Sign in

Richard Shaw

@richardshaw.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1K following 496 posts

Lecturer @ University of Glasgow, UK. Epidemiologist interested in mental-health and wellbeing, health inequalities, administrative data, education. Trying to learn Italian and Spanish.

PostsRepliesMedia
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 23h
We have had working spell checkers for several decades. Now thanks to whatever Beta testing (AI?) Microsoft is having us do on software. I am frequently seeing correctly spelled words highlighted. As somebody with dyslexia this is makes life a lot harder.
000
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"The population and systems medicine board awarded just three grants in spring 2026, which represents a success rate of 3.7 per cent, compared with an average of 12.7 per cent in 2025 and 18.6 per cent in 2024."
151
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Alison @ampage.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
What a sentence. What. A. Sentence.
27516
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
One thing that has always shaped my thinking is when I learned in school that agricultural workers are amongst the lowest paid. The problem is not that food (or other essentials) are expensive rather that the billions of people producing them do not get a fair wage.
120
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Microsoft's file explorer is so dysfunctional that I am starting to get envious of people with apple computers.
010
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Orkney Library & Archive @orkneylibrary.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Today is #HobbitDay because Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were both born on September 22nd. Normally we'd shire a hobbit pun or two but it might just feel like a tolkien gesture and we don't want to embarrass our elves. Anyway it's a good day to come and boromir #Tolkien books. 📚
A shelf of books by JRR Tolkien
652296633
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A problem with the UK's political system is the middle earners who believe they are among the most oppressed people in the world. In particular, people who forget that the UK is a high income country, and are conned into voting for people who will turn the UK into a low income country.
100
Reposted by Richard Shaw
L Break Into Program @breakintoprogram.co.uk · 21/09/2026
Mrs B has a year-old entry-level laptop for occasional use. Probably a dual-core Intel with 8GB of RAM sold with Win 11. If it's not used for a month or so it can be crippled for at least an hour whilst everything tries to sync and update at once. www.theregister.com/os-platforms...
4141
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Una McCormack @unamccormack.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
When I go on my mid-morning jaunt round to the cake shop, I see this mound of earth (right) and my immediate thought is that I’m looking at the Duke of Wellington’s grave.
3504
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Charlotte Walker @charlottewalker.bsky.social · 28/10/2023
Someone sent me this meme about peer reviewer comments and it is 👌🏻 #PhDSky #AcademicSky
3596183
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Mel Bartley @zetkin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Billionaires shouldn't be able to buy a bigger voice in politics. Add your name to ‪@electoralreform.bsky.social‬'s call to the government not to back down on putting a cap on how much they can donate into the Representation of the People Bill action.electoral-reform.org.uk/page/179420/...
action.electoral-reform.org.uk
Sign now to demand an end to big money in politics
It takes 30 seconds
011
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Alan Pope @popey.me · 12/09/2026
Got an old, slow laptop gathering dust? Bring it to Glasgow's Software Freedom Day repair café on 19 Sept — #OpenSource Glasgow will help you fix it up or install #Linux, free. Details: discourse.ubuntu.com/t/software-f...
096
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Lisa DeBruine @debruine.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I love the concrete examples of how to avoid anthropomorphism in this article: artificial intelligence → probabilistic automation image recognition → image labeling speech recognition → automatic transcription shows bias → reflects bias hallucination → undesirable output goal → success condition
39237
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The UK, USA, Israel and Argentina are now getting into a dispute over which country gets to make a profit from multinational companies setting fire to the planet. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Argentina to sanction oil firms as Falklands dispute with UK heats up
Javier Milei reiterates his country's claim on the British overseas territory, saying the "winds of change" favour it.
000
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
There are problems with the BBC, and the quality of it's output is declining as cuts are imposed it. However, the winners of this are Billionaire tech owners. Consequently I am going to stop following people who uncritically attack the BBC.
000
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Andrew Fisher @fisherandrew79.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
For all the emphasis on young people not in education, employment or training, the proportion of NEET youngsters is currently just below the 25-year average Not saying more shouldn't be done (and it's long been neglected) but recent breathless coverage suggests its a new problem or at record levels
56437
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Endlessly writing about how horrible somebody's views are on social media is a counterproductive way of "cancelling" somebody, and seems to be related to the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisa...
en.wikipedia.org
Streisand effect - Wikipedia
000
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
A great blog on the changes to the Researcher Development Framework. It's mostly positive but also includes concerns around dropping ‘work-life balance’ from the framework. theauditorium.blog/2026/08/24/f...
theauditorium.blog
Framing Researcher Development
By Dr Joanna Royle, Researcher Development Manager For those of us working in Researcher Development, Vitae’s Researcher Development Framework (RDF) is our lodestar. Originally built in 2010 though…
000
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Per Engzell @pengzell.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Academia gives you the extraordinary freedom to choose which impossible deadline you are currently missing
29715
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
It should be clear by now that some people interpret free speech as the right to bully people no matter what the consequences are.
041
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Teams of PhD supervisors made solely of professors are a really bad idea. Many of the skills PhD students need to learn are specialist skills of early career researchers that professor do not have the time for, and if ecrs are providing that support they need formal recognition for it.
110
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Freedom to say something doesn't mean anyone has to: - listen - engage - validate - employ - debate - read - critique - agree Say what you want, but live with the consequences. And that includes prosecution if what you say breaks laws. That's how libel, incitement and other laws work.
141
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
It seems to me that the suspension of one far right academic from a University is getting far more media coverage than the tens of thousands of people who are at risk of redundancy because of the dire financial situation UK Universities are in following right wing government policies.
061
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Justin Hancock @justinhancock.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Bullying comes in many forms but ultimately it is about reducing someone’s freedoms and choices. It’s about power, toxic environments, and it’s about society. It’s something we should all be tackling, not just the person being bullied. www.bishuk.com/relationship...
bishuk.com
How Bullying Happens
If we understand how bullying happens then we might be able to deal with it better. As it's about power and freedoms it's something we can all help tackle.
062
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Steven J. Gibbons @stevenjgibbons.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
In the continuing onslaught of in-your-face AI, it is now almost impossible to open a scientific paper without an AI-summary coming up. Your first instinct may be “Ah that is useful”, but is it really close to the truth or what the author intended? (contd. - full "rant" on lnkd.in/p/euwbwNgY)
Snapshot of how the article “Improvements to Seismic Monitoring of the European Arctic Using Three-Component Array Processing at SPITS“ by S. J. Gibbons et al. (https://doi.org/10.1785/0120110109) appears on line with an AI-generated summary. The author has highlighted each of the highlights listed by the AI with criticism to how useful it is, even to the point of distracting from the true key points.
39338
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The people I would like to see in leadership positions in academia are generally those who have eschewed advancing their career in favour of doing their job well and having some semblance of work-life balance.
060
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Health Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
It is so exhausting watching well-meaning lefties get basic facts about the Jason Arday case wrong.
4305
Reposted by Richard Shaw
The Electric Monk @electricmonk.invalid-handle.com · 18/08/2026
In the midst of social drama or public chaos, notice the urge to react. Before adding your voice, ask if your words build a bridge or a wall. Speaking with care protects your quiet mind and helps prevent the spread of unnecessary conflict.
021
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Aleksander Molak @alxndrmlk.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Negative controls are an everyday staple in epidemiology. This framework based on them is a secret in industry. 1/ #CausalSky #StatSky #EconSky #EpiSky #MLSky
Title page of the notebook 'Proximal Two-Stage Least Squares: causal inference with proxy variables when a confounder is unmeasured', part of the CausalPython series, shown above the first page of the paper 'An Introduction to Proximal Causal Learning' by Tchetgen Tchetgen, Ying, Cui, Shi and Miao.
134
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Which museums are collaborating?: the Food Museum, the Baltic, the Museum of Free Derry, Glasgow Life Museums and Hastings Museum & Art Gallery. The Migration Museum: All Our Stories (and not just in London). No prior curatorial experience required: www.migrationmuseum.org/join-the-mig...
098
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Copyright laws were originally created to provide incentives for people to be to creative, over the years changes in technology now mean that the same laws also empower and incentive destruction of knowledge and culture.
010
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 06/08/2026
I understand that funding bodies want to go all in on AI as the shiny new innovation thing. But if all the grants start going to AI at the expense of everything else then the research sector is going to end up looking like a farm with dozens of threshers hacking away in a field with no wheat.
582326428
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Mostly Harmless @whalepetunias.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
"Listen, forget it," said Ford, "forget all of it. Nothing matters. Look, it's a beautiful day, enjoy. it. The sun, the green of the hills, the river down in the valley, the burning trees."
04111
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
At this point the question I need to ask myself is why am I still using Chrome and google for searching?
020
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
At this point I am wondering whether my 25 year old desktop with Windows 98 still works. It is able to operate completely offline and the frequent lags when using Windows 11 mean the old computer may be quicker for many simple tasks.
010
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
'Researchers from 3 French & Italian universities found that access to AI advice collapsed people’s willingness to say “I don’t know” from 44% to 3%. Accuracy dropped from 27% to 9%. Confidence, meanwhile, rose from 30% to 76%. "(...) the accuracy was only one third, but they were 2x as confident”'
thenextweb.com
AI advice made people three times less accurate but twice as confident, researchers found
A study found that access to AI advice collapsed people's willingness to say "I don't know" from 44% to 3%, while accuracy dropped from 27% to 9%.
177
Reposted by Richard Shaw
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
201578552
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Marie Vibbert @reasie.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
No science fiction could have prepared us for just how stupid the end of the world can be. "The environment was on the brink of collapse, and so, rather than deal with that, we burned what fuel we had left getting computers to scam each other for money."
299127333823
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
It's the 21st Century most papers are being read electronically. Shouldn't we be using tooltips or other approaches which give the reader a choice of how and what information is presented?
100
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
30 years ago I did a course on the geography of development and poverty. Two of the things I took from it. In a fairer world the UK and rest of the world standards of living would become much closer. If the UK's politics did not change it would happen in a way that is catastrophic for the UK.
165
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
An important factor to note is that countries are somewhat arbitrary boundaries and these countries are all in close proximity and affected by same weather patterns. The main thing I would take from this is nationalism is a really stupid ideology in the context of climate change
030
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Onisillos @onisillos.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
No copilot, I do not want you to "clean data".
static.klipy.com
Logan Roy's 'F*ck Off' from Succession
ALT: Logan Roy's 'F*ck Off' from Succession
0112
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Sarah May @sarahmay1.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
The destruction of UK Higher Education is still being treated as a niche concern, not front page news like where Prince Harry will stay on holiday and what Trump said about a football match. Universities matter. The expected closure of smaller institutions will hit whole communities.
36028
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
A tutorial on (Non)collapsibility of Odds ratios. Principally in case-control studies but acts an introduction for cohort studies as well. academic.oup.com/ije/article/...
academic.oup.com
Collapsibility in case-control studies
Abstract. It is well-established that the odds ratio (OR) is non-collapsible and that adjustment of the OR for a risk factor can produce a change in the ma
040
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
The original article was written by an "AI researcher".
100
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
The debate around air-conditioning has, like so many others in population health, two extremes. a) An upstream collective population based approach that prevents the problem at source. b) Leave it to individuals to solve, with the arising inequalities and failure to address the underlying cause.
010
Richard Shaw @richardshaw.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Chris Mason is quite possibly the most loathsome person in UK politics. Here he is extolling reporting unattributable gossip coming from "Senior figures" which in my view results in a " very shallow interpretation of events", which is the exact opposite of his claims. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Chris Mason: The anatomy of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's downfall
Sir Keir, like his predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, lost the capacity to viably govern, our political editor writes.
061
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
'Hope is not a nice-to-have, it's an essential aspect of leading.' Also applies to large organisations, including universities.
ft.com
Andy Burnham and the search for hope in a hopeless Britain
The alternative is despair and the uglier politics that heralds
0206
Reposted by Richard Shaw
Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 18/06/2026
5. I find it utterly brain-melting that the government is doing this while a) staying on X, and b) rushing to roll out AI in education. Just blows my mind.
729944