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Jon Coburn

@joncoburn.bsky.social
1.2K followers 2.2K following 155 posts

Mediocre historian. University of Lincoln, UK | US history | activism | protest suicide | information literacy |

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
"Rita Ora has the Lidl Plus App" "Stacey Solomon gives Joe a sticker for helping with the dishes" "Alesha Dixon made bairns cry at the Hoppings" "Jessie J doesn't donate 10p to charity at the checkout" "Lorraine Kelly is barred from Wetherspoons for stealing cutlery"
chroniclelive.co.uk
Community urged to report bizarre celeb-obsessed graffiti artist to police
Bizarre graffiti about a range of celebrities has been daubed across the Newcastle suburb
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Michael Spicer @michaelspicer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Most TV is just this now.
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Sarah Andersen @sarahseeandersen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The image is of a four panel comic.
In the first panel we see Sarah, the protagonist, next to a stick figure labeled “AI”. The stick figure says, “my outputs look just like yours now.”
The second panel zooms in on Sarah’s face. Above her we see text reading “I think”.
The third panel zooms in closer on Sarah’s face. Text above her reads “you missed”.
The fourth panel shows Sarah drawing happily in a sunlit room. The text above her reads “the point”.
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the hills have vrunt @vrunt.social · 19/09/2026
sure yeah, can't even make a stick figure without fucking up and no one at the company gives enough of a shit to even give it another pass but go ahead and take my money so i can use this lazy shit technology every day too
ad for some AI company called evenfall
copy says "meet derek. ai every day. always hitting a wall. then he found evenfall"
the only graphic is a stick figure holding... a tablet maybe? he's missing an arm
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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 19/09/2026
They are built for a mission which is definitionally impossible. You cannot beat the sea. This Earth should be called Ocean and the water is the most powerful thing on it. But these folks volunteer to go out there and fight it anyway because humans should take care of humans.
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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 19/09/2026
The RNLI is the closest you will ever get to actual Batman. When rescue is visibly, viscerally, obviously impossible; when the water is a smothering, thundering black wall and the wind is screaming straight from Hell; when you are absolutely going to die: someone’s hand pulls you out and you don’t.
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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Symbols matter. White House isn't a palace. Kennedy Center is for the general public to enjoy. We don't have a triumphal arch in DC because that's imperial. We don't put the president's face on money because it's monarchical. It's about tearing down everything that says we're a democratic republic.
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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"your advisors" It's not a bad thing to have Republicans start to tell the fairy tale "the czar is good, it's just the demonic Miller and Hegseth leading him astray," insofar as that requires admitting that stuff is bad, but the czar is not actually good.
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Jon Coburn @joncoburn.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
From a “primary source analysis” perspective this is absolutely fascinating: - attack ad but has to pretend they’re having a nice conversation with the target - not actually about the target but about their advisors - only “some” efforts out of hand, sir - “oh I don’t mean total amnesty either”
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
It’s remarkable how certain politicians are that they’ll be remembered by a few quotes they gave rather than what they did with the power of their office.
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 16/09/2026
"Guys, before we put this live, should we check if there's any symbolism to the closing date?" "Nah, should be fine."
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Foucault's Pudendum @kaitave.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The same cover, but with the "say 'i am alive'" AI meme pasted on top of it after 10000 hours in MSPaint
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Lucy Prebble @lucyprebblish.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Not so smug about the believability of them continuing to build Jurassic Parks now are we
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
'Am I really reading a report on universities offering work experience that has managed to involve 30 universities, 200 employers and business groups, a poll of 500 employer senior leaders, but not a single student?' 'I am, I'm afraid.' UUK: universities, but without the faff of students & staff.
wonkhe.com
UUK's work experience target forgets that most students already have some
Am I really reading a report on universities offering work experience that has managed to involve 30 universities, 200 employers and business groups, a poll of 500 employer senior leaders, but not a s...
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Jon Coburn @joncoburn.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This is an actual genuine literal reason for running a “History of Now” course this year
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Jon Coburn @joncoburn.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I don’t want to extrapolate from a limited set of data but everything wrong with history in the UK is captured here
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
'a record 13,220 UK 18 year olds met the conditions of their firm offer and then decided not to attend university this year.'
wonkhe.com
Data from the 28th day of clearing shows some concerning trends
There are very much winners and losers today
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🇬🇾🗽Sydette The Dreaded Gorgon🗽🇬🇾 @blackamazon.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This this THIS RIGHT HERE
The worst case scenario isn’t “AI goes rogue and makes disastrous mistakes,” but a bunch of people at at AI startup over-promising what their systems can do, get handed access to critical systems, write sloppy prompts, code, and configurations, trigger a disaster, then trying to dodge responsibility by screaming about the Singularity and AGI, and flooding technically illiterate regulators with a massive tsunami of technobabble.
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Peter Whitewood @pwhitewood.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Why is the answer to employers wanting more work ready graduates always that universities should provide more workplace training, rather than employers providing more training in the workplace?
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Jon Coburn @joncoburn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
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Catherynne M. Valente @catvalente.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The world has become an endless janky late 90s voicemail tree into which we’re all constantly screaming OPERATOR, hoping desperately to find some hidden backdoor into actually interacting with a living human person because that’s all that can fix what’s wrong And failing, because the tree must feed
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Jon Coburn @joncoburn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I’ll go further - if Vance said this, if Eric said if if if…there is no one else on earth who can say this and expect to still have a public life. Reagan may have been teflon, but Trump is somehow holographic - everyone’s pretending he isn’t there, isn’t saying these things
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Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The operative word in "Protect our women!" is not "women" but "our".
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 05/09/2026
If these chatbots were conscious (they are 100% not) all they do is kill kids, make CSAM, scam people, hack companies. Not some kind soul deserving of anything. But of course AI systems are inanimate objects owned by known associates of pedophiles and serial scammers. So it actually makes sense.
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Jon Coburn @joncoburn.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Let’s say I “intentionally integrate” LLMs into every class by: - repeatedly calling them shite - pointing out the failures, biases, harms they cause - having students demonstrate to themselves that they are better than any LLM Is that acceptable or is it only integration when we sell the product?
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 06/09/2026
We know how to teach books in the age of AI: small classes, close reading, research-engaged learning (which is how you ’let students see you struggle’). The issue is nobody will hire and pay the requisite # of faculty to offer this.
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The idea that classrooms are chiefly spaces for product testing, and that it is irresponsible pedagogy not to enforce this, is both cynical and vile, and “fuck off” is a cogent response from any professional educator to any non-teaching salescreep or tech-but-not-subject-matter expert who voices it.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
3. There is such a thing as teaching basic principles in a field to students (which you clearly acknowledge in this piece). In mine it would be learning how to find and read primary sources and how to interpret material culture. These skills need to be developed in students independent of gAI, imo.
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Jon Coburn @joncoburn.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
If we believe that the humanities are the indispensable subject for 21st century Information literacy (and I do) then we only need to do one thing - teach the humanities
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UncleEraserheadBabyBilly @lepcyrus.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
are we making users? is that our job now? i don't remember agreeing to that
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Jon Coburn @joncoburn.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I’ve written about this, I keep shouting about this - the best “skill set” for catching what AI gets wrong is KNOWING STUFF. KNOWLEDGE is a skill set.
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Stephanie Porras @periodeye.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The brilliant Emily Pugh on search/research, the google-fication of library search tools (also subscribe to her newsletter bc I always learn something!) electrictoaster.substack.com/p/discovery-...
electrictoaster.substack.com
Discovery Channels: Berrypicking with GooAIgle
Searching versus Researching in 2026 (Post 2!)
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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 29/08/2026
"It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the HHS secretary sees deaths from outbreaks of diseases we had beaten or contained, like measles and cyclosporiasis, as a form of social hygiene that kills off the weak and susceptible."
lnk.thebulwark.com
RFK Jr.’s Toxic World
The HHS secretary uses fear of contamination to denigrate modern medicine and advance a project rooted in vulgar eugenics.
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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Not my footage, but video from North Shields Fish Quay beach this evening of crows eating nurdles. Volunteers are saying the quantity of nurdles on the beach today is as it was in the earliest days. Birds eating nurdles face starvation. Just 11 nurdles can lead to a 50% chance of death, 23 to 90%.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Failures of communication turn out to hamper graduate hiring for small businesses and newly developing industries. (Meanwhile of course, degrees focused on communication are dismissed as 'Mickey Mouse' degrees...).
ft.com
The companies desperate to hire graduates
Entry-level roles are under threat from AI but some employers still struggle to find skilled young workers
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Ted Underwood @tedunderwood.com · 27/08/2026
MIT report is superb. It acknowledges disruption, concedes different disciplines will handle this differently, foregrounds people and social interaction — but also says something obvious I had just about given up hope institutions could say: aiandeducation.mit.edu/report/
3.1.1. Revisit course goals
Before considering how to construct Al-aware assessments, instructors should reconsider their goals for student learning- in every subject they teach. What should students know or be able to do by the end of the course?
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Jon Coburn @joncoburn.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Sleep tight
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Premee Mohamed @premeemohamed.com · 24/08/2026
What if we...
a button design: button is yellow and black for aposematic purposes, and reads 'if you use a.i. don't talk to me, i will bite your face clean off your skull.' in the middle is a bitey-looking beetle with a little skull making a sad face above its mandibles.
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Every ad now
[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.]

JANET:
Ugh...

LIZ:
What's up?

JANET:
I am so bored of cooking peas!

LIZ:
Have you tried...

AI peas?

JANET:
AI peas?

LIZ:
They're peas with AI!

[Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI].

LIZ:
Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas

JANET:
What

LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines]

Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas?

[Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it]

LIZ:

Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine

[Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas]

LIZ:
With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas!

JANET:
What

LIZ:
Shut up

LIZ:
Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow

From opening the bag of peas

to boiling the peas

to eating the peas

To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means.

JANET:
Is it really necessary to-

LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]:
THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET

[Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan:

AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas.

[Ends]
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History Lab Plus @historylabplus.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Final call for today’s fantastic panel discussing post-PhD careers beyond the PhD, including politics, research, administration, and the private sector. Join us on Teams at 5:30. Sign up and more info here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... @royalhistsoc.org @ihr.bsky.social
history.ac.uk
Finding a Role: Using History PhD Skills Beyond HE
History Lab+ Training
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Jon Coburn @joncoburn.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
“cognitive sabotage” is a nice descriptor, I think
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David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
This is what selling your soul looks like.
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Natalia (娜塔莉) @wrycritic.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I can't believe the amount of recent history revisionism in the UK. Response to Polish immigration was so severe that it successfully led to Brexit. BREXIT. And tanked British economy. This happened last decade, you can just Google it.
Post on X Remember in early 2000s thousands of Polish men immigrated over to UK cause their economy crashed but no one said fuck all cause they came to work, minded their own buisness an left our kids alone.....

Response Most Poles who emigrated to the UK in the early 2000s remember something completely different and photo of xenophobic graffiti
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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The loss of search structure is devastating for knowledge retrieval. I teach basic lit searching and it's always felt like a really core transferable skill for students to know boolean operators and "exact phrase searching" and now google, microsoft etc have just killed it to force us to use slopAI.
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Chris Person @papapishu.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Sorry chatbot lovers but the waning of Boolean operators in most search functions on websites has made my life actively worse. You can't find anything, you can only have things suggested to you.
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Kate Jackson @katejackson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
None of these things are possible now that we have to worry about AI cheating. Back to blue books and hand-graded multiple choice. Oral exams.
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Kate Jackson @katejackson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
What’s worse is that Ai is eliminating the usefulness of previously useful tech. Use of internet in classroom? It used to make exams more efficient. You can use canvas for quizzes and tests. No more deciphering handwriting, no more scan tron machines. Students can use e-textbooks saved in the cloud.
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Kate Jackson @katejackson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Finally, we are not a bunch of luddites. Even humanities folks love things like zotero and scrivener. Anyone with classes over 100 students praises the good lord for spreadsheets (pls forgive). We’ve all gotten comfy with zoom and canvas and online publishing.
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Kate Jackson @katejackson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
It feels like industry is waiting for universities to come up with ideas about how they can use Ai and all I can think is: it is not my job to make your business more profitable.
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