I met my wife in a pub in 1998 when Scotland were playing Brazil - the last World Cup they qualified for. I did not think it would take another 27 years to qualify. Time flies...

It's not just job applications sadly. I spend more time reading AI-generated emails than I used to.

My first full post for @scholarlyfutures.bsky.social - What might it mean to publish research with no human in the loop? open.substack.com/pub/scholarl...

The moment before The Beatles walked across Abbey Road. I think they should have used this one personally. Also, whose gran is that?

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

Flying home to Edinburgh seldom lacks visual impact.

🌟 Can you visualize a future in which you’ve won a grant of up to £25,000? #CatalystGrant 💡🌱 Digital Science’s 2025 Catalyst Grant is now open for applications - with the theme of #DataVisualization. 🔗 See more about our Catalyst Grant - and apply here: www.digital-science.com/investment/c...

The 2025 Catalyst Grant is now live. Our theme this year, Data Visualization, relates to any technique that helps automate the way people interrogate, interpret and act on research-related data. If you have an idea, or an early prototype, we want to hear about it. Please share!

If you'd like to know more, feel free to ping me...

I was 50% right here...

Arrived home after a three day course on AI. Of all the facts, this stuck with me: Generating an image using AI = charging a smartphone, or driving 4.1 miles Generating a 100-word email with GPT-4 = 519ml of water (basically a standard bottle). There are mitigating factors, but still. Ouch.

Discuss. #cycling #tourdefrance

When Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes, it triggered the loss of 20,000 subscriptions to the Strand Magazine. To recoup lost revenue and placate outraged readership, the magazine serialized a new Holmes adventure as a “prequel.” For some reason, this reminded me of Fox News and Dominion.

Anyone involved in publishing, reading, writing or editing scientific papers should read this argument against generative AI carefully.

thank you Private Eye for taking apart this flakey headline-grabbing research

Gliders gliding in the park this afternoon. Amazing machines.

Every journalist today looking at their boss.

Today’s news reminds me of the time the HR department of a company I worked at (not my current one!) sent a send:all email to staff outlining who was to be made redundant.

Getting to the stage where I ask an LLM to do something ambitious, hit submit, and think "I really hope you aren't able to do a good job on this...".

Supporters Praise Trump For Upholding Traditional American Value Of Supporting Murderous Dictators For Political Gain

4 weeks after preprint "Understanding the importance of SHAPE to the UK research ecosystem" by @britishacademy.bsky.social, @jameswilsdon.bsky.social , and @digital-science.com I checked Bluesky reach on @altmetric.com: Phenomenal with an upper bound of 121550 followers! doi: doi.org/10.48550/arx...

Detail from the Art Nouveau gesso panels by Glasgow School artist Margaret Macdonald, c.1907 #WomensArt

✍️Despite being the world's biggest oil producer, America is v reliant on Canadian oil. And getting MORE reliant, not less. So what happens when tariffs get imposed on Canada? The answers are quite unsettling, for the American people... and for everyone else edconway.substack.com/p/america-st...

Ah no. Not David Lynch. Here’s to the weird ones. RIP.

Such a great writer - RIP.

What if we don’t really have free will? Terrific, thoughtful column by @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social on a terrific, thoughtful book:

Back home in Scotland for Christmas, I always check in on the local Facebook group - never fails to impress me how community-minded my small town is. ❤️

Scotland doing Scottish well.

Me this morning.

Our home for the next 3 weeks. Scottish borders - peace.

If you were going to have dinner with the ex-principal designer at Jaguar, what would you ask them?

It's still available - yours for around £285. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_...

Quite the atmospheric walk this morning.

Are any followers connected in any way to literary agents (adult fiction)? I'm looking for resources/tips to help my wife in her endeavours to find a publisher for her novel. If it helps, she made it to the top 7% in the last Bridport short story prize.

It’s #WorldPhilosophyDay today, so why not listen to a few episodes of the Philosophy Bites podcast - over 300 to choose from on Spotify, Apple Podcasts etc podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p...

This is really getting quite remarkable • BlueSky user numbers have doubled in the past week and now total 3.5 million across US & UK 🚀 • Number of people deleting their X/Twitter account remains way up And the next chart is particularly notable...

In case you missed it, Garry Kasparov is now here. This place is getting serious. @garrykasparov.bsky.social

📣 Great news! @altmetric.com has added a new attention source: Clinical Guidelines - tracking the impact of research in clinical practice. You'll now see Clinical Guidelines reflected in Altmetric Badges & Altmetric Attention Scores. 🔗 Find out more: www.digital-science.com/news/altmetr...

The best company all-hands presentation we ever had (15 years and counting) was inviting Nigel to be the keynote speaker. More philosophy / tech interaction would make the world a better place.

Product/App idea. A "history" button on your TV that lists all the shows you've been watching, across all the streaming/terrestrial/downloaded platforms. I keep losing track.

Just checked TwitterX as I need to for work - seems it's 'My lawyer has been notified' season. Exited quickly.

Hampstead Heath was putting on a good show this morning.

This is our dog, Fiddle. He volunteers for neighborhood watch. Unfortunately, he only sets off the alarm when he sees another dog on *his* street.

Remember when most folks I follow had a profile bio saying "Views are my own". Doesn't appear to be as common now. What changed to make that no longer necessary?

Searching for Christmas presents for a dad with dementia. He's past being able to do jigsaws as they quickly confuse him, but he does like sorting things (coins are a favourite right now). Looking for hivemind suggestions. #dementia

Looking at moving back home to Scotland, and realising how different the house-buying process is. Here's a home report that gives an independent value of the house. Here's our price - you're in a blind auction. Make an offer over that price (default is 10-20% over). You win/lose. Rinse and repeat.

Twitter is dead. Long live BlueSky. iandunt.substack.com/p/twitter-is...

One of these headlines would have been enough. Talk about flooding the zone...

Even Crypto Twitter is shocked at the Gaetz appointment.

If you are into Open Source Technologies and Investigative techniques/Intelligence analysis, I then might have the Starter Pack for you: go.bsky.app/7ugtASb