Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Chris Constantine-Armstrong

@rhodium103.bsky.social

300 followers 300 following 160 posts

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Chris Constantine-Armstrong

Andrew Bissette @andrewbissette.bsky.social · 1d

Final Nobel predictions:
- Installing a reactive handle in step 1, then calling it late-stage functionalisation after swapping some protecting groups around
- Adding a drop of water to your reaction mixture and calling it "green"
- Pioneering the use of "unprecedented" in paper titles

1 2 19

Reposted by Chris Constantine-Armstrong

Jason K Pargin, author @jasonkpargin.bsky.social · 1d

It is SUCH a formative experience the first time your favorite artist releases a bad album. I envy all the kids going through it this week, you’re about to learn so much about the world! You’re learning how to let go!

40 49 520

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 1d

That induction lecture Inwas part of where thr instruction was "you all have phones, get onto Canvas and find and write down the next few assignments you have due, you've got 15 minutes" would do more to help students navigate their courses than pointing a language model at the slop pile.

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 1d

The actual solution to searching courses to answer key questions is to structure your courses properly and consistently. And encourage self-efficacy in reading that and interpreting it (and providing time to do so) . None of this "But my course is a special sausage and can't possibly..." nonsense.

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 1d

This leads me to a neat observation I've come to agree with heavily in the last year: If GenAI genuinely helps you with something it's because the underlying process is garbage.

Need AI to summarise the report? You're forcing people to write too much or providing insufficient review time.

1 1

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 1d

2) Simply finding information requires academics who put course content there to structure it in a way that is easily findable. And, full offence, but academics are terrible UX designers.

Normally, you're faced with a bunch of PDFs that are labelled "lecture 1" that haven't been touched in a decade

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 1d

1) Search engines on VLEs are notoriously shit. This statement shouldn't be true in the Year of Our Lord 2025, but it is. There are some hard problems to solve in how it works.

Pointing a reasonably competent bit of linear algebra at it to answer questions might help that a lot.

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 1d

The idea of using a natural language query on course materials isn't inherently bad. Questions like "when is X due" or "what's the word count for..." suck up a lot if time that balloons as you have me students querying it.

You could look it up, except two problems:

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 1d

All of this.

BUT... the use of an LLM-assisted search scross your VLE/LMS is not at all like ctrl-F. Yes, people have forgotten (or never knew) that can be done, but the problem can't be solved with that.

www.michigandaily.com/statement/ai...

AI ate my homework: My experience with the University’s AI toolkit

I don’t understand AI enough to properly dislike it. And I’m curious as to why the University is pushing this tool so much if it inherently devalues learning. So I immersed myself in artificial intell...

www.michigandaily.com

2 1

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 2d

You don't just "disappear" people for anything, and go hacking through your population all day because it wouldn't be sustainable. You target the fringes to make a core demographic feel safe from them, but feel threatened enough to obey and comply.

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 2d

They're also buying to a key misconception of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. They're not cartoonishly oppressive like in the movies. They need to make life *tolerable* for a majority.

2 4

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 3d

Mastodon (at least an up-to-date instance) has quotes, reposts, and replies on three quick toggles, which is nice.

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 5d

Also, looking at that face, I'm reminded of the bit in Ex Machina where it's revealled that Ava was designed based on Caleb's porn browsing habits for some reason...

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 5d

Thing is, I quickly looked that up and couldn't find any tangible evidence that agencies were actually interested in it. It sounded more like vague but portentous claims made in a press release that were regurgitated.

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 5d

No, wait. Let him cook! He might figure it out and finally reach a state of self-awareness.....

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 5d

Oh, wow. They said the creepy part out loud!

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 6d

This is up there with "all senior leadership must teach on at least one module" in the level of shock and revulsion it'll cause to certain people.

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 6d

It's hard to pick a favourite because whenever I try to think of one, my brain comes up with nothing at all... nothing at all... nothing at all...

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 6d

Spend five minutes on Blackboard's backend and you will eat those words. Canvas is a *delight*.

1 3

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 7d

For the benefit of the Bluesky audience: this is what we call 'sarcasm'; a deliberately insincere use of rhetoric to draw attention to the absurdity of a conclusion, thus actually endorsing its opposite.

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 7d

Yes, two of my friends have deranged stalkers who are free to send visceral threats about how they're going to be raped, and that the police lack the capacity and power to do anything about it, but that's a fair price to get this dangerous individual off our fields!!

Screenshot of an Instatok video of a woman sat quietly with a sign, while 6 police officers stand around reading out an arrest announcement.

1 3

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 8d

*I* wouldn't say 'bad', but there are some people who have gone ape shit at even the re-written version. Your mileage may vary depending on your sense of proportion.

(I tried the original to see what the fuss was about, and after a dozen pages I think it's blatantly Atwood that needs to sue)

Chris Constantine-Armstrong @rhodium103.bsky.social · 8d

It would depend entirely on what your feelings are towards a Thing...

a close up of a stuffed monkey wearing a green shirt and a green jacket .

ALT: a close up of a stuffed monkey wearing a green shirt and a green jacket .

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Chris Constantine-Armstrong

Rachel W. Martin @rwmartin.bsky.social · 10d

Hi chemistry/biology friends, does anyone have a link to resources for writing effective alt text for organic mechanisms and/or biomolecular structures? 🧪

3 15 26

Reposted by Chris Constantine-Armstrong

PalMD @palmd.bsky.social · 11d

The human spine is such a good argument for evolution and against divine creation. I mean it’s a piece of shit design. A fucking ford pinto engineer could have done a better job.

2 4 16