iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Now that I’ve listed them, it’s striking how many of the stupidest and most mean-spirited people in the country have clustered in one leadership group.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 2h

It amazes me just how stupid Suella Braverman makes herself sound. To be able to come across as one of the stupidest people on politics when you’re in a group with Lee Anderson, Robert Jenrick, Andrew ’not a rapist’ Rosindell, & David Bull is one hell of an achievement.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 2h

He’s the sort of man who probably sees his wife as his property. If she gets deported thanks to people like him, he’ll simply obtain a replacement servant.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 2h

One interesting thing I’ve found is that a lot of right wingers will yell about people not being able to afford holidays etc., but they definitely don’t mean themselves. The pensioners who volunteer at the local food-bank (surprisingly right-wing) seem to spend 50% of their time on foreign holidays.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 3h

Lots of good stuff in this debate - a link’s going straight into the folder on nonhuman citizenship on my third year course on animal rights and environmental philosophy.

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International Association of Vegan Sociologists @vegansociology.bsky.social · 8h

This year's International Association of Vegan Sociologists conference begins TOMORROW! 📣 Our program is full of exciting talks on the incredibly important theme 'Internationalizing Vegan Sociology' - so don't miss out! 👀 🎟️ Last chance to grab your tickets: events.humanitix.com/iavs-2026-in...

events.humanitix.com

IAVS 2026: Internationalising Vegan Sociology

The 2026 IAVS annual meeting will showcase research related to veganism, nonhuman animal rights, and sociological theories of international relevance.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 5h

I‘ve generally assumed the unreasonable, authoritarian dickhead constituency is in the 25-30% range, with the unashamed, openly fascists group representing closer to 3%. I hope I’m closer to the truth than you are, but things do seem pretty awful right now!

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 5h

“Hegseth wants a united, homogenous military of soldiers who share his cultural prejudices, who share his bloodthirsty ethos, and who share his religion…that’s the goal, right?...No dissent, crucially. Dissent is traitorous.”

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Dolly Jørgensen @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social · 12h

Exciting job for #envhum postdocs! Project "Tolerating Urban Animals. Techno-moral perspectives on killing and caring for other species" (U Copenhagen) is looking for 2 postdocs to work on use of technologies for managing undomesticated/feral urban animals in 🇩🇰🇸🇪🇳🇴. employment.ku.dk/faculty/?sho...

employment.ku.dk

Two Postdoctoral positions in Ethnology at the Saxo Institute, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 5h

If ever a man deserved it - but he’s white, male, privately-educated and right-wing so I’m confident he’ll suffer no consequences of note for all of of his wrongdoing.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 5h

Seen a bunch of council by-elections recently where Restore have polled 5-10% (usually, by taking an equivalent amount of Reform). I don’t like to think there might be that many neo-Nazis in the UK (I’ve been around UK politics long enough to know that Restore Britain are rebranded National Front).

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 5h

Very positive discussion with my third years about LLMs today. We talked environmental costs, authoritarianism, patriarchy, tech-bros, etc. They don’t seem to like LLM much more than I do, which makes it all the more depressing that it’s my generation forcing it into their lives.

I am an AI Hater
Here’s my promise to you, I will never use AI:
to write emails to you.
craft the presentations I deliver to you
to summarise information I provide to you.
to help design the courses I deliver to you.
to provide feedback or grade you.
Aside from destroying the planet, enriching really bad people, and having been developed using stolen property, LLMs will harm you as a researcher.
Using a LLM for your writing and research *will* make you worse at research, less knowledgable, and worse at critical thinking. There is now a growing body of scientific research demonstrating these claims.
You are permitted by the University to use AI, but my strong advice is that you shouldn’t - for both ethical and practical reasons.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 6h

Ah, yeah, I get that - usually I stop sharing progress pictures after early work, leaving a big gap before I share a finished piece. So, I guess I have the same psychology!

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 6h

Also, I've discovered what the geography students are doing following the university's dreadful decision to close Geography & sack the human geographers: they're taking politics modules. I doubt anyone considered (or cares about) the knock on extra work for other departments.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 6h

It's quite inconvenient, for planning things like group projects, not knowing how many students I'm teaching until three weeks into the term.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 6h

I brought 14 cupcakes cake to my seminar today because I had thirteen students signed-up & it's my birthday. But it's week one, so students are chopping & changing, meaning I only had 11 students by the time I reached the seminar room. Also, 4 absentees. My lunch is cupcakes.

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Philip Cowley @philipjcowley.bsky.social · 7h

I see speculation that John Curtice may get chosen to lead Labour's electoral reform commission. And I see speculation that Labour want to end up with SV. I doubt both these things can be true. Because I would be very surprised if any commission led by Curtice ended up recommending SV.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 7h

Everyone loves a progress pic! For me, they're thing that helps motivate me to finish. Also, to spot all of the things that aren't quite right. Since you won't, here's a crudely animated progress gif of what I'm currently working on (which is to say: low quality fantasy art).

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Lea Leander @lealeander.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The actual transcript is beyond beyond anything else we have read or heard. He is incapable of following or maintaining a simple thought. He is lost in his own world. time.com/article/2026...

time.com

Read TIME’s ‘What Trump Has Built’ Interview Transcript

The U.S. President discussed the war in Iran, press freedom, AI, and more ahead of the midterm elections.

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The man with the nuclear codes. What could go wrong?

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

Anyone watching what Pete Hegseth is doing without the very strong suspicion that he’s creating a military to support a dictatorship is naive or complacent.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

An insurrectionist raising invoking the insurrection act to hold on to power - America's primary export is now irony.

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Yorkshire Tea @yorkshiretea.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

It's International Coffee Day. A moment to put our caffeine-based differences aside and unite against our common enemy: soup.

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Ersatz Doctor @ersatzdoctor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

We told our kids to stop telling each other to “calm down” or “chill out.” So now they say “chill down.”

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

Bad news for the author, I have no tolerance for such bullshit!

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

I'll be honest, from what I've seen it would also describe the official translations!

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

Yeah, definitely going in there.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

I'm reviewing a paper in which the author has decided not to bother explaining several key terms until late in the paper, left non-english words untranslated, & has pointlessly invented new terms for familiar concepts. It's extremely irritating.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

UK humanities grant funding situation: you must bid for funding, winning funding is super important for you, your discipline, & your university. By the way, there's either no funding, or there's some funding but you can't have it.* * does not apply to Russell Group universities.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

Honestly, what's the fucking point? Guys, we've slashed the amount of funding & are making the remainder impossible to obtain. Thanks, super helpful. Love the UK HE funding landscape.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

Trying to respond to a call for ARHRC-funded collaborative doctoral projects involving collections. Very frustrating. The institution universities are supposed to collaborate with is a) packing up & moving lots of its collections, & b) too overloaded in other areas to support co-supervision. 🤷‍♂️

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

America's Ivy League universities really haven't been going a good account of themselves in recent times (on any number of issues).

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

While I don't have much truck with AI detection software, this is still brutal.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

Advice I've received is that it's likely intended to get you to use login details for some service (e.g. Google) to upload promotional materials, allowing the scammer to steal your credentials.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

Extremely tempted to ask if standard appearance fees apply and request 'James' sends me £70 by Paypal.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

As suspected - scam. One that several other authors in the same book series as I've published in have received. Authors beware.

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Today, 1st October, is the start of the pheasant shooting season. Some 50 million pheasants are released into the British countryside for this sport annually. If you have concerns about the impacts of this out-of-control industry, tell the government - handy guide below: bsky.app/profile/guys...

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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Reading the details of the US execution story from last night and it is absolute barbarism. Like reading a history of the medieval period.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

A healthy dose of "no shit Sherlock" for that finding! It's absurd really that anyone thinks that needs a study to establish.

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Dr Juliette @ferrydanini.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Is there any philosophy (or medicine) paper on what we mean by fatigue and tiredness?

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

Oh yes, I see many good things (although I think they could probably benefit from a few of the structures & processes we have).

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

Adverts for German academia make me marvel at the desire to hire one person with the experience and abilities of two or three.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 01/10/2026

I keep seeing German job ads for philosophers with an outstanding international research profile, a record of winning grants, an extra didactics specialisation, & extensive experience of teaching in schools. I assume the roles include teacher training, but who are these people?!

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Bryan Edward Stone (שָׁלוֹם) @bestonetx.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Hegseth has a lot of opinions about how to win a war for a guy who just lost one.

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Jolyon Troscianko @jtroscianko.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

🦋 Butterfly wing patterns create motion illusions that protect them from predators! Our new study (8 years in the making) is out in Nature today doi.org/10.1038/s415... @grahancock.bsky.social @esbriolat.bsky.social @scienceanna.bsky.social @lauraakelley.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 30/09/2026

I’m absolutely fascinated by the whole thing. Also fairly sure the email is AI-generated, although I look forward to appearing very foolish if it turns out to be genuine. I’ve told him I’ll be delighted to proceed once I receive some official confirmation.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 30/09/2026

Update: James understands my concerns, James wanted to reach out directly as the presenter, James has not responded from a BBC address. 99% convinced of scam now.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 30/09/2026

As an outsider, nothing about US universities baffles and disturbs me as much as the fraternity system. It just seems like it was designed to encourage terrible behaviour.

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