Gary Polhill | Lightnews

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · 10d

I didn’t believe it but the Metro had a comment on it (could not find the original quickly): metro.co.uk/2026/01/26/w...

I wish I was surprised at Sajid Javid's shocking immigration comments

To have survived such sustained racist abuse only to perpetuate a new wave of bigotry on today’s immigrants is, well, dystopian at best.

metro.co.uk

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · 11d

Actually, London would be much more fun with some mountains about the place. It’s a bit swampy.

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · 14d

Two words to invoke a nameless fear: “new recipe”

Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 15d

My course syllabi now contain a link to this document, "why Professor Holliday Doesn't Use Generative AI". Feel free to share/repurpose or just check out the links for your own reference. It won't stop some of them, but I want students to know why. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Why Professor Holliday Doesn’t Use Generative “AI”

Why Professor Holliday Doesn’t Use Generative “AI” This is a (very) incomplete list of journalistic and scholarly sources that provide information about limitations and documented drawbacks of variou...

docs.google.com

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · 19d

I marched against student loans back in 1989. It was the first demonstration I ever went on. “Education is a right, not a privilege,” we sang, before the police charged us with batons. I hope you are able to effect positive change in our country’s attitude toward tertiary education.

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · 26d

Do be careful.

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · 29d

Academic publishing is broken. My suggestion is that each academic organization runs its own journal ‘Research Reports of the Uni of X’ or whatever. Lead authors would be bound by employment / grant award contracts to publish only in their organization’s journal.

Brian D. Wade @astrobrian.bsky.social · 29d

The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing
#academicSky

theconversation.com/the-5-stages...

The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing

Academic publishing now shows the same decline that has hit social media and online marketplaces.

theconversation.com

Brian D. Wade @astrobrian.bsky.social · 29d

The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing
#academicSky

theconversation.com/the-5-stages...

The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing

Academic publishing now shows the same decline that has hit social media and online marketplaces.

theconversation.com

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · 29d

I agree, but thankfully nobody can.

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · 29d

Sadly we don’t have a good Word processor.

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · 29d

A good word processor would collect these metadata automatically rather than relying on humans to enter it (which they are notorious for hating doing)

The James Hutton Institute @hutton.ac.uk · Dec 30

Congratulations to Professor Lorna Dawson, who has been named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in New Year Honours List! 🤩👏

She was recommended for the award by His Majesty the King for her services to innovations in soil and forensic science.

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Dec 26

Shouldn’t the real fess have been about the bodies in your freezer?

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Dec 22

The sun makes me feel sorry when I forget the sun cream.

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Dec 20

Is #ABM just a technique though? (Trying to find answers to that question — like “it’s a way of thinking about the world” — made me wonder if I needed help, however…) At the moment at least, I think the research is less driven by #ABM than it is by the things #ABM breaks.

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Dec 16

Apples

xkcd.com/3180/

Comic. [Two people one one side of a pile of seven apples, next to person with long hair next to five apples.] PERSON: Okay, with my seven apples added to your five, we have… let’s se… twelve apples! PERSON 2 [with hands raised]: Incredible! Perfect agreement with the theory! [caption] Experimental Mathematicians

RoccoPaolillo @roccopaolillo.bsky.social · Dec 11

Our chapter on #syntheticpopulations and #researchinfrastructures is out:
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
An overview of #algorithms for estimation and some applied cases in #socialsimulation research,
W/ @garypolhill.bsky.social, Alice Sbrana, Nick Roxburgh, Evelina Sabatella, Mario Paolucci

Synthetic Populations in Research Infrastructures

A challenge to many social and economic policies is to tackle the interactive processes between actors and institutions involved, bound to a geographical, economic, and cultural context over which the...

link.springer.com

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Dec 9

MAHAMA?

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Dec 9

Your back is up against the wall. All is lost. Who is coming to save you?

A depiction of Marvin the Paranoid Android in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. From Marvin’s Wikipedia page, uploaded by user MeWhen123 under a CC-BY licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en).

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Dec 7

Electric cars seem to make an inordinate fuss out of plugging something in and turning it on. Other appliances manage this simple task without needing an app.

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Dec 2

I imagine @aiannucci.bsky.social and colleagues are already scripting the satire of Your Party’s saga for a Netflix miniseries. (If not, why not? I’d watch it! I need a laugh!)

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Dec 1

What would it require to get “runctitional” (meaning AI generated) into the OED for next year? See pivot-to-ai.com/2025/11/28/n...

Nature’s latest AI-generated paper — with medical frymblal and Factor Fexcectorn

Nature’s open-access sideline Nature Scientific Reports is the “we’ve got Nature at home” of scientific publishing. It appears to run any garbage for a mere $2,690 processing charge. A snip, I’m su…

pivot-to-ai.com

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Dec 1

I want to suggest that we try to get ‘runctitional’ in to the dictionary by using it as an adjective for academic papers using AI. e.g. A reviewer might say ‘This paper has too many runctitional features to merit publication.’ #AcademicSky 🧪

Simon Waldman @simon-on-energy.bsky.social · Nov 29

In case you had any doubt that peer review doesn't work in pay-to-publish journals, including those with a Nature badge....

#academicSky

pivot-to-ai.com/2025/11/28/n...

Nature’s latest AI-generated paper — with medical frymblal and Factor Fexcectorn

Nature’s open-access sideline Nature Scientific Reports is the “we’ve got Nature at home” of scientific publishing. It appears to run any garbage for a mere $2,690 processing charge. A snip, I’m su…

pivot-to-ai.com

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Nov 30

When journalists quote think tanks I think they should be obliged to say who funds them so we know whose political agenda they are parroting

Simon Waldman @simon-on-energy.bsky.social · Nov 29

In case you had any doubt that peer review doesn't work in pay-to-publish journals, including those with a Nature badge....

#academicSky

pivot-to-ai.com/2025/11/28/n...

Nature’s latest AI-generated paper — with medical frymblal and Factor Fexcectorn

Nature’s open-access sideline Nature Scientific Reports is the “we’ve got Nature at home” of scientific publishing. It appears to run any garbage for a mere $2,690 processing charge. A snip, I’m su…

pivot-to-ai.com

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Nov 25

Really good read about the importance of supporting postgraduates and postdocs as a research leader. I absolutely agree that this should be as, if not more important, than publication metric when hiring.

Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · Nov 25

You know those labs that keep harming students, again and again? Some reflections on why it's so hard to stop this from happening and where our responsibilities lie.

scienceforeveryone.science/bad-mentors-... 🧪

Bad mentors hurt people

What to do about bad mentors?

scienceforeveryone.science

Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · Nov 25

You know those labs that keep harming students, again and again? Some reflections on why it's so hard to stop this from happening and where our responsibilities lie.

scienceforeveryone.science/bad-mentors-... 🧪

Bad mentors hurt people

What to do about bad mentors?

scienceforeveryone.science

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Nov 19

Hopefully at some point academia will achieve peak hyperbole, we will all calm down, and the value of all contributions to knowledge, incremental and revolutionary, will be appreciated.

J. Doyne Farmer @doynefarmer.bsky.social · Nov 3

We're looking for a postdoc for our new project on forecasting technological change - more details below

Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford @inetoxford.bsky.social · Nov 3

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Post Doctoral Research Associate in the Economics of Technological Change (2yr) ➵ https://www.inet.ox.ac.uk/vacancies
Join the @oxmartinschool.bsky.social Prog. on Forecasting Technological Change, led by @francoislafond.bsky.social , @doynefarmer.bsky.social & @maxroser.bsky.social

Gary Polhill @garypolhill.bsky.social · Nov 2

I loved this episode of #StrongMessageHere for raising the issue of news now being speculation as I have been fed up with ‘news’ programmes telling us what might happen rather than what has actually happened. Well worth a listen.

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