Marianne O'Doherty
@marianneodoherty.bsky.social
Medievalist. Likes maps, birds, nature, cycling, cider and primates. She/her.
Christ Gen AI design is awful. Look at this flyer for a summer show picked up today. A tractor with one wheel, cut and shut unidentifiable machinery, children's funfair like a post-apocalyptic fiery hellscape, levitating union flag, everything out of scale with everything else and a colour...
I can’t believe that Reform UK turned out to be financed by a bunch of money laundering fronts for Russia. It’s just so unexpected.
Neoclassical econ assumes rationality. The corollary of, "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?" is "you're rich, so you must be very smart!" Thus, people assume that if powerful, well-compensated CEOs insist that "AI is changing everything," well then, *AI must be changing everything*. 1/
I live in hope that the country is slowly inching away from it's collective delusion that being more will solve all its problems.
Eliot Higgins@eliothiggins.bsky.social · 5d agoLabour wins decisive victory in Greater Manchester mayoral byelection www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Fantastic news!
Ada Palmer@adapalmer.bsky.social · 6d agoEndometriosis takes nine years to diagnose. That’s about to change. NICE has approved two tests: a saliva test reading microRNA markers, and a gut-sensor test returning results in 45 minutes, sparing women the keyhole surgery currently needed. buff.ly/QX3jHk8 #ShareGoodNewsToo
📣 EA membership is discounted throughout the summer, so you can join us NOW from just £12! 📣🙌 ⬇️⬇️🥳🥳🥳 www.englishassociation.ac.uk/join-us
englishassociation.ac.uk
Holy moly this looks good. OH went last year to a town in the SWales coalfield for museums business. He saw a photograph in their collection of a piece of post-industrial land with a sign reading 'development coming soon'. In the museum he saw a photo with the same land and sign on it, taken 40+...
Will Jennings📉🗳️@drjennings.bsky.social · 6d agoThis Cabinet statement on Rewiring the State is fascinating, has clarity about what it is trying to (and the challenges therein) and is full of goodies for place-based advocates like me...
Recruitment suspended on UG environment & sustainability, mathematics and physics. At postgraduate level, suspended courses include international corporate finance, water & environmental engineering and environmental strategy. If you think your subject is safe because not Humanities, rethink. 1/2
Course closures at University of Surrey raise concerns
Science and maths programmes among those suspended in recent months, with UCU claiming decisions are being made ‘in haste’
timeshighereducation.com
No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...
Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation
PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...
theonion.com
Love this. It's what I shout at the TV, but with figures. I'm mindful of almost weekly stories on Points West about crop yields down. In winter it's regular stories about homes built just 10 years ago now uninsurable due to flooding. This stuff *costs*! The insurance underwriters have warned us...
Simon Evans@drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 7d ago🧵UK media has been duped about net-zero (again) The playbook is identical: 1️⃣ Find a big scary number 2️⃣ Speed-dial non-specialist hacks 3️⃣ Do say “serious economic damage” 4️⃣ Don’t say “we pretended gas is free” 5️⃣ That's it! Many papers still fell for it 🤷
I haven't watched the film but have been watching with growing concern the 'this uppity woman should shut up' tone of some critiques of Wilson's review. A lot of seemingly grown men having what Mary Beard called the Telemachus moment over this, it seems to me.
Dan Kaszeta FRHistS@dankaszeta.bsky.social · last wk.OK. I found the worst comment of the day.
This was educational practice in the 60s. I knew an ex-miner in Wakefield who, when he asked at school about a musical career, was told to be realistic and given a leaflet about coal mining. He wrote music in his spare time, and the royalties kept flowing after he was made redundant from the pit.
Chris Dillow@chrisdillow.bsky.social · last wk.If this had been policy in the 70s (as it partly was), towns would have produced lots of mining engineers & metallurgists just before pits & steelworks closed. As the yanks say, you should skate to where the puck's going, not to where it is. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
I wonder @ukri.org looked at the history of Jodrell Bank before doing this. It started as a pet project on some land begged from the ?Botany dept, if I remember correctly. No one cared about it until Sputnik, then suddenly it became critical national (defence-related) infrastructure. We do not ...
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Rolf as the bard Demodocus whose song moves Odysseus to tears...
Rachel Cunliffe@rmcunliffe.bsky.social · last wk.Muppet hecklers Statler and Waldorf as Scylla and Charybdis
I am *absolutely sick* of hearing about young people as 'benefit scroungers'. Nearly 60% of welfare spending goes on pensioners! The people writing this stuff know that too.
If anyone is considering editing something from our collections, we will happily supply a digital copy at no cost. Please contact Kate (archives at ucd dot ie).
Irish Manuscripts Commission@irishmanuscripts.bsky.social · 2w agoClosing date: Wed 29 July The IMC student prize of €1,000 is awarded to a postgraduate student for editing a short historical document, which will also be considered for publication in Analecta Hibernica. Learn more at: irishmanuscripts.ie/imc-student-prize-2026/
I love a good village show. Only improvable by a dog that looks most like it's owner competition.
Dreadnought Holiday@dreadships.bsky.social · 2w agoIt's the last weekend in July, and that means only one thing... Shall we go to the village show?
From the perspective of a cynical AI investor, the question isn't, "Can AI do your job?" The question is, "Can an AI salesman convince your boss that an AI can do your job?" 23/
When the story of why humanity didn't stop climate change is written, it will feature front pages like this. Even as the skies blacken with climate change-induced wildfires, right wing media continue their relentless crusade against measures to tackle it.
Beach holidays in the climate crisis, France. As an old viral quote said: “Climate change will manifest as a series of disasters viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you’re the one filming it.”
I think getting this far shows unusual insight. But what are you prepared to do is a good question. My family is at the sharp end of civil service pensions not being paid, just because Crapita is too crap. Who agreed to this? What happens to people without families to bail them out? Unaccountable.
Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 3w agoFound this interesting on Burnham’s focus on the ‘unaccountable state’. It’s fair to flag as it’s easy to feel modern society is Kafkaesque. But curious how he’ll rise to the challenge of it. Devolution can help a bit but only a bit… 🧵 www.thetimes.com/article/1167...
Royal Historical Society open meeting (online) for historians working in universities, 4 Aug 2026 - ‘The crisis in UK higher education: the future for history’ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-crisis.... It’s a definite sign of the times that places are almost gone.
The Crisis in UK HE: the Future for History
An open meeting for historians in UK higher education on what is needed to best support and protect the profession and discipline.
eventbrite.co.uk
A betting account in the name of George Cottrell, the convicted fraudster who bankrolled Nigel Farage, received almost $9mn in cryptocurrency from unidentified sources while he was providing gifts to the Reform UK leader great work from @annasophiegross.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/b74c...
Betting account in George Cottrell’s name received $9mn in crypto from unidentified sources
Deposits in Polymarket wallet came as convicted fraudster was providing gifts to Farage
ft.com
I want to highlight one thing the FT article says near the end: GBS model is currently being subsidised, A LOT, by the british taxpayer. This is because of the expected student loan default rate and how the 'you don't pay it back' structure works over time. They are bilking the state AND students.
Reading the Rider, I think he might have been following the progress of Count Binface.
Sanho Tree@sanho.bsky.social · 2w agoWho? Did WHAT?!?
'The UK will not have enough water for future datacentres, the water industry has said in stark criticism of the government’s AI growth plans.' 1/2
Not enough water for UK’s datacentre plans, trade body says
Industry says government’s failure to address cooling demands means AI growth plans are ‘fatally flawed’
theguardian.com
