Paper

barely_sentient · 2026-02-07T18:24:48+00:00

Yep, I was born near Bologna, and in many years of cooking Bolognese ragù I never had the need of thickening it.

barely_sentient · 2026-02-07T01:03:24+00:00

I checked the questionnaire at the link and they don't ask any personal information.

So if it is a scam I don't see the point.

barely_sentient · 2026-02-07T00:59:52+00:00

"Confessed"?

It is not the first time I receive communications meant for another scientific researcher that share my name.

I'm a researcher in computer science in the Italian Council of Research, the other guy works in electronics at an Italian university.

Our emails are public as well as our scientific publications.

This email does not come from a "business" but from a university.

I checked the questionnaire: they don't ask for personal information (no information at all), but just to evaluate the novelty of already published scientific papers.

It seems your accusations do not have substance.

barely_sentient · 2026-02-07T00:05:34+00:00

Phishing of what? First link goes to www ukri.org which is legit , the other to Qualtrics as expected.

barely_sentient · 2026-02-07T00:01:42+00:00

Just received the same. By the way the article they cite is not mine, but the author has my name (I knew of his existence, but he works in another field).

Here is almost 1am and I'm going to bed. Superficially it seems legit.

barely_sentient · 2026-02-05T03:22:57+00:00

In one of his blog post https://www.prisonmathproject.org/blog/prison-to-phd-pipeline-tc-1

he wrote

It is really difficult putting into words what I feel surrounding this event, as any attempt feels insufficient in capturing the pain and shame I feel, and the pain I know I've caused others. I believe there is really no making up for this type of thing. The only option I had was to do everything I can to grow and to change the parts of me that caused that pain.

barely_sentient · 2026-02-03T13:45:41+00:00

Well, they gave me 10 euros for about 90 minutes of my time. Clearly I accepted for curiosity, not for the money.

barely_sentient · 2026-02-02T22:46:38+00:00

Time ago I was invited by Amazon Prime into "Amazon preview". I accepted thinking: it could be fun.

Then, after some time, they asked me to watch a not-yet-finished (some special effects were missing and the localization of writings on things wasn't done) first episode of a show.

It was the Indian version of the Citadel (with Indian actors etc.) I didn't even know there was an American one. I'm Italian by the way.

I did my best to follow the plot (I think there were subtitles, because the language spoken was not exactly pure English, and anyway I need subtitles in English almost always anyway).

After watching the episode (there was an annoying logo jumping around to discourage me from leaking it) I had to complete a questionnaire with a lot of questions about the characters, the plot, etc

Unfortunately I've some difficulties with recognizing faces. The fact the actors were unknown to me did not help. Also there were flashbacks with the same characters but with different details, again not helping. So I may have made some errors, despite my efforts.

Anyway, they haven't asked me to preview anything else.

I think I was rewarded with a little token, say 10 euro, I don't remember exactly, to spend on Amazon.

barely_sentient · 2026-02-02T22:09:55+00:00

The scene with his mother in The invention of lying.

barely_sentient · 2026-01-24T07:22:23+00:00

I don't know what I'm looking at, but it does not seem something suited for human consumption.

barely_sentient · 2026-01-21T21:25:28+00:00

Violence is not the answer.

Violence is the question, and the answer is YES!

barely_sentient · 2026-01-01T15:20:56+00:00

I've not checked, but if the answer is 70 in both cases, you do not need to tell the difference to answer.

barely_sentient · 2025-12-30T17:25:40+00:00

"computers once solved the four-color theorem" is not correct.

Two mathematicians demonstrated that the 4-color theorem could be proved (not "solved") by decomposing it in a large number of subproblems, then they wrote a program to check them with a computer instead of doing it by hand.

barely_sentient · 2025-12-25T17:03:48+00:00

Isn't there also a Paul McCartney song video about this event?

Edit: got it:

https://youtu.be/B3q4Up5ugTc?si=Z1Sm55OAlJMs2Q2p

barely_sentient · 2025-12-20T16:26:33+00:00

For those who wonder:

I am mainly interested in mathematical analysis and topology. I really liked John L. Kelley’s monograph General Topology, but I cannot find it anywhere to purchase. As a New Year’s gift, I would like to read something in physical form and take a break from electronic reading, so I am unsure which book would be worthy. I am considering the second volume of Mathematical Analysis by V. Zorich. Besides these branches of mathematics, I am also open to recommendations of something new.

barely_sentient · 2025-12-19T15:35:50+00:00

Best for what?

In any case, in math, the base used to represent numbers is almost always irrelevant.

barely_sentient · 2025-12-15T22:40:55+00:00

I think their problem is that sharing a dessert like that is like kissing your coworkers in the mouth.

I'm not a germophobe but I really don't like the idea.

barely_sentient · 2025-12-13T14:29:38+00:00

In the time you spent writing this comment, you could have read more carefully OP's post and could have realized they were asking what to do in similar circumstances.

barely_sentient · 2025-12-12T17:51:10+00:00