Pictured (left to right): UCC School of Applied Psychology researchers Dr Conor Linehan; John Twomey, lead researcher of Deepfakes/Real Harms; and Dr Gillian Murphy.

World-first tool reduces harmful engagement with AI-generated explicit images

A new online educational tool aims to curb the watching, sharing, and creation of AI-generated explicit imagery.

Read: www.ucc.ie/en/news/2026...

Beautiful work by Creativity & Change in Cork this weekend. #sociallyengagedart #refugeeswelcome #immigrantsarethesunshineofcork

Getting off US tech: a guide I’m in the process of dropping US tech services. Here’s how I did it, and options you should consider.

Silicon Valley’s alliance with Donald Trump was a mask off moment and showed the world we can’t depend on US tech companies.

For the past few months, I’ve been trying to get off US tech and I put together a guide so you find alternatives too. I hope you find it helpful!

For the past couple months, I’ve been slowing trying to replace the services I use with alternatives that are not based in the United States or heavily tied to it. I won’t lie: it’s not always an easy process. There are some services that have plenty of alternatives, but others where drawing back from those offered by US companies means retreating from communities that don’t exist elsewhere or have far less functionality. And that’s not even to get into how many non-US services are still hosted on servers owned by Amazon, Microsoft, or Google. Being a purist isn’t possible, but what’s important is making the effort. If we can reduce the customer base for the dominant players and show there’s a market for a different way of approaching digital technology, that could help incentivize more non-US options and even get governments to put real resources behind a push for digital sovereignty.

Getting off US tech isn’t always an easy feat, and I don’t think it’s useful to be a purist. US tech is everywhere and it’s very hard to fully extricate oneself, which is why governments need to step in.

But I still think there’s value in making the effort.

www.disconnect.blog/p/getting-of...

Big thanks to the co-authors Laura Horgan, @luiciolfi.bsky.social, @samanthadockray.bsky.social, @gillian-murphy.bsky.social and @dvenables.bsky.social, special shout-out to @maricacassarino.bsky.social for making it happen 💪
(thanks to Sarah Robinson for reading and sharing great feedback!)

Promoting Air Quality-Related Awareness and Behavioural Change: A Rapid Review of communication interventions integrating behavioural, science communication and socio-ecological perspectives Air pollution (AP) is a global environmental threat to human health and development. Day-to-day behaviours contribute to poor air quality (AQ) but lim…

🛠️ New article out!
We reviewed 79 studies on #AirQuality communication strategies to understand what really drives #Awareness & #BehaviourChange.

Spoiler: top-down info helps awareness, but real change needs participatory, multi-level approaches.

🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

- Communication should not only inform but also empower communities and mobilize political will.

- Participatory methods like design thinking can help surface diverse needs and co-create more effective strategies

#Sustainability #Environment #ScienceCommunication #Resilience #StakeholderEngagement

Using #DesignThinking we engaged with more than 100 stakeholders in Cork City to map and prioritise their needs around #AirPollution communication. 🧠📊

Some interesting points:
🧩 
- AQ communication must be context-sensitive, inclusive, and integrated with systemic interventions.

Promoting urban air quality resilience through communication: A stakeholder needs mapping and prioritisation study informed by design thinking Air pollution (AP) poses significant global health risks and exacerbates socio-economic inequities, especially in urban contexts. This study mapped st…

🚨New paper out!
@maricacassarino.bsky.social @dvenables.bsky.social and I mapped #AirQuality communication needs in Cork using #DesignThinking.

Findings? Strategies must inform, empower, and tackle systemic barriers

Read here www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

European Citizens' Initiative Give your support !

Last 2 days to sign this petition to ask the Commission to ban the "conversion therapies" against LGBTQ+ in EU eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/ it really takes one minute of your time

Oliver @haimson.bsky.social kindly presented the book in one of our @patlabucc.bsky.social meetings. Highly recommended. A very important topic, even more in this period. At the link you can find a podcast with an interview to the author

Hegseth, Waltz, Gabbard: Private Data and Passwords of Senior U.S. Security Officials Found Online Donald Trump's most important security advisers used Signal to discuss an imminent military strike. Now, reporting by DER SPIEGEL has found that the contact data of some of those officials, including ...

NEW BOMBSHELL REPORTING FROM DER SPIEGEL

Mobile numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to top Trump officials including Mike Waltz, Pete Hegseth, and Tulsi Gabbard have been found online, revealing an additional grave, previously unknown security breach at the highest levels. 1/

Behav-I-Air BEHAViour and Impacts on AIR quality

The article is part of the results of the #BehaviAir project, and special recognition goes to all the team and in particular to @luiciolfi.bsky.social, @samanthadockray.bsky.social, and Ian Pitt for their contribution in designing the study and advising on the data analysis.

behaviair.org

3/3

🎨 We drew inspiration from #DesignThinking to assess and prioritize the needs of the community stakeholders.

#Stakeholders ask diverse communication strategies to inform on #AirQuality, offer solutions, but also address structural barriers to sustainable behaviors.

2/3 👇

🎊Happy to share a preprint of an article recently written with @maricacassarino.bsky.social and @dvenables.bsky.social

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The article deals with #CommunityEngagement in creating #communication strategies to mitigate risks and effects related to #AirPollution.

1/3 👇

Not so bad

Same thing happened to me but in Windows. Before, those times when I worked in the dark, I would bend the screen to illuminate the keyboard 🤦. And I used to curse a lot 😂

Is Misinformation starting to spread also on Bluesky?

Postdoc within Science and Technology Studies and the Energy Transition - DTU Management Are you wanting to establish your career as an academic and have a background in Science & Technology Studies (STS)? Are you interested in conducting cutting-edge research on the public engagement wit...

Job alert ‼️

We are looking to hire two post-doctoral researchers researching values and valuation in the energy transition - based in the #STS research group Human-centred Innovation at the Technical University of Denmark.

#sociology #anthropology #STS

Please boost 🔁

Ireland’s experience with data centers is a warning to us all for the consequences of the tech industry’s ambitions. They want to do what they’ve already done in Ireland everywhere else too — and we shouldn’t stand for it. Great to speak with Brid Smith to learn more.

Generative AI <p>and Labor This new primer shows that understanding how AI will affect work requires examining how work is organized, how industries are structured, and whose and what work is valued.

Thrilled to announce the @datasociety.bsky.social Generative AI & Labor Primer by Aiha Nguyen & Alexandra Mateescu. It covers how GenAI impacts many forms of work, the human labor behind GenAI & AI's impact on worker control & surveillance. A labor/tech must-read! datasociety.net/library/gene...

A great example of how putting together technology and reflections on circular economy, sharing, commons can make things better for all 🧸

✍️Some of my recent topics:

📝 air pollution and communication doi.org/10.31234/osf...

📜 Digital public services and inequalities doi.org/10.3390/soc1...

📃 #participatorydesign #platforms Ivan Illich doi.org/10.55612/s-5...

📋 Participatory Design and #NLP doi.org/10.18653/v1/...

🎉happy to share it too, now that I'm here!

We put a lot of effort into this work, connecting personal behaviours, socio-ecological dimensions, and science communication to better understand how communication on air pollution should be. 🌬️

#citizenscience #airquality #AcademicSky

Interested in participatory knowledge co-production, community-based research and citizen science? Some readings from our latest special issue that are worth checking out 🧵👇 #STSbluesky #STS

Malcolm in the middle - garage sale

First message. Again that magic of being alone talking to myself.
Check check, one-two.
Prova, prova.

Hi Darren, another one from the School of applied psychology here. Thanks a lot!