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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 1d

"I support things like civil rights, access to education, and medical research. You could never imagine me sitting in the front row at the inauguration of a far-right ruler who promised to destroy those things."

Hi, I’m an Early 2010s Tech CEO

I wear the same T-shirt every day, and I have a relatably unkempt haircut. I remind you of the smart kids from high school, so I give you hope that...

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 16h

Just to be clear, an English degree - learning to critically assess texts - is actually one of the most dangerous for people such as Badenoch.

An educated population, able to bring hundreds of years of context to statements in a dawning age of AI slop and attention-seeking dishonesty is also vital.

The Bear @bearlypolitics.co.uk · 18h

So, the plan is to cut English, the arts, and sociology - the degrees that actually study culture - while on another part of your platform claiming to “defend” British culture.

It’s performance nationalism with a reading age of seven.

Badenoch: Curb students taking 'rip-off' degrees such as English
The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

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John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · 20d

Gee Australia must be glad to have spent so much money (and burnt so many other relationships) in support of AUKUS, when our "closest friends" do this...

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Rob Duncan @robduncan.bsky.social · 26d

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BladeoftheSun @bladeofthes.bsky.social · 28d

The Ghost of Suppressed Protests Past.

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John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · 29d

I'd also be very surprised if it were impossible - at least in a technical sense. Whether unwillingness to act makes it impossible in practice may be another question entirely, though...

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John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · 29d

I'd fully support this concept.
Actually I've tried in the past to get a journal to do exactly this - but apparently "the setup of the journal's website system" wouldn't let it happen. I will leave the #academicsky community to ponder whether this is due to a lack of capability, or a lack of will..

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John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Sep 5

Other than the tedious tone of "USA good, Europe bad", this article misses the key point: we mainly don't have "robotaxis" here because we don't want hundreds of them bumbling around the place like the idiotic car equivalent of a Roomba..

www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

Robotaxis will be the Sputnik Moment for a declining Europe

A slow-motion car crash on Europe’s roads

www.economist.com

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · Aug 30

"In this bedroom are fourteen light switches. Ten of them do nothing. One turns on the television. One sounds an alarm in the home of your grouchy next-door neighbor who hates Americans and will let his French bulldog poop on your doorstep. Can you choose the right one in time?"

Escape Room Challenge: Your European Airbnb

Welcome to this tiny fifth-floor Airbnb, your home for the next four days in a major European city. Can you escape without incurring additional fee...

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John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Aug 29

Very well put!

The same is true for an engineering degree, with the added consequences that the roof of the restaurant may also fall down on your head while you're in it.

Robert Komaniecki @komaniecki.bsky.social · Aug 29

Trying to figure out a way to impress upon my students that using AI to skip course work in order to get a music degree is like ordering food at a restaurant and immediately throwing it out the window in order to get to pay the check

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · Aug 28

As we seem to be talking ECHR again, here’s my Venn Diagram from more than a decade ago.

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John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Aug 28

Oh no - how sad. Anyway...

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Aug 27

I believe this is what chemical engineers describe as "chemists discovering that chemical engineering is a properly difficult thing to do"...

(we often say that chemistry is making the first gram of something; chemical engineering is making the next hundred tonnes)

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amy brown @amybrown.xyz · Aug 22

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me?
Because actually no one can do it for you, because your voice is unique among all the people on earth. Siri never petted a horse's neck. Alexa has never been ghosted by the captain of the football team. But you have lived, your heart is beating, you have suffered, and you have something important to say. It's a human's job, to use words, and whatever job you give to a machine, that part of your brain goes dark. Maybe it's worth it when it comes to remembering phone numbers and directions, but when that part of your brain that uses words goes dark, that's a vast area that's very close to your soul. Don't let some internet platform convince you that what you have to say and create isn't worthwhile. Words are the echo of your soul. Honing that echo matters.

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ErrantScience @errantscience.com · Aug 18

Sadly our idea of charging people £7.99 for a blue tick to put on their experimental results didn’t pan out

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John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Aug 14

I'm not exactly sure how many people are making decisions on purchasing a new XRF spectrometer based on seeing ads in Youtube videos... but at least their algorithm has figured out that it seems a better match for my interests than either perfume or funeral plans?

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Aug 13

Machine Gun Kiss On The Cheek

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The Onion @theonion.com · Aug 9

Australia Admits All Those Animals Made Up
theonion.com/austral...

Australia Admits All Those Animals Made Up

SYDNEY—Saying the ruse began as a harmless prank about the continent’s mammals having pouches, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese admitted Tuesday that all those animals like wallabies, numbats, quokkas, and bandicoots were completely made up. “We just assumed everyone would have caught on by now, because these creatures are clearly imaginary,” said Albanese, adding that […]

theonion.com

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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · Jul 7

'Vacations.'

The word is 'vacations.'

FAST COMPANY Article:

While retirement typically occurs, after
completing a career and saving and investing for it, a new trend is emerging among Gen Z career professionals
called "micro-retirement." Micro-
retirements involve taking a one to two- week break from work every 12 to 18 months.
Gen Z is using micro-retirement to avoid burnout, find greater fulfillment in their work, and enhance their overall well-being. However, it's not just Gen-Z:

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John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Jul 6

a little girl in a pink dress is standing in front of a wooden wall .

Alt: why not both? (video of a little girl from the old tacos ad)

media.tenor.com

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Jun 25

By the way, this is the paper 🧪: doi.org/10.1617/s115...

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John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Jun 25

There are various milestones in a scientific career🧪:
PhD✔️
Permanent job✔️
PhD student graduates✔️ several
Paper published✔️ several
Paper in Science/Nature... not yet
Paper featured in the media✔️a few
But the pinnacle of it all: Paper featured on the news screen on the bus ✔️
(translation in alt-text)

Approximate translation of the news screen (in German) - PSI researchers search for sustainable cement recipes using AI
(photo credit - it's not mine, someone sent it to a colleague who sent it to me)

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John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Jun 12

Take my money, Mel Brooks.... I must see this movie!

Mel Brooks @officialmelbrooks.bsky.social · Jun 12

I told you we’d be back

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The Ass is the father of the legs @internethippo.bsky.social · May 13

Feels like just in my lifetime the tech industry went from solving problems to pretending to solve problems, to creating problems

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · May 12

"Demonstrate through scientific, psychological, philosophical, legal, and historical principles that the assistant dean has the moral high ground in his contentious divorce."

Introducing Our University’s New, Totally Reasonable Criteria for Promotion and Tenure

Since the founding of our august institution, we have awarded promotion and tenure based on how many pages of your research we could read before fa...

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