Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Pete West-Oram

@peterwest-oram.bsky.social

510 followers 800 following 110 posts

Philosopher and bioethicist. Working mainly on questions of justice and ethical practice in health and health care. Opinions my own. He/him

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Pete West-Oram @peterwest-oram.bsky.social · May 2

Calling UK-based research-active clinicians: BSMS researchers are seeking to understand how research-active clinicians experience current research ethics governance processes. Please access the confidential online survey here: universityofsussex.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Medical Research Ethics Among UK Doctors (Survey)

Our aim is to understand how research-active clinicians in the UK conceptualise and experience research ethics governance, and to engage research-active clinicians and medical research ethics experts ...

universityofsussex.eu.qualtrics.com

1 2 2

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Roland Allen, author of 'The Notebook: a History' @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 14h

Kemi made me do it.

Version of the Simpsons 'bus driver taps the sign' meme in which the tapped text reads 'Your reminder that the UK book industry is worth over £7bn, more than four times the steel industry (1.7bn) and six times the fishing industry (£1.1bn) so maybe English degrees do have a point after all.'

11 44

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 1d

This was not a sample of academics.

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 1d

How many browsing tabs do you typically have open?*

1: 6%
2-5: 54%
6-10: 14%
11-20: 8%
21-30: 2%
More than 30: 3%

*across all windows, on desktop/laptop

yougov.co.uk/topics/techn...

21 34 190

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Cassetteboy @cassetteboy.bsky.social · 9d

New! Cassetteboy vs Keir Starmer.

This took absolutely ages, so if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com/cassetteboy we'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

95 1.4K 3K

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 9d

This passage nearly broke me.

110 2.4K 5.2K

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 14d

Unless the government introduces PR, there will be a far right government in power in 2029. And like the compliant liberals they always were, the Labour party are building the administrative tools to help those fascists round you and your friends up for deportation. Frightening.

Sky News @news.sky.com · 14d

Starmer to unveil plan for digital ID cards to crack down on illegal immigration

Every adult in Britain will require a digital ID under plans to be set out by Sir Keir Starmer.

news.sky.com

5 85 250

Pete West-Oram @peterwest-oram.bsky.social · 22d

Say what you like about the British rail network, it's unreliable, uncomfortable, inefficient, dirty and overcrowded, but we shouldn't forget that it is also increasingly expensive.

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 22d

No words.

The lives of those living in Gaza are deemed less important than maintaining relations with Israel and, by proxy, the US. At the personal level, on Labour's doorsteps, this approach plays out in the most callous of ways. Dalloul al-Neder is a Palestinian refugee from Gaza, who was a constituent of the former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner.
He got to know her, meeting several times: she visited his takeaway shop in 2019 and posed for pictures, declaring "Palestine must be free". She took him on a tour of parliament.

PHOTO: Dalloul al-Neder, who lives in Manchester, with an image of his late mother - he has lost several family members in Gaza bombings.
Photograph: Sean Hansford/MEN Media

Within weeks of the genocide beginning, in October 2023, his mother, brother, sister-in-law and two young nieces were killed by an Israeli airstrike. Desperate to evacuate his wife and four-month-old daughter - who had been buried under rubble three times by Israeli attacks - he emailed Rayner twice to seek help evacuating his family. He says received no response.

In January 2024, he attended a Labour fundraiser in Stockport addressed by Rayner and her colleague, Jonathan Reynolds, and got to his feet, clutching pictures of his dead mother, begging her to support a ceasefire, emotionally declaring "I lost my family in Gaza". The whole tawdry episode is on camera: he was aggressively ejected from the meeting and on to the street. Rayner did nothing, except to say "thank you, you've made your point". She then unfollowed him on social media. Days later, she was interviewed by Sky News' Beth Rigby, who framed the incident as an example of the threats politicians face, linking it to the murder of the MPs Jo Cox and David Amess.
Since then, so many of Neder's relatives have been slaughtered by the Israeli state that their names take up three pages of a notebook.

11 450 800

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Bryn Williams-Jones @brynwj.bsky.social · 27d

The Department of Social and Preventive Medicine in the School of Public Health at the Université de Montréal is recruiting for a position at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor in Bioethics.

Deadline: October 10, 2024
www.umontreal.ca/public/www/d...

3 6

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Lewis Wade 🗃️ @wadehistory.bsky.social · 27d

"Hobbyist" is a truly breathtaking choice of phrase. It encapsulates a profound sense of contempt for the labour of academics in the UK, who already have to navigate an underfunded system dominated by precarity and overwork. "Knows the price of everything but the value of nothing" springs to mind

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

5 83 210

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Adam Sharp @adamcsharp.bsky.social · Sep 9

I think we should have more names for someone with an overinflated sense of their own importance in English. These are my top five suggestions...

5. Poseidon of the paddling pool
4. Samurai of the butter knives
3. Hannibal of the lectern
2. Lord of the ring binder
1. Wolfgang Amadeus Flowchart

Adam Sharp @adamcsharp.bsky.social · Sep 8

A term for someone with an overinflated sense of their own importance in Argentinian slang is Tarzan de maceta. It means “Tarzan of the flowerpot.”

26 65 270

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Ewamore, Quoth the Raven @ewacat.bsky.social · Sep 9

this is called "doing a streeting" which is to position yourself firmly on the wrong side of an issue for no reason and to no one's benefit

The National @scotnational.bsky.social · Sep 9

Wes Streeting has defended Lord Peter Mandelson’s relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein after it was revealed the Labour peer called the convicted paedophile his 'best pal'

Wes Streeting defends Lord Peter Mandelson's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

www.thenational.scot

12 440 1.7K

Pete West-Oram @peterwest-oram.bsky.social · Sep 4

www.theguardian.com/money/2025/s...

Interesting....

Calling boss a dickhead was not a sackable offence, tribunal rules

Woman who was immediately sacked when she insulted her manager during a row wins unfair dismissal case

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Joseph Fink @planetoffinks.bsky.social · Sep 4

Every person who says "of course there are some uses for LLMs" should be forced to immediately list what those uses are, taking into account that:

a) they cannot be accurate and there is no way to make them accurate

b) they have been repeatedly shown to make users dumber and worse at their jobs

95 590 2.7K

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Agomoni Ganguli-Mitra @agomoni.bsky.social · Sep 3

🚨Job Klaxon🚨

Seeking a post-doc for 5 years (!) on our brand new
@medicinewithoutdoctors.org
project!

#Abortioncare, #StructuralInjustice and #EpistemicInjustice

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOI108/p...

Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Edinburgh

Explore an exciting academic career as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

www.jobs.ac.uk

2 8 9

Pete West-Oram @peterwest-oram.bsky.social · Sep 1

Every time I am forced to interact with content produced by Advance HE, I am reminded of the accreditation I was required to undertake at the start of my career, the training for which made me want to walk away from academia on a weekly basis. Anyway, boxes gotta get ticked I suppose.

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Natalie Washington @transsomething.bsky.social · Aug 27

Hey, British civil society folks appalled by the far right falsely leveraging "women's safety" to further their racist aims. We told you this would happen when they used panic around trans women to create these structures, and you let them do it.

1 67 250

Pete West-Oram @peterwest-oram.bsky.social · Aug 27

As a very serious professional philosopher, this seems like it could finally be the learning technology we need...

Dan @bydandans.bsky.social · Aug 23

#TheTrolleySolution is almost here!
(Really Really Close)

Here’s a sneak peek of the super serious philosophical gameplay you can expect.

Wishlist now on Steam!
store.steampowered.com/app/3219410/...

#screenshotsaturaday

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Lukas Engelmann @engelmal.bsky.social · Aug 26

Massive opportunity to work with us in Edinburgh on Medicine without Doctors. 5 full-time postdocs each for 5 years starting in April 2026. Please share widely!

Medicine without Doctors @medicinewithoutdoctors.org · Aug 26

🚨JOB KLAXON🚨

We are recruiting five 5-year postdoctoral fellows to work with us. Each post will be attached to a specific case study on the project (Abortion Care, AI, Physician Associates and/or LGBTQ+ Health Activism).

At:University of Edinburgh
Starting: April 2026
Deadline: 2 October 2025

22 12

Pete West-Oram @peterwest-oram.bsky.social · Aug 23

ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/nih-c...

Ketanji Brown Jackson Stops Just Short of Saying the Supreme Court Is Breathtakingly Full of Shit

“Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules. We seem to have two: that one, and this Administration always wins.”

ballsandstrikes.org

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

It's Going Down @igd.bsky.social · Aug 23

Anti-AI activists targeted "AI Portland’s Summer Soiree," writing anti-AI graffiti, throwing paint on cars, and leaving behind these flyers declaring '“Butlerian Jihad Against AI,” a reference to the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy...depicting a war of humanity versus robots and computers."

19 200 640

Pete West-Oram @peterwest-oram.bsky.social · Aug 19

or Recursive Nominative Determinism?

Pete West-Oram @peterwest-oram.bsky.social · Aug 19

Amazing! Is that nominative determinism, or *inverse* nominative determinism?

1 1

Pete West-Oram @peterwest-oram.bsky.social · Aug 16

www.chronicle.com/article/they...

They’re Killing the Humanities On Purpose

The crisis is not one of resources but of values.

www.chronicle.com

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

Matthew Parkinson-Bennett @matthewpb.bsky.social · Aug 16

Wow Sally Rooney. Fair play.

‘I feel obliged to state once more that… I too support Palestine Action. … If the British state considers this "terrorism", then perhaps it should investigate the shady organisations that continue to promote my work and fund my activities, such as WH Smith
and the BBC.’

ted.
In this context I feel obliged to state once more that - like the hundreds of protesters arrested last weekend - I too support Palestine Action. If this makes me a "supporter of terror" un-
der UK law, so be it. My books, at least for now, are still published in Britain, and are widely available in bookshops and even supermarkets. In recent years the UK's state broadcaster has also televised two fine adaptations of my novels, and therefore regularly pays me residual fees. I want to be clear that I intend to use these pro-ceeds of my work, as well as my public platform generally, to go on support-ing Palestine Action and direct action against genocide in whatever way I can. If the British state considers this
"terrorism", then perhaps it should investigate the shady organisations that continue to promote my work and fund my activities, such as WH Smith
and the BBC.

15 510 1.6K

Reposted by Pete West-Oram

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · Aug 15

It all comes down to control🙃

Ksandra @ksandrarpg.bsky.social · Aug 12

Funny how when it comes to AI people are all "adapt or be left behind" but when it comes to remote work the same people insist that things must go back to how they were at all cost.

24 120