John L. Provis | Lightnews

John Provis

@johnprovis.bsky.social

190 followers 250 following 46 posts

Talks too much about cement. Talks too much in general. More than 10 views on YouTube; some were even intentional. 🇦🇺 in 🇨🇭, via Yorkshire; escaped after 11y in UK academia. Views obviously(!) nobody's official policy. Often bitten by cats. .. more

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Engineering 61%

Materials science 30%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by John L. Provis

Dan Liebke @liebcricket.com · 23h

Surely if they were able to so effortlessly swap out Queen for King in the England national anthem, they could just as easily do something about that ‘victorious’ bit. #Ashes 🏏

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · 5d

100x this...

Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 7d

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

Josh Shepperd @joshshepperd.bsky.social · 7d

Do not cite an academic paper unless you’ve read it

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, John L. Provis, Peter Thorne , and 12 more Richard S.J. Tol, John L. Provis, Peter Thorne, Rosemary A. Joyce, Ian Hall, Shawn Graham, Christine Kooi, Dolly Jørgensen, Erin O’Donnell, Aurélien Mondon, Catherine J. Frieman, Nancy Foasberg, Farah Mendlesohn, Evan Roberts, Esther Peeren

Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 7d

Josh Shepperd @joshshepperd.bsky.social · 7d

Do not cite an academic paper unless you’ve read it

AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals

Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.

www.rollingstone.com

Reposted by John L. Provis

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 7d

Opinion: The fact that now-established academics survived a system built on overwork does not make it fair or well designed. We must change it, says Yu Tao #academicsky #ECRs
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/lets-not-pass-down-pain-we-endured-early-career-researchers

Reposted by John L. Provis, Annette Yoshiko Reed

Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 9d

while i am not an academic i did see this coming and post about it on bluesky, which is why i am quoted in this article

Moser tells Rolling Stone that to even claim LLMs "hallucinate" fictional publications misunderstands the threat they pose to our comprehension of the world, because the term "implies that it's different from the normal, correct perception of reality" But the chatbots are "always hallucinating," he says. "It's not a malfunction.
A predictive model predicts some text, and maybe it's accurate, maybe it isn't, but the process is the same either way. To put it another way: LLMs are structurally indifferent to truth."

Reposted by John L. Provis

No Context Brits @nocontextbritss.bsky.social · 9d

“Please respond to this email before 23rd December.” Me, reading the email sometime mid-January:

Reposted by John L. Provis, Emili García‐Berthou

Gregor Kalinkat @gkalinkat.bsky.social · 10d

#ecology job alert 🎓

two group leader positions at WSL in Switzerland 🇨🇭

apply.refline.ch/273855/1813/... (conservation biology)

apply.refline.ch/273855/1817/... (soil community ecology)

Switzerland is one of the best places in the world, both for living and for doing research! 🧪

Group Leader Conservation Biology 80% (f/m/d)

The research unit Biodiversity and Conservation Biology investigates the diversity of life in its various forms, from genetic diversity to the diversity of species and ecosystems and their interaction...

apply.refline.ch

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Nov 26

When this turns up at the end of a PhD thesis - often called something like "Perspectives on future work" or similar - it's usually my favourite bit of the whole document. Could be even more fun in a paper, with a little bit of added "with all due respect, the reviewer is daft" mixed in...

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Oct 29

Elon Musk: "It is time for the English to ally with the hard men, like Tommy Robinson, and fight for their survival or they shall surely all die" 29th October 2025. 2 million views in its first hour.

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Oct 28

...tweaking the abstract of a paper to try to catch the attention of the editor of VeryShinyJournal...

Huntsville Railfan @hvillealrailfan.bsky.social · Oct 28

@katewagner.wehwalt.net No idea where this is, as I stole it off of Facebook, but I feel like you need to see this. It is indeed legit, apparently.

An image showing before and after images of a house. In the before image, it looks like a typical suburban house. In the after image, it shows the same house, but with a massive facade on the front to make it look like a bank or something, which does not match the rest of the house.

Reposted by John L. Provis

Huntsville Railfan @hvillealrailfan.bsky.social · Oct 28

@katewagner.wehwalt.net No idea where this is, as I stole it off of Facebook, but I feel like you need to see this. It is indeed legit, apparently.

Reposted by John L. Provis, Raúl Pacheco-Vega

Anon Opin @anonopin.bsky.social · Oct 22

At an academic conference, it is inevitable that the worst talk will be by a late career Professor who not only think the rules don't apply to them, but will have not even noticed the rules in the first place.

Reposted by John L. Provis, Steve Peers

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · Oct 19

This -official Conservative policy - is essentially identical to the Reform policy that the Prime Minister described as "racist and immoral" and would "rip out country apart".

Would be good if media and politicians pointed this out .

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Oct 19

Lam's proposal is to refuse future grants of ILR but to cancel past grants of permanent status to anyone who is not likely to be a fiscal net contributor, and anyone "who has accessed state support" once they got permanent status. That will revoke pledges to those told this was their permanent home.

Reposted by Timnit Gebru, John L. Provis, David Dunning , and 7 more Timnit Gebru, John L. Provis, David Dunning, Euan G. Ritchie, Silvia Secchi, Andrew Jacobs, Fiona Moore, Tom Stoppard, Sam Kamin, Dunlap

Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · Oct 17

There are basically only two positions in the debate about AI.
1. I’ve barely invested any time in learning how to use it effectively. AI sucks.
2. I’ve invested in learning how to use this tool. Holy cow, it’s transformational.

Position #1 has lower barriers to entry.

Reposted by John L. Provis, Kai Arzheimer

Ethics in Bricks @ethicsinbricks.bsky.social · Oct 13

"Academic" is just a fancy job title for Elsevier's content creators.

Reposted by John L. Provis, Jonathan Wolff, Lesley A. Hall , and 3 more John L. Provis, Jonathan Wolff, Lesley A. Hall, Jane Callaghan, Justin Lewis, Kevin O’Sullivan

The Bear @bearlypolitics.co.uk · Oct 8

So, the plan is to cut English, the arts, and sociology - the degrees that actually study culture - while on another part of your platform claiming to “defend” British culture.

It’s performance nationalism with a reading age of seven.

Badenoch: Curb students taking 'rip-off' degrees such as English
The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

Reposted by John L. Provis

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · Oct 7

"I support things like civil rights, access to education, and medical research. You could never imagine me sitting in the front row at the inauguration of a far-right ruler who promised to destroy those things."

Hi, I’m an Early 2010s Tech CEO

I wear the same T-shirt every day, and I have a relatably unkempt haircut. I remind you of the smart kids from high school, so I give you hope that...

buff.ly

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Sep 18

Gee Australia must be glad to have spent so much money (and burnt so many other relationships) in support of AUKUS, when our "closest friends" do this...

Reposted by John L. Provis

BladeoftheSun @bladeofthes.bsky.social · Sep 10

The Ghost of Suppressed Protests Past.

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Sep 9

I'd also be very surprised if it were impossible - at least in a technical sense. Whether unwillingness to act makes it impossible in practice may be another question entirely, though...

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Sep 9

I'd fully support this concept.
Actually I've tried in the past to get a journal to do exactly this - but apparently "the setup of the journal's website system" wouldn't let it happen. I will leave the #academicsky community to ponder whether this is due to a lack of capability, or a lack of will..

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Sep 5

Other than the tedious tone of "USA good, Europe bad", this article misses the key point: we mainly don't have "robotaxis" here because we don't want hundreds of them bumbling around the place like the idiotic car equivalent of a Roomba..

www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

Robotaxis will be the Sputnik Moment for a declining Europe

A slow-motion car crash on Europe’s roads

www.economist.com

Reposted by John L. Provis

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · Aug 30

"In this bedroom are fourteen light switches. Ten of them do nothing. One turns on the television. One sounds an alarm in the home of your grouchy next-door neighbor who hates Americans and will let his French bulldog poop on your doorstep. Can you choose the right one in time?"

Escape Room Challenge: Your European Airbnb

Welcome to this tiny fifth-floor Airbnb, your home for the next four days in a major European city. Can you escape without incurring additional fee...

buff.ly

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Aug 29

Very well put!

The same is true for an engineering degree, with the added consequences that the roof of the restaurant may also fall down on your head while you're in it.

Robert Komaniecki @komaniecki.bsky.social · Aug 29

Trying to figure out a way to impress upon my students that using AI to skip course work in order to get a music degree is like ordering food at a restaurant and immediately throwing it out the window in order to get to pay the check

Reposted by John L. Provis

Robert Komaniecki @komaniecki.bsky.social · Aug 29

Reposted by John L. Provis

Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · Aug 28

As we seem to be talking ECHR again, here’s my Venn Diagram from more than a decade ago.

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Aug 28

Oh no - how sad. Anyway...

John Provis @johnprovis.bsky.social · Aug 27

I believe this is what chemical engineers describe as "chemists discovering that chemical engineering is a properly difficult thing to do"...

(we often say that chemistry is making the first gram of something; chemical engineering is making the next hundred tonnes)

amy brown @amybrown.xyz · Aug 22

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me?
Because actually no one can do it for you, because your voice is unique among all the people on earth. Siri never petted a horse's neck. Alexa has never been ghosted by the captain of the football team. But you have lived, your heart is beating, you have suffered, and you have something important to say. It's a human's job, to use words, and whatever job you give to a machine, that part of your brain goes dark. Maybe it's worth it when it comes to remembering phone numbers and directions, but when that part of your brain that uses words goes dark, that's a vast area that's very close to your soul. Don't let some internet platform convince you that what you have to say and create isn't worthwhile. Words are the echo of your soul. Honing that echo matters.

Reposted by John L. Provis

ErrantScience @errantscience.com · Aug 18

Sadly our idea of charging people £7.99 for a blue tick to put on their experimental results didn’t pan out

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