Sheffield students, stepping up. youtu.be/TxdDV0G9Ys0?...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... You can donate to our strike fund here ucu.group.shef.ac.uk/hardship-fund/

We will resist the bullies with our usual courage and resolve - for the good of our students, our university, and our city. We won't allow the dismantling of higher education without resistance. @ucu.org.uk @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ucuhallam.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

📢 Looking forward to @stsvienna.bsky.social talk 'Reimagining AI policy for societal challenges' on Wednesday 1 October 16:00 Vienna time. Join us in person or online, more info here sts.univie.ac.at/en/news-even... #STS #AI

An excellent analysis by Nuffield PRC of exactly where Labour's so-called "lost voters" have gone, and why lurching to the right is the absolutely worst strategy for winning the next election. Now if only SOME PEOPLE ::cough:: would listen. politicscentre.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

That's now 10 of those "new schools" created 2 years ago up for further restructures and redundancies (including mine). Welcome back from summer, kids. 🤬

5 years post-pandemic and hybrid conferencing is still an adventure every time.

Absolutely stoked to share that my @renewbiodiversity.bsky.social colleague Ryan Shum has been awarded the AsSIST-UK Andrew Webster PhD prize for his work, 'Caring for microplastics: a multi-sited laboratory ethnography'! #STS #EnvHums #geography assistuk.org/2025/06/03/2...

💰Ahead of the Spending Review, Policy Director, @jo3hill.bsky.social shares his thoughts on the dynamics between the Treasury and the rest of Whitehall... As a former Treasury official himself, this one is definitely worth a read👇

Judy Wajcman, speaking at @assist-uk.bsky.social's gala to celebrate the 40th anniversary of 'The Social Shaping of Technology' has the perfect response to genAI.

Thanks to everyone at @assist-uk.bsky.social for a great conference (special thanks to those who got up in time to make my 9am panel on robots 🤖) See you all in two years, hopefully before!

📢 AsSIST-UK is now on Bluesky! 🌍 AsSIST-UK brings together scholars across the social sciences, humanities, and sciences to explore innovation, science, and technology in society. With 386+ members, we’re building a vibrant, transdisciplinary community.

New #Postdoctoral Job! I'm recruiting for multi-country project on research #metadata & evaluation - UK, Germany, France, and Canada. Funded by SSHRC under Open Research Area 8 initiative. More info: www.yorku.ca/research/wp-... #research #metascience #researchevaluation #universities #metrics

Wonder how long it will take before they decide faculty are actually unnecessary. No worries at all in the present climate.

ROOTS was THE television event when it had its premiere on this day in 1977. @alondra.bsky.social felt the effects of the cultural sensation and got turned onto discovering her own African ancestry and genetic genealogy.

SERVICE UPDATE: any newsreaders pronouncing it Storm “Eye-oh-win” are to be immediately deported to the tower of Cirith Ungol

Oh good. Something nice to RT (RS?)

Don't just stop using AI; start using the public domain! Here's a search engine for public domain works that are absolutely *free to use and remix*: picryl.com

For today’s #ArtAdventCalendar - I present one of my more ridiculous #SciComm & #SciArt ideas. A hand printed canvas to demonstrate sampling using a quadrat. Thread of the process 👇🏼

"Our tendency to imbue things with human-like minds is a fundamental fact of our cognition." Really rich account of how humans use AI to substitute for human relationships. I don't think this is a "when you've read one, you've read 'em all" thing--we'll be mining these phenomena for a long time.

One of the first great Bluesky live moments

I will never, ever get over this.

"Rather than attempt to read between the lines of the latest email from the Subdean for Academic Affairs, simply click on the ADMINISTRATOR LANGUAGE DETECTED icon to reveal the message in English and determine the threat level to your department, program, or mental health."

When I am hired as an legal expert, I do my own work. This includes tracking down my own citations. Given what they pay us, it seems like the ethical thing to do. It is a scandal if you get caught cheating. It is a bigger scandal -- I think -- if your excuse is that you are lazy.

And get rid of the one for That Place, while you're at it. 🤓

Darwin was surprisingly modern for a Victorian dad. But I didn’t know about these doodles!

Something to keep in mind.

🚨 NEW REPORT 🚨 Ensuring ministers are properly supported is critical to high-performing government. Yet too often, they report feeling overloaded - unable to drive change in line with their priorities. Today, ‘Grown up government’ sets out a new model of political support.

We are also delighted to welcome @acababble.bsky.social from The University of Sheffield. Dr Stevienna de Saille will be working on policy ideas around the development and use of robots and AI in England's system of social care.

Please note:

Last MA dissertation marked. Lectures start next week. Not sure if those stomach butterflies are anticipation of an exciting new year or dread of the workload to come. Meanwhile, I procrastinate on my shiny new Bluesky. Forgive the lack of decor as I settle in (Sorry, Mastodon. It's me, not you.😘)

So Doudna and Charpentier are cancelling two of their European CRISPR patents - but not for the reasons you might think. The saga never ends... www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/25/1...