SUMMARISING PAPERS IS WHAT THE ABSTRACT IS FOR! 😡🤬

Steven J. Gibbons@stevenjgibbons.bsky.social · 18h ago

In the continuing onslaught of in-your-face AI, it is now almost impossible to open a scientific paper without an AI-summary coming up. Your first instinct may be “Ah that is useful”, but is it really close to the truth or what the author intended? (contd. - full "rant" on lnkd.in/p/euwbwNgY)

Think it's absolutely telling that Jason Arday has been front page news, but the vigil, and the huge turnout and show of love and solidarity is not.

This just reinforces my belief that anyone who calls themselves a thought leader is talking out their arse

Richard Van Noorden@richvn.bsky.social · yesterday

Dean of Science at Stellenbosch University writes that although AI generates almost all the words for his articles (including this one): "AI did almost all of the writing. I remain the expert and the thought leader behind the piece." www.nature.com/articles/d44...

Here is a blog post about last night’s vigil for Professor Jason Arday - the mangy dogs are still tearing at him and blaming others #jasonarday #blacklivesmatter www.patreon.com/RobinInce/po...

To be young, to be gifted, to be destroyed - the vigil for Professor Jason Arday | Robin Ince

NOTE: There was so much to take in at the vigil, so I apologise if I have misattributed anything and for the names I have not managed to rem

patreon.com

Just my weekly reminder that NO-ONE ASKED FOR THIS. TOOLS CREATED WITHOUT PURPOSE. Necessity is the mother of invention, and these arses are the real world physical embodiment of watching Jurassic Park and thinking it was a good idea.

John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 2d ago

"AI" has existed in its current form for barely four years and the fact that it's jammed up the cognitive development of an entire generation that fast (and that there's a specific overclass of techofascists who are deeply thrilled about this) is a big damn red flag. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/u...

Beautiful

Jason Arday resigned from Jesus and the education faculty and asked people to stop nine days ago in his resignation letter That should have been the end of it, but instead it became a blood sport for the press and monetised social media alike - the money was too good, the attention too valuable

According to 2024/25 HESA figures, where ethnicity is known there are 270 black professors *in the whole of the UK*. That amounts to 1.1% of professors. Why are the journalists commenting on this issue so determined to do no research whatsoever?

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 4d ago

Paddy O'Connell, asked on the programme to estimate what % of professors at Cambridge are black, estimated it at 30%. Seriously, 30%.

The only conversation worth having is how Black people are overpoliced & over-punished & held to different standards in all aspects of life. That there is an outrage when Black people transgress that isn’t there when their non-Black counterparts do.

I’m not trying to hear about plagiarism from people who can’t get anything done without AI. You’re disqualified on this one. That plagiarism is bad is supposed to be a settled social belief. AI use muddies the whole thing.

"hmm maybe this whole Arday affair shows that we need to have a Serious Conversation about whether Woke 1.0 overreached in manner X, Y, of Z" motherfucker you are generally in Fascism 487.0, as is this particular affair you're talking about. worry about *that*. /Final

The huge blind spot for meritocracy advocates is that they completely ignore the systemic issues that contribute to black people under performing academically. Do they genuinely believe that poverty etc are inherent characteristics of the black community? I can never fathom it

Peter Jukes@peterjukes.bsky.social · 5d ago

Jason Arday’s nemesis, Nathan Cofnas, sacked from his Cambridge job for articles like this Under a colour blind system of course, people of colour would not have been subject to centuries of slavery, segregation, genocide, and denial of access to healthcare and education

I didn’t follow the Arday story closely, it felt like an overblown HR issue. What I will say is that Farage lied just yesterday (police warning) and is generally a blatant workshy, lying, dodgy shit-stirrer but the media don’t give him 1% of the same scrutiny. I guess it helps to be white & racist.

whenever the press murder someone and they start getting criticised they always go for 'we should not politicise this death'. they did it with brianna ghey and now they're doing it with jason arday. the media makes the lives of minorities political and then insists that our deaths should not be.

I also think that if you're excited about co-authorship with AI you've probably disqualified yourself from the plagiarism convo

I don’t think there’s ever been a clearer example of the British media bullying someone, who was so clearly vulnerable, to death so shamelessly in my lifetime for engagement and clicks And now we’ll have to watch the people that did it claim they’re shocked, and horrified Revolting

Even in death he's "the black academic" in the Guardian.

Charlotte Lydia Riley@lottelydia.bsky.social · last wk.

Quite weird to hear BBC News describe Jason Arday as “the black professor accused of plagiarism”. Is every story about a white professor going to include the relevant adjective?

As I keep saying, this should read "Musk FRS".

The Author, Séamas O'Reilly@seamas.bsky.social · 6d ago

Not to be some wild-eyed innocent, but I think it should be slightly bigger news that The Lancet have crunched the numbers and found that Musk's USAID cuts will kill 14 million people. And that's just by 2030. That's 9,600 people a day, every day, until the next world cup rolls around.

I feared this would happen. His story was troubling but the wave of hatred and obsession in the media when he was clearly someone who was vulnerable - whatever you thought of him - was entirely disproportionate and in my view fuelled by racists. My thoughts are with his loved ones tonight.

The Times and Sunday Times@thetimes.com · 5d ago

🔺 BREAKING: Jason Arday, the former University of Cambridge professor, has been found dead, police have said Mr Arday was pronounced dead after being found “unresponsive” at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon Read more 👇

So many people in Cambridge leadership and every corner of the media need to do so much soul searching. They won't but they need to.

The Times and Sunday Times@thetimes.com · 5d ago

🔺 BREAKING: Jason Arday, the former University of Cambridge professor, has been found dead, police have said Mr Arday was pronounced dead after being found “unresponsive” at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon Read more 👇

The wealthiest man in human history—who clearly performed several Nazi salutes on Inauguration Day 2025—is directly responsible for the deaths of up to 14 million people, including 4.5 million children, by 2030. He's not "quirky" or "weird" or "awkward". He's a fucking monster.

The Author, Séamas O'Reilly@seamas.bsky.social · 6d ago

Not to be some wild-eyed innocent, but I think it should be slightly bigger news that The Lancet have crunched the numbers and found that Musk's USAID cuts will kill 14 million people. And that's just by 2030. That's 9,600 people a day, every day, until the next world cup rolls around.

If it’s good enough for the courts, it should be good enough for everywhere else in the country… Meta should try marketing a sketchpad and pencils instead.

Meta glasses banned from courts in England and Wales

Exclusive: Court service says anyone trying to enter buildings with glasses will have them confiscated and returned when they leave

theguardian.com

Exxon is annoyed EU is insisting on some kind of CO2 capture Makes most sense if you think oil company advocacy for CCS is more about pretending to politicians they have an answer for climate change, rather than their actual willingness to do anything about it giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

🌒 En fouillant les images de Yutu-2 🇨🇳, j'ai découvert que l'atterrisseur Chang'e 4 inclinait ses panneaux solaires pour les orienter vers le Soleil 🤯 Cette animation montre deux photos prises depuis le même endroit, à 7 jours d'écart (1/4 de rotation de la Lune, l'équivalent de 6h sur Terre)

1. His academic misconduct and fantastical claims are pretty clearcut; he should not have been appointed. 2. The press/public wouldn't have noticed if he wasn't black* 3. They noticed in particular because Cambridge made a huge song and dance about appointing a black person. 4. This is on Cambridge.

The fact-based civilization of the last few centuries is melting before our eyes, and Google has the burners on full blast 👇

Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 3w ago

Absolutely nuts: Google Earth now has a feature that lets you convincingly fabricate satellite imagery www.digitaldigging.org/p/how-to-pla...

More than 50 years after the Apollo missions, scientists are still making major discoveries from the lunar samples collected by the Apollo astronauts 🌝 Our latest blog post summarises some of the recently published new work: earthandsolarsystem.wordpress.com/2026/07/27/l...

Lunar Sample Analysis: The Next Generation – recent papers

More than 50 years after the Apollo missions, we are still making major scientific discoveries from the lunar samples returned to Earth. Recent advances in analytical techniques are allowing resear…

earthandsolarsystem.wordpress.com

"As an author I'd rather hear Reviewer 2's bad attitudes than LLM platitudes". Exactly.

Kate Devlin@drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 3w ago

Shadow use of genAI as a reviewer is shitty because you're putting someone else's work into the machine w/o consent, and as an author I'd rather hear Reviewer 2's bad attitudes than LLM platitudes. But if you sanction reviewers you'll just have no reviewers. It's a lose-lose situation.

I worked at Disney a while ago. Do you know why theme parks are so safe? Because OOSHA reps can walk the track on any ride at any time and any safety violation they see is a $10,000 fine. Each. Theme parks are not safe because the company cares. They're safe because it's cheaper to comply.

Jon of The North@krauza.bsky.social · 3w ago

Turns out that food companies were only checking their food because the government told them to, which is exactly why we need government regulations.

We're cutting an internationally important part of British scientific infrastructure for the sake of £2.8m a year. That's essentially loose change. We are not a serious country www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

bbc.co.uk