Romain Tartese

Some initial reactions to the 'published on a Sunday afternoon' letter from the CEO of UKRI. 🧵

www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

Given that QR has been dumped in the curiosity driven bucket it's a little disingenuous to say curiousity driven research protected. 61% of bucket one is QR which is dual support and covers all buckets.

Maybe a better question is how are you actually defining curiosity driven? Please define this.

Lots of words to say we're gonna give a larger share of the cake to our friends in industry.

But splash money at "AI" because that will deliver "growth".

It's going to be ugly 😕

Proposed budget cuts a catastrophe for UK astronomy The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is gravely concerned at the drastic cuts to support for UK astronomy outlined by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (...

The Royal Astronomical Society is gravely concerned at the drastic cuts to support for UK astronomy outlined by the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

Read our statement 👉 ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

While independent bookstores are giving out free whistles, hosting protest sign making events, and donating proceeds to mutual aid, Amazon is *checks notes* providing technology that assists ICE in their terrorizing of communities.

Independent bookstores deserve your support. Amazon does not.

They know what they say is untrue, they do not care it is untrue.

The media know that what they repeat is untrue, they do not care it is untrue.

Their supporters know what they are told is untrue, they do not care it is untrue.

Telling the truth is not enough, unless people care about the truth.

If this is what they do to white American citizens in front of everyone, imagine what happens to non-white people behind closed doors.

Breaking: a regime that has never once told a single truth lied. Again.

I have so many thoughts that I'm trying not to share, but why can't we just say that an ICE agent shot a man? This is even without mentioning that he was already being held on the ground and being beaten by multiple ICE agents when he was shot.

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

They just keep shooting people. I have no words.

1. This short thread is about the issue that dominates almost every aspect of politics, and causes or exacerbates most of our problems: the extreme wealth of a small number of people. Here’s the amazing thing: almost the entire political class aligns with the ultra-rich against the rest. 🧵1/10

9. We’ve become so used to all this that we hardly notice it. But isn’t it extraordinary? Almost everyone wants one thing, and almost everyone who represents us – whether in politics or the media – wants the opposite. Yet we tell ourselves we live in a democracy.

absolutely insane to see Musk feted at Davos as the icon of a boldly "optimistic" future in 2026, as if he hadn't just spent the last year buying elections for fascists, making Nazi salutes, condemning millions in Africa to death, and building "Mechahitler," and a nonconsensual porn/CSAM generator

The photo of Liam Ramos staring at the side of an SUV with a blank face belying his fear and confusion makes me physically sick. I want to hold him. Last night my six year old drew a board game on a piece of paper and we played it together. He drew it too small, silly. I hope Liam isn't scared

Whatever my uni declares, I am not going to engage with AI. I am not going to use AI or teach students to use it. I am going to continue to explain to students why it is harmful. Absolutely absurd to allow this anti-intellectual, environmentally devastating technology into the university at all.

Congratulations everyone, Big Brother wasn’t imposed on you, you bought Big Brother on Prime Day and installed him yourselves.

The UK inflicted itself a 5% GDP reduction by voting for Brexit, so what's 0.30-0.75%.. Just tell Donald to piss off.

This 👇

And that is: asking a student to do a literature review isn’t really about the output, the final product. It’s about learning the process - assessing the quality of the evidence as you read it, learning how your question may evolve as you engage with the literature, learning how to spot SALIENCE 1/2

Someone wise on here gave the perfect metaphor. When you’re in the gym, the weights don’t actually need to be moved. The outcome you’re looking for is what changes inside you when you move the weights.

Amazon's Ring to partner with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by ICE, feds, and police | TechCrunch Agencies that use Flock can request that Ring doorbell users share footage to help with "evidence collection and investigative work."

It was inevitable.

No, these are very serious comments.

ChatGPT has absolutely no goddamn place in graduate education. It steals from other authors, routinely gets major facts wrong, hallucinates sources, and generally makes the prose flat and boring as hell.

And if you shill for it in my mentions, I'll block you.

An outside view of the Waterhouse building of Natural History Museum, London, with blue sky and a few clouds. A bronze cast of a diplodocus dinosaur is in the foreground.

A colourful image of impact crater densities on part of the Moon. Red and green rays emanate from the bottom left, the result of millions of secondary impact craters.

We have an STFC-funded PhD project at the @nhm-london.bsky.social. Work with me, @joemcneil.bsky.social, @katie-h-joy.bsky.social, and Gareth Collins, and share in the fun of secondary impact craters and landing sites!
tinyurl.com/nez8dzsy

^^ This is why the entire debate of "AI is useful" / "AI doesn't work" is so deeply silly and misguided.

The point is to bake it into everyone's basic cognitive infrastructure. *That* is the goal - whether it 'works' is deeply irrelevant to how the technology is being deployed by companies

Making these things un-turn-off-able is an extremely fundamental core component of the entire industry. It is the same reason you cannot choose between buying yoghurt with single-use plastic or without it.

You cannot fabricate demand for a wasteful, harmful thing without making it mandatory

Well fuck me backwards what a sight. I can't believe that was only an hour and fifteen. It felt like seven years. I hope you all enjoyed watching Robert Jenrick's soul leave his decaying fetid fucking human body.

Incredible article which points out that it often collectively costs more to apply for scarce research funding than the funds awarded to the successful proposals.

What an absurd system we've built in the service of efficiency and competition.

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