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Nicki Clarkson

@nickiclarkson.bsky.social
1.2K followers 904 following 226 posts

Engagement Librarian at the University of Southampton, lover of cats, cake, coffee, knitting & Board Meeting Bingo, embarrassing parent. Please block me if you are a transphobe. Views: my own. She/her

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Reposted by Nicki Clarkson
Jay Hulme @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Side note: a random priest was once like "You have friends who aren't Christians, what'd you say if they asked you "who is this Jesus guy?"" And I had to be like "dude, weird evangelism implications aside, nobody in twenty first century England has ever asked that question. What is wrong with you?"
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Catherine Clarke @cathamclarke.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I'll be at Blackwells, Oxford, on Tuesday 1 December - perfect timing for me to show you how to use A History of England in 25 Poems as a Time Travel Advent Calendar... I'll also share stories from the book, using poems as time machines into history... www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/catherine-...
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Endless Screaming @infinitescream.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
AAHHHHH
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Natacha @natacha.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Any cis women who are disgusted by the Burnham government's transphobic policy of segregation can sign the @nionwomen.bsky.social petition, which is now closing in on 110,000 signatures. notinourname.org.uk
notinourname.org.uk
Home - Not in our name
Not In our Name: Women in support of the trans+community
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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 19/07/2026
Could Excel be conscious? We surveyed more than Jan 1 1900 people to find out.
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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
"don't cite what you haven't read" remains the basic entry level academic responsibility; & if your discpline "doesn't have that as a norm" then sorry, your discipline needs reforming for this new world. Citations are structural parts of trust and knowledge building, not trinkets or optional extras
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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Today in ‘we’re* completely fucked’ news… *A random subsection of arts, plus geography (?), computing (?!), and nursing (???!).
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Jess O'Thomson @jessothomson.co.uk · 03/07/2026
🚨 WE NEED YOU 🚨 As a new Prime Minister comes into power, we want to show that an overwhelming number of people support trans people, and want the government to take serious action to protect their rights. Will you say you stand with trans people? And share with everyone you know?
goodlaw.social
I stand with trans people | Good Law Project
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Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
I am BEGGING people - think tanks, governments, random organisations - to DATE YOUR REPORTS WHEN YOU DO THE PDFS. It should not be THIS HARD to find a BLOODY PUBLICATION DATE. You might think everyone will remember the magical day you published it years later. But you are delusional.
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Nicki Clarkson @nickiclarkson.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
I covet, and highly recommend, all of Jamie’s pins. My latest very retrained purchase is for my younger daughter 🏳️‍🌈
A sticker and a pin badge, both of Dr Who’s Tardis with rainbow colours on the door. I have artistically arranged them on flowering lobelia for the photo but they are beautiful and would look good on any background.
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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Weak weak weak
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Micah @rincewind.run · 06/06/2026
whenever people get into arguments about bluesky versus twitter I just come back to the fact that I don’t want to spend time on a platform where the biggest voices are the worst people on the planet
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Dr Jamie Gallagher @jamiebgall.co.uk · 02/06/2026
It’s Pride 🏳️‍🌈 Spare one repost for a small creator? 🥺 My science and sci fi pins raise money for homeless LGBTQ+ people. Just sent another £800 to @aktcharity.bsky.social bringing total to £47,521 New for Pride 2026: 🌈Scientist🌈 🏳️‍🌈🐥🦜🦅🏳️‍🌈 🌈pronouns🌈 www.jamiebgall.co.uk/shop
Pin badge “scientist” in rainbow motif Two bird pins. A series if birds sitting on a branch. Each bird is the colour of a stripe on the rainbow flag. Pronoun pins with rainbow motif:
She her 
He him 
She they 
He they 
They them An array of pride themed science and sci fi pins.
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Anna Dent @annadent.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Well this is news
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Draculosity Jones: Ghost Skeleton @brainmage.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Shameless self-promotion! I wrote a game! It won an award! I genuinely think that it is very funny! You can play it for free! What else are you going to do? Melt into the floor?? #heatwave #horsestrangulation #spiderbumhead brainmage.itch.io/i-will-stran...
brainmage.itch.io
i will strangle a horse by BRAINMAGE
A comedy twine-based choose-your-own-adventure game where it's your first day on The Farm, and you have One Job
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Haunt Publishing @hauntpublishing.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
It’s crunch time! There's just four days left until we close our creaking doors for good, so head to our website and grab yourself a scarily good 70% off all our books: audiobooks, ebooks and paperbacks. Use code at checkout: HAUNT70 www.hauntpublishing.com/books
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Micah @rincewind.run · 20/04/2026
Discworld QOTD, from Guards! Guards!
bet a king’d have something to say about landlords,” said Brother Plasterer.
“And he’d outlaw people with showy coaches,” said Brother Watchtower. “Probably bought with stolen money, too, I reckon.”

“I think,” said the Supreme Grand Master, tweaking things a little, “that a wise king would only, as it were, outlaw showy coaches for the undeserving.”

There was a thoughtful pause in the conversation as the assembled Brethren mentally divided the universe into the deserving and the undeserving, and put themselves on the appropriate side.
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Endless Screaming @infinitescream.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 31/03/2026
Happy Trans Day of Visibility. I know trans people and I know fascists who are making life difficult for trans people. The trans people are pretty cool and I'm glad I know them. The fascists can go fall down a deep dark hole.
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Nightmareliner Ontario @mostlyharmless.northsky.social · 25/03/2026
“You can separate the art from the artist.” Not when the artist in question is alive and using the vast profits from their franchise to punch down on a vulnerable minority, you can’t.
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Buckinghamshire Archives @bucksarchives.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Due to popular demand, here's every Space Marine legion from Warhammer 40,000 as a document in our collection. I: Dark Angels Obviously, they're this photograph of a tree in Burnham. Why this photograph? The tree has Fallen.
An image of a Dark Angels legion Space Marine in black power armour.A black and white photograph of a fallen tree in Burnham, cracked and crumbling on the ground.
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The Exploding Heads @explodingheads.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
"The War in Iran was started by WOKES!" Colin from Portsmouth says that the war is a ruse by carbon neutral lobbyists to put up the price of oil so we all start investing in green energy.
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It's Pipes, Mum! Pipes is here! @scriblit.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Please have a play. You are a raven. A creature of myth and legend... or just a big bird, your choice. Eat the gods! Dance with a Dracula! Take Edgar Allan Poe to Alton Towers! Ruin a Zumba class! Drive the M4 w a mythic princess! Get very lost & end up in the wrong game! j2gb9g9f.play.borogove.io
j2gb9g9f.play.borogove.io
Once Upon A Midnight Dreary
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Nicki Clarkson @nickiclarkson.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Badge-making for the AI Arts Festival, supervised by my true overlords Snips (black & white), Tiger (tabby) and Sabine (calico)
Open laptop with the title slide for my Copilot Cats presentation showing, and badges featuring cartoon cats artistically displayed on the keyboard.Sabine, a mostly white cat with ginger and black patches, looking at another cat off cameraTiger, a tabby cat, looking at the camera and thinking about DreamiesSnips, a black and white teenage kitten next to the open laptop, looking like he’s plotting something.
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Steve Klabnik @steveklabnik.com · 02/03/2026
I’ve always wanted my TV to Tell me game situations in the Sports
Some ai recommendation feature that says “I prepared some key words you will like” and then it says what I said in the post
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Matt Green @mattgreencomedy.com · 01/03/2026
Sometimes the metaphors are just a bit too on the nose
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
What a life! Another brilliant interview by @shattenstone.bsky.social
theguardian.com
‘She did kill. There’s no grey area there’: Labour MP Naz Shah on the day she and her mother were arrested for murder
The politician was 18 when she and her mum were hauled off to a police station for the killing of the man she’d considered an uncle. What happened next would shape her future. She talks Labour’s woes,...
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Keanu M. Heydari @keanuheydari.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
me when I get negative feedback on a draft
Trump saying “I was surprised because...I mean, l read the paragraphs, I read very well. Great comprehension. I read everything there is to read and I said, can't lose this case.”
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Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
OOOOH Researchfish Is going extinct 🐡🐟🐠 help.researchfish.com/en_US/resear...
help.researchfish.com
Researchfish — Information for Researchers Regarding Researchfish Sunsetting
After careful consideration, Elsevier have made the difficult decision to sunset Researchfish on July 31st 2027, when the product will no longer be availab
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Henning @geohenning.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Happy 6th "Large boulder the size of a small boulder" anniversary to those who celebrate! #Geology ⚒️
Twitter post screenshot of the San Miguel Sheriff account. 5 years ago they posted about a boulder on the road but referred to it as "Large boulder the size of a small boulder".
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 21/01/2026
The New World asked me to speak to some British trans women about what life has been like for them over the past few years - here's what they had to say, in their own words: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
I saw an academic unironically suggest that instead of assessing students’ understanding and competence through their writing of essays, arguments etc., we can assess the “quality” of their prompts, and I feel us slipping further and further into dystopia.
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Claire Boardman @claireboardman.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
This whole🧵 Reduce online noise by replacing the meaningless term 'artificial intelligence' w/ the actual analytical approach(s) used + any design,dev & application info needed for a useful conversation. Alternatively, rather than solutionising describe the task/activity/procedure to be automated.
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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 19/12/2025
I think this post nails the actual problem, for researchers at least—AI hallucinations would simply not be a problem in academic work if we’d not normalized citation-as-signaling rather than actual engagement—you can only cite a fake paper if you’re not in the habit of reading the papers you cite
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Buckinghamshire Archives @bucksarchives.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Don't steal pies this Christmas.
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Nicki Clarkson @nickiclarkson.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Final comedy gig of the year and the audience agreed with me that Die Hard IS a Christmas movie 🎄
Me, a middle aged white woman, wearing a Santa hat and holding a toy lizard who is also wearing a Santa hat. I am wearing a necklace that says “Die Hard is a Christmas movie”
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Celeste Labedz @celestelabedz.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
You are ABSOLUTELY NOT going to regret listening to this bird:
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Rachel Playforth @archelina.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Oh joy, another helpful AI infographic via LinkedIn. Off I go to my job as a liberaian, maybe to run some critical evaligane workshops and of course use New! Boulean! Logic!
Infographic officially generated by AI and full of weird spellings as follows: AI-EMPOWERED LIBERAIAN: A Guide to FUTURE SKILLS & TOOLS

CORE SKILLS

INFO LITERACY 2.0

PROMPT ENGINEERING

HALLUCINATION VERIFICATION

Crafting effective queries

New Boulean Logic

New Boulean Logic

Fixing bad Al answers

You: Human-in-the-loop

ALGORTHMIC BIAS

TOOL FLUENCY

Perpxlexy (Cited Ansiwers) (Lit Raviews)

Elicit (Lit Reviews)

Consesus (Science)

Spotting stereyptes Critical evaligane Workshops

YOU are the *Al-Literate Information Professional

Teach Patrons to Think Critically

ETHICS & LAW

PRACTICAL WINS


COPYRIGHT & IP

CATALOGING

Clean Metddata Transcribe Archives (Transkribus)

MARKETING

DATA PRIVACY

Al content not cophiyated

Social Media Captions

ACCESBILITY

No sensitive data in public Al Protecting user info

Video Transcripts Speech-to-Text

Be the Trust Agent

~Gatekeeper~
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Nicki Clarkson @nickiclarkson.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Dressed very formally for a networking event
Selfie of me, a middle aged white woman, wearing a large necklace that reads “Die Hard is a Christmas movie”
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Nicki Clarkson @nickiclarkson.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Happy Gazpacho Soup Day to all who celebrate
media.tenor.com
a man in a lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck is screaming .
Alt: Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf putting his fist in his mouth in embarrassment
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 21/11/2025
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick. Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
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Hugh Shanahan @hughshanahan.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Laughed then cried
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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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Open Research Leeds @openresleeds.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
The UK Reproducibility Network: OER for Open Research oercommons.org/hubs/ukrn @ukrepro.bsky.social @oercommons.bsky.social
oercommons.org
The UK Reproducibility Network
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Gail Simone @gailsimone.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
A reminder that this anti-trans panic is 100% bullshit and exactly none of our country’s problems are related to someone expressing their gender identity and everyone who isn’t a hate-filled weirdo knows it.
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David William with a 'This IS my costume' pin @nrvscrcts.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
"If Grokipedia is getting things about me wrong, what else is it getting wrong in other articles, where I do not have the same level of domain knowledge?" - @scalzi.com
whatever.scalzi.com
A Review of Grokipedia, Using Myself as Test Subject
What? You didn’t know that Grokipedia exists? Well, it does, and it’s Elon Musk’s attempt to run Wikipedia out of town on a rail: An “AI”-generated compendium of infor…
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
'New proposals by Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Wiley and Sage were sent to universities this week after their initial offers were decisively rejected by institutions in a sector-wide consultation run by Jisc,...negotiating jointly with Universities UK on behalf of universities.' 1/3
timeshighereducation.com
New offers from big five ‘still too costly’ for UK universities
‘Significant’ number of institutions predicted to drop deals with main scholarly imprints, leaving journal access much reduced
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Nicki Clarkson @nickiclarkson.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
This is my favourite laptop sticker and I have no idea why I like it so much (I paid £1 for it at Southampton Pride)
Laptop sticker reading “you wouldn’t steal a sticker”
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Nicki Clarkson @nickiclarkson.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Where do I work? Oh, just a totally normal university library
A metal sign on a wall reading “When alarm sounds stand well clear of trap door”
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Nicki Clarkson @nickiclarkson.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
Initial success in my quest for house plants that Snips won’t eat
Black and white 6 month old kitten with huge ears, a black nose and yellow eyes5 succulents in a shallow round dish, surrounded by pebbles (and with 2 plastic dinosaurs because they are cool)
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