Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Izzy Eddyshaw

@izzyed.bsky.social

95 followers 190 following 85 posts

Health sciences librarian, weird little sci-fi nerd. She/her

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · Mar 20

I'm trying to keep track of how the situation in the U.S may affect access to NLM resources, all going on this library guide which has explainers, alternative resources, and further reading. Suggestions/corrections very welcome libguides.exeter.ac.uk/c.php?g=725268 #medlibs #pubmed

3 6 18

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · 3d

Had a great time at Titus Andronicus at Hampstead Theatre this weekend, highly recommend. Leaned effectively into the fact that the play as written is objectively hilarious. Also I got given a blanket to protect against all the blood sprays 😊

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · 5d

Genuinely have seen circulating entirely serious suggestions to use AI generated people for library focus groups. Because finding real participants is too hard.

Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 5d

People are running stats on LLM-generated participants and think they’re being social scientists when in fact they’re technically just playing a very strange video game. This is like saying you’re doing math research because you’re playing sudoku.

www.science.org/content/arti...

AI-generated ‘participants’ can lead social science experiments astray, study finds

Data produced by “silicon samples” depends on researchers’ exact choice of models, prompts, and settings

www.science.org

1 2

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · 7d

#medlibs #pubmed

Reposted by Izzy Eddyshaw

The Distributed AI Research (DAIR) Institute @dairinstitute.bsky.social · 13d

"“AI isn’t magic; it’s a pyramid scheme of human labor,” said @adiod.bsky.social , a researcher at the Distributed AI Research Institute based in Bremen, Germany. “These raters are the middle rung: invisible, essential and expendable.”

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

How thousands of ‘overworked, underpaid’ humans train Google’s AI to seem smart

Contracted AI raters describe grueling deadlines, poor pay and opacity around work to make chatbots intelligent

www.theguardian.com

130 230

Reposted by Izzy Eddyshaw

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 16d

IMPORTANT 🧵

We've been seeing how RFK Jr & anti-vax lobby has been steadily and effectively reducing access to vaccines in the US.

But it could happen in UK too.

It's a threat worth considering given Malhotra's speech at Reform conf & big overlap between anti-vax and RW populsim.

Read on!
1/11

20 250 510

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · 16d

1 14

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · 16d

They've got it backwards: autistic people take more paracetamol due to all the headaches caused by neurotypical people constantly spouting nonsense takes*

*obligatory disclaimer that paracetamol and autism have nothing to do with each other, and we live in a hell world

Reposted by Izzy Eddyshaw

Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 21d

This is the lead story in the New York Times. If you're in the business of communicating, whether through journalism, commentary, or art, this is the five-alarm fire. People are going to remember who spoke up and who stayed conveniently silent or postured about "neutrality."

Trump Says Broadcasters Should Lose Licenses for Criticizing Him

38 580 1.7K

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · 24d

www.eesi.org/articles/vie...

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Data Centers and Water Consumption | Article | EESI

www.eesi.org

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · 24d

Co2 and electricity use aside, here's some fun facts! Data centres can consume 5 million gallons of *drinking water* a day, while approx 2/3rds of post-2022 data centres have been placed in areas already experiencing drought or water stress.

Google’s huge new Essex datacentre to emit 570,000 tonnes of CO2 a year

Exclusive: Planning documents show impact of Thurrock ‘hyperscale’ unit as UK attempts to ramp up AI capacity

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Izzy Eddyshaw

Dan Hicks @profdanhicks.bsky.social · 25d

it’s time, if you haven’t already done so, to shut down your twitter account, and tell the institutions you are part of to leave too.

there’s no way any UK museum, university, politician or any of us should still be on that far-right platform

Dan Hicks @profdanhicks.bsky.social · 25d

I couldn't find a full transcript of the Musk conversation with Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) at yesterday’s London demonstration so I made one myself

many shocking bits to this but perhaps especially the rhetoric of English villages under attack from “marauding"

1 38 130

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · 28d

I am begging you people to stop describing concerns about or objections to generative AI tools as "fears". I am not scared of AI. Now, the fascist-enabling, Trumpian, amoral tech CEOs who you are cheerfully allowing to dictate to you the information you have access to. They're scary, yes.

Reposted by Izzy Eddyshaw

Iron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · Sep 6

Do it.

Search your name.

Take their money.

It’s yours anyway.

Ryan Estrada @ryanestrada.com · Sep 6

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI

Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

www.theatlantic.com

3 2.8K 3.7K

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · Sep 9

eg. compare old LSTRC page web.archive.org/web/20250103... and new: www.nlm.nih.gov/medline/medl...

Old "Journal selection for medline" page web.archive.org/web/20250102... and new www.nlm.nih.gov/medline/medl...

About the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee (LSTRC)

web.archive.org

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · Sep 9

I compared current pages with wayback machine equivalents from Jan (I'm fun). Can't see any big changes to actual scope/policy, except for no longer accepting print journals, and complete removal of LSTRC with its named members, substituted with references to "external, expert consultants".

Malin B @malinbarken.mastodon.nu.ap.brid.gy · Sep 9

After getting rid of the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee, the NLM is now announcing that it is "modernizing journal selection". So far, the description of journal selection is just scrubbed of committee mentions. "More information will be shared in the coming months." #medlibs […]

Original post on mastodon.nu

mastodon.nu

1 2

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · Sep 3

how dare you

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · Aug 18

Day 1 in our new house and we are being BURGLED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT

1 2

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · Aug 13

Hey we've noticed that u take showers sometimes lol. Can u not though because we need literally all of the water available in order to power our big machine which takes your art and rips it up and stitches it back together wrong so that we can pretend it's our own work. This is super necessary"

The Journal @thejournal.ie · Aug 12

The UK government has urged people to delete old pictures and emails as 'data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems'.
http://jrnl.ie/6788643

UK government advises people to delete old photos and emails as England faces water shortfall

The UK government has urged people to delete old pictures and emails as ‘data centres require cast amounts of water to cool their systems’.

jrnl.ie

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · Aug 11

"you can't possibly comment on how good a generative AI tool is unless you've used it" -> "you can't possibly comment on how stress-relieving it is to walk around whacking strangers on the head with a comedy-sized saucepan unless you've tried it"

Reposted by Izzy Eddyshaw

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · Aug 10

Barely an hour ago, Palestinian journalist Anas Al-Sharif warned us all:

“If this madness doesn’t end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased — and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop.”

Israel just killed him.

71 4.8K 6.4K

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · Aug 8

This is a very well-written, interesting and important piece that is worth taking the time to read fully.
www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2025/ai-feel...

Investigating the “Feeling Rules” of Generative AI and Imagining Alternative Futures – In the Library with the Lead Pipe

www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org

Reposted by Izzy Eddyshaw

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · Aug 4

This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen.

By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza

170 3.3K 4.6K

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · Aug 5

Utterly, utterly vile new low. How about, instead, misogynistic terfs stay away from young women to preserve their right not to be near such mindless, repellant hatefulness. Co-opting feminist language to justify this bigotry is deplorable. www.thepinknews.com/2025/08/05/m...

M&S 'sorry' after woman complains that 'trans' employee offered to help her

Marks & Spencer has apologised after an allegedly trans employee offered a customer help while in one of the retailer's shops.

www.thepinknews.com

Reposted by Izzy Eddyshaw

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · Aug 4

The full list of all 18,500 children killed in Gaza, in video form.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

37 550 920

Izzy Eddyshaw @izzyed.bsky.social · Aug 4

I'm in a terrible mood does it show