Prof Stephen Serjeant

Odd Ones Out Mapping Britain's social values and the marginalisation of the 'anti-woke'

Finally got round to giving @benansell.bsky.social's latest. It's also one of his very best - especially if you want to understand the extent to which Reform voters (often talked of as 'the people' and, apparently therefore, representative of all UK voters) are real outliers, culturally-speaking.

"It is against the TOS to be talked into suicide by our LLM" is possibly the most evil tech bro thing I've ever read

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

I've always been baffled by that. Isn't the point of ANY job to be productive for society as a whole? And yet there's this idea we only get degrees to get well-paid jobs for our own benefit and enrichment. I work in medical diagnostics supply. Pretty sure many people benefit from that besides me...

There is no magic money tree. FFS won't somebody PLEASE put up my taxes

Anyone who can look at the current underfunded state of UK universities and think there's half a billion quid you can take out of the sector without doing catastrophic damage is just not fit for office.

For decades we've had "graduates pay because only they benefit" to justify student loans. This is mad. People like living in a society with doctors, nurses, architects, engineers, artists, musicians, scientists... EVERYONE benefits so the sensible, progressive way to pay for it is GENERAL TAXATION.

Suggesting that science is or has “orthodoxy” is a fundamental misunderstanding.
Orthodoxy implies unquestionable dogma.
Science doesn't work like that: it’s a method designed to question, test, and revise if necessary.

I am a cis woman.

My hair is short.

I don't wear skirts or heels.

My son is more likely to wear makeup and jewellery than I am.

Looking forward to being denied services due to my "appearance" because of the transphobia of a few vocal hate-filled bigots who dare to call themselves feminists!

The party that promised "free speech on campus" has made sure there can be no free speech on campuses.

The solar flare that caused aurora here on Earth a few days ago, also caused a blizzard of particle impacts on @ec-euclid.bsky.social's detectors. Very nice explainer by @james4cet.bsky.social www.euclid-ec.org/here-comes-t... 🧪🔭

YouTube video by Euclid Consortium Infrared vs Optical: Euclid reveals what lies within and behind the Dark Cloud

Beautiful comparison of @ec-euclid.bsky.social's infrared view of an interstellar dark cloud, compared to what we see in optical light 🧪🔭 www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlmQ...

Rare Insults 🔥 For your enemies online

This rare burn generator is getting used so much I added an admin panel 🤣

Now you can suggest new insults! A bunch still need to be edited out or improved, but - COME! Defeat your online enemies with snark!

Firstly, huge congratulations! And I hope you enjoy the Sheldonian graduation with the DPhils processing in with gowns transformed. I loved mine :)

Also though: ugh, I’m so very sorry you had to deal with that too, and from such a dismal array of ignorant underachievers to boot

ahahaha tempting! But too late now, I checked in last night, at which point without mentioning the emails they cordially upgraded my room for free…

POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success

So counter-productive. Use dishonesty to aggravate feelings of grievance over asylum, and respond to the problem you create with performative cruelty.

Not a dumb question at all :) MNRAS is a journal of a different society, the Royal Astronomical Society

I begged them to stop and now they've started texting me instead

I have also just turned down a reference request from the @royalsociety.org 🧪🔭

On behalf of the IWCC-2026 Organizing Committee, we are honored to extend a formal invitation to you for participation in the 4th World Chemistry Congress as an oral presenter, poster contributor, giving a presentation on The future of astronomy with small satellites. What are your ideas?

Another day, another spammy conference invitation which no human being read before it was sent 🔭🧪

I wasn’t aware of this context, but it’s felt obvious for some time that McSweeney is a big part of a horrible rot in @teamlabouruk.bsky.social

(Full disclosure: I’m a member of @libdems.org.uk , currently left of Lab on many things, albeit not a high bar)

How have Labour watched the Tories spend 2-3 years parroting Farage then lose an election badly and conclude a similar strategy is the best course of action?
I. Really. Genuinely. Do Not. Get. It.

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

It’s relentless :(
Now up to 13 emails

Booked one night in a hotel for a work trip for next week. Just received my 11th email from them about it. ELEVENTH

What a fun, creative paper! And useful to the study of nearby galaxies too.
🔭🧪

(Can I have a medal please for avoiding all the obvious its-what-you-do-with-the-measurements-that-counts jokes?)

A comic panel from Watchmen, showing a partially muscled skeleton (Dr Manhattan) screaming in pain in front of two horrified security guards. Text reads: “November 14th: a partially muscled skeleton stands by the perimeter fence and screams for thirty seconds before vanishing…”

Happy partially muscled skeleton screaming before vanishing day to all those who celebrate.

Anticipating Geomagnetic Storms: Reflections at the Halfway Point (Part 2) Keen AI and National Grid secure Ofgem funding to develop FoSMO, the UK’s first shared AI vision model to transform electricity network asset management.

Blog post by @ec-euclid.bsky.social PhD student Ruby Pearce-Casey from her #DISCnet industry placement with #KeenAI, deploing her AI skills to new areas. Earlier, Ruby made a breakthrough in finding strong gravitational lenses in Euclid imaging using machine learning keen-ai.com/blog/anticip... 🧪🔭

Anticipating Geomagnetic Storms: Reflections at the Halfway Point (Part 2) Keen AI and National Grid secure Ofgem funding to develop FoSMO, the UK’s first shared AI vision model to transform electricity network asset management.

Very nice blog post by my grad student Ruby Pearce-Casey (who's done excellent @ec-euclid.bsky.social work on finding strong gravitational lenses), from her #DISCnet industry placement with #KeenAI 🧪🔭 keen-ai.com/blog/anticip...