Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 27d

Badenoch and Co see education only as a means to a massive income in some soul destroying career.

Devoid of imagination and the power of knowledge they view life entirely through the prism of the CV.

My advice always is to study what interests you and the rest will follow

320 450 1.9K

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Dr. Divya 🇵🇸🧿 (offline) @divyampersaud.com · Sep 14

419/500 💡

Dr. Divya 🇵🇸🧿 (offline) @divyampersaud.com · Sep 13

The next 38 hours for Spark Space are more crucial than ever.

We’re helping KIDS who are taking their school exams—despite the extreme danger in the area. And we need to keep the electricity on.

Let’s do it. Bold goal for this life-giving project: 0/500 chuffed.org/project/spar...

A yellow-gold square graphic. In the center is a circular photo of several people working at remote workstations with laptops and chargers. They’re in a building with lights, outlets, and cupboards. The image has an orange glow behind it. Around the image is the title, Spark Space, Gaza, decorated with illustrated plugs. The text below says, “We aim to create a safe, fully-equipped workspace with reliable electricity and fast internet, offering students and freelancers in Gaza the environment they need to continue their journey despite the hardships.” Below is the link https://chuffed.org/project/spark-space-gaza.

1 1

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Scroll @scroll.in · Sep 14

Snakebites and snake bite fatalities in Kerala were once among the highest in India, with 123 deaths recorded in 2019 alone.

scroll.in/video/108653...

In this week's #EcoIndia, we discuss how Kerala cut snakebite deaths while boosting conservation.

Eco India: How Kerala cuts snakebite deaths while boosting conservation

Snakebites and snake bite fatalities in Kerala were once among the highest in India, with 123 deaths recorded in 2019 alone.

scroll.in

1 3

Neil Kazimierz Sheridan @koalaswelcomehere.bsky.social · Sep 12

It was 0808 local time if that helps! I saved a clip because I know nobody will believe me!

3

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · Sep 11

Would you like some good news? A new vaccine has just been approved for protecting koalas from chlamydia, which is one of their leading causes of death.

Australia approves first vaccine to save koalas from chlamydia

A vaccine to protect Australia's koalas against chlamydia has been approved for the first time, a development that scientists believe could stop the spread of the deadly disease that has ravaged populations of the beloved endangered animal.

www.reuters.com

35 540 1.9K

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Sharang Biswas @sharangbiswas.bsky.social · Sep 10

Videos like this should be required watching for all students (and all politicians) as basic tech ethics and media literacy.

youtu.be/gKOzDU64iPA?...

Do billionaires even understand the sci-fi they’re inspired by? | The Listening Post

YouTube video by Al Jazeera English

youtu.be

2 13 39

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Doctora Malka Older @older.bsky.social · Sep 9

What the (other) international media are getting wrong:
#NotMakingYouClick
#ButThere'sNoPayWallSoYouMightAsWell

"Misrepresentation in international media
As the movement gained global attention, many young protesters expressed dismay at how international media outlets portrayed the events. Some reports, such as Reuters, reported that Nepal's Gen Z-led protests began over the government's social media ban. Many protesters rejected this characterization, emphasizing that their fight is primarily against corruption, nepotism, and the lack of accountability in political leadership."

1 16 27

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Sep 6

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n

Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues.

Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA).

Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.

Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles

100 1.7K 3.3K

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Marcus 👻/ 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · Aug 24

The mainstreaming of far right discourse 2015 to 2025 in two pictures. The first is from a right wing troll that caused widespread outrage. The second is a supposedly serious journalist just asking questions

Katie Hopkins column in 2015

headline

Rescue boats?
I'd use gunships to stop migrants

ANALYSIS
Is it time for gunboats to help stop the people smugglers?
With the PM's and Labour's poll numbers tanking as the latest official figures confirm the numbers of migrants and small boat crossings are increasing at a shocking rate, is it now time for a different approach?
Jon Craig
Chief political correspondent @joncraig

8 200 390

Neil Kazimierz Sheridan @koalaswelcomehere.bsky.social · Sep 4

I still don’t forgive what she did to Tuvix! 😟

2

Neil Kazimierz Sheridan @koalaswelcomehere.bsky.social · Aug 31

A paddleboard on an lake island beach. Mountains surround the lake

2

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Kinell @sinistercinemastudios.art · Aug 28

This is some of the hardest shit I've seen in my life

77 1.2K 4.2K

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Elijah the TechnoShaman @eruditelijah.bsky.social · Aug 15

For examples look up:

Videos by @andrewsage.bsky.social and @ourchangingclimate.bsky.social

Podcasts like
Bright Green Futures and Demand Utopia

Anthologies by @susankayequinn.bsky.social and @brightflame.bsky.social

And more like
@solarpunkstories.bsky.social and @solarpunkseed.bsky.social

3 6 14

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Elijah the TechnoShaman @eruditelijah.bsky.social · Aug 15

I'm so sick of this. If you don't understand it, just say that.

Solarpunk is barely ~10 years old. Meaning we can still decide what it is, and isn't.

The idea is meant to shift focus from what can go (more) wrong with the world, towards a focus on what can go right, and how to get there.

2 1 22

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Oliver @oliver48.bsky.social · Aug 30

"I wish those protesting outside refugee hotels could meet the people inside"

'I think of Hadnan (37), a calm and focused university lecturer who came here from Afghanistan, and is married to a teacher ...'
metro.co.uk/2025/08/29/w...

I wish those protesting outside refugee hotels could meet the people inside

If they spent even a few hours in the company of people like Said or Hadnan, I know their opinions would change.

metro.co.uk

8 100 250

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · Aug 29

This is bad

The research found that if carbon emissions continued to rise, 70% of the model runs led to collapse, while an intermediate level of emissions resulted in collapse in 37% of the models. Even in the case of low future emissions, an Amoc shutdown happened in 25% of the models.

Scientists have warned previously that Amoc collapse must be avoided “at all costs”. It would shift the tropical rainfall belt on which many millions of people rely to grow their food, plunge western Europe into extreme cold winters and summer droughts, and add 50cm to already rising sea levels.

13 190 330

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Silvia Bethencourt @baterfly.bsky.social · Aug 27

Working in total darkness, Sitaram Raul captured fruit bats leaving their roost in the ruins of a historical monument 🦇🖤

From Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 competition

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

2 9

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Sylví✨ @snowanddrugs.bsky.social · Aug 24

i also believe succesfully following left wing goals (everyone has their basic needs met..) would erode the cynicism people have towards futures and allowing desire for them manifest more commonly

this is the reason for this opinion btw

1 1 1

Neil Kazimierz Sheridan @koalaswelcomehere.bsky.social · Aug 23

If worst comes to worst, you can rent a server outside UK, and make your own VPN!

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · Aug 22

#sleeppeeps:

Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · Aug 22

🚨New Paper🚨

I spend a lot of time trying to control what people dream about.

Usually, we are looking at dreams of recent memory.

In this new paper, for the first time, we caused people to dream about a specific REMOTE memory from their distant past.

#cogsci
#psychscisky
🧠🟦

Experimentally Inducing Dreams of Remote Emotional Memory

Abstract. People frequently dream of recent experiences, which may reflect the consolidation of memories in the sleeping brain. Many studies demonstrate th

academic.oup.com

5 4

Neil Kazimierz Sheridan @koalaswelcomehere.bsky.social · Aug 22

a woman says " i did n't know that " in front of a sign that says how i met your father

Alt: a woman says " i did n't know that "

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · Aug 13

just walked into the kitchen to find a spider apparently eating a chunk of cat food one of my cats had dropped out of their bowl.
Not sure who was most surprised.

Do you want to see them?

(pics in next post)

2 2 6

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Emil Gustavsson @emilgustavsson.bsky.social · Aug 11

I'm generally for the European Union, but sometimes #EU make it really hard to be a supporter. Seems like #chatcontrol is up for debate again. This cannot be allowed to pass if we want to keep any resemblance of individual privacy. Contact your MEP:s, information available here: fightchatcontrol.eu

2 4

Reposted by Neil Kazimierz Sheridan

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Aug 9

Likening PhD holders to a (non-functional) algorithm is a form of dehumanisation & anti-intellectualism that is a bellwether for contemporary fascism. Essentially it's a typical — if not the archetypal — first step towards fascism: to dehumanise, deskill, defund, and, ultimately, fire the academics.

Dr. Katharine Dickson @metaomicsnerd.bsky.social · Aug 9

What I would like to remind everyone talking about Sam Altman talking about the “PhD level intelligence” of the new ChatGPT is that Sam Altman dropped out of college so he… has no experiential construct for what grad school even is.

11 320 950