Dr Carole McCartney 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️

How higher education is going. Student pretends to write an essay, Prof pretends to mark it.

Tom Fishburne cartoon from https://marketoonist.com/2023/03/ai-written-ai-read.html aptly describing how AI creates messages from three bullet points into expanded text ... which is fed at the other end into AI to extract three bullet points. Lossly, one assumes.

Toxic culture at Qld's forensics lab laid bare in second damning report It's the second damning report into Queensland's state-run forensics lab to be released in as many days.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

The assumption that generative AI could be a "valuable partner" is unevidenced and the example activity is critical thinking work that could better be done in the absence of AI. It's thinking of something you COULD do with AI. Rather than what students SHOULD do to learn.

So very true

Reform Dog Bites Media Man The British press is failing in its duty to ask the right questions of Nigel Farage

How we will look back at the British media's current constant indulgence of Nigel Farage and his brand of anti-migrant politics as the biggest collective failure of our times

www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/reform-dog...

Didn't Casey already say all of this??

"It's just fields and fields of gray ash."

www.instagram.com/reel/DM8H5L2...

This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen.

By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza

BBC Sounds - Shadow World - Available Episodes Listen to the latest episodes of Shadow World on BBC Sounds.

Been listening to 'Grave Robbers' podcast and I can truly believe it. It's phenomenal what you can tell the govt, with no proof, and get ££££s - and yet have to bend over backwards here to pay to get a residents parking permit! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand...

I'm going to have to find out how we get one as I just cannot see how he can remain PCC with these comments?!

Seriously thinking that my self-ascribed label of 'optimist' has just been years of ignorance, naivety, of always trying to find the silver lining. Wondering if time to give it up and just concede defeat, and join the pessimists.

Voice of Victim

"At my university, we're all drowning in work. Burnout isn’t looming, it’s already here

In response, Human Resources have arranged free yoga classes

To help with stress, they say

We’re so overwhelmed with work, we don’t have any time to go

No one does

Except HR 😉"

Yep - 24 hours later and I'm still fuming about this! How can his comments not utterly disbar him from his position as PCC? the 'dark heart of wokeness deep in the cjs'??? What is he talking about? www.itv.com/news/central...

More ballots in ✅✅
Your turn now!

The rich must be incentivised; the poor must be disciplined.

The political economy of the super-elite in one headline.

This is no more a story than if Mr Kipling had warned we were in danger of not eating enough cake

A side effect of this relates to reference writing. Some students are applying to 5 or more MSc programs, many requiring references from two academics with neither able to know the student well. How can these be meaningful and why are we asking for them, particularly when transcripts are verified?

This is incorrect as the offence of displaying images is based upon a "reasonable suspicion" that you support a proscribed organisation. Your sign doesn't have to expressly declare support. This is what causes the chilling effect. The offence of support also refers to recklessness.

Question for Mike Flood: With $450 million being allocated to Alligator Alcatraz, and ICE burning through $8.4 million a day to illegally detain people—How much does it cost for fascism? How much do the tax payers have to pay for a fascist country?

Post from "The Rundown" July 18 at 5:30 PM · DuckDuckGo has introduced a new feature allowing users to filter out AI-generated images from search results, addressing growing concerns over synthetic content overwhelming authentic visuals online. The filter can be activated through a dropdown in the Images tab, search settings, or by using a dedicated AI-free domain: noai.duckduckgo.com. The system relies on curated blocklists, including uBlockOrigin’s Huge AI Blocklist, to detect and suppress AI-generated imagery. While not perfect, it significantly reduces synthetic content visibility. This move sets DuckDuckGo apart from competitors like Google and Bing by giving users direct control over their exposure to AI-generated material. Source: TechCrunch

DuckDuckGo has added a feature to filter out AI images from search results.

😆😆

Still loving the podcast, albeit when taking my dive into classics for the first time in my life, didn't realise was going to have to listen to so much opera (which I'm afraid still sounds like nails down a blackboard to my heathen ears!) Afraid I won't ever be posh enough for this after all!

Instantly surface, cite, compare and explore trusted evidence from deep within peer-reviewed literature with ScienceDirect AI.

My god, what is happening to science? www.sciencedirect.com

This is so deeply upsetting and troubling!

What can we do as scientist to resist AI slop polluting, and ultimately destructing, our fields of study?

Please join me in telling @sciencedirect.bsky.social that we do not want this!

I am honestly surprised about the complaints. Why would you not assume they were on hugely important business?! The police aren't flying around for fun (though didn't they get done years ago perving over a woman sunbathing in garden or am I making that up??!!)

I've thought this about all US law review papers! Why oh why must they be SOOOOO long? We (UK) max out at 8k words, more often 6k, even fewer if scientific paper. Why not focus? Avoids needless repetition too.

Leicestershire's policing boss Rupert Matthews joins Reform UK Rupert Matthews, who held the position since 2021, has defected from the Conservatives.

Someone needs to explain to me how this can be permitted. A PCC expressing far right views and joining Reform? Can he be ousted? Leicestershire's policing boss Rupert Matthews joins Reform UK
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I've been stewing on it and getting more and more irate! How is this even bloody allowed? He can influence policing and has views like that!!!

Leicestershire's policing boss Rupert Matthews joins Reform UK Rupert Matthews, who held the position since 2021, has defected from the Conservatives.

Oh FFS. I had a pretty dim view of PCCs before this, but this is horrendous! Woke CJS?! (And my local force!)BBC News - Leicestershire's policing boss Rupert Matthews joins Reform UK - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Can you spare a minute to help this campaign? Stop Mass Redundancies at Lancaster University – Hold Senior Management Accountable

The situation in many UK universities is awful, but the news coming out of Lancaster is especially bad: 1/4 jobs to go, with senior management either leaving or not taking a pay cut. Please sign and share this petition to support colleagues there: chng.it/X6g46TjMSC