Please show me the “legitimate journalism” where you did nineteen articles about a white professor doing plagiarism or lying on his CV because there are PLENTY of examples @theguardian.com
Assoc Prof Robyn Pickering
@pickeringrobyn.bsky.social
Assoc. Professor University of Cape Town, South Africa 🇿🇦 Co-director Human Evolution Research Institute | geology, isotopes, U-Pb dating carbonates, human evolution, southern African palaeoclimates | equitable fieldwork | decolonisation |she/her
📚 Whose voices shape our past? Drawing on her SAJS review of the book The Untold History and Prehistory of African Indigenous Palaeontology, @drpeechiwara.bsky.social reflects on representation, Indigenous knowledge, and the stories we tell about Africa's past. 🔗 www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...
i am personally aware of three recent cases, all senior figures who faced credible accusations, none of whom appear to have suffered any consequences
let's be real: plagiarism scandals in academia happen all the time (not because academics plagiarize a lot, but just because of how many millions of faculty there are around the world) and it is never general-public news unless the culprit is a member of a minority.
There's actually research on this and it involves scrutiny. If you're Black people are going to look at your work looking for mistakes in a way they would never for white people.
Black Workers Really Do Need to Be Twice as Good
African American employees tend to receive more scrutiny from their bosses than their white colleagues, meaning that small mistakes are more likely to be caught, which over time leads to worse perform...
theatlantic.com
let's be real: plagiarism scandals in academia happen all the time (not because academics plagiarize a lot, but just because of how many millions of faculty there are around the world) and it is never general-public news unless the culprit is a member of a minority.
I didn't follow the Arday story closely. It's pretty clear though that plagiarism allegations against Black professors are seen as a major news story because many ppl see Black success and intelligent as automatically illegitimate. So the real "scandal" is that Black ppl are professors at all. 1
As a woman, who isn’t feminine, won’t perform middle-class identity, who doesn’t aspire to class and status, an unashamed northerner, who won’t hide the accent, English academia is about the fight. You fight to get in, you fight to be taken seriously by male colleagues, and you fight to stay.
I wonder why the media didn't pursue THIS plagiarist so harshly? I can't qwhite put my finger on it 🤔
"The internet itself is not filled with uniformly reliable sources, and ChatGPT, with no notion of a world outside its language tokens and their relationships, simply does not have the kinds of knowledge needed to distinguish reliable sources from unreliable ones"
If someone near you is secretly recording with glasses, yell “META stop recording!” It works even if you’re not the owner. (This is more effective than the Disney trick, since there are AI tools to remove background music.)
What’s a thing from your area of expertise (or special interest) that you think it would behoove everyone else to know?
Losing Exeter philosophers of science would be devastating to our field and to the international standing of U.K. universities. Please help us publicise this letter and put pressure to the Exeter execs. Their work as teachers and researchers is irreplaceable #philsci #HigherEd
We have published an open letter to the University of Exeter Executive Board expressing our concerns about proposed redundancies. Read it here: www.thebsps.org/news/open-le...
Ancient tooth proteins deepen the Homo naledi mystery www.nature.com/articles/d44... @palaeoprotpalesa.bsky.social
Ancient tooth proteins deepen the Homo naledi mystery
South African molecular scientist Palesa Madupe expected proteins preserved in fossil enamel to clarify why Homo naledi remains look so alike. Instead, teeth from at least 20 individuals yielded no ma...
nature.com
“Students expressed concerns ab cognitive dependence, enviro impact, bias, misinfo, academic integrity, & worker exploitation. They were invested in their own learning, developing their creative identity & fostering genuine intellectual relationships." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care... #edusky
Students as Conscientious Objectors to Gen AI (opinion)
We should listen to them—and treat their objections with respect.
insidehighered.com
Smithsonian Acquires Rare Photograph Where Whole Family Looks Really Nice https://theonion.com/smithsonian-acquires-rare-photograph-where-whole-family-1819579187/
Just heard from a friend who got a review back with the first line, "write this up to a review of a paper - include 3-4 mild typos as a human aspect" at a respectable journal. You know that you're allowed to decline reviews, right?
"Many of these changes were once considered unlikely to happen this quickly. Antarctica is sending us clear warning signs." – ACEAS outgoing Director, Professor Matt King (@utas.edu.au) Read the news story ▶️ antarctic.org.au/warning-sign... 👏 @deformedearth.bsky.social | Laure Poncet
As an academic, I have decided to pre-empt AI taking my job, so I am going to take ITS job! I am going to start hallucinating, lying to my students, and drinking 700,000 litres of water
Our HERI Co-Director, @pickeringrobyn.bsky.social, and HERI's @drpeechiwara.bsky.social presented two HERI talks at this week's #ASAPA conference on the Taung Podcast and HERI's All-Women Fieldwork Camp. It was great to hear that these conversations were so well received and considered much needed.
Bossons Glacier this evening! 🧊🔥 Tmax in Chamonix (1,100 m asl) was 33°C today (at 6:00 pm, one hour before this picture was taken...)! Writing these numbers feels so surreal... 😱 We are CONSUMING the agony of a world that no longer exists.
The more fossil fuels we burn, the more people will suffer and die. That's the brutal calculus of the climate crisis. A crisis that is the result of a tiny fraction of humanity preferring profit & power over people.
Let me be explicit. The massive heat waves we're seeing around the world more extreme and frequent due to human-caused #climatechange. And these heat waves are going to continue to worsen because of our failure to reduce carbon pollution. Just one of the many costs of #climate change.
Friends! Arnold Prinsloo is back, and it’s all about to kick off in the small Karoo town of Victoria… I’ll let you know about launch dates shortly, but I wanted to share the cover so long — another absolute ripper by Mike Cruywagen.
The University of Exeter is not in budget deficit. Yet are proposing to cut 150 academic jobs. This include my job. Please sign and share the petition, write our Vice Chancellor, to your MP, and get the word out about the act of self harm this university is about to commit. c.org/yKcx6Zr29H
This campaign needs you now
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
c.org
Just to remind everyone what else he gets up to with these fossils www.heriuct.co.za/news-content... @chrisstantis.bsky.social @lemoustier.bsky.social @pickeringrobyn.bsky.social
Sending fossils into space ignites an age-old debate — HERI - Human Evolution Research Institute
The sending to space of fossils belonging to Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi are examined in this op-ed by leading academics in the palaeosciences, which examines the stunt through an academic...
heriuct.co.za
Public trust in climate information is hard-won, something we understand as former members of the Climate(.)gov team. For our launch, @katharinehayhoe.com shared why she believes Climate.us is worthy of that trust, and why she'll be sending people here for years to come. #ClimateUS #ClimateForUs 🌍🧪
Pity this piece does not even mention lead author Dr Palesa Madupe! Fire cracker of an early career researcher, South African, a woman… There is a photo of her doing lab work right at the end. But no other space given to her. 😮💨
This has got to be the weirdest human evolution story I've ever covered. I'm still baffled -- yes, baffled -- by these results. 🏺🧪
Best new #HomoNaledi reconstruction 🤣
This so much 👇
“Scientists should stop trying to be neutral and instead embrace their values,”says a group of top climate scientists, including @katharinehayhoe.com. The neutrality myth is harming the reputation of science right when we need it most.” #ClimateCrisis Science isn’t neutral. It’s science.
++BREAKING++ Leading climate scientists in the UK have written to senior editors in broadcast media - and OFCOM and IPSO: "To express our concern about recent media coverage of extreme weather, climate change and net-zero and to urge you…to inform public audiences of the scientific links"
The projections were WAY off. They predicted a woman in a dress when it was actually a man in a suit.
When reality surpasses fiction! Top: fictional forecast for August 2050, broadcast by French TV in 2014 to warn about the consequences of global warming. Bottom: Real French forecast for yesterday, June 22, 2026.