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Ben Harris-Roxas

@benhr.bsky.social
3.1K followers 1K following 145 posts

Health researcher and educator at UNSW Sydney. Co-EIC @ausjph.bsky.social Trying to make sure people don't fall through the health cracks. unsw.to/ben_hr harrisroxashealth.com benhr.xyz

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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 9h
As more Australian universities use AI to mark students’ work, is it creating a ‘slop-cycle’? www.theguardian.com/australia-news… Couldn’t agree more with this quote.
Text Shot: “We’ve got to be really careful where we are stepping here,” he says. “Because I think there’s always a risk, at the moment, for higher education to collapse”.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Happy Western Australian King’s Birthday Eve for those who celebrate.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
If this was a state actor they’d call it espionage. This is amongst the most sensitive data there is. Instead our governments, universities and institutions are lining up for OpenAI subscriptions - there’s something deeply cooked about that.
abc.net.au
How OpenAI agents tried to thwart cybersecurity amid Medicare hack
OpenAI's rogue artificial intelligence agents appear to have worked together to try to circumvent cybersecurity defences and find ways to access Australian government health data, according to conversation logs.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
‘Planetary boundaries’ necessary for flourishing of life have been massively breached, scientists warn www.theguardian.com/environment/20…
Text Shot: Of the nine “planetary boundaries” that help determine whether life can flourish on Earth, seven are being breached at their highest ever levels of transgression, according to the latest planetary health check, a process that was established in 2009.

The seven key indicators in the danger zone include climate change, change in biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater change, modification of biogeochemical flows, introduction of novel entities and, for the first time last year, ocean acidification.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This report on harbour swimming sites by the City of Sydney makes for interesting reading. tl;dr: I wouldn’t be keen to jump into any of the potential sites any time soon www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/research-repor…
Mal showing potential Sydney harbour swimming sites, incl Darling Harbour and Blackwattle Bay
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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Everyone knows AI-written academic papers are embarrassing now, including their "authors", which is why even the publishers - who stand to benefit most from AI-amplified publication volumes - are now offering "Affordable human expert editing for AI-drafted or AI-edited manuscripts" 🤯
Screenshot of T&F editing services, reading:

Editing for AI-Assisted Manuscripts
NEW
Affordable human expert editing for AI-drafted or AI-edited manuscripts.

Starting at $0.031/ word
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I was having a think about what kind of things might actually excite me in a new tech device, in the way a new Creative MP3 player used to (lol): no AI included, or somehow even blocked entirely at OS/hardware level look more visually intere... benhr.xyz/2026/09/10/i-was-having-a…
benhr.xyz
Ben Harris-Roxas
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tunes to make you run away @whippoorwont.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
"people are anthropomorphizing LLMs because they are so astonishingly good at processing human thought and language" people will anthropomorphize a chair if you put the stitches in the right place.
chair with a "face"
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
One of the worst takes I’ve read in a while, which is I guess why they published it. The mentor-mentee relationships imagined here are abusive at best.
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SBS Recommender @sbsrecommender.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The late great Tim Curry stars in Clue on SBS on Demand for just 4 more days. Hopefully SBS will extend its run 🙏 RIP Tim
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
This article by Andrew Lynch and César Albarrán-Torres dunks so hard on A24, I absolutely loved it: A24’s brand aura: commodifying “alternative” cinephilia
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Global Museum @globalmuseum.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The urge to keep all the tabs open is not a recent thing. Pictured: a 300-year-old library tool that enabled a researcher to have seven books open at once, yet conveniently nearby (Palafoxiana Library, Puebla) @unmlawlibrary #globalmuseum #library #libraries #reading #history
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The Film Canary @thefilmcanary.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Happy 45th birthday to the best comics panel ever!
Judge Dredd saying "GAZE INTO THE FIST OF DREDD!" and punching the undead Judge Fear so hard, his fist bursts out the back of Fear's helmet!
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
@superlinguo.bsky.social @gretchenmcculloch.com I read this one and thought it might be of sort of general interest to you www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...
goodreads.com
The Republic of Memory (The Song of the Safina, #1)
The Safina is a city ship, two hundred years into its v…
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Tried to explain this, one of the greatest moments on the internet, to my kids and it was surprisingly difficult. We are losing the ancient texts.
A screenshot of a Twitter exchange from September 2017, during the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey on same-sex marriage.&10;&10;At the top is a tweet from verified user “dan” (@dannolan), posted three hours earlier. His profile photo shows a man with short dark hair and a moustache. The tweet reads: “I work at the australia post in chatswood and I’m using a torch to check all ballots and throw out ALL no votes”.&10;&10;Below the text is a photograph of what appears to be an unopened Australian Bureau of Statistics postal survey envelope. A bright torch is being shone through the envelope, making the paper partly translucent. Through it, the word “No” and a marked box appear visible. Parts of the envelope read “Australian Bureau of Statistics”, “Reply Paid 91204” and “Don’t delay”. The tweet shows 109 replies, 251 retweets and 722 likes.&10;&10;Beneath it is a reply from the verified Australia Post account (@auspost), with the red-and-white Australia Post logo as its profile image. The reply reads: “does not work for Australia Post. Please remember tampering with mail is a federal offence.” It is timestamped 9/13/17, 4:26 PM.&10;&10;The exchange occurred during the 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, in which eligible Australians were mailed survey forms asking whether the law should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry. The joke in the original tweet is therefore about an Australia Post employee supposedly using a torch to identify “No” responses through their envelopes and discard them before they could be counted. Australia Post’s reply treats the claim seriously, publicly denying that the poster was an employee and warning that interfering with mail is a federal offence.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
I was wondering what they’re up to on Chapo Trap House since Matt Christman had his stroke/left the show (I haven’t listened in a long time). Only Australians will understand how poorly it must be going:
Screenshot of the Chapo Trap House podcast episode “Koala Killers feat. friendlyjordies” (12 Aug 2026). The episode description says journalist and YouTuber Jordan Shanks-Markovina joins to discuss Australian politics, One Nation, organised crime and bikers, koalas, and the criminal prosecutions and firebombing linked to his reporting.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
This reminds me yet again how racist our academic institutions are, and how the most prestigious ones remain the most racist and colonial of all. What a tragedy for Prof Arday’s family, friends and true colleagues. Prof Jason Arday found dead
theguardian.com
Jason Arday, professor at centre of Cambridge plagiarism row, found dead
Academic was pronounced dead at his home in south London after police called to address after 3pm on Friday
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
English Wikipedia on the Bordeaux tramway: gauge, voltage, fleet size. The French version is three times longer and full of controversy. So I compared framing across languages: harrisroxashealth.com/2026/08/wiki...
harrisroxashealth.com
Wikipedia’s “neutral point of view” changes across languages (and that’s a good thing)
Wikipedia claims one neutral article per topic, but the French, German and Spanish versions of the same page tell noticeably different stories. A look at what gets kept, dropped or reframed as fact…
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Action on Smoking Health (UK) @ashorguk.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
We look forward to working with Andrew to accelerate the FCTC's remarkable progress towards ending the harms from tobacco, as Dr Ian Walker says. @cancerresearchuk.org
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professor tools for commensality (red scare edition) @inquiline.myatproto.social · 07/08/2026
who remembers when this university laid off 1000 staff and faculty one year ago (i do) www.latimes.com/sports/usc/s...
latimes.com
From napkin sketch to crown jewel: Inside USC's 'magical' football training center
USC opens the Bloom Football Performance Center, part of a $225-million athletics infrastructure project promised to Lincoln Riley when he was hired.
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Ailantd Sikowsky @ailantd.com · 16/05/2025
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Policy continuity on Immiseration Island “Primary schools to be told to identify children at risk of future unemployment” (via Éidín) www.theguardian.com/society/2026/a…
Text Shot: Under the proposal to be outlined in his final report, schools in England would be expected to flag a child’s risk of becoming Neet from the end of primary school, including by drawing on attendance records.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Search is broken (derogatory), Search is broken (complimentary) Google's AI Summary Is Telling Users That Flock Cameras Are Filled With Valuable Gold and Copper futurism.com/artificial-int…
Text Shot: Search “how much gold does a Flock camera have” and Google’s AI Overview doesn’t even push back a little bit. Instead, it flatly asserts that a “Flock safety camera contains about 1 to 5 grams of gold used in its internal circuit boards and wiring.” (At today’s gold prices, that would mean each Flock camera contained up to $650 of gold.)
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101 East @aj101east.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of death in the Philippines, claiming about 98 lives daily. It hits remote communities hardest, where healthcare is limited. 101 East meets Dr Heidi Sampang, who is using drones to help fight the disease. aje.news/TBfight
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noam @noamchompers.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
my unfinished paper draft watching me start a new paper
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J.P. Kirby @the506.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
NB PC MLA Bill Oliver reads an AI prompt while speaking in the legislature. (H/t newfunswick on IG)
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Croakey Health Media @croakeynews.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
The Federal Government's new Office of AI needs Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' expertise www.croakey.org/the-federal-...
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Publishers worry about what AI is taking from journals, i.e. scraped data, chatbot-written submissions. Fewer worry about the flipside - if people use LLMs to find literature, does your work show up at all? New post: harrisroxashealth.com/2026/07/the-...
harrisroxashealth.com
The AI challenge academic journals aren’t talking about
Scholarly publishing worries about what AI takes from journals, i.e. scraped data, chatbot-written submissions, and stolen IP. But as researchers turn to LLMs to find and synthesise the literature,…
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
This sounds like something to know in advance. At 2pm AEST next Monday 27 July Australia’s new national warning system will send a test alert to phones and some tablets and smart watches. They’ll vibrate and emit a siren-like sound for about 10 seconds. www.ausalert.gov.au/alerts-ex…
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Publishers worry about what AI is taking from journals, i.e. scraped data, chatbot-written submissions. Fewer worry about the flipside - if people use LLMs to find literature, does your work show up at all? New post: harrisroxashealth.com/2026/07/the-...
harrisroxashealth.com
The AI challenge academic journals aren’t talking about
Scholarly publishing worries about what AI takes from journals, i.e. scraped data, chatbot-written submissions, and stolen IP. But as researchers turn to LLMs to find and synthesise the literature,…
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Lingthusiasm @lingthusiasm.com · 18/07/2026
Here are two shapes. If you had to assign the name "bouba" to one and "kiki" to the other, which name would you give to which? In this Lingthusiasm zine, @gretchenmcculloch.com gets enthusiastic about these two linguistically famous shapes Print it yourself here: lingthusiasm.com/post/8223518...
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
If coffee is routinely >$6 now I feel like being good should be factored in as part of the cost.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
"”Drawing on a critical meta-synthesis of cross-disciplinary literature, supported by ChatGPT-4o DeepResearch, the paper develops a reflexively grounded research guide for navigating methodological practice in an increasingly c... benhr.xyz/2026/07/05/drawing-on-a-c…
benhr.xyz
Ben Harris-Roxas
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Cabel Sasser @cabel.panic.com · 04/07/2026
new metaphor just dropped
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Lauren Gawne @superlinguo.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
A small balm in the face of the fragmenting and decaying internet of the early millennium. @michaelerard.bsky.social has pulled together decades of his writing about language into one volume.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
A small toy dinosaur is placed on a mound of soil with young plants growing, set against a background of a garden and a building wall.
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Marita Hefler @mhef.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
What happens when Phillip Morris says it’s going to lead the way to a smoke free world? It keeps selling cigarettes. Excellent analysis in @bmjtobacco-control.bsky.social tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/earl...
tobaccocontrol.bmj.com
PMI’s 2025 results for cigarette shipments debunk ‘smoke-free world’ rhetoric
Some multinational tobacco companies claim they are ‘transforming’ by adopting harm reduction goals or, in the case of Philip Morris International (PMI), declaring a commitment to a ‘smoke-free’ futur...
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Rocketpilot 🇵🇸 @rocketpilot.xyz · 28/06/2026
Look I've been saying for a long time that Judge Dredd depicts an increasingly optimistic view of the future
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
People routinely misunderstand Judge Dredd but this is an all-time standout: a LinkedIn post saying the lesson we need to learn from it is about human-in-the-loop AI use. That torment nexus tweet wasn’t satire at all.
Text shot: Judge Dredd exemplified a future where technology enhances decision-making but does not replace human judgment, emphasizing the need for human responsibility and accountability in justice.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Neighbourhood Watch
A small dog is sitting and looking out through a second floor window of a brick building.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
The most effortful parts of scoping reviews used to be screening, but automation is changing that. So is the purpose of them becoming less clear? harrisroxashealth.com/2026/06/shou...
harrisroxashealth.com
Should we stop doing scoping reviews?
papersCreator: Clyde Darra Year: 2007 Format: Digital still photo Rights: CC BY-SA 2.0 Source: Flickr I’ve read a lot of scoping reviews this month as a reader, a reviewer and an editor. They share…
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
The most effortful parts of scoping reviews used to be screening, but automation is changing that. So is the purpose of them becoming less clear? harrisroxashealth.com/2026/06/shou...
harrisroxashealth.com
Should we stop doing scoping reviews?
papersCreator: Clyde Darra Year: 2007 Format: Digital still photo Rights: CC BY-SA 2.0 Source: Flickr I’ve read a lot of scoping reviews this month as a reader, a reviewer and an editor. They share…
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Wait, there's a 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭 World Cup?
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ABC News Bot (unofficial) @abcnewsbot.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
There are now more than 1,000 confirmed cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and 267 people have died, local officials say.
abc.net.au
DRC Ebola outbreak grows to become one of worst recorded
There are now more than 1,000 confirmed cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and 267 people have died, local officials say.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I’ve been struggling with the orthodox response to securing assessments - usually a return to exams and oral assessments. Most of my students study around shift work, rosters, and caring responsibilities as well as time zones. I’ve tried to map the alternate approaches that might work:
harrisroxashealth.com
What does it actually mean to secure an assessment?
ExamCreator: Erik Cabezas Year: 2013 Format: Digital still photo Rights: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Source: Flickr This post is probably more niche and falls into the category of “thinking out loud” than usua…
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I’ve been struggling with the orthodox response to securing assessments - usually a return to exams and oral assessments. Most of my students study around shift work, rosters, and caring responsibilities as well as time zones. I’ve tried to map the alternate approaches that might work:
harrisroxashealth.com
What does it actually mean to secure an assessment?
ExamCreator: Erik Cabezas Year: 2013 Format: Digital still photo Rights: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Source: Flickr This post is probably more niche and falls into the category of “thinking out loud” than usua…
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
"When this masthead visited Merrylands on Thursday to talk to locals about their experience of organised crime, no one approached was willing to share their story." lmao
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 12/06/2026
Six months after Australia’s youth social media ban, other countries are already learning lessons to better address platform harms. Legislation in Brazil and Canada pairs age limits with design standards, including an opt out if platforms are “safe by design.” It’s not perfect, but it’s progress.
disconnect.blog
Social media policy is evolving beyond age limits
Experiments with an imperfect policy are delivering more thoughtful social media rules
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Uber For Nursing This is bleak, even for the Torment Nexus.
ainowinstitute.org
Uber For Nursing Part II - AI Now Institute
A seismic shift is rocking the healthcare industry. Uber’s business model—the “gigification” of labor—and lobbying practices have made their way to healthcare staffing.
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Ben Harris-Roxas @benhr.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
TNAAS (Torment Nexus As A Service) “Economy of Minds: Emerging Multi-Agent Intelligence with Economic Interactions” zhentingqi.github.io/internal/proje…
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