iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 30/09/2026

I for one think it’s bad that the president can just say crazy stuff all day every day and 99% of it doesn’t make the news because we’ve normalized having an insane president

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Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

We can simulate fish schools or ants in ways that solve complex problems (gradient detection, bridge building, nest selection) but no one would create this weird soul/no-soul dichotomy to argue they these that multi-agent swarms of extremely simple rules are “thinking”.

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Daniel Ucko @danielucko.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

If filtering by peer review fails it will be by reputation. But: ”Reputation does not behave like a currency you can earn; it behaves like land. It is finite, it is inherited, and its owners collect on it without having to produce anything new.” So AI-generated research will bring back feudalism.

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Retraction Watch @retractionwatch.com · 01/08/2026

A lawsuit filed under the U.S. False Claims Act accuses Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Informa of perpetrating a decade-long scheme to defraud the government by charging exorbitant article processing charges.

retractionwatch.com

Federal lawsuit accuses four major publishers of extorting article processing charges

iStock A lawsuit filed under the U.S. False Claims Act accuses four major publishers of perpetrating a decade-long scheme to defraud the government by charging exorbitant article processing charges…

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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.

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Science Integrity Alliance @sci-integrity.com · 08/10/2025

🌱 We're thrilled to share that our editorial team is growing! Under the leadership of Matt Hodgkinson (Editorial Lead), SIA’s newly formed Editorial Committee brings together a stellar group of experts.✨✨ @mattjhodgkinson.scicomm.xyz.ap.brid.gy @andre-brasil.bsky.social @danielucko.bsky.social

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?" A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons. Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.

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Melody Schreiber @melodyschreiber.com · 09/08/2025

NEW: The FDA may yank Pfizer's under-5 Covid vaccine this fall. Pfizer has the only pediatric vaccines for all kids over six months, not just those with health conditions. My latest: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

theguardian.com

Pfizer Covid vaccine for young children may not be renewed by FDA

Email obtained by Guardian says Pfizer was told approval may not be granted, meaning Moderna may have to fill gap

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Ina Hallström @killedbyproxy.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Swedish transport unions have advocated for shorts in uniforms during hot weather, but the option keeps disappearing with new contractors. An effective tactic has been for male employees to wear skirts instead, which has led to the reinstatement of shorts thrice: in 2002, 2013, and now again.

flamman.se

Män i kjol – fackets sista stridsåtgärd i hettan

Andreas Nyman: Det blev en del skämt om skottar och något enstaka ”madame”

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Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Folks, the situation with the latest anti-vaccine preprint making the rounds is way worse than initially assessed. There's even a dash of plagiarism! reeserichardson.blog/2025/07/28/n...

reeserichardson.blog

No, mRNA vaccines do not cause “transcriptomic chaos”

A review of a recent anti-vaccine preprint

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Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

I have lots of things on my to-do list today, so naturally I have been distracted by the latest anti-vax bullshit. The regular crowd is abuzz with the news of a new study (preprinted on preprints.org by @mdpiopenaccess.bsky.social). The lead author posted this illustrative video on Twitter.

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 05/07/2025

In a horrifying article about the dangers of Teslas, one point stands out: Teslas automatically disengage self-driving mode <1 second before an imminent crash--not enough time for the driver to react, but enough for Tesla to deny responsibility for fatal crashes, since self-driving "wasn't engaged."

$The real surprise came after the experiment. Fred Lambert, who writes for the blog Electrek, pointed out the same autopilot disengagement that the NHTSA had documented. “Autopilot appears to automatically disengage a fraction of a second before the impact as the crash becomes inevitable,” Lambert noted.$

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Alt NIH Bluesky 🧪 @altnih4science.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

It’s a very good letter from these brave EPA employees. They highlight how Zeldin flipflopped between his Senate hearing and now. And they squarely connect President Russell Vought to what’s happening at EPA.

Human Health and the Environment Administrator Zeldin, at your Senate confirmation hearing, you committed to leading EPA in its "simple but essential" mission. You expressed gratitude that President-elect Trump had given you the opportunity to "do everything in our power to harness the greatness of American innovation with the greatness of American conservation
nd environmental stewardship." You acknowledged the realities of climate change, the benefits of clean energy, the economic need for environmental justice, and the importance of protecting human health through smart regulation. Like you, EPA employees are committed to these principles. We call on you to reaffirm your testimony, honor your oath to the Constitution, and renew your commitment to become the environmental
steward the public entrusted you to be.
Our Five Primary Concerns Under your leadership, Administrator Zeldin, this administration is recklessly
undermining the EPA mission in at least

programs is not cutting waste; it is failing to serve the American
people. 4. Dismantling the Office of Research and Development. EPA's research provides the scientific basis for its rulemaking, stakeholder
needs, and other key decisions. U.S. Law (42 U.S.C. § 4363) states that
the EPA Administrator shall "establish a separately identified program of continuing, long-term
environmental research and development," which is currently led by the Office of Research and Development, or ORD. Your administration has proposed a reorganization that moves EPA's foundational research to the Administrator's Office and reassigns ORD's research staff to the program
offices. A move that places ORD

Promoting a culture of fear, forcing staff to choose between
their livelihood and well-being. OMB Director Russell Vought has stated that he wants EPA employees to be in a constant state of trauma and unable to do their jobs: "When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. Yre want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can't do all of the rules against our energy industry […..] We want to put them in
trauma.
Administrator Zeldin, you have done your best to ensure that employees have no recourse against
these assaults by nullifying

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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 30/06/2025

🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨 At 7:59am, Zeldin - Trump crony and head of EPA - received the Declaration of Dissent from EPA workers. Workers are uniting against political interference, censorship & rollbacks at EPA under Zeldin’s leadership. Someone’s week is off to a bad start. (1/5)

Image: Faux-newspaper front page with headline “BREAKING NEWS: Workers Unite to Expose Political Interference, Censorship, and Rollbacks at Environmental Protection Agency.” Below, smoke billows from a power plant as a photo of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin appears beside a tilted EPA sign. Subhead reads: “One bad day at the EPA – Zeldin gets a wake-up call.”

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Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 26/06/2025

For parents, for physicians, for everyone - The American Academy of Pediatrics will continue to publish *evidence-based* vaccine guidelines for children.

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Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 03/06/2025

The parents of kids in the original pediatric Covid vaccine trials care more about scientific integrity than the people leading our scientific agencies. Unbelievable. And maddening. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Quote from a parent of a child involved in pediatric Covid vaccine trials: My kids contributed literal blood and tears to help demonstrate the safety of these vaccines.

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Daniel Ucko @danielucko.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

“Moderna was trying… to invent a vaccine platform it could deploy rapidly against several types of influenza, including the H5N1 bird flu… it’s not the price of eggs keeping infectious-disease doctors up at night. It’s the possibility that a strain mutates, jumps species, and ends up in humans...”

trying.to

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Haus of Decline @hausofdecline.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

Dr. Who is a terrifying premise. Don't like the idea of an alien that can go any where any time but still chooses to mostly hang out with the British.

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Presidential budget is out. Here's NSF. Biggest cut, by amount, is $1 billion, or 66.8%, from MPS (Physics & Math directorate). nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF...

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 27/05/2025

Last week / this week

Today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from
@CDCgov
recommended immunization schedule. Bottom line: it’s common sense and it’s good science. We are now one step closer to realizing
@POTUS
’s promise to Make America Healthy Again.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 20/05/2025

“Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires the government to provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason.”

motherjones.com

Does Kristi Noem even know what habeas corpus is?

The Homeland Security secretary's word salad raised even more questions about the administration's assault on fundamental rights.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20/05/2025

DURBIN: How can we give hope to people across the country who are suffering from so many diseases when our government is cutting back on that research? RFK Jr: I do not know about any cuts to ALS research D: I just read them to you! R: I didn't know about them until you told me about them

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20/05/2025

HASSAN: What is habeas corpus? NOEM: Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country HASSAN: That's incorrect

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

AI is a plagiarism engine built on stolen data, exploited labour, and enviro harm. Marketed as “intelligent,” it erodes critical thinking, empathy, and causes psychological harm. Run by authoritarian billionaires, it’s used for surveillance, profiling, and genocide—whether it works or makes up shit.

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ChrisO_wiki @chriso-wiki.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

1/ The US government has ordered the Swedish city of Stockholm to end its diversity, inclusivity and equality (DEI) programmes within 10 days. The city authorities say the demand is "bizarre" and they won't be complying. ⬇️

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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 04/05/2025

I hope everyone working on LLMs has reckoned with their role in building a technology that, so far, has offered little to no benefit to humanity — while causing real harm by degrading art, undermining labor in creative industries, and straight up automating political propaganda

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Daniel Ucko @danielucko.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Fun fact: the US constitution does not ban convicted felons from running for office or serving in office. I guess the founders did not think this might happen. France on the other hand might have been more cynical, to their benefit. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

theguardian.com

Marine Le Pen barred from running for French presidency in 2027

Far-right leader found guilty of embezzlement of European funds and immediately barred from running for office

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Graham Kendall @grahamkendall.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

"Blanket sanctions on journals harm researchers’ development" Really interesting article, with a perspective from an EiC. Well worth a read, so that we see both sides of the story. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

A few years back, centrist Democrats & the Very Serious People mocked & dismissed the slogan ‘abolish ICE’. Today’s actions are a reminder of how ICE is a rogue, lawless agency that is easily weaponized by an authoritarian administration & that it very much should be abolished.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 09/03/2025

"Paper self-citation: An unexplored phenomenon." Yes, there are 44,000 papers that purportedly cite themselves in the Web of Science dataset. These authors had the opportunity to do the funniest thing but alas. arxiv.org/pdf/2503.04324

Paper self-citation:
An unexplored phenomenon
Robin Haunschild* and Lutz Bornmann*,**
*R.Haunschild@fkf.mpg.de, L.Bornmann@fkf.mpg.de
0000-0001-7025-7256; 0000-0003-0810-7091
Information Retrieval Service CPT, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Germany
**bornmann@gv.mpg.de
0000-0003-0810-7091
Science Policy and Strategy Department, Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society, Germany
In this study, we investigated a phenomenon that one intuitively would assume does not exist: self-citations on the
paper basis. Actually, papers citing themselves do exist in the Web of Science (WoS) database. In total, we
obtained 44,857 papers that have self-citation relations in the WoS raw dataset. In part, they are database artefacts
but in part they are due to papers citing themselves in the conclusion or appendix. We also found cases where
paper self-citations occur due to publisher-made highlights promoting and citing the paper. We analyzed the self-
citing papers according to selected metadata. We observed accumulations of the number of self-citing papers
across publication years. We found a skewed distribution across countries, journals, authors, fields, and document
types. Finally, we discuss the implications of paper self-citations for bibliometric indicators.
1. Introduction
In simple terms, a self-citation usually happens when the citing paper and the cited paper have
at least one author in common (Carley, Porter, & Youtie, 2013). However, self-citations cannot
only be studied on the basis of authors, but also on the level of journals, institutions, and
countries (Bakare & Lewison, 2017). In these cases, self-citations are defined as citing papers
and cited papers that have at least one journal, one institution, or one country in common. Most
of the studies dealing with self-citations in previous bibliometric studies have considered self-
citations on the author level. The accuracy of the common author identification at the citing and
cited paper can…

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Daniel Ucko @danielucko.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

As responsible for #researchintegrity at my journal portfolio, I was consulted on a case where they removed authors and the parts of the paper they contributed to, as a paper was transferred inside our portfolio. The corresponding author is from China, and the removed authors are US-based. (1/3)

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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 06/03/2025

BREAKING: The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University has reneged on their commitment to host the @sciencewriters.org annual conference and withdrew their entire financial support. The National Association of Science Writers is now looking for a new venue, sponsors, and partners.

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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

"No Other Land," the Palestinian-Israeli made film showing the destruction of the occupied West Bank's Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers, just won the Oscar for Best Documentary. It can't get a distributor in the US. Which tells you everything about censorship in the US.

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Katie Phang @katiephang.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

NEW: “Kennedy paused a multimillion dollar project to create a new Covid-19 vaccine in pill form on Tuesday, and the Food and Drug Administration canceled an advisory committee meeting on updating next season’s flu vaccine.” newrepublic.com/post/192059/...

newrepublic.com

RFK Jr. Takes a Sledgehammer to Two Major Vaccine Developments

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is already implementing his dangerous anti-vax views at HHS.

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Prof Julia Steinberger 🌹🌱🌍 #ClimateAction #Fightfascism @jksteinberger.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity. TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄

NO CHATGPT Or other artificial stupidity: motivation
First, clarity on distinguishing AIs:
Non-generative: grammar aid, translation, dictionary, text-to-audio (e.g. Natural Reader): no problem
As long as you use the appropriate tools (least intensive in data and server energy use).
Why? Because you provide the content. Your brain is doing the most important work
Generative: ChatGPT & Co.
You only supply the prompt, the AI supplies the content.
Why is this delegation of work problematic?
3 domains: ethical, environmental, intellectual engagement.

(Caveat: generative is probably ok for computer programming, where it can be useful and save time. Not relevant to this class.)

1) AI and ethics
Mass theft of all and everything
«learning» on books, articles, blogs, social media, images, music, cultural production, without permission of authors/creators, and leading to their mass joblessness. Profits are not reditributed to originators.
Permanent destruction of the mental health of underpaid precarious tech workers in the Global South (Kenya, Philippines …):
«correction» to avoid production of violent and pedophile contents etc, tech workers are obliged to watch and correct super violent contents for days on end, leading to extreme psychological suffering and trauma, from which recovery is doubtful. No or little compensation (certainly not at the level of the suffering inflicted).
In short, an industry built on theft of real human creation and sacrifice of real human health, profiting a few megafortunes.

2) AI and (un)sustainability

Massive consumption of electricity, water, server capacity for generative AI.
Outcome: keep fossil fuel companies in business, using up new renewable capacity, without any satisfaction of basic human needs.
Massive misappropriation of the finance necessary for climate and ecological action (renewable generation, efficiency and retrofit for buildings, public transit, infrastructures for cycling etc) towards AI industry.
Overall: undermine climate action, reinforce fossil industry, waste resources necessary for human development.

3) AI and intellectual engagement

First, what learning is (or should be) about:
The goal should not (only) be the reproduction of «correct» knowledge,
But mainly personal engagement and experience of thinking about topics of interest. Personal engagement = using one’s own brain.
The most important activity for learning and intellectual engagement is the experience of making one’s own mistakes, by trial and error, corrections based on new ideas, starting over again. Learning to recognise nuances, knowledge gaps, better explanations
This kind of learning is possible only through using your own brain, not AI.
Also, Ais are not «intelligent». At all.
They simply reproduce pre-existing patterns. They «bullshit», invent false references, false facts, false data, simply because those sound plausible. VERY DANGEROUS.
If you learn how to NOT use AI, and how to research facts and data on your own, this will serve you and your communities for the rest of your life.

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Patrick Stokes @patrickstokes.com · 23/02/2025

NATO can't protect Europe from Russia because the US has defected. The EU can't because UK is no longer a member. The UN can't because of Russia & US. We need a body with Europe + UK but not Russia + US, with existing admin infrastructure. What I'm saying is: arm the Eurovision Song Contest.

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Irene Hames @irenehames.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

COPE’s position on banned terms in scholarly publications and restrictions on researchers' activities. It is monitoring the situation closely to understand what additional guidance will be needed, and encourages its communities to approach it directly with questions or concerns #PublicationEthics

doi.org

Banned terms in scholarly publications and restrictions on researchers' activities

A response to concerns raised regarding prohibition of specific terminology, and restrictions on researchers' activities.

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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

twitter ended up being very corrosive for expertise….not by empowering know-nothings, but rather by making specialized people self-destruct

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Lonni Besançon @lonnibesancon.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

🧵 How bad science fuels vaccine misinformation – and what happens when the data doesn't fit the narrative. You might remember Christine Stabell Benn & Peter Aaby, whose terrible study on COVID-19 vaccines my team and I debunked: 📌 osf.io/preprints/j8ykx

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Brian Nosek @briannosek.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Trust in science, and the status of science as a public good, has relied on public institutions as a foundation for providing resources and infrastructure and for adopting policies that promote research integrity. The last few weeks suggest that we could lose some of that foundation in the US. 1/

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Angus Johnston @angus.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

One thing that I'm increasingly coming to believe is that stories are going to be central to what comes next. Stories of the harm done. Stories of the great things achieved by government in the past. Stories of valor kindness and quotidian simple resistance.

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Daniel Ucko @danielucko.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

At first I didn’t fully realize why these incompetents and mediocrities get nominated into positions of great responsibility. I thought it was just about their demonstrated loyalty but I think it’s more than that. If you elevate such a person they know on some level that they’re very lucky and…

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alicemeadows.bsky.social @alicemeadows.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

"A cornerstone of SSP’s strategic plan is to foster DEIA in our community" Really happy to see my "home" org @scholarlypub.bsky.social come out strongly in support of #diversity #equity #inclusion #accessibility - recommitting to our values in this Board statement www.sspnet.org/community/ne...

sspnet.org

Reflections on the Current Moment from SSP's Board of Directors

The recent months have been deeply unsettling for those of us who work in the global scholarly communications industry.

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