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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

@victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social

2.8K followers 4.4K following 1.3K posts

Environmental Humanities researcher. @LeedsUniEnglish @LeedsEnvHums #Wordsworth #JohnClare #Romanticism #walking #birdwatching #naturewriting Ascending with the Earth 🌍.

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · Nov 14

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 11h

A Gen AI argument I hate:

‘We disadvantage our students if we don’t teach them to use it “responsibly”’

For fuck’s sake, no.

1: it can’t be used responsibly
2: it’s antithetical to what makes humanities work worthwhile: critical thinking, deep research, self expression, self reflection, etc.

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 12h

Students talk about the demoralizing effects of AI. It makes them feel like they don't need to know anything and can't learn how to do anything well enough to compete with the machine.

MiMi Aye @meemalee.bsky.social · 4d

Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman on generative AI

"They're trying to convince people they can't do the things they've been doing easily for years - to write emails, to write a presentation. Your daughter wants you to make up a bedtime story about puppies - to write that for you." We will get to the point, she says with a grim laugh, "that you will essentially become just a skin bag of organs and bones, nothing else. You won't know anything and you will be told repeatedly that you can't do it, which is the opposite of what life has to offer. Capitulating all kinds of decisions like where to go on vacation, what to wear today, who to date, what to eat.
People are already doing this. You won't have to process grief, because you'll have uploaded photos and voice messages from your mother who just died, and then she can talk to you via AI video call every day. One of the ways it's going to destroy humans, long before there's a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people." - author and filmmaker Justine Bateman from a piece by Emine Saner for the Guardian

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 19h

On way home from superb Cultural Climate Models meeting in Graz with @davidhiggins.bsky.social @caroschwegler.bsky.social et al. Looking forward to seeing in print the new approach to modelling from this truly interdisciplinary international collab

gewi.uni-graz.at/en/unsere-fo...

Entrance of Graz train station with Graz Hauptbahnhof written in capital letters on a light coloured stone building against clear blue sky

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Patrick Barkham @patrickbarkham.bsky.social · 21h

We are nature. Its best interests are our best interests. So it's pretty dim of our chancellor to again pit wildlife against people, boasting of 20,000 homes built despite "some snails" that "are a protected species or something". www.theguardian.com/environment/... Unsavoury lobbying here too.

Rachel Reeves clears planning blockage amid ‘good relationship’ with developer

Exclusive: Chancellor says 20,000 homes were being held up due to ‘some snails that are a protected species or something’

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 23h

Tuesday #morningread
Louis Bailey’s ‘Hunter’s Moon’
A timely read.

From The Books of Bigs: Stories from a Yorkshire Moor and Other Peatlands

Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 23h

#silentspring #rachelcarson

Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 23h

Wednesday #morningread from
Wildreckoning: An Anthology provoked by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, edited by John Burnside and Maurice Riordan. Scientists and writers’ social responsibility impacts politics. The most ‘intelligent’ thing we can do: ‘To make ourselves at home in this world’

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Eben Muse @ebenmyrddin.bsky.social · 1d

First of all, 5mm isn't microscopic and you CAN see them.

Second of all, the fact that our Chancellor thinks she can't see these seems to mean she thinks they're not worthy of our consideration.

A hallmark of this government's terminal lack of imagination.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Nic Wilson @nicwilson.bsky.social · 1d

Is there anything more evocative than the sea at night and a Hunter's Moon beckoning you walk into the light?

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Andrew Wappat @andrewwappat.bsky.social · 2d

Whooper swan departure at Scaling Dam this evening, 100+, and plenty of pink-footed geese resting too. #autumnmigration @teesbirds.bsky.social @nybirdnews.bsky.social @rspb.bsky.social #birds #ukbirding

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 1d

Robert Jenrick can take his bullshit racist concerns about ‘integration’ and shove them. And so can everyone else pitching in to defend him & pretend it’s a legitimate concern coming from a good place. Is it hell.

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 1d

See how AI makes fake information. Today, 7 Oct, is the last competition day for the first stage of the 19th Chopin Piano Competition. The candidates are still playing, but Google AI Overview said 'the second-round participant list was announced on October 5, 2025'. Ridiculous! USE YOUR OWN BRAIN!!!

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks Richard. The heron is sometimes elusive haha. Great to know that the duck family is boisterous- lovely word! 😊

Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 1d

Richard Jefferies is loved. No time to cover Rachel Carson. Decided to discuss it after Friday’s lecture. Some interesting ideas about Hopkins. Good to see some new faces. Devoted.

The best season for the oaks and the sycamore. School of English, Leeds

Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 2d

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 2d

Another angle to admire the University of Leeds heron. #heron

Late afternoon, a heron was tickling its face with one foot. The other foot was standing on the roof of its man-made nest.

The trees are turning golden yellow, brown, orange, and red.

Roger Stevens Caffe Nero, Leeds. A cafe with a pond-side view. A heron standing on the roof of its wooden man-made nest, with an autumnal colourful background of trees. The sky was blue. ⛅️

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 2d

🥮🙏

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 2d

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
Every 15th August in the lunar calendar is special.

Outside the school of English, Uni of Leeds. A good spot to admire the full moon.

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 2d

Found it yesterday in Waterstones. Heard of the book from the publisher’s skeet. Love the cover: ‘To Walshaw Dean’ by Angie Rogers. Many good proses and poems inside. A wonderful project and anthology! Need this more!

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 2d

Monday #morningread
from a newly published cool book by @littletollerbooks.bsky.social:
The Book of Bogs: Stories from a Yorkshire Moor and Other Peatlands

From The Book of Bogs: Stories from a Yorkshire Moor and Other Peatlands, ed. Anna Chilvers and Clare Shaw.

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 2d

Sunday #morningread
Wooper swans!

From Nature’s Calendar: The British Year in 72 Seasons.

Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 3d

Thank you 💚

Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 3d

End of a long day travelling from Leeds to Graz. Highlights were a taxi driver telling me my German is good (it’s awful) and this picture in my hotel room (ID?) Looking forward to discussing cultural climate models tomorrow. As usual, I’ll be banging on about ecological and existential angst.

A painting of a cool looking water bird. Possibly a crake of some kind. Mainly orange.

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

BSBI Ireland @bsbiireland.bsky.social · 3d

Still lots for #wildflowerhour on the dunes: Harebell, Lady's-bedstraw, Pignut, Carline Thistle, Common Milkwort & sumptuous scarlet Waxcaps. More modestly: hairy-white leaves of Mouse-ear Hawkweed, wild thyme #seedheads, kidney vetch leaves and gorgeous goldy-green mosses. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 3d

Visited The Hepworth Wakefield and Farmer Copleys today after a stormy Saturday. Spotted red kite, buzzard, heron, swan, and cormorant. Met a new fungus: shaggy mane (ink cap). Good!

A swan was swimming towards a heron on River Calder.

Good to see the view by a cafe’s window.

Four adorable shaggy manes in the sunlight

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