Solal Pirelli
@solalpirelli.bsky.social
Scala compiler engineer @ EPFL. Scientific integrity, and random rants. Previously: PhD in automated software verification.
:( news.mit.edu/2026/margare...
Margaret Hamilton, computing pioneer who led software development for the Apollo program, dies at 90
Margaret H. Hamilton, a profoundly influential computer scientist best known for leading the software engineering team at MIT’s Instrumentation Lab during NASA’s Apollo program, died at age 90.
news.mit.edu
Now peer reviewed! doi.org/10.1080/0898...
Opening Pandora’s box: Paper mills in conference proceedings
Paper mills are a growing threat to the integrity of science, yet their penetration in conference proceedings remains underexplored despite conferences being more important than journals in some sc...
doi.org
Solal Pirelli@solalpirelli.bsky.social · 6mo agoDid you know there's a barely hidden market for authorship of fake scientific papers in conferences? New preprint w/ @abalkina.bsky.social, @mkunesova.bsky.social, and @yaamurozturk.bsky.social : arxiv.org/abs/2604.22458 We found 4,000+ ads & matched them to 1,720 IEEE conf. papers! ...🧵
Which means when we attack Europe, we will bomb kindergartens and hospitals instead.
BRICS News 📄@bricsinfo.bsky.social · last wk.JUST IN: 🇷🇺🇪🇺 Russia says European weapons factories producing arms for Ukraine are legitimate military targets.
The people behind the initiative for total Swiss neutrality, which is predicted to lose by a lot, are mad they're being called pro-Russian. So they did the "our 'We are not Russian agents' t-shirt..." meme, but with junk mail sent to every household. 🤣
Sponsored in part by Donald Trump.
The Kyiv Independent@kyivindependent.com · 4w ago⚡️Russian attacks kill 11, injure 96 across Ukraine as Odesa comes under mass overnight strike In Odesa Oblast, at least 35 people were injured, including a five-month-old infant and a 17-year-old, local Governor Oleh Kiper said.
Today in "things that only happen in English"...
The Guardian@theguardian.com · last mo.Women are giving their partners the ‘Illiterate Boyfriend’ test: ‘Do your best to pronounce these words’
Can you get more "USA in 2026" than "antivax parents accept one vaccine so they can circumcise their sons"?
Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · last mo.Parents refusing the vitamin K shot for their newborns has increased by 57% in 2026 alone. This puts their babies at risk for brain and GI bleeds. Rate of refusal is higher for girls than boys, as some hospitals won’t circumcise male infants unless they’ve had the shot. RFK Jr. caused this.
The horrific aftermath of last night’s massive Russian attack on Kyiv and Kyiv region with ballistic and cruise missiles and drones. In Kyiv, eight people were killed and seven more injured, including three children. Six of those killed were employees of Ukrainian Railways. 📹Boryspil/Radio Liberty
Dozens of civilians killed, non-stop perpetual attacks, over 15 air raids per day, I’ve literally lost count, it’s taking a toll on everybody here, I just really want to believe someone out there in the west still cares
Mira of Kyiv 🇺🇦@reshetz.bsky.social · last mo.When I say non stop I mean non stop
Saha now suddenly has nothing to do with that Cofnas signature campaign, to which he personally added Charles "Bell Curve" Murray!
TIL that Europe has its own Bir Tawil, the neither Croatian nor Serbian area of Gornja Siga en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia...
Croatia–Serbia border dispute - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Revan@revan.eurosky.social · 2mo agoAmazing This combines normal territorial claims (the yellow is land that Croatia claims that is occupied by Serbia) and bizarre one la (the green areas are explicitly not claimed by Serbia but that Croatia insists are Serbian)
Reminder 2: Requiring someone paid by funds allocated to a project to work on that project is not a violation of academic freedom. He was a postdoc not a tenured prof. Reminder 3: His writings don't contain real arguments. "Debate his ideas" isn't serious because there's no definition of winning.
Solal Pirelli@solalpirelli.bsky.social · 2mo agoHilarious that Cofnas couldn't even publicly pretend to be working on the project he was hired for instead of his racist nonsense. (And a reminder that the department was strongly against his appointment and considered him unqualified for that project.)
Hilarious that Cofnas couldn't even publicly pretend to be working on the project he was hired for instead of his racist nonsense. (And a reminder that the department was strongly against his appointment and considered him unqualified for that project.)
roterote@roterote.bsky.social · 2mo agoHere is the full suspension letter from UGent that was sent to Nathan Cofnas, it shows ample reason for his suspension and potential termination. Including breach of contract, using the University of Ghent’s name and legitimacy to promote his racial supremacist views and causing reputational damage.
Reminder that his department stated they were not happy with one of their professors hiring him as a postdoc because they felt he was not qualified for that project and generally problematic bsky.app/profile/ptrb...
Peter@notalawyer.bsky.social · 2mo agolol
Helpful reminder from Elsevier that they have the "legal power" to do what they want with your journals. You have the collective power to take your editorial work elsewhere.
Stephanie Wang@sweiwang.bsky.social · 2mo ago🚨Elsevier forces out Games and Economic Behavior (GEB) Editor, entire editorial board has resigned, current board only handling new submissions until Nov. 14 #econsky
New blogpost deevybee.blogspot.com/2026/08/acce... inspired by recent depressing experience as a peer reviewer. AI-generated #fraud is getting very hard to detect. #peerreview
Acceleration of the arms race between fraudsters and honest researchers
I was recently asked to review a paper that piqued my curiosity. From the abstract it sounded as if it was a secondary analysis of a datas...
deevybee.blogspot.com
Hundreds of ads by #papermills, offering authorship on scientific articles for a fee, wound up published in conference proceedings. Are these venues a back-door route that’s too easy? #scicomm #retractions #peerreview @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...
Hundreds of paper-mill papers peddled in ads were later published
More than one-fifth of some IEEE conferences’ papers appear linked to authorship for sale
science.org
20% similarity being normal in a thesis is an absolutely nuts position to take.
Dan Neidle@danneidle.bsky.social · 2mo agoWhy was the Jason Arday story broken by a racist blogger and not the mainstream press? Because Times Higher Education was intimidated off the story by a letter from notorious libel firm Carter-Ruck. I'm publishing the letter. Its central claim may be false.
Today's dinner, crushed unicorns. Or is it cold beetroot soup? You'll never know.
In 2026, Kyiv is facing more ballistic missiles in a single night than it did during the entire year of 2024. I can't wrap my head around the hell we're being forced to endure. And there is still no light at the end of the tunnel.
Russia attacked Ukraine with 35 missiles, including 27 ballistic missiles, and 185 drones overnight. In Kyiv, nine people were killed and 28 more were injured. Seven districts of the capital were affected.
Today in beautiful figures appearing in definitely totally scientific papers from entirely legitimate and unproblematic ACM conferences.
Imagine a political party run by tax evaders that has ostensibly moderate positions on most issues, but wants to execute anyone who has ever worked for the tax office. We wouldn't be discussing whether their education or transport policy is slightly better or worse than those of parties Y or Z.
It started so well... www.maptap.gg July 4 100🎯 100🎯 100🎯 87🎉 80✨ Final score: 901
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maptap.gg
oh christ, one of these in the wild again. 'antisemitic' is a term *invented in the late 19th century by Jew-haters* as a euphemistic way of framing their Jew hating. it has nothing to do with what people or linguistic groups are 'semitic,' it means hatred of Jews.
Reform UK : PM should be stopping the boats in the channel Keir: OK, I've stopped the Russkis ReformUK: No not like that ....
Thanks, but your description contradicts my experience. In practice your system heavily interferes with meaningful editorial control over reviewer invitations, which goes to the core of peer-review integrity. This isn't a 'communication shortfall'—it's a systemic choice you made.
Frontiers@frontiersin.bsky.social · 4mo ago2/3 By design, the Associate Editor’s expertise and reviewer invitations always take precedence. The peer-review system is built to support the editor’s decisions, and you retain the ability to revoke, replace, or invite additional reviewers at any point in the process.
