Utterly heartbreaking. This family are British, but their experience needs to be read by all the people, in US, UK etc currently doing idiot vaccine populism.

AI doom warnings are getting louder. Are they realistic? Researchers are increasingly sounding the alarm that artificial intelligence could end humanity. But such doomsday warnings carry their own risks.

Good critical analysis of the idea that AI could end humanity by @lizziegibney.bsky.social

Many "warn that raising the alarm unnecessarily could be harmful" by distracting from well-documented risks of AI — such as misinformation and mass surveillance.

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

A picture of a majestic humpback whale leaping from the seas with the caption “humpback whales are forming super-groups”, rather than simply admire the wonder of nature I am making a poor quality music gag

This is why whale punk had to happen

The state of the state Recent economic, democratic and geopolitical events have raised the question of ‘the state' anew, as problems of territory, sovereignty, protectionism, borders, authoritarianism and surveillance ha...

Members of the Editorial Board of @econsocjournal.bsky.social have contributed to a series of reflections on the (contradictory, emergent, uncertain) 'state of the state', introduced by Andrew Barry and me (open access) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The trials that quietly changed our lives Testing claims matters more than ever in an age of misinformation, overconfident assertions and unsubstantiated opinions

My article in the Financial Times about my book. It includes a wonderful randomised trial of beer glasses (which you might unknowingly have been part of if you bought a pint in some British pubs c.1998)

“Testing claims matters more than ever in an age of misinformation”
as.ft.com/r/f5a2f313-a...

Yep. And the senior people encouraging it receive very little of their deserved shame

Social scientists are doing quick and dirty 'research' with imaginary people. Even if they get a paper out of it, it's so bad for the rest of us

An amazing postdoc opportunity at Cambridge, working on pandemic risk www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/postdoc...

I’ve had the same editor since 1967. Many times he has said to me over the years or asked me, Why would you use a semicolon instead of a colon? And many times over the years I have said to him things like: I will never speak to you again. Forever. Goodbye. That is it. Thank you very much. And I leave. Then I read the piece and I think of his suggestions. I send him a telegram that says, OK, so you’re right. So what? Don’t ever mention this to me again. If you do, I will never speak to you again

Maya Angelou on the joys of being edited

You’re bang on bsky.app/profile/jont...

Thank you! I suddenly feel like an infrastructure expert.

⚠️New Report Alert⚠️

Economic Sovereignty and the Question of Post-Deployment Training

AI sovereignty is about who captures the value from worker and organisational know how codified in workplace data.

This presents a risk not only to workers, but also firms and nation states

🧵

You Do Not Need an AI Policy — Sonja Drimmer You do not need an AI policy. Forget the crisis in plagiarism and cheating; that’s yesterday’s news. It is becoming increasingly common for my colleagues, both within my own university and elsewhere,...

sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2026/...

Doesn't seem to have any external connections...

These things, about six foot high, have started appearing on our pavements. I don’t want to get all 2001, but does anyone know what they’re for?

A book by Zig Ziglar

I really really really wanna

Interesting that they at least thought about this bit...

IBM’s Watson is currently checking this out and thinking about the best way to take the credit.

From the frontispiece of Robert Harris’s Fatherland

A big part of their pitch is safety. It will be less persuasive than in the US. London is already one of the safest cities in the world. (Phoenix, where they began, is one of the least safe places to be a pedestrian in the US). We need independent safety assessments.

Waymo's London advertising is hotting up. The narrative is local. The data are not. Their new site: waymo.com/waymo-in-uk/

University of Exeter and University of Cambridge Libraries & Archives - Collections Connections Communities

Fantastic PhD studentship opportunity - Spitting Image: political satire in Britain in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Working across @exeter.ac.uk and @theul.bsky.social in partnership with the @camglamresearch.bsky.social and drawing on the Roger Law archive.

#PhDsky

Waymo moving from mapping to driving, with safety driver

"The next three presidential elections will be fought over trying to figure out [AI].”

UK and EU finalise agreement to bring UK into Erasmus+ in 2027 Thousands across the UK set to benefit from re-opening of the historic Erasmus+ programme

The UK rejoining Erasmus is the best science news for a while! #AcademicSky

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Poor Sleep Linked To Gong Instrument’s Loud, Resonant Crash Can Be Disruptive

Poor Sleep Linked To Gong https://theonion.com/poor-sleep-linked-to-gong/

On Tender Hooks   Let me cut to the cheese: every time you open your mouth, I’m on tender hooks.   You charge at the English language like a bowl in a china shop. I wish you’d nip it in the butt.   On the spurt of the moment, another eggcorn tumbles out. It’s time you gave up the goat.   Curve your enthusiasm and don’t give them free range – the chickens will come home to roast.   Sorry to be the flaw in your ointment. You must think me a damp squid, I suppose –   but they spread like wildflowers in a doggy-dog world, and your spear of influence grows.   Brian Bilston

Today’s poem is called ‘On Tender Hooks’.

Also, Cassandra was right

Job ad: I'm hiring for a Research scientist to join my team at @joinprolific.bsky.social

If you've ever wondered who's working on the hard questions in online research — data quality, sampling methodology, the effect of AI on how research gets done — this is that job. [1/4]