Michelle Bastian
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mhbastian.bsky.social
Michelle Bastian
@mhbastian.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1K following 390 posts
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Humanities at Edinburgh College of Art. Field philosopher working on clocks, phenology and questioning the charisma of our favourite time solutions. Image from artist David Horwitz
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Reposted by Michelle Bastian
london.gov.uk
Proud to see London is fast becoming a cycling city ⤵️

📈 Daily journeys are 12% up from last year to 1,500,000 trips
📈 Up by more than 40% since 2019

This is just the start, we’ll continue working with partners to improve safety and invest in more routes.
November 25, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
sianberry.bsky.social
Since 2011 the fuel duty freeze has cost the Treasury £133 billion.

This huge amount could have paid for lower train and bus fares, better stations, safer walking, wheeling and cycling and much more!
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Rachel Reeves will freeze fuel duty to dodge ‘political suicide’
The chancellor will also highlight a rise in the minimum wage and plans to cut energy bills as she tries to win over voters by focusing on cost of living
www.thetimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
sw20.info
Cameron Toll would be the ideal transport interchange - a covered, cross platform interchange with high capacity, rapid trams.

Would reduce the number of buses using the key Bridges corridor allowing more space for pedestrians along the line

Good for business too - if integrated with the centre?
Under canopy transport interchange with easy access to/from different forms of transport. Under canopy transport interchange with easy access to/from different forms of transport. Under canopy transport interchange with easy access to/from different forms of transport.
November 24, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
lorak.bsky.social
Meta halted internal research that purportedly showed (young) people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious, according to an unredacted legal filing released on Friday. www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/m...
Meta halted internal research suggesting social media harm, court filing alleges
Meta is alleged to have halted internal research suggesting social media harm, according to court documents.
www.cnbc.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:31 AM
mhbastian.bsky.social
A great project, but gives people insight in a system where it will then be almost impossible for them to get officially diagnosed and given the right treatment.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#adhd
Cumbria Police ADHD scheme 'lightbulb moment' for offenders
A scheme to detect ADHD to prevent offenders from returning to custody is rolled out across Cumbria.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
abeba.bsky.social
🤷🏾‍♀️
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
November 23, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
edtiss.bsky.social
*All-time record* set at the Omni Centre cycle lane on the 7th November - 2,265 cycle journeys.

I can only speculate that the rollout of Voi e-bikes has significantly boosted cycling in Edinburgh this autumn, bucking the seasonal trend.
November 21, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
edhawkins.org
Two exciting postdoc positions available!

Historical windstorms - working with two insurance companies to explore UK wind risks: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Extreme event storylines - working as part of a EU collaboration on event attribution: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
November 21, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
cstross.bsky.social
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."

https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 20, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
nigelbagshaw.bsky.social
Edinburgh Council is not proposing the 'destruction of a park', it's proposing the restoration of a former railway line to meet climate targets, reduce congestion, improve air quality, provide economic opportunities, enhance mobility and reduce social inequality.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Roseburn Path: What is the row over a new Edinburgh tram line about?
A public consultation on plans to build a new tram line along a popular cycle route closes on Monday.
www.bbc.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
davidandress.bsky.social
Every time the shocking, perplexing tactic of “giving money to people who need it” is tried, it turns out to work.

And yet people who have more money than they could ever need remain baffled.
streetroots.bsky.social Street Roots @streetroots.bsky.social · 5d
An Oregon pilot program giving cash to homeless youths sees a staggering reduction in homelessness. The program gave participants $1,000 cash payments each month for two years, and at the end of the project's first phase, 91% of participants reported being in stable housing.
Oregon pilot program giving cash to homeless youths sees staggering reduction in homelessness
The state program gave participants $1,000 cash payments each month for two years. At the end of the project's first phase, 91% of participants reported being in stable housing.
www.streetroots.org
November 21, 2025 at 8:04 AM
mhbastian.bsky.social
I was on a CAHMS children's facing website and in the corner is an AI chatbot. It states initialy that you are not talking to a real person, but then uses a cute robot icon to say "Hi I am Balm".
illdottore.bsky.social Joseph Howley @illdottore.bsky.social · 4d
my most butlerian jihad coded belief is that we should probably make it illegal – and more importantly, we should work toward a cultural consensus that it is immoral – to design a computer program whose interface uses the first person
November 21, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
bjking.bsky.social
So good, by @cammy-06.bsky.social @sapiens.org: "Selkie stories often centered female autonomy. Female selkies choose their partners, return to the sea leaving families behind..Giving voice to women’s agency, these narratives shape reality, empowering human women" #Orkney #anthropology #multispecies
Connections and Conflicts With Seals in a Scottish Archipelago
An environmental archaeologist investigates deep-time, mythical, and contemporary relations between seals and Orkney Islanders.
www.sapiens.org
November 21, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
us.theconversation.com
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.

Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
karengregory.bsky.social
www.beyond.radio/news/local-n...
Strikes off at Lancaster University after bosses withdraw compulsory redundancy threat
Planned industrial action at Lancaster University has been suspended following talks.
www.beyond.radio
November 21, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
karengregory.bsky.social
@argonautbooks.bsky.social has put together a letter to Waterstones, which you can read and sign here:

c.org/BW7b88mRSw
Sign the Petition
An Open Letter to Waterstones Regarding a Sixth Edinburgh Branch in Leith
c.org
November 21, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
drandrewthaler.bsky.social
It's about deep-sea mining and how it could impact the animals that migrate through potential mining sites, but it's also about the month I got way too into eels.

What we know we don’t know: impacts of deep-sea mining on whales, dolphins, sharks, turtles, and other migratory species.
What we know we don’t know: impacts of deep-sea mining on whales, dolphins, sharks, turtles, and other migratory species.
Migratory species depend on a vast, interconnected ocean. Disturbance in the deep-sea isn’t localized, it ripples across a globally-connected ocean and impacts made today may persist long aft…
www.southernfriedscience.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
srd.bsky.social
Great turn out at @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social rally at the Scottish Parliament!
November 19, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
wokestudies.bsky.social
"Higher education generated £24bn in export earnings for the UK in 2022-23, far above aircraft manufacturing with £12bn, legal services with £9.5bn and telecoms with £8.8bn."
#HigherEd
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Less than Greggs? Public have no idea of value of top universities, study finds
Belief that snack chain’s revenues exceed those of Oxford’s one of many misconceptions about UK’s HE sector
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
spokes.org.uk
#Tram consultation - Spokes submission

--> www.spokes.org.uk/wp-content/u...

🙋 You have till midnight Monday for your own response!
HERE--> consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/sfc/tram-nor...

@edi.bike @edinreporter.bsky.social @edinburghminute.bsky.social @thecockburn.bsky.social @edfoc.bsky.social
Intro... Tram, Granton to Bioquarter consultation Spokes Planning Group response, November 2025 1. Introduction Spokes has the objective of promoting cycling as part of an overall sustainable transport and access strategy. As such, we support a growing tram system for Edinburgh, provided cycling is well catered for in the project design and operation. The aim of the tram is to reduce car traffic, and to head off potential traffic growth in development areas such as Granton and the Bioquarter. If successful, this is a huge benefit to walking and cycling, as well as its benefits in terms of congestion, public health and climate. However, the project should be accompanied by complementary measures to further encourage use of public transport and active travel, for example bus gates, traffic filters, and, notably, congestion charging. It is well established that traffic reduction is best achieved by a carrot/stick combination. The tram project must support and promote active travel as a whole, and cycling in particular, and must not introduce additional dangers without effective mitigation. The Council has ambitious targets to increase cycle use, much of which must come from novice and inexperienced cyclists, as well as visitors and locals using an expanding bike hire scheme. As such it is essential that there is a safe, comprehensive and connected bike network of segregated bike lanes and low-traffic areas, easy and safe to use by anybody, and with any kind of cycles - including cargobikes, adapted bikes, hire bikes, etc. Introducing the tram should be seen and planned from the outset as an integrated sustainable transport place making project, not a tram-only project into which cycling and walking have to be slotted in once all the tramline decisions are taken as happened with tramline 1 and to a considerable (though lesser) extent in the Newhaven extension. The Bridges corridor is hugely problematic.. 8. City Centre to Bioquarter Top issues ● The section through North and South Bridges is of extreme concern to Spokes, with no cycle provision, new tramlines and continued through traffic on a road where width is at a premium. This is making cycling provision far worse than in the current bus lanes. The project should include a bus gate / modal filter (as was planned, though never implemented, as part of the Spaces for People proposals ) potentially single track sections (like at Roseburn) and fully segregated cycle provision, or consideration to tram tracks on one side of the road and a bidirectional bike path on the other. For the reasons in the following two bullet points, many cyclists will continue to use this corridor - our above section on Bikes and Tramlines notes that Princes Street as a good example of this, with many choosing not to use the quieter George Street when it is less direct or lacks desired destinations. Thus cycling conditions must be safe. ● Whilst alternative north-south routes for cycles are proposed in the consultation, these would not suit all journeys, with many cyclists using the Bridges to travel between South Edinburgh and Leith given the more suitable gradient and directness than the Mound. And whilst there is a brief reference to the proposed Meadows to George Street route on the west side of the Bridges, there is no reference to the east side, where the Mobility Plan suggests a new active travel bridge connecting from the Old Town to Leith Walk. Such projects must be an integral part of the tram project provision including during the construction phase, also providing a permanent legacy of improved provision once finished. ● The Bridges corridor is a major residential, shopping and destinations location, and many cyclists use it for that reason; indeed many live along or just off the corridor. Routes via the Mound or Pleasance are irrelevant as alternatives for these categories of user.… linking the North Ed Network to the new canal path without descending and re-ascending - a transformative opportunity - diagram. ● Connecting Roseburn to the new Canal link path - The sketch below shows a possible layout for this crucial linkage. The yellow dotted line shows a ramp down to Russell Road, but this is possibly optional if it would cause engineering difficulties, given that most people will stay at high level, whilst those needing to descend or ascend could do so at Roseburn or at the nearby ramp to the new canal path. Finally, we understand that earlier discussions with Network Rail did not meet objections to a bridge provided that all necessary clearances are achieved. Picture of single-track shopping-street tram in Amsterdam
November 16, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
very funny to read these emails and then remember summers wondering whether the leaky pipeline in stem was because women are inherently bad at math
econmarshall.bsky.social Marshall Steinbaum @econmarshall.bsky.social · 10d
The emails have Summers reporting to Epstein about his attempts to date a Harvard economics student & to hit on her during a seminar she was giving.
November 16, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
pci-regreports.bsky.social
NEW: Statement from the PCI RR Managing Board on the withdrawal of Infant and Child Development as a PCI RR-friendly journal, and the decision by Wiley to refuse preprints that have been peer-reviewed by @peercommunityin.bsky.social / @pci-regreports.bsky.social

Read here ➡️ osf.io/tn8mh
In 2024, Infant and Child Development (ICD) withdrew as a PCI RR-friendly journal and reneged on three Stage 1 recommendations issued by PCI RR. In addition, Wiley – the publisher of ICD – notified PCI RR and the PCI core team of its decision to withdraw all Wiley journals from PCI and PCI RR, including an additional 9 PCI-friendly journals. Finally, Wiley appears to have banned all of its ~1600 journals from considering submissions that have been previously reviewed by PCI or PCI RR. This statement explains the history of ICD joining PCI RR and developments that led to the current outcome. The PCI RR Managing Board believes that this shift in policy to become “PCI-hostile” renders Wiley journals incompatible not only with community-based preprint review but with preprint archiving in general.
June 17, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
davidgerard.co.uk
"many people who are high on #AI and #LLMs are just new to automation"

hachyderm.io/@mariyadelan...
Mariya Delano (@[email protected])
I’ve been testing a theory: many people who are high on #AI and #LLMs are just new to automation and don’t realize you can automate processes with simple programming, if/then conditions, and API call...
hachyderm.io
November 15, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
matthewcobb.bsky.social
I am bewildered that this labour of Sisyphus is being carried out by volunteers, while Southern Water, which has admitted responsibility for the catastrophe, is doing nothing to remediate it.
‘We feel we’re fighting a losing battle’: the race to remove millions of plastic beads from Camber Sands
A huge cleanup effort has seen volunteers working to remove beads by hand and machine. They can only wait and see the extent of damage to wildlife and dune habitat
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Reposted by Michelle Bastian
greenelects.world
Congratulations to our newest Green councillor, Cllr Mike Dunn, on winning the Long Ashton ward by-election in North Somerset with a huge Green vote!
A bar chart showing the results of the Long Ashton by-election. 1st: Green: 55.17% 2nd: Conservative: 17.57% 3rd: Reform: 15.36% 4th: Lib Dem: 6.64% 5th: Labour: 5.26%
November 14, 2025 at 2:52 AM