iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Did anyone happen to mention to the Labour party at their big celebration last week that the second largest city in Britain hasn't had recycling collections in over 18-months?

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Jamie Hannigan @jamiedotdotdot.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Struggling to think how anyone living or working in a seaside community would even consider doing this to RNLI volunteers aka THEIR OWN NEIGHBOURS WHO WOULD DROP EVERYTHING TO SAVE THEM FROM DROWNING WHEN THE CALL CAME IN

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Kate @rebelraising.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Response to fascist thugs in the streets: we're doing what they tell us as fast as we can

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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

My routine reminder that the UK’s second largest city hasn’t had a domestic recycling service for 19 months and not one politician in our entire country gives a shit. I suspect most of them don’t even know, let alone care.

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Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

England on track to suffer highest-ever heat deaths this summer, official data shows - Almost 3000 people died in May and June heatwaves that were supercharged by the fossil-fuel-driven climate crisis #climatecrisis Data from @ukhsa.bsky.social Story by me www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

UK on track for record heat-related deaths this summer, official data shows

UKHSA estimates 2,877 fatalities during heatwaves in May and June, almost twice same period for 2025

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Yellow Dot Studios @yellowdotstudios.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

"The scale and threat of this coming warming event is simply too large to ignore in the name of business/politics as usual." This open letter is in print today in USA Today, and newspapers across the country:

Open letter text. Read it at elninowarning.com

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Gavin Buckingham @handle.invalid · 21/07/2026

The Cognition Group in the Psychology dept at Exeter are at risk of redundancy because "basic cognitive psychology research does not align with the current priorities of funding bodies" If you think this is overtly wrong and misguided, please sign this open letter docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

Open Letter in Support of the Cognition Group, University of Exeter

To Executive members of the University of Exeter, including Vice Chancellor Prof. Lisa Roberts, Senior Vice-President and Provost Prof. Dan Charman, Pro Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean Prof. Sallie...

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BUCKERS @deathofbuckley.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Anyone else got secondhand embarrassment from a Louis Vuitton carry case? x

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I know we joke about Reviewer 2, but I genuinely cannot fathom ever writing a review that wasn't polite in its constructiveness and written as if speaking to a human whose career and, yes, self-esteem might be affected. Reviewer 2s aren't a joke, they're a symptom of academia absent humanity.

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Flicking through some school books brought home by the 13yo and he's very much being taught that genAI is bad for learning, the environment, and shouldn't be used in assignments. Hard to see it any other way than that universities are manufacturing demand by pushing it so hard on 18yos.

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Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

It seems a good day to remind people that in the UK 3 times as many people work in Indian restaurants or for McDonalds as in the whole coal and steel industry. 5 times as many are academic staff at universities. If Labour does not understand its electorate, there is no way to appeal to it.

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Open Rights Group @openrightsgroup.org · 15/06/2026

The social media ban for under-16s does nothing to sort out the harms caused by platforms. Harmful content is a product of a business model that uses data to drive engagement and target users with ads. Digital ID checks feed more data into this system, while leaving the engine for harms unchecked.

openrightsgroup.org

Starmer’s social media ban fails to address root causes of online harms

Open Rights Group has responded to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement that the Government will ban social media, including gaming sites, for under 16s in the UK.

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BOOsky Eldritch 🖤👻🦝 @tenredpencils1.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

citizen! to deal with you accordingly we must know - are you holding the firebomb of legitimate concerns, or the placard of illegal opinions?

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

How do I explain to my PDR reviewer that my career goal is to retire and be a lollipop lady

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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 08/06/2026

“Kids are on the phones all day and we think it’s bad for them!” okay well how about you make it possible for them to do literally anything else

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

That bit where Dumbledore has to keep drinking from the bowl, but for reading another exam script

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Love it when a trainee has to experience a two month turnaround for a desk rejection on their first paper. Really helps to motivate them for a career in this broken enterprise.

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

A bunch of fascist bastards roaming around looking for violence within walking distance of my house. I despise everyone who let us get to this point.

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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

There is an election this week. I've decided that - bins aside(!) - my priority is NOT to vote for anyone in a party whose current/would be councillors actively support killings on the road. (that means ppl who object to 20mph limits, LTNs, dedicated cycle lanes, etc) makes voting choice easy, sadly

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

bell hooks tells us that we should be less afraid of showing emotion to our students, so maybe it's ok for me to kick and scream in front of the class when a student makes me read genAI drivel with entirely fake citations

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Sam “The Great Pumpkin” Thielman @samthielman.com · 29/03/2026

The AI thing remains blackly hilarious to me. It’s like if people insisted that we allow ourselves to be changed as we humbly submit to the awe and mystery of pogs

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Leah Banellis @leahbanellis.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

🎉 Excited to share our publication in PNAS! 🎉 What happens when our stream of consciousness turns towards the body? Our fMRI study of 536 individuals finds that 'body-wandering' is associated with patterns of brain connectivity, physiology, affect, and mental health: www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

University admin frantically deskilling students to use software that implodes before the students even graduate

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Another university getting rid of things you could only ever do at a university and replacing them with stuff a 13-year-old can do on a phone

Post from Andrew A.N. Deloucas
@aandeloucas.com:

In line with discussion about the job market, the latest majors being closed at Syracuse University:

Nine majors "sunsetting":
• Classical civilization
• Classics (Greek and Latin)
• Digital humanities
• Fine arts
• German
• Latino-Latin American studies
• Middle Eastern studies
• Modern Jewish studies
• Russian
ALT

The First University in the Nation to Build a Center Dedicated to the Creator Economy
Syracuse University is creating something that doesn't exist anywhere else in higher education.
The Center for the Creator Economy is the first academic center of its kind on a U.S. college campus. Led jointly by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Martin).
Whitman School of Management, the center reinforces Syracuse University's commitment to bold, forward-looking academic leadership.
By aligning strengths in entrepreneurship, media, communications, athletics and digital infrastructure, the University is charting how higher education can prepare students for the 21st-century economy.

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Kirsty Grainger @handle.invalid · 06/03/2026

For what it's worth this is my full quote. I would love to understand from @ukri.org why this call has been restricted to 4 weeks (with no advanced warning) going against it's own EDI commitments. The response so far doesn't explain why only 4 weeks nor why not 8 weeks.

It would be good to understand why the community have only been given 4 weeks to respond to this major call. It is ironic that the call states that “as a leader in the community, the lab will be expected to embed EDI in all their activities throughout the lifetime of the investment” when the call itself breaks EPSRC’s own EDI commitment to funding opportunities to be open for a minimum of 8 weeks.
We understand the desire to create momentum and capitalise on the UK’s strengths in AI research. But we need to ensure the pace helps rather than hinders great outcomes for the UK.
When timelines are excessively compressed, it is impossible for individuals and organisations to develop their strongest ideas or most effective consortia. When the process is rushed, people lose trust in it because the timeline just doesn’t allow for well-developed proposals.
For a £40 million investment, the stakes are particularly high. Even with a stage-gate in place, the initial rapid turnaround narrows the field prematurely. This not only limits who is able to participate meaningfully but also stifles innovation and favours established paradigms. As a result, cutting edge emerging thinking is effectively locked out.
By allowing slightly more time at the outset, EPRSC could enable a broader, more diverse range of applicants to contribute which would strengthen the quality and long term impact of the investment.

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

The choice of graph with the nice line going up and the headline really are working very hard to make the evidence seem very different to what's written in the paper.

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

I had no idea YouGov polls aren't random sampling and are basically MTurk for politics. BBC News - Is there really a 'quiet revival' of religion among Gen Z? - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Is there really a 'quiet revival' of religion among Gen Z?

A fierce debate is taking place about whether there really has been a revival in Christianity.

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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Spoiling a lot of takes but begging a large number of other questions... "Worsening graduate fortunes, it turns out, are a particularly British problem" www.ft.com/content/649d...

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Kaye Ross @kaye.zone · 11/02/2026

I drew a face on a paper plate. Who could even begin to understand how it perceives the world or what it dreams of?

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

So that's two Tucson Consciousness Conference regulars in the Epstein files so far

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Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they) @katjathieme.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Stuart Hameroff, anesthesiologist. 16/ bsky.app/profile/psyc... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_...

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Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they) @katjathieme.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/

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Andrea Basso @a4xrbj1.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

New NHTSA crash data, combined with Tesla’s new disclosure of robotaxi mileage, reveals Tesla’s autonomous vehicles are crashing at a rate much higher than human drivers, and that’s with a safety monitor in every car. Tesla has reported 9 crashes involving its robotaxi fleet in Austin, TX. /1

electrek.co

Tesla's own Robotaxi data confirms crash rate 3x worse than humans even with monitor

Tesla’s nascent robotaxi program is off to a rough start. New NHTSA crash data, combined with Tesla’s new disclosure of...

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

*slowly places the UK into the sea*

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

*slowly places 90% complete MRC draft into the Recycle Bin*

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orbette @orbette.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Absolutely phenomenal thread

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Andrew Cherry @kolektiv.xyncro.com · 28/01/2026

This government clearly don't really understand the complexity or the danger of the situation. They show no sign of beginning to understand, and every sign of asking the monorail salesman how public transport should work. It's going to be an uphill struggle, but don't leave this to politicians.

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Joseph Rowntree Foundation @jrf-uk.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Poverty is deepening. 🔎 Our #UKPoverty2026 report was launched this morning. People in very deep poverty now make up the biggest group of people in poverty, at 6.8 million people. This is unacceptable for the fifth richest country in the world, and it has consequences.

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Paul F. Tompkins @pftompkins.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

I think the solution to this worry is to knock all this dumb shit off

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 18/01/2026

For all those involved in drafting so-called AI guidelines, but being overwhelmed with nonsense, this is a lifesaver. Great work by Dagmar and Ariel! Resisting Enchantment and Determinism: How to critically engage with AI university guidelines. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

The list of most relevant themes we identified is:
1. Rhetoric of inevitability and technological determinism: presenting the adoption and use of
(generative) AI as a fait accompli.
2. Exaggerated narratives: overstating the general capabilities of the technology, or leaving out that
certain seemingly impressive capabilities can only be achieved under very specific experimental
conditions.
3. Spurious comparison to human intelligence or Anthropomorphism: presenting AI as if it thinks or
reason like a human.
4. Ethics and critical washing: presenting AI as being ethically or critically examined but doing so only
superficially and inconsequentially.
5. Wishful thinking and uncertain feasibility: assuming desired outcomes or functionality despite lacking
realistic evidence they can be achieved.
6. GenAI is presented as indispensable: portraying AI as essential even when simpler or non-AI solutions
are sufficient.
7. Unrealistic and ill-defined conditions: formulating requirements for adoption and use that are
functionally impossible or too demanding to be met, psychologically implausible to follow, or set
unclear boundaries for acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, which could easily create
inconsistencies.
8. Resources as propaganda: resources for students, faculty, and other stakeholders are made available
but only for incentivizing different degrees of use of genAI.
9. AI Overkill: Substitution or replacement of tasks for which the technology was not designed; from
tutoring to teaching to research, everything must be now with AI, even if it is not adequate.
Due to space limitations, rather than discussing all of the themes superficially, this essay addresses only the
first four, which, in our view, are the most critical and the most urgently in need of critical scrutiny. T

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Micah @rincewind.run · 27/12/2025

the robot also doubling over as if it kicked itself in the balls too makes this ten times funnier

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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Scientists now believe that the human brain--a magic goo for worrying--can also be used to do other things

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Colin Yeo @colinyeo.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

The “Labour” Party finds itself arguing ordinary workers, carers and others are “takers”.

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Damian Cruse @damiancruse.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

🚨 Fully funded PhD scholarship to work with me, Ali Mazaheri, Dhruv Parekh, and Katrien Segaert at the University of Birmingham on new brain-based tools to improve diagnoses of consciousness after severe brain injury. 🚨 Deadline: 9th January 2026 Full details and application form: lnkd.in/ejZkfFbW

lnkd.in

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

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Juan Linde-Domingo @lindedomingo.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Asking informally: does anyone know someone who might be interested in a postdoc focused on understanding changes in memory representations driven by attention using EEG? ⚡️Thanks!

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BUCKERS @deathofbuckley.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Baby, Sporty, Ginger, Scary, and "what did I come in here for?" x

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