Lorna Richardson

This is, for me at least, the first academic teaching semester where AI-as-resource has become normalised in a student's thought/research/hone/refine process. Even in a class on critical approaches to AI and digital media, I'm starting to feel it's a chronic, long term condition with no cure

What a cutie! 🥰

Trains cancelled over fake bridge collapse image - BBC News Rail services were cancelled after a 'hoax' picture of a damaged bridge appeared on social media

First of many such incidents, I expect. Another ‘win’ for those ‘useful’ Gen AI tools.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

They seem to be out around Ringsfield every bloody weekend, so we get it blasted at us too. Dog is terrified & won’t go for a walk. So many of them cos-playing country gent too, I know some who do it & they’re not posh, just stupid with lots of £££ to spoff

This gladdens my heart (ex Elfin & Pioneer)

Woodcraft Folk statement on the exclusion of trans children from Girlguiding - Woodcraft Folk Woodcraft Folk stands in solidarity with every trans child, young person and volunteer who faces exclusion from Girlguiding UK following the announcement on Trans inclusion.  We recognise that Girlgui...

A statement from Woodcraft Folk re: the ban on trans girls from Girl Guiding.

Trans girls deserve to belong everywhere. But when bigots win the day (not for long I hope), at least there remain places where trans girls and everyone else can belong.

woodcraft.org.uk/woodcraft-fo...

Essex to close Southend campus and cut 400 jobs University says it has been forced into making ‘decisions we could have never previously imagined’ after steep drop in international student numbers

Grim news and vacuous messaging from Essex: 200 academic posts (in unspecified subjects) to go this year & 200 professional staff posts in the next 2 years. Closure of Southend campus will be a blow regionally as well. The vision and ambition that saw Essex et al established is sorely needed now.

How much did this cost to run? And at what cost to membership numbers? HEC need to do some urgent work on listening to members, rather than alienating people living with the very real threat of redundancy

The HE Ballot failed, now what? If you’re reading this it is because today the UCU’s 2025 national ballot over pay and conditions in universities has failed. The last time…

Unfortunately the HE 2025 ballot failed at 39% turnout. I have written about why and about what desperately needs to change in UCU's national structures off the back of this result. Some HEC members need to chi up and understand their role in all this, and how disconnected they are from members.

Do Humans Dream of Electric Gods? | Norwich Science Festival Join UEA's Dr Lorna Richardson and Dr Geraint D’Arcy for a deep-dive in to cinema, history, and AI.

Visiting Norwich Science Festival in February? Interested in the connections between AI, history, film & technological change? Come hear our talk "Do Humans Dream of Electric Gods?" with a spot of terrifying robot futures on screen for good measure! Suitable for adults & kids 12+, tickets free:

Looking forward to seeing you, @artefactual.bsky.social et al at TAG & having a good yarn about positive happy things! xx

I’d measure my success as being a good UCU casework rep & supporting colleagues through some of their hardest times, and the fact I’m still here on this earth in December, despite being punch drunk & bleeding from grief. Everything else is decoration

Trying to summarise my successes & room for improvement for my appraisal, with a year that started with the announcement of redundancies, strike action, Dad suddenly hospitalised, a summer of caring for him then his death, returning to work far too soon & to new teaching responsibilities

Rationing social media use has been life changing, highly recommend

Two secondhand books on a brown sofa. One book is A Very Short Introduction to Marx, the other is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Nothing surprises me more than the contents of the NSPCC book sale at my local Lidl

Project Jupiter Reflects New Reality of Permian Development Energy Transfer, Kinder Morgan, Natural Gas, Permian, San Juan, The Daley Note Posted by: East Daley Analytics A massive data center planned by OpenAI and Oracle in southern New Mexico shows the new dynamic influencing pipeline investments in the Permian Basin. The two technology companies are partnering in Project Jupiter, a four-building data center campus located in Santa Teresa, NM. The facility in Doña Ana County will be developed and operated by BorderPlex Digital Assets and Stack Infrastructure, which plan to construct an onsite natural gas–powered microgrid capable of supplying 700–900 MW of generation directly to the campus. The companies intend to invest more than $165B over 30 years, making Project Jupiter one of the largest private technology investments proposed in the Southwest. In the Data Center Demand Tracker, East Daley Analytics expects the full campus to be in service by October 2029 and to consume 110–140 MMcf/d of gas once fully operational. Kinder Morgan’s (KMI) El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG) system could benefit from this new demand. EPNG’s South Mainline runs through Doña Ana County and transports Permian gas across southern New Mexico (see basin and regional pipeline map from Energy Data Studio). However, East Daley’s West Coast Supply & Demand model shows the South Mainline is fully utilized seasonally. A second option is Energy Transfer’s (ET) new Desert Southwest expansion on Transwestern Pipeline, which is expected to add at least 1.5 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity from the Permian toward Arizona and Southern California. ET has been light on details for its latest pipeline, including the planned route. But in a project update on its website, ET lists Doña Ana County as a delivery point for Desert Southwest. Assuming the new pipeline traverses southern New Mexico, it could provide additional volumes to the county and support Project Jupiter’s demand. ET plans to start Desert Southw…

Close to 1 full goddamn gigawatt of gas (open-cycle, so the most inefficient kind) for the "Project Jupiter" site in New Mexico.

This whole article is a stunning illustration of how data centres are incentivising new fossil infrastructure:

eastdaley.com/daley-note/p...

Around the world in melodrama: 9 countries, 45 essential films From Hollywood tearjerkers to Chinese tales of passion and loss, melodrama has shaped cinema across cultures. Our trip around the globe explores how filmmakers worldwide have embraced heightened emoti...

Keeping the British end up, in my contribution to this multinational melodrama overview: www.bfi.org.uk/features/aro...

About the number of students at both our universities for each?

This weeks class is ‘AI, digital media & the environment’ so I’ll be introducing my students to the materiality of these technologies & the object history of their mobile phones. Everyone can learn something from an archaeological approach to tech

‘It’s hell for us here’: Mumbai families suffer as datacentres keep the city hooked on coal As Mumbai sees increased energy demand from new datacenters, particularly from Amazon, the filthiest neighbourhood in one of India’s largest cities must keep its major coal plants

"As Mumbai sees increased energy demand from new datacentres, particularly from Amazon, the filthiest neighbourhood in one of India’s largest cities must keep its major coal plants"

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

I’m sorry for your loss, condolences

❤️

I’m sorry for your losses, that’s a lot to carry. Ageing is indeed brutal

I’m sorry for your loss. I wish we were better prepared for this inevitability

Tax on international students isn’t looking good for the sector, but no, not at concrete towers

And to you

Another year, another round of redundancies then?

These are HEPI estimates of the 20 institutions affected: I think this illustrates the impact if the tariff is absorbed in full by institutions.

What share of the 6% tariff different universities may try to pass on to fees - or the impact might be on demand if they did - is not publicly known.

It’s two months exactly today since my dad died. Grief is a strange, terrible thing. I’m sure he’s just out in the shed waiting to be called in for a cup of tea, then it hits you like a punch to the throat and I unravel a little bit further

🚨In Science🚨
Conspiracy beliefs famously resist correction, ya?
WRONG: We show brief convos w GPT4 reduce conspiracy beliefs by ~20%!
-Lasts over 2mo
-Works on entrenched beliefs
-Tailored AI response rebuts specific evidence offered by believers
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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[X->BSky repost]