Nessa Johnston

My latest publication

What I increasingly suspect is that people's use of AI isn't robbing them of their ability to think independently. Maybe it's the other way around. People's desire to surrender thought and decision making to someone or something else is what has helped GAI tools to catch on. (3/3) #academicsky

I started teaching in 2010. Back then there would always be a few bolshy students with strong opinions and hot takes in the room. Yet even before ChatGPT, by the late 2010s students already seemed to be losing confidence in voicing their own thoughts, opinions and critique (2/3) #academicsky

Our king, priest and feudal lord – how AI is taking us back to the dark ages | Joseph de Weck Since the Enlightenment, we’ve been making our own decisions. But now AI may be about to change that, says Joseph de Weck, a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute

Unlike a lot of colleagues, I'm neutral about AI in universities. However, I'm sharing this article because I agree with some of the sentiments. At the same time, IMHO a lot of the gripes many colleagues have about AI and laziness miss the mark (1/2) #academicsky

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Some of my best friends are civil servants 😂

Fellow academics, do you ever feel like, even though you work at a university and are surrounded by Objectively Very Clever people, you're actually surrounded by idiots? (And yes, I am tired...) #academicsky

Bacup, West Yorkshire, has a barbers called Ali Barber's and a vape shop called Planet of the Vapes

Brilliant what year was this published?

Do I dare leave the house with no jacket today....?
Stay tuned!

Stop the Tories and Reform Your vote is your power. Use it tactically to get the Tories and Reform out, then influence your new MP and the next government.

It’s important to remember that voting tactically is not an endorsement of the party you vote for.

You should tell them what you really expect of them for lending them your vote… less of what we had before, not more!

Check your May 1st local elections tactical vote here:

StopReformUK.vote

/5

The weird obsession transphobes have with women's bathrooms as "safe spaces"... I went to an all girls Catholic high school in Dublin in the 1990s and those bathrooms were never fucking "safe" LOL

The Nation's Most Central Location., by Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan 8 track album

Love the new Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan album. Like Vangelis and John Carpenter got married, moved to the north of England, and started a family.

warrington-runcorn-cis.bandcamp.com/album/the-na...

TIL Greenland is geographically 8 times the size of the UK. But its population is just 56,000, comparable to towns like Macclesfield, Livingston, Kettering, Aldershot, or Castlereagh. Amazing.

A man says "sometimes, I have a fantast about being lightly grilled." A large set of tongs places the man on a hot grill. "My skin would burn, but it owuld be very pleasurable." He relaxes in the prone position on top of the grill. "And I would compare my grill marks with other grill guys." The man is at a job interview and completes the classic thought "but other than that, I would say my greatest weakness is that I'm a perfectionist."

A Love from Outer Space's Sean Johnston and Cian Ó Cíobháin play a B2B set in Dublin next month | Nialler9 After putting on a couple of A Love from Outer Space (ALFOS) parties in Dublin, Pint Window is presenting a new night pairing an one Irish DJ and one

Very excited to be part of this in Dublin next month. Just a few tickets left!
nialler9.com/a-love-from-...

Remembering The Guv

Sunrise over the Tyrol alps It will be alright in the end. And if it's not alright, it is not yet the end. #AcademicSky #ClimateSky #Altmetrics

THREAD

Things that didn't make the news that will likely change our lives for the better

The news is not an accurate reflection of the world.

Good news doesn't get reported as much.

Here are the wonderful things researchers have achieved recently.
1/24

From the time 3 years ago I was in Austin Texas for a few months, I still get promo emails from Torchy's Tacos. I have no idea if/when I'll ever go back, given the insane political climate in the US. But I can't bring myself to unsubscribe because every email makes me think "mmmm tacos"

The Oxford Handbook of Blimey Someone Edited a Whole Book Just on That

Looks like all my mates in Scotland collectively shat it when they got an alert on their phones earlier this evening.
Imagine if we harness that energy somehow

Invigilating an exam is a bit like DJing, but much quieter and more stressful

This sounds grimly plausible theconcernedbird.substack.com/p/elon-musks...

Oh wow, I've got a meeting at work tomorrow of the Memory Group. Nearly forgot!

Contents | Music, Sound, and the Moving Image 18, 2 The Introduction falls into three sections. The first presents the historical context for the collection and the themes that unite the articles, and provides summaries for each of the articles. The second section deals with the complex web of terminology ...

The latest issue of Music, Sound and the Moving Image is on library music, and includes an article by Elodie Roy and myself.

liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/msmi/18/...

Still don't understand BlueSky, what do you people want from me? I've got some lecturing and some DJing coming up, it's all very exciting, trust me.

'It is beyond broken' - inside our terrifying NHS crisis Special report: Patients waiting in ambulances for 24 hours, exhausted and desperate staff feeling helpless and a health service now on life support

A man keels over in a chaotic emergency room, an 88-year-old woman waits for 24 hours in the back of an ambulance, a depressed and frustrated paramedic can’t face his job anymore

This is the reality of the state of the NHS right now and it’s terrifying 👇

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpo...

Why supporters of South Korea’s impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol are flying US flags The prominence of the US flag at conservative rallies reflects a complex intersection of religion, politics and identity that defines South Korea’s far-right movement

Why supporters of the president of South Korea wave American flags and flags saying "stop the steal." The 2020s is the decade in which the internet made politics really weird

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Everyone's girlfriend is called Lisa, Kate, or Sarah

There's a film on Netflix called Carry-On and every time it pops up I think "Carry On What?"

I wonder if I'm the only person who has deliberately gone for mini-breaks in both Skipton and Ibiza?
They are opposites.
The Skipton trip was with two female friends and we were on an 'old lady' holiday. Narrowboat cruise, National Trust properties, real ale...