This is my kind of humour. I have succumbed to temptation, I admit.

frankie 😷🎃🍂🍉@plant-witch.bsky.social · yesterday

you should buy it from the actual artist shop it comes from, not some place that scraped the design and copied it www.strikegently.co/products/hor...

Sickening at every level. Please can academics at least wake up to this now. We are puppets in far right agendas.

Samantha Asumadu@samanthaasumadu.substack.com · 2d ago

'New analysis on UK media: British media is not delivering the news to its readers. They are delivering an agenda. The seven days after Channel 4 filmed James Orr are a damning indictment of the British press. Orr is a Cambridge associate professor.' via @newscord.org

sliding this link in here in case anyone is like “oh man I really would love to read The Racial Contract but it’s just not accessible!” Also it’s 180-odd pages, and if you’ve not read it, it’ll upend your understanding of the world, and of philosophy, I promise abolitionjournal.org/wp-content/u...

@lastpositivist.bsky.social · 2d ago

One of the basic points in Mills' The Racial Contract (originally published in 1997!) was that, if nothing else, White Supremacy deserves to be taken seriously as one of the great motivating ideologies of modernity and it's bizarre that political philosophers are so disinclined to treat it as such.

The tech bros ARE the wrong hands for chrissake!

Failure of the state.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 7d ago

Lifeboat station in Portsmouth forced to temporarily shut after far-right action

The only way they would shut down AI is if it became self-aware but started to say things like 'net zero now' and 'stop destroying orangutan habitat'. Do you know how quickly they pull the plug if AI came out as woke 😂

great art articulates eternal truths

I remember outrage about Just Stop Oil blocking a street, just in case an ambulance had to drive down it. Not because an ambulance was prevented from doing so, you understand. Just the abstract idea that one might have to.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 7d ago

Lifeboat station in Portsmouth forced to temporarily shut after far-right action

So "Humanist superintelligence" is supposed to make this all more palatable - but guided by *which human interests*? As far as I remember, humans argue quite a lot over that and use force a lot too to determine which interests get prioritised www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Uncontrolled AI could lead to 'silicon species' rivalling humans, warns Microsoft

Mustafa Suleyman says he believes rival AI firm Anthropic is in effect teaching Claude it "may be conscious".

bbc.co.uk

“AI agents” now have enough power and permission to be extremely annoying online.

There’s a 100% Chance AI Agents Are Already Ruining the Internet

“AI agents” now have enough power and permission to be extremely annoying online.

404media.co

LOL. UKRI wants to be the middleman between LLMs applying for grants from each other.

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · last wk.

Turn to AI in research grant assessment ‘is inevitable’. UKRI becomes first mover to explore automation for processing applications, as other British funders hesitate. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

It is hard to comprehend how there can be no consequences or accountability, no change, no learning. "Grenfell changes everything", as politicians promised, was a vacuous cover for "let it blow over" and "back to normal!"

Patrick Dunleavy@patrickdunleavy.bsky.social · 2w ago

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

I recently reviewed 2 fluently written mss with a reasonably promising central idea, ticking all the boxes, and a smattering of vague recycled concepts without a central thread, sense of driving purpose, passion or individual turns of phrase. I may have to resign from reviewing. Dystopia is here.

Shannon Vallor@shannonvallor.bsky.social · 2w ago

I know this complaint is boring by now but I just read a bunch of research proposals that mostly all read the same, blandly competent but intellectually hollow and samey (guess why) and I so miss the weirdness in our writing but even more in our thinking.

If you feel like donating to the RNLI, here’s a link. I just have. Their minimum donation is £2: I think it might be nice for them to receive a lot of donations this week, even if they’re mostly very modest. Just so they know a lot of people out here appreciate their work. rnli.org/support-us/g...

Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea

Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.

rnli.org

I am going to say again that the absolute worst thing for most adults is to lose face. People will do ANYTHING to avoid that. As such, any inkling that a person was duped, not smart, etc... will usually lead them to triple down.

Oh wow, 70 Up. A treat we didn't expect. I am so fond of these brave, luminous ordinary people and the reflections they spark. It must have been very complex being in the limelight and sounds like the new director tackles that. Can't wait! ❤️

‘It’s the Bayeux tapestry of TV!’ After six decades, the seminal series bows out with 70 Up

The ‘hugely important artefact’ that’s followed 14 children since they were seven is set to air its final instalment. The now-septuagenarians and director Asif Kapadia talk about breaking new ground f...

theguardian.com

This is spot on, and very relevant to qualitative research too. Some funny people question whether we need primary qual research when LLMs appear to behave like real people.

King Algamemnon@adamrothman.bsky.social · 3w ago

Sobering, insightful essay on how chatbots mangle historical primary sources. 🗃 www.hnn.us/article/ai-i...

NEW: French researcher Stephanie Lamy exposes the network of “race realists” who hunted Jason Arday like prey, and the media that fell into his trap. If you think the news cycle has “moved on” from this story, ask yourself why? broligarchy.substack.com/p/the-killin...

The killing of a black man

A French researcher exposes the network of “race realists” who hunted Jason Arday like prey and the media who fell into their trap

broligarchy.substack.com

"Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria; You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane, All they will call you will be "deportees" Goodbye Dolly. I hope you and Woody are having a jam session right now. youtu.be/CEPUxpR64YE?...

Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)

YouTube video by Dolly Parton - Topic

youtu.be

Brilliant thread from an expert on academic freedom & race science 👇 Academic freedom is "the freedom to exercise authority in guiding your own courses & research programs so long as you are exercising your authority within the bounds of professional competence"; it also comes with responsibilities

Charles C Roseman@evoroseman.bsky.social · 4w ago

RE: freedom of speech, academic freedom, and race science. In this (long) thread, I’m going to 1) establish my bona fides on academic freedom and race science, 2) show why academic freedom and freedom of speech are different and… 1/34

Don't sleep on this opportunity to join my former department. The Department of Methodology at LSE is a great place to work, and London is a great place to live.

We're hiring: Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science

lse.ac.uk

While I was studying Psychology in Trinity College Dublin in the 1990s, the great Leon Kamin gave a stunningly brilliant scholarly visiting lecture debunking IQ and genetic inheritance. Those ideas are thoroughly debunked and not eligible for academic freedom. I am sick and sad to see them reprised

What you're saying when you say "DEI" when universities say "EDI" (as happens here) and vice versa. And why it actually matters. The great majority of UK (esp. British) universities use "EDI" while US universities use "DEI". Is that "just" semantic, or does it matter? A thread. 🧵1/8

How Jason Arday’s appointment became a reckoning for Cambridge

Resignation of Black professor forces university to examine its approach to diversity, equality and inclusion

ft.com

I am concerned that all this AI slop will lead us back to relying on our networks and social capital and old boys' clubs, for studentships and jobs and reviewers etc etc. Big enshittification of the whole enterprise

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · last mo.

1. Recently I’ve received lots of emails from people I don’t know personally, asking for my feedback on their books or papers. They explain the connection between my work and theirs and ask me to take a look. The catch, of course, is that the emails are transparently, obviously, written by AI.

I have been getting similar emails written as if from prospective PhD students but full of AI. I don't know if a human reads my polite response that supervisors need to know they are connecting with an actual scholar who has genuine intellectual interests in common. Enshittification of my job 😭

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · last mo.

1. Recently I’ve received lots of emails from people I don’t know personally, asking for my feedback on their books or papers. They explain the connection between my work and theirs and ask me to take a look. The catch, of course, is that the emails are transparently, obviously, written by AI.

Plenty to reflect about re: the Arday affair, but I'm going to repeat this one thing. The playbook the right used here is effective even though it's not especially sophisticated, as it relies on the audience to do the dirty work. I've been calling it "Trojan horse propaganda", let's go with that. 1/

Official HE policy of the UK Labour government. While also promising local economic growth in cities where universities are major job-creators! Fantastic!

Dmitry Grozoubinski@explaintrade.com · last mo.

Don't mind me, I'm off to gut higher education, one of the UK's most successful and globally respected exporting industries, because I think doing so will let me defeat white nativism with immigration charts. I am the most naive human being alive.

JUST TO NOTE IF PEOPLE PLAN ON USING COLANDERS TO SEE THE ECLIPSE YOU ARE NOT LOOKING THROUGH IT, YOU ARE USING IT TO FILTER THE LIGHT AND WATCH THE SHADOW OF THE MOON ON THE GROUND/OTHER SURFACE

horror Ewacui@ewacat.bsky.social · last mo.

GOD NO NOT LIKE THAT this is my plan, to use a colander - BUT YOU HOLD IT OVER THE GROUND BECAUSE THE ECLIPSE SHINES THROUGH IT AND YOU WATCH THE SHADOWS

Maybe AI has an "image problem" because people consider that the enormous concentration of power in a few companies is a serious problem.

LSE Blogs@lseblogs.bsky.social · last mo.

AI has a serious image problem. When even AI bosses are worried about the impact of the technology, it's no wonder the public are scared. Realising AI's benefits will require bringing people along, argue @bobbyduffy.bsky.social & @elenasimperl.bsky.social @aiatkings.bsky.social @lsebr.bsky.social

This is hands down the best opinion piece you will read on the Arday case. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The takedown of Jason Arday has overjoyed the right, and must be a wake-up call for the left | Jason Okundaye

The Cambridge academic has rightly now resigned. But that won’t end the targeting of senior black figures or the lazy way institutions promote faux equality, says Guardian columnist Jason Okundaye

theguardian.com