Romain Tartese

It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.

Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.

Lol. Got to keep these shareholders profits up...

‘This is censorship.’ Conference requires abstracts to comply with Trump anti-DEI order NASA-funded planetary science institute previously scrubbed hundreds of records from its archive

The organisers of the world's biggest planetary science conference are outlawing any DEI-related submissions because their lawyers are afraid they'll lose federal support.

They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.

www.science.org/content/arti...

"LPSC did not provide specifics on the criteria that will be used to evaluate abstracts.. but the conference appears worried enough ... to strike straightforward information about bathrooms. From 2022-24, LPSC listed the locations of gender-neutral bathrooms on its website, but not in 2025 or ’26."

Women don't recognize only the overt hatred & abuse in Trump's actions--shoving his finger in the face of a female professional doing her job & calling her names--we also recognize the cowardice displayed by the other men in the room as they implicitly condone his behavior by saying nothing.

The UK isn’t a “soft touch” on asylum.

UK asylum seeker benefits are similar to European neighbours

No right to work before 12 months (it’s 6 months in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands)

UK settlement after 5 years (it’s 3 or 4 in Germany)

Let’s cut out the alarmist rhetoric.

And it's not only wrong, it's also stolen.
No one should use AI. Even if it would all be correct. It's unethical.

I reckon it is mostly useful if you already know the answer

At this point just seems easier for all those that still want to go to LPSC to just boycott. Are there no red lines?

I know it’s hard. But you can’t possibly go to an academic conference that imposes restrictions on freedom of speech like this.

Abstracts submitted to LPSC 2026 are required to comply with White House (non-legally binding) executive orders forbidding mention of topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

At least USRA/LPI isn't hiding it.

But is this what our community wants? Or deserves? I don't think so.

Going to leave you with a Home Office chart from their most recent asylum stats so you can decide whether the UK is a magnet for asylum seekers with a uniquely generous asylum system www.gov.uk/government/s...

This is the bit on seizing jewellery. Perhaps shave their heads as well, could get good money for all that hair? But again, this is likely to create lots of bureaucracy yet have little real-world effect because it is so hard to do in practice.

The Home Secretary says "we have become the destination of choice in Europe, clearly visible to every people smuggler and would-be illegal migrant across the world"

That is a factually untrue claim: the Home Office shows that the UK is fifth, getting 1/10 claims, while Germany gets 1/5 claims

Beyond belief this would come from a Labour government. I'm lost for words.

Shortened leave to remain. Currently, refugees in the UK receive a five-year initial period of leave. In the future this will be reduced significantly. Refugees will instead receive 30 months of leave to remain, which can only be renewed if they are still considered in need of protection. Where protection is no longer needed the person will become liable for removal from the UK. A longer path to settlement. In the future there will be no path to indefinite settled status in the UK on Core Protection, until a refugee has spent 20 years in the country, an increase on the current five years. Settlement requirements will be considered in an upcoming consultation on earned settlement, covering both legal and illegal migrants.

This is monstrous, evil. Anyone that supports this is similarly enthralled to and excited by the ritual abuse of the weak and suffering

My granddad was a refugee, my wife, our close friends and those of our kids are either immigrants or the children of immigrants.

Do ministers ever think about the message their rhetoric on "handouts" and "golden tickets" for migrants sends about whether this is a government for people like us?

And ofc, like almost everything Labour do at the moment, it's politically stupid: immediately & predictably denounced as 'not going far enough' by Tories and Reform, highly unlikely to gain Labour votes from those parties, and highly likely to lose them votes to other parties. 3/3

Asylum system in UK ‘out of control’ and dividing country, home secretary says Shabana Mahmood to unveil new proposals modelled on Denmark’s controversial system

Everything about the current 'debate' around this is dismal, not just morally but because it is so stupid. For example:

It conflates asylum-seeking and illegal immigration (and sometimes with migration generally)

It shows no understanding of why there is AS

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025... 1/3

Asylum system in UK ‘out of control’ and dividing country, home secretary says Shabana Mahmood to unveil new proposals modelled on Denmark’s controversial system

The Prime Minister said in September that we are at a fork in the road. These asylum proposals suggest we have taken the wrong turning.

The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

No 10 tells Labour MPs it expects support for tough new asylum policies Some backbenchers already opposing planned immigration crackdown seen as ‘economically and culturally illiterate’

If the government really intends to seize jewellery and other valuables from refugees,
either
- it is staggeringly ignorant of the historical precedents
or
- it's aware of the precedents, and thinks, yeah, we'll have some of that.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.

This policy is only about cruelty towards vulnerable people, to the benefit of literally no one.

Imagine going to bed thinking "at least I've made some people's lives more miserable from today"

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

Have to say I find the proposals to take away the route to permanent settlement of refugees both shocking and repulsive. It's code for 'whatever you do and contribute you can never become one of us so we won't allow you to try.' Racism, pure and simple.

Thread. Hard to believe Labour has played its first election win in over a decade so badly. They’ve lost their bearings, morally and politically.

This statement not acceptable and I suspect not sustainable. Large majority of public support principle of asylum, support letting people stay permanently. Majority for that among Labour and other progressive parties’ voters is overwhelming. The Reform voters this is aimed at will never vote Labour

That’s why “blue Labour” is doomed and was doomed from the start: you cannot make water run uphill. A party whose core electorate for over a decade has been socially liberal university graduates and ethnic minorities cannot sell itself as a party hostile to socially liberal values.

Labour is a disgrace.

😅 yeah sure, sounds like a great idea.

These Enigmatic ‘Fossils’ Could Rewrite the History of Life on Earth Controversial evidence hints that complex life might have emerged hundreds of millions of years earlier than previously thought—and possibly more than once

In 2010, a scientist argued that 2.1 billion-year-old African specimens showed complex life appearing 500 million years ahead of schedule. His critics say they are — literally — fool's gold. At stake? The question of when and how complex life arose at all.

My cover story (!) for @sciam.bsky.social!

“We are told that AI is inevitable, that we must adapt or be left behind. But universities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically.”