Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 18h

Wait until they discover that the method is probably about 20% of what you need for reproducibly in most of STEM. Less in the quant social sciences. Raw data. Code & documentation to run it. Software libraries & exact versions. Cleaning and curation explained. It goes on and on.

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Ted Underwood @tedunderwood.com · Aug 15

Pre-announcement of a funding opportunity for "artificial intelligence humanities sandpits," supported by AHRC, EPSRC, and SSHRC. Expressions of interest by 31 Oct; up to four grants will be funded.

Pre-announcement: artificial intelligence humanities sandpits: Canada, UK and US

AHRC and SSHRC plan to invite expressions of interest to attend a humanities-led, interdisciplinary research sandpit looking to put humanities insights and methodologies at the heart of artificial int...

www.ukri.org

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 6d

Just leaving this here, showing that educating overseas students is the only university activity that doesn‘t cost more to deliver than it brings in. Maintenance grants are very welcome, but the source of funding for them is not. They‘re making a broken funding model even more broken.

Chart showing that amongst educating overseas students, industry-funded research, government funding, charity funded research, and educating domestic students, only overseas students is profitable.

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Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 7d

KCL had intermittent issues for much of the time I was there: the infuriating thing was seeing other people connect to eduroam _at_ King’s when I couldn’t! Geneva airport is my favourite “What???? Oh, ok then” eduroam area.

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 9d

‘More than half of Reform’s donations in 2024 came from people with homes in low-tax jurisdictions or with offshore business interests; 40 per cent came from climate sceptics or investors in fossil fuels.’

@petergeoghegan.bsky.social at the Reform UK conference: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Peter Geoghegan · Short Cuts: Reform’s Disaster Capitalism

Reform has been accused of lacking policy: its critics say it’s a party of Farage and his epigones, with few firm...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 9d

I’d also like to know how you means test level 4-6 study: UK gov can’t even cope with working out joint HH incomes.

Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 12d

AI was also 87% certain that a recent mushroom find of mine was edible. Didn’t make it right.

Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 12d

AI 'objective science' outranks scholarship, argues the buyer of a painting trying to sell it for $$$$$.

AI analysis finds £71,000 painting dismissed as copy is a Caravaggio

Exclusive: Study gives 85.7% probability Badminton House version of The Lute Player is by 17th-century master

www.theguardian.com

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Mark Tewdwr-Jones @marktewdwr-jones.bsky.social · 13d

Communities are self-organising increasingly to run their own local services. But why do some so-called ‘DIY urbanism’ projects survive and others fail? New open access publication by Zulfikar D. W. Putra & Mark Tewdwr-Jones now published in Cities www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 13d

Government with no dreams repeatedly surprised to be beaten in polls by party pushing nightmares: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

Claire Wilmot | Fascistic Dream Machines

Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 15d

Mind the gap. More cheery HE news to digest: 'The introduction of a levy on overseas tuition fees in the UK could deter tens of thousands of international applicants and trigger 135,000 fewer university places for domestic students, a new report has concluded.' 1/3

UK ‘would lose 135,000 domestic places’ if fee levy introduced

New modelling estimates that controversial proposals could wipe out around £2.2 billion from the UK economy in just five years

www.timeshighereducation.com

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UCL CASA @casaucl.bsky.social · 15d

Join us on Thursday 25 September for Unfolded Walks. In this new collaboration between UCL researchers and the Young V&A, explore the work of young people from Bangabandhu Primary School, Bethnal Green and see the city through their eyes.

www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/eve...

Unfolded Walks

Explore the work of young people from Bangabandhu Primary School, Bethnal Green and see the city through their eyes. A collaboration with UCL researchers and the Young V&A.

www.ucl.ac.uk

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Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 19d

What could possibly go wrong? <cough>

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 20d

UKRI 'warned of a risk to publicly funded research. “With the collapse of research teams and long-standing collaborations, many of which support national priorities, longer-term research areas and UK research and innovation ambitions could be jeopardised,” it said.'

John Morgan @johnmorgan3.bsky.social · 20d

Yet more warnings to govt on its plan for a levy on universities' international student fees.

Levy would push further 14 universities into deficit, including three Russell Group members, MPs on education committee told.

By @sophieatrpn.bsky.social

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Fee levy would push 14 more universities into deficit, MPs told - Research Professional News

Sector slams international student fee proposal as education department promises further details in autumn budget

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 20d

Thank you the @theguardian.com for reminding me to listen to the Dropkick Murphys. Angry banger of an album.

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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 21d

Every year, billions of vehicles worldwide shed an estimated 6 million tonnes of tire fragments. These tiny flakes of plastic, generated by normal driving, account for 28% of microplastics entering the environment globally.

Heavy vehicles eg SUVs/EVs especially.

Via @us.theconversation.com

Car tyres shed a quarter of all microplastics in the environment – urgent action is needed

Tiny flakes of plastic, generated by the wear and tear of normal driving, eventually accumulate in the soil, in rivers and lakes, and even in our food.

theconversation.com

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Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 21d

I start off with #virtualisation and why use #Podman / #Docker. After *that* everything else is easy peasy! But yes, underlying issue is that most everything goes into Documents/Downloads and is found via search. TBF, the only bits of my HD still organised are the #Git repos and research data.

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Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · Sep 1

📣 I'M HIRING! Please spread the word 📣

🔎 Looking for a 1-year postdoctoral research associate to support @sensory-lives-prj.bsky.social & UK-wide tour of a playhouse tent communicating neurodivergent children’s experiences of Temporary Accommodation.

🛜 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOL488/p...

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Orkney Library & Archive @orkneylibrary.bsky.social · 23d

Do you have experience of driving a bus or a lorry but you'd rather carry books?

Would you like a job driving around #Orkney, going to schools and delivering books to people?

There's still time to apply for the job of driving #BookyMcBookface at:

myjobscotland.gov.uk/councils/ork...

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 23d

“If the Government was really serious about growth, they would be promoting international students and international education, and decoupling them from the immigration debate and treating it as a growth industry.” (James Pitman, chair of Independent Higher Education)

Why ‘flag wars’ are scaring overseas students and risk deepening unis’ cash crisis

‘It’s mad in Britain. Will I be ok?’. International students about to study in UK universities are alarmed by the country's new political climate

inews.co.uk

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Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 23d

Was just thinking of that the other day. I seem to recall it somehow impacted networking in the clusters because so many instances were running.

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Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 24d

One upside to the “summer ended the day school started” change.

Parasol mushrooms and likely inkstain boletes. Plus random USB presenter dongle I found in a drawer.

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Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 27d

Ah: bsky.app/profile/urba... Sadly, I don’t have access to RP (AFAIK) only THE through UCL.

Professor Peter Matthews @urbaneprofessor.bsky.social · 27d

ANYWAY, Research Professional, the canny lot, have learnt from THE that the way to get your clicks is to post a provocative headline on a Friday morning when academics just want to get angry and ruin their weekends.

Onwards with trying to write a paper!

Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 27d

FFS. ‘Unfunded’ is the main type of research I do because the chances of winning funding is, at this point, well south of 1-in-10. The bureaucracy to work out what is ‘low quality’ is 😱🤦‍♂️ unless you assume entire disciplines aren’t adding value which is stupidity.

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 27d

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ .

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ - Research Professional News

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Duncan Wilson @djdunc.bsky.social · 29d

"Switching off the theatres when not in use reduces energy consumption by a factor greater than the fractional reduction of time in use" New paper in Royal Society Interface from work last year supported by UCLPartners. cc @yrkalaji.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Towards NetZero for hospital operating theatres | Journal of The Royal Society Interface

Hospital operating theatre suites are a particularly resource- and energy-intensive component of the health sector. Reducing their carbon footprint presents a significant challenge due to the necessit...

royalsocietypublishing.org

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 29d

We've got a chunky @britishacademy.bsky.social report out looking at the emergence of 'cold spots' where you can't study arts, humanities or social science subjects close to home. We call for an urgent review of HE funding & monitoring of at risk subjects
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/univers...

University course closures leave students unable to study many SHAPE subjects close to home - report

A new report shows that students are shut out of SHAPE education in their home regions, as large swathes of the UK are ‘cold spots’ for humanities, social sciences and arts degrees.

www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk

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