated landline service that no-one uses.
Shame-job, International Congress of Mathematicians. The organisers are a bloody disgrace. Did they not screen, train, and brief their security contractor? Is the ICM, and the IMU, completely clueless on how corrosive such continual aggressions are to the victims? #mathsky #racism #whitesupremacy
Nalini Joshi@monsoon0.bsky.social · last wk.For the first time in my life I have a lable that says “VIP”. Can you guess how many times I’ve been asked to move on, because a certain area is reserved for VIPs? I guess I just don’t fit the pattern 🤷🏽♀️
Train getting longer as it goes along! Love it! Presumably the train would have to get shorter as it goes in the opposite direction, as it drops the empties off.
Railmaps@railmaps.com.au · 2w agoEventually, in the late afternoon, we approached Hughenden, the junction for the Townsville to Mount Isa line and 215km from Winton. Here, 1644 at the head of our by now much longer train, waits at the home signal for 1171 to pass by with a westbound train on the main line. 13 of 14
`But young women may still get written out of a research team’s endeavours, when a male student is allowed to lay claim to a woman’s research – and which historian of science will be able to track that down, by whatever means?' You're on!
Athene Donald@athenedonald.bsky.social · 2w agoMy reading about #womeninSTEM has taken me back to a 1913 book, introducing me to many names I'd not come across before. How did people do their research pre the internet? A researcher's life is so (comparatively) easy! occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...
Another warm tropical winter morning in Canberra. Great fun it were, thoughtlessly stepping barefoot down the back to put the recycling out.
Research proposal to study rates of time generation and contraction in comparable research funding agencies fails to obtain funding before the universe ends
ARC Tracker@arc-tracker.bsky.social · 3w agoThe UK government’s research grant agency wants to cut grant processing times from 195 days to 90. Meanwhile, the Australian equivalent, has increased it from 195 days to at least 435 (DP26 vs. DP27). This is for comparable, “applicant led grants”. Make it make sense.
In case you are interested in how bees know things.
Aidan McGlynn@aidanmcglynn.bsky.social · 3w agoI have...questions
Not to mention that mirror image alien visitors from another galaxy would starve. Pub menus would have to offer MI options as well as V and GF options.
ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 4w agoPotential of 'mirror life' technology has Doomsday Clock scientists alarmed. This is why
The annual Three Minute Thesis Grand Final is over. One of the most important skills a student will ever learn, gushes the VC, who is looking forward to next year's 3MT comp. No doubt, no doubt. I wonder why the little old aphorism "be careful what you wish for" popped into my head. #AI
Very pleased to learn that this photo of mine has been shortlisted in the 2026 Australian Photography Awards. Magnetite in waiting. Piles of magnetite (against a backdrop of a rusty red roof) waiting to be loaded onto a ship at the Whyalla steelworks.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mathematics Alliance, led by Dr Chris Matthews, are working on mathematics education reform to incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures atsima.com
Home | ATSIMA
atsima.com
Over 5,500 mathematical artworks can now be browsed in an attractive new gallery-wall layout on the Bridges website, thanks to the efforts of Nathan Selikoff: gallery.bridgesmathart.org/gallery?seed...
The disused river bridge on the old Yass Tramway is of massive proportions, hugely over-engineered. I wonder what its story is? Never mind, I have a brill idea – why not re-purpose it to bridge the sad and sorry Victoria pass causeway? There, fixed it! None of the big-talkers on FB thought of THAT!!
Railmaps@railmaps.com.au · last mo.In April 1892, a branch line (known as the Yass Tramway) south to Yass Town opened, and the station, which prior to that time has been known simply as Yass station, was renamed Yass Junction.
Indigenizing The Drake Equation: How Indigenous Methods Can Help Us Understand Life In The Milky Way Galaxy astrobiology.com/2026/06/30/i... #astrobiology #interstellar #Sociology #SETI @setiinstitute.bsky.social
Indigenizing The Drake Equation: How Indigenous Methods Can Help Us Understand Life In The Milky Way Galaxy
The Drake Equation is a thought experiment whose purpose is to understand the ingredients necessary for life
astrobiology.com
Likely this fiasco of the collapse of Victoria pass is utterly mystifying to many readers. Sorry about that. You just have to see it. People who haven't seen much, or any, of Australia have no idea of the incredible, sheer ruggedness and extent of the eastern ranges and escarpments and forests.
Rowena Ball@rowena-mathscieng.bsky.social · last mo.A really good question! Seems the causeway collapse is an actual, real-life case of self-organised criticality, a dynamical phenomenon where the frequency-size distribution of 'avalanches' follows an inverse power law, but which has only ever been simulated in silico.
A really good question! Seems the causeway collapse is an actual, real-life case of self-organised criticality, a dynamical phenomenon where the frequency-size distribution of 'avalanches' follows an inverse power law, but which has only ever been simulated in silico.
Andrew Waugh@mandrewwaugh.bsky.social · last mo.It would super interesting to find out why it suddenly collapsed... Heavier vehicles? Water? What?
Not a good look to use an ai-gen image of a B737 and an A380 merging like cars on a sliproad from the motorway. Also – take an A350-900 for long-haul flights. Nice plane. The quad jet has had its day, in fact it should have with retirement of the B747.
ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · last mo.Qantas plane to be inspected urgently after cracks found in Airbus A380 aircraft
Oh, *honestly*. What sort of stupid jerk does a hit and run on geese? One hopes the offender is released into the custody of the geese, who no doubt will deliver swift, retributive justice...
ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 2mo agoPolice investigating after geese mowed down by driver in Malmsbury
I'd rather peruse my entire spam folder in detail than read puerile 'news items' like this from the ABC about a bunch of intergenerational parasites. Most esteemed Prof. Dr, How are you? Greetings from Exclusive savings on All the guff from LinkedIn
ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 2mo agoUK celebrates King Charles's official birthday with Trooping of the Colour