“Research is formalised curiosity. It’s poking and prying with purpose.” ~ Zora Neale Hurston

Once again reminding all academics in the UK that they really, really, really, really should sign up to @alcs.co.uk Lifetime membership is £36 and they take it out of the money they collect for you so it really is "free money". I'm getting a little over £100 *every year*. Do it!

Planning a research project? Here’s why it makes sense to outsource transcription: - Saves hours of manual work - Improves accuracy and consistency - Frees up time for analysis and writing - Supports disabled-led business Want to learn more? Visit: academicaudiotranscription.com

When we accepted the premise that humanities and arts degrees are just a vessel for teaching generic transferable skills, we lost a battle that means we now can’t fight against AI. Because if students don’t actually have to learn anything why shouldn’t they use the plagiarism machine. Who cares.

Israel is preparing to deploy the “Gaza model” in Lebanon in plain sight — mass ethnic cleansing, annihilation of entire cities and villages, long-term occupation, and perhaps eventually Israeli settlements and annexation. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I would never have "got" pre-charging if I didn't need to do it. I called it "pre-rest", but pre-charging is much better. I know it sounds bizarre but it is a metaphor that works very well. So please believe us when we say we need to do it!

"May those who interact with our work feel so seen and cared for that they leave feeling loved". What a beautiful wish for academic work.

Op-ed out today in @thesicktimes.org from PLRC co-lead @leticiasaurus.bsky.social and @jencurtinmd.bsky.social on the #LongCovid Treatment Guide! “Too often, people with Long COVID hear… not much can be done for them at this point. We… believe it is a fallacy that hinders access to care”

Doctors, please listen to patients and emerging science! We need to discuss, weigh risks and benefits and try treatment courses you might not be familiar with because long Covid is under-researched and lacks guidelines. Existing flowcharts are not enough.

It's the birthday of Douglas Adams! Time to share favorite quotes!

Highly recommend!

“We are forced to stay despite the danger, when we defend our land, and we do so peacefully. None of us carries weapons. All of us carry peace and goodness and love.” These were the words of Father Pierre al-Rahi one day before Israel killed him in Lebanon today on March 9.

Jared is correct. Read Theory "Whatever states are today, they are not what they once were—in part because, as Dasgupta chronicles, the state now faces serious competition for center stage in the organization of human society." www.bostonreview.net/forum/climat...

Lemkin Institute of Genocide Prevention have issued a red flag genocide alert for Lebanon. Britain needs to break ties with lsrael for once and for all and cut British political and military participation in Israeli genocide. www.lemkininstitute.com/red-flag-ale...

This 👇 is good. Studying philosophy of mind in my Psychology degree in the ancient 1990s, we had fun questioning the nature of consciousness and if machines could ever have it. We learned about neural nets and artificial minds! AI execs acting intrigued about consciousness is commercial crap

Hello, if you are looking for reliable resources to follow as things escalate in Lebanon, I've got you ! Now is an especially good time to check out these accounts since there is very little media coverage of what's going on in Lebanon ! go.bsky.app/Bwe7hSf

While strategic petroleum reserves can cushion against immediate impacts of the US/Israeli war against Iran, people really have not prepared for fertiliser shortages and what that may mean for food cycles in the coming year: (Source: Bloomberg newsletter 6 March)

Discovered that Small Prophets (BBC show) is just the salve I needed for war anxiety. Highly recommend if you are in that space.

We’re flabbergasted to see This Slavery shortlisted for Book of the Year: Graphic Novel at the Nibbies! What an incredible list to appear on, and isn’t it great to have a graphic novel category

Folks, don't let the NHS inertia gaslight you. This is so so important. Remember this right for when you need it. ❤️❤️

Great news, celebrating graphic novels 📖❤️

Registration open for Radical Statistics annual conference "Using Data to Promote Progressive Change", London, 14.03.26 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2026-radic... Programme here www.radstats.org.uk/conference I'm doing a workshop on ECR wellbeing - with a critical use of underpinning data Please come!

New post: Can AI Replace Social Science Researchers? (No. No it can't. Come on, now.) davekarpf.beehiiv.com/p/can-ai-rep...

Lots of good gems here - definitely worth your time "If you think Claude Code is a better social scientist than you, then you’re probably right. But that means, at some point, you stopped trying to answer interesting/puzzling questions and started trying to win the publish-the-most-articles race."

"The purpose of a system is what it does" (cybernetician Stafford Beer)

Tried power mapping with my big lecture class and was pleased with the way it went. The assignment is here if you're interested in the logistics of it. docs.google.com/presentation...

I am so bewildered about people completely out of touch with their humanity. We are temporary beings with warm blood and warm relationships. Right???

This is interesting. I feel in some ways they're still missing parts of the problem, even if they did refuse. But note who DID spot the issues - a Mum and a Wife. Women scholars were raising the alarm on E*stein for years but were often told they were jealous, or not good enough to even be invited.

THIS is what AI is for. Surveillance, target identification, and autonomous decisions to bomb. Sorry dear humans who love life and beauty 💔

The "productivity and efficiency" of AI powered military tech quoted in this article is actually a terrifying empowerment of militaries with supercharged surveillance and immediate obliteration. The old bricks-and-mortar panopticon we worried about is childs play in comparison.

If the rumours are true and the kids and social media consultation opens today, here are two things I think should be banned from social media: 1) AI bots 2) recommendations algorithms that optimise for time on site Firm regulation of both of these things is possible and auditable

Now would be a good time for anyone who wants to learn about recent Iranian history to read this. It is well worth your time and money (I am sure your local library has it if you don’t want to purchase it).

In 2016, calling for a ban on the development of lethal autonomous weapons was the received wisdom. In 2026, worrying about the accuracy of those weapons is laudable. Folks in tech need to stop worrying so much about model alignment and start working on their own moral alignment.

This is it. This is the baseline assumption I think we should be working from. "we are up against an ideology that has given up not only on the premise and promise of liberal democracy but on the livability of our shared world [...] The forces we are up against have made peace with mass death.

LOVE this paper on accumulated inscriptions of names and dates on a wall as rock art. Celebrates the historical value of an apparently mundane trace. Interviews find that the wall has more emotional meaning now - embodying a period of adolescent freedom and rebellion - than it had at the time.

For lace week in #ShowMeYourKnits, 2 lace jumper WIPs Soft Trails by @stolenstitches.bsky.social in emerald Blasta Light yarn & Fern Sweater by Knitting for Olive in a Coopknits Socks Yeah and Adriafil kidseta. Learning the "improved SSK" is doing wonders for my horrible left leaning decreases

"Without even opening a book, they could dismiss all of feminism, postcolonial theory and queer studies...devote their brains instead to the race science and rape apologetics that now pass for scholarship on edgelord podcasts". Sharing again, as it's a vital read www.thenerve.news/p/epstein-bi...

💡 what a helpful articulation of the diversity of open research practices beyond open data! "Openness in AHSS occurs in practices like experimental publishing, participatory research methods, and public scholarship"

Wonderful resource on community organising in crisis conditions ❤️

I'm glad to see accountability for academia's bad apples. But I also hope that resignations like this one won't be the end of the story. Because we still need to reckon with how the structures and cultures in "elite" academia have created ripe conditions for rot. 1/🧵 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/u...

Well done, @arizonastateuni.bsky.social, you got rid of one of the Epstein sex pests already. You must be pretty grateful to @drmel.bsky.social who did so much legwork and travel at her own expense. Isn't it time the brave whistle blowers were rewarded rather than the abusers?

Brave and brilliant hero who went up against one of Epstein's sexual harasser buddies. Universities: listen to women, it might be in your self-interest!

“It’s not a show about disability per se – instead, think messy friendships and sex with Smurfs – but it has no issue with skewering an ableist trope if it needs to (and we live in an era where it really needs to).” I review the new series of We Might Regret This www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Social movements fail more than they succeed. But, "failure" is also never actually "failure" because you create relationships/ networks/ ties that exist that did not exist before. Ex. Palestine protests didn't succeed at divestment, or ending genocide, but w/o them Zohran wouldn't be elected.

Good work ❤️

34 page ‚graphic novel-like‘ guide (freely accessible) on what it’s like to live as a young person with #LongCovid - this will resonate with anyone with #LongCovid, recommended to anyone with or without #LongCovid !! www.lshtm.ac.uk/media/97536

What is child stunting — and how has it changed over the last 200 years? Stunting means being too short for one’s age due to chronic undernutrition and disease in early life. It’s one of the clearest markers of cumulative deprivation in childhood. 1)

Everything Alaa Alqaisi writes is extraordinary. I started weeping with the rhythm of her sentences: “Pray where you are. We wept. We wept because we had been starved even of this, of a voice reminding us that we still belonged to something larger than destruction”. Tears accompanied me to the end.

Hang on to our hats!