wish I had thought of that

another post on this blog argues that if a standard essay prompt can be answered by an AI, the response is not necessarily to prohibit AI, but to redesign the task by using AI outputs as material for critique, reflection, and improvement.

This blog suggests: "redesign the [assessment] task by using AI outputs as material for critique, reflection, and improvement".

But we could then anticipate some students will use AI to criticize, reflect on, and improve the output earlier produced by AI.

I've now read 5 of the 10 essays submitted for my Year-3 course on international migration.

2 of the 5 have extensive use of hallucinated refs and fictitious quotations from real refs.

What are we even doing...

it's george soros saying "tell viktor it was me. i want him to know it was me"

But the question remains: why not boycott American institutions?

Blocking the Strait of Hormuz to unblock the Strait of Hormuz is peak Trump foreign policy.

Scientists invented a fake disease. AI told people it was real Bixonimania doesn’t exist except in a clutch of obviously bogus academic papers. So why did AI chatbots warn people about this fictional illness?

This is quite extraordinary- scientists set a kind of trap for AI chat bots by inventing a fake disease. AI told people it was real and… the deliberately bogus preprints started being cited in peer reviewed literature 🫣
🧪 #MedSky

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A system that relies on courage and collective action?

Not robust against human weakness and self-interest?

It's still a system problem, not an individual one.

The US constitution is no sacred text -- if it doesn't work when it's needed most, then re-write it.

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!

Trump just openly stating his intention to commit genocide at this point: "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again."

Kanye West offers to meet UK’s Jewish community after Wireless backlash Rapper who has previously made antisemitic remarks responds to criticism over his booking at London festival

Get fucked.

www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...

I'd say: being against the existence of a Jewish state is as racist as being against a Palestinian one, in that in theory it's possible to hold that view without being racist, but the holder needs to spell out what should happen to the [Jews / Palestinians] living there before I decide they're not.

Sounds like maybe the editor isn't doing one of their main jobs: filtering out the papers that shouldn't be externally reviewed.

I put a screenshot of Trump's post on a small family chat. Response from one relative:

"No way is that real. Absolutely no way."

Evidence provided. Now: silence.

Perhaps he's having a quiet moment on the road to Damascus.

You could write a book about the way NYT massacres the English language every time it talks about Israel. Indeed, in 1946, George Orwell did. It's "Politics and the English Language."

We are ruled by morons and it makes me want to light my law degree on fire

Live Updates: Supreme Court Hears Landmark Challenge to Birthright Citizenship

Does anyone know what sort of new RV is on its way to Clarence Thomas?

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04...

incredible cover

They've been wearing those pins for weeks.

Threatening the drinking water and electricity of 93 million people because the IRGC whose control of Iran you accidentally made unshakeable won't agree to a protection racket deal with your son-in-law.

Tr*mp naturally doesn't care about these actions (blowing up desalination plants) being war crimes.

But the generals and other military personnel absolutely *will* have to care.

I am giddy with schadenfreude.

If even the Speccie is having a go at Matt, I suspect being a self published crank not an MP is his future. Perhaps he could join up with Liz Truss?

Also: when Nadine gets disillusioned with Reform, can she please write a tell all book!

The tragic irony of the last few years is that, had the USG given Ukraine only a fraction of the weapons that they have expended against Iran in a few weeks (Patriots, Tomahawks, etc), Ukraine would have won, oil prices would not be skyrocketing and the US would be more secure.

Offering a bit of nuance:

Some journals' submission policies are actually the *publisher's* submission policies. I can't change these for the journal I edit.

I can (and do) ignore them when authors don't adhere.

@wikipedia.org is now more reliable than the teaching functions of most universities.

What a world...

I feel especially nurtured by the silent decision to cancel this year's promotion round (again)...

Is it a giant wooden horse

Never in my life have I believed Iran state media over our own government. Until now. That’s not being “unpatriotic,” it’s having a brain that functions.

Evolutionary psychologists at it again, but now nobody is telling them to at least try at some basic scholarly virtues and norms of decency so the mask is fully off.

This company ran the dining service at Kenyon College in the 1980s.

<shudder>