Interested in doctoral education? interested in AI? Then this free to attend conference looks like it for you! Check it out here. #USpolitics #AcademicSky #PhDSky surveys.unisq.edu.au/index.php/85...

Like moths to the flame. The next step in the governmental capture playbook. #USpolitics #Mamdani www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/b...

Just got this email from a Chinese outfit. Doesn't sound at all dodgy, does it? #AcademicSky #PhDSky #scam

@firefox.com Congratulations Firefox. Your latest update has removed one of the most useful elements of your browser ... the link to retrieve the previous session when you accidentally close the browser. Its the second time. Please put it back and don't remove it again!

Looks like a timely warning for any Linkedin users. Thanks @rachelwight.bsky.social Much appreciated!

"The nuclear testing ordered by President Trump will not involve nuclear explosions.. (but rather) the other parts of a nuclear weapon” to ensure they are working properly." #PhDSky #AcademicSky Note to any watching PhD students, the word 'test' is working hard here. Conceptual clarity is important!

Another example of state violence. www.bbc.com/news/article... #USpolitics

This is what making war on the most disadvantaged in a society looks like. #USPOL www.propublica.org/article/phoe...

#Academia #Academicsky Ever wondered whether the viva makes a difference to the outcome of the PhD examination? Well, now we know! (Spoiler alert ... it does.) Open access at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Another university leaves the ranking system behind ...

It strikes me that one of the great advantages of a book over a digital reader is that the book's publishers never force an unwanted update on me to improve my experience & are completely unable to rearrange the pages in the volume into a random order just because they can. #reading #books #digital

Saw this & thought, 'All that picture needs is a table full of food in front of the assembled throng & its a dead ringer for Leonardo's 'The Last Supper'. And then, there's just as many women in the photo as there were in the painting. Who's playing Judas? #Gaza www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/w...

Chilling. #antifa

Spent Saturday finishing my reading of Maria Dahvana Headley's wonderful 2020 translation of Beowulf. Glorious use of alliteration and a great romping read through this magnificent tale! Highly recommended to anyone like me who finds poetry hard to read but who grew up on Scandinavian & Saxon sagas

SCHOLARS BEWARE! Last Friday just before COB here in Adelaide I was notified that an article of mine had been published online. Almost exactly 6 hours later I received this phishing email inviting me to follow a (doubtless dangerous) link to find out about my 'research award'. #ScamAlert

A very powerful exposition bu people who study such things of why what's happening in the USA is so dangerous. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o... #politics #USA #Trump #Miller

If you're reading this and you're connected to UTS as staff, student or alumni, please engage with this survey. #academicsky

Work in an Australian university? You really should be taking this short survey.

A true story straight out of John Le Carre. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/o...

@thephdplace.bsky.social For PhD students everywhere. Ever wondered if your doctoral viva or PhD oral examination makes any difference? A just-published article demonstrates it can and does. Open access and free to read. #PhD #researchdegree #doctorate www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Have you ever wondered whether your doctoral viva or PhD oral examination makes any difference? Wonder no more! A just-published article demonstrates it can and does. Open access and free to read. #PhD #researchdegree #doctorate www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Having been a member of many university examination boards both as an internal and an external examiner I simply cannot conceive of how this tragedy could have happened. Where were the subject tutor & course leader? Failure is relatively rare. You'd notice & question it. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Chilling. www.chronicle.com/article/hear...

Something to show students (or any others) tempted to use #GenAI to produce authoritative & factual documents. Politician presents a list including a misattributed author, invalid links and inaccurate dates and study titles to a Parliamentary committee. Not pretty! www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

From the horses mouth. I asked ChatGPT to tell me why GenAI is so bland. It told me 'that’s a great question — & a fair critique', continuing it is trained to be safe & inoffensive... (uses) averaging over massive data ... lacks true emotion or stakes. GenAI feels like eating plain toast every day.

Future historians examining and recounting the US descent into authoritarianism will mark this date and this event as bring one of the key moments on that journey. A very dark day. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

Charlie Kirk was a racist, homophobic, transphobic, elitist Christian Nationalist who advocated for public executions that children should have to watch - including presumably the stoning of gays he advocated. Johnson, 2nd most recent Conservative UK PM, calls his views 'simple common sense'. Odious

For one reason & another today's been a hard one. Its nearly evening & this wonderful piece of music is helping bring me back down to earth so I thought I'd share it in case others are in need of something nice ... Its that simple - nice! #music #calm #beauty #sublime www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DBi...

Interested in PhD education? Graduate Research? The Quality in Postgraduate Research conference is the world's oldest (and best :-)) conference on all thing doctoral (est 1994) and the call for papers for the #QPR2026 conference in Adelaide in April is currently open at www.qpr.edu.au Check it out.

I've have finally given up on the sewer that is Twitter/X, finding its constant stream of Musk & Trump's narcissistic ramblings & promotion of the Extreme Right & neo-Nazis unbearable & positively bad for my wellbeing. There was also the fact that almost all of my new followers were bots. Breathe!

Sadly, this otherwise sensible piece in @ConversationEDU on responding to the rise of neo-Nazis does not mention education once. Education underpins democracy & that means education in the formal sense & also by the media, politicians, religious bodies etc theconversation.com/when-it-come...

In the interests of transparency, any journal using or allowing the use of GenAI as part of the review process should declare that openly (& prominently) & allow the author(s) to make an informed decision about whether or not they want to submit their papers to it. @academic-chatter.bsky.social

Gerontocracy in action. Since birth, I've lived through 14 US Presidents (first one Truman) and, reflecting on it, only once have I been older than the sitting President (that was during Obama's tenure). I find that quite disturbing. #POTUS #USpolitics

ChatGPT version 5. Invited to try it, I asked it about something I've published, who is McCulloch, and to provide some citations. Got it (very) wrong, invented a completely different McCulloch and hallucinated a shedload of non-existent references. Absolutely rubbish! Don't trust its output. #GenAI

New York Colleges: Best & Worst. A ranking based on what they do for the country: contributions to social mobility (graduating low-income students into good jobs), public service (e.g. teaching, military service or social work) and research #democracy #goodread washingtonmonthly.com/2025/08/24/t...

Whoop, whoop! One of my articles has reached 500 citations on Google Scholar. May not sound like many to you but I'm happy!! Available here if anyone's interested. Critiques the student as consumer metaphor and presents coproduction as a alternative. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Says something about the state of the US when this story about a mass shooting only gets a small link on the front page of the @nytimes www.bbc.com/news/live/cl... #children #gunman #Media

Why History is important #349. Richard Hofstadter's 1963 book “Anti-Intellectualism in American Life” revisited. I sure I remember something about being condemned to repeat something, don't I? #universities #HigherEducation www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/b...

David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs should be compulsory reading for everyone involved in the #economicreformroundtable Shows exactly where the non-productive parts of the economy are to be found in all jobs! @albomp.bsky.social @jimchalmers.bsky.social #work www.theguardian.com/books/2018/m... #auspol

Assault with a deadly sandwich! When Monty Python scripts become news. Genuine headline from today's New York Times. "Man Charged With Assaulting Federal Agent With Sandwich in D.C." #WashingtonDC www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/u...

How much do you have to hate science and/or be afraid of what facts tell you to do this? My guess is Donald Trump MAGA are simply very afraid of the #truth. #climateresearch #science futurism.com/white-house-...

And in news to hearten book lovers everywhere #LOTR ... www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/w...

According to @yhazony "15% of the American population is foreign born, & ...NatCons think that is the maximum that is possible for the country to take before it literally starts falling apart." In Australia 31% were born overseas & the country works well www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/o...

Just got an email inviting me to be a distinguished speaker at the NMPP-Neurology & Anesthesia Summit-2025, to be held in Venice, Italy. Must be my reputation for putting people to sleep during lectures that's brought me to the organisers' attention. 😎🥱🥱😎 #conference

In a year of generally bad news for Higher Education, here's something to cheer us up (at least a little). www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...

I keep coming across the phrase: 'Participants were recruited through purposive sampling.' Its got 10 respondents (other papers using the same sampling technique I've reviewed recently are 3-12 respondents). Does 'purposive sampling' really just mean, 'I asked my friends'? #research #PhD

One of my favourite songs, done differently, making me want to be there oh so much ... You'll see what I mean. The perfect accompaniment to a short break and cup of something ... #Alice #rabbit #Wonderland www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeHl...

Thinking if AI can't handle people ordering McDonald's relatively simple menu, we probably shouldn't trust it with educating people, writing scientific papers, & peer reviewing those papers. After all, just occasionally, lives depend on science being right www.bbc.com/news/article...

Trump's cuts in science are impacting on Widening Participation and equitable access to science careers. Impacting on science (in the broadest sense of the word) getting the best brains. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/u...

You couldn't make it up #493: Nick Adams, a man 'pushed out of the (Australian right-wing) Liberal Party for conduct “likely to embarrass or cause damage to the reputation” of the party has just been nominated by Donald Trump to be the next US Ambassador to Malaysia. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/u...