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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 1d

My favourite photo of Daz smiling. Another of him trying to pretend he’s sleeping whilst keeping ears out for treats. And another with his tongue hanging out because I love it.

Daz the greyhound with his head lolling off the side of an outdoor sofa. Fast asleep. Tongue hanging out.

Daz the greyhound pretending to be asleep with his ears up listening for treats.

Daz the greyhound with a big happy smile having his ears scratched.

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 1d

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.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 1d

I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is?

It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?

Tim Worthington @outonbluesix.bsky.social · 1d

How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.

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Alex Shevrin Venet @asv.bsky.social · 2d

wowwww this is incredibly beautiful. tagging some friends who will love this: @ladyofsardines.bsky.social @heymrsbond.com @marcusluther.bsky.social

therumpus.net/2025/10/02/h...

Human Error Is the Point: On Teaching College During the Rise of AI - The Rumpus

My syllabus is a mess of half-remembered intentions. I re-use icebreakers that I know don’t work. I forget to grade the first assignment until Week Four. I write emails that begin with “So sorry for t...

therumpus.net

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 3d

He’s the exception that proves the rule. In so many ways!

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Gail Myerscough @gailmyerscough.co.uk · 3d

It’s early but…
My Christmas wrap is now available to pre-order
www.gailmyerscough.co.uk/christmas-ca...

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Paul Jackson @jacksopb.bsky.social · 3d

Something I never thought I would ever say - I will he talking to Carlus Acosta and Tony Iommi about the Black Sabbath ballet in Birmingham next week. www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/to...

Tony Iommi and Carlos Acosta join academics for an evening exploring the legacy of Black Sabbath - University of Birmingham

Overlooked elements of Black Sabbath’s legacy are being uncovered and celebrated at a special University of Birmingham event.

www.birmingham.ac.uk

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 3d

It has to be torrential for Daz to refuse a walk. He’s never refused to leave the house and has only turned around and taken us home early because of rain twice. If we delay his walk until the rain stops he complains loudly. Our boy NEEDS his walk!

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Jim Dickinson @jimdickinson.bsky.social · 3d

"Home Office grants extra visas for UCL international students told to defer"

Home Office grants extra visas for UCL international students told to defer

Hundreds of students with promised places had been left in limbo after university exceeded its visa allocations

bit.ly

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Prof Sheena Cruickshank @sheencr.bsky.social · 3d

Somewhat ironic that when I was interviewed for this article on fresher's flu I was just getting over a nasty cold myself potentially acquired in various teaching activities. Some quick takes on this for all new students (and not just freshers). 🧪🧵
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What exactly is freshers' flu - and why do so many get it?

It's not the actual flu, and it's rarely serious, but when thousands of students arrive on campus they bring a cocktail of viruses.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Alexandra Mihai @anda19.bsky.social · 3d

"Worry is a way to pretend that you have knowledge or control over what you don't- and it surprises me how much we prefer ugly scenarios to the pure unknown."
***
"A Field Guide to Getting Lost", by Rebecca Solnit

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 4d

*gasp*

“Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren’t,” said a third senior Reform cabinet member in Kent.

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 4d

Fantastic story on many levels. Well worth a read of this thread.

Coates is Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 4d

Today is the 63rd anniversary of the London premiere of Dr. No, which means (well, obviously) it’s time to tell you a ridiculous shaggy dog story about the theft of not one but two portraits of the Duke of Wellington

Sean Connery in Dr No’s lair, about to go up a short flight of stairs when he spots a portrait of the Duke of Wellington on a stand. The original had been stolen from the National Gallery the previous year, and this was a joke by the Bond production team

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Coates is Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 4d

Today is the 63rd anniversary of the London premiere of Dr. No, which means (well, obviously) it’s time to tell you a ridiculous shaggy dog story about the theft of not one but two portraits of the Duke of Wellington

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 4d

I so need this word. My kind of bread and butter treat.

Susie Dent @susiedent.com · 4d

Word of the Day is ‘tandsmør’, from Danish. It describes bread that is buttered so thickly you can see tooth marks in it after every bite. Its literal translation? ‘Tooth butter’.

Susie Dent @susiedent.com · 4d

Word of the Day is ‘tandsmør’, from Danish. It describes bread that is buttered so thickly you can see tooth marks in it after every bite. Its literal translation? ‘Tooth butter’.

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 4d

It is isn’t it!

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 4d

I’m exhausted with the effort but at least I have a good plan if I ever do miss lectures I didn’t know I had to give!

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 4d

But that wasn’t the end. Over the next few hours in and out of sleep. I worked out I could use last year’s Canvas pages and recordings, and produced a plan to ask timetabling if there were slots I could use to give optional repeats of the lectures. FOR A LECTURE SERIES THAT’S NOT REAL.

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 4d

I went away prepared to do lots of extra work I wasn’t expecting, drafting messages in my head to apologise to students, and feeling very guilty I’d let everyone down for something I didn’t know I had to do…

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 4d

For some reason, they’d adapted it to have an extremely strong Yorkshire accent - in text as well as sound - and to insult the user if they made a mistake. They’d given it a paper-clip type avatar of a cartoon horse. This all seemed perfectly normal in the dream and good decisions to make…

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 4d

They weren’t there but several others came to the reception desk to tell me what to do - everyone saying something different. I was finally directed down to IT who showed me a new prototype of a AI-based VLE they were now using where I would need to record my lectures to from scratch…

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 4d

I checked my emails but nothing there to ask or tell me I was doing it again this year. And nothing to say I’d missed anything But, when I checked my online timetable again, there it was. I went straight to the department and asked to speak to their Director of Education…

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 4d

I have a recurring dream where I’m late or completely miss giving a lecture for an another department because I’d forgotten about it. Last night it came back with a vengeance. I dreamt I found out - by chatting to a colleague who’d found out from students - that I’d missed two weeks of lectures…

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 5d

I’m glad you do!

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Diane Coyle @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social · 6d

Very nice article co-authored by one of my former students, Mihai Codreanu, discovering how much of many documents eg press releases, job postings, have been written using LLMs (10-20% depending on type of document but it might have stabilised in late 2024) www.cell.com/patterns/ful...

The widespread adoption of large language model-assisted writing across society

This study explores AI-generated writing adoption across consumer complaints, corporate press releases, job postings, and international organization communications, revealing widespread use following ...

www.cell.com

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 6d

Interesting exploration of how this happened and the implications for both UCL and the sector.

Jim Dickinson @jimdickinson.bsky.social · 7d

NEW on Wonkhe: Jim Dickinson explores how UCL’s oversubscription crisis has left hundreds of international students in limbo - raising fresh questions about whether UK universities are operating within consumer law buff.ly/TBG7zay

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Jim Dickinson @jimdickinson.bsky.social · 7d

NEW on Wonkhe: Jim Dickinson explores how UCL’s oversubscription crisis has left hundreds of international students in limbo - raising fresh questions about whether UK universities are operating within consumer law buff.ly/TBG7zay

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Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 7d

I was born in Monmouthshire to locally-born parents and at least two English-born grandparents. For centuries Monmouthshire’s status was ambiguous and it was only legally accepted as Welsh in 1972, before that many considered it English. I have chosen to be Welsh.

Kelly Smith @smithkj.bsky.social · 7d

“Microsoft says its Agent Mode in Excel has an accuracy rate of 57.2 percent in SpreadsheetBench, a benchmark for evaluating an AI model’s ability to edit real world spreadsheets. … It’s still behind the human accuracy of 71.3 percent, though.”