Robert Sheppard
@robertsheppard.bsky.social
Poet, critic of recent formally innovative poetry & poetics, emeritus prof at Edge Hill, and all that follows. Books from Shearsman, KFS, Salt, Broken Sleep, Palgrave, LUP, & all that follow. Blog: www.robertsheppard.blogspot.com
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
After the storm. This afternoon in calm clear air, bright sunlight sparkled across the rippled sands of Crosby beach bringing a touch of freshness after days of grey cloud cover. #IronMenCrosby
January 28, 2026 at 6:03 PM
After the storm. This afternoon in calm clear air, bright sunlight sparkled across the rippled sands of Crosby beach bringing a touch of freshness after days of grey cloud cover. #IronMenCrosby
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Diffused sunlight at the end of a cold clear winter day on Crosby beach. The sky glowing with muted shades of orange and gold, restless sea birds skim low over the waters of the incoming tide, the only sounds their cries and the gentle murmur of waves rippling onto the shore. #IronMenCrosby
January 28, 2026 at 6:22 PM
Diffused sunlight at the end of a cold clear winter day on Crosby beach. The sky glowing with muted shades of orange and gold, restless sea birds skim low over the waters of the incoming tide, the only sounds their cries and the gentle murmur of waves rippling onto the shore. #IronMenCrosby
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Just like democracies are being put to the test around the world (and succumbing sooner than we hoped), our ideals of research integrity and scientific rigor are being tested by ever-invasive AI tools. I am not hopeful science will survive this unscathed. We'll need to rethink a lot of what we do.
OpenAI just released Prism, a LaTeX editor with embedded ChatGPT for free.
Writing a paper has never been easier.
Clogging the scientific publishing pipeline has never been easier.
It took me 54 seconds to write up an experiment I did not actually conduct.
prism.openai.com
Writing a paper has never been easier.
Clogging the scientific publishing pipeline has never been easier.
It took me 54 seconds to write up an experiment I did not actually conduct.
prism.openai.com
January 28, 2026 at 4:48 PM
Just like democracies are being put to the test around the world (and succumbing sooner than we hoped), our ideals of research integrity and scientific rigor are being tested by ever-invasive AI tools. I am not hopeful science will survive this unscathed. We'll need to rethink a lot of what we do.
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
The former police station in Lark Lane Liverpool has one of the smallest Liver Birds in the city.
January 28, 2026 at 8:21 PM
The former police station in Lark Lane Liverpool has one of the smallest Liver Birds in the city.
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Who knew? And a curious thing to see on Bluesky as I travel on a train from Ormskirk.
The local hero who survived the Charge of the Light Brigade - then opened a shop in Ormskirk | Lancs Live share.google/bbKb9DuFP2V3...
The local hero who survived the Charge of the Light Brigade - then opened a shop in Ormskirk | Lancs Live share.google/bbKb9DuFP2V3...
The local Ormskirk hero who survived the Charge of the Light Brigade
James Nunnerley is a household name in Lancashire
share.google
January 28, 2026 at 8:38 PM
Who knew? And a curious thing to see on Bluesky as I travel on a train from Ormskirk.
The local hero who survived the Charge of the Light Brigade - then opened a shop in Ormskirk | Lancs Live share.google/bbKb9DuFP2V3...
The local hero who survived the Charge of the Light Brigade - then opened a shop in Ormskirk | Lancs Live share.google/bbKb9DuFP2V3...
Friend of mine burst his stitches watching Bob Mortimer on telly. He literally 'burst his sides laughing'. (Not always the best medicine as you say, Ian.)
Laughter is the best medicine. Unless you’ve got a split lip.
January 29, 2026 at 9:29 AM
Friend of mine burst his stitches watching Bob Mortimer on telly. He literally 'burst his sides laughing'. (Not always the best medicine as you say, Ian.)
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Quoin 134: accounts (1998)
January 29, 2026 at 3:17 AM
Quoin 134: accounts (1998)
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Hannah Arendt did not mince words, did she?
'Totalitarianism replaces all first-rate talents with crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.'
From "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951)
'Totalitarianism replaces all first-rate talents with crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.'
From "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951)
January 29, 2026 at 3:48 AM
Hannah Arendt did not mince words, did she?
'Totalitarianism replaces all first-rate talents with crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.'
From "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951)
'Totalitarianism replaces all first-rate talents with crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.'
From "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951)
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
The Work of Gary Larson: The Far Side
January 29, 2026 at 6:14 AM
The Work of Gary Larson: The Far Side
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Oblique Strategy of the Day… #BrianEno #PeterSchmidt
January 29, 2026 at 6:30 AM
Oblique Strategy of the Day… #BrianEno #PeterSchmidt
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Given @manchester.ac.uk has signed a deal to have Co-pilot in everything, I trust no one in Geography or History will use it to draw maps. Prompt: "draw me a map of Yorkshire with all the major geographical feature labelled".
Co-pilot expands Yorkshire to pretty much the whole of the Danelore with a new capital of Manchesto. It has merged the river Ouse with the other river Ouse. We now have the Yokhire Dales. Lancashire had been replaced with Nothern Ireland!
21/n
21/n
January 27, 2026 at 10:13 PM
Given @manchester.ac.uk has signed a deal to have Co-pilot in everything, I trust no one in Geography or History will use it to draw maps. Prompt: "draw me a map of Yorkshire with all the major geographical feature labelled".
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Join us next Tuesday at our Ambleside campus for this free public Cultural Landscapes talk. For further details and to book a place visit the link below.
The next event in our Cultural Landscapes series will take place on Tue 3 Feb. It will be a free talk by @chrisroutledge.bsky.social
on 'Restoring Hardknott Forest: Photographing "Wildwood" in the Duddon Valley'. See here for further details & to book a place: www.ticketsource.co.uk/cultural-lan...
on 'Restoring Hardknott Forest: Photographing "Wildwood" in the Duddon Valley'. See here for further details & to book a place: www.ticketsource.co.uk/cultural-lan...
January 28, 2026 at 8:36 AM
Join us next Tuesday at our Ambleside campus for this free public Cultural Landscapes talk. For further details and to book a place visit the link below.
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Nice one Phil!!!
Philip Glass cancels Kennedy Center symphony premiere in protest of Trump's leadership
Philip Glass cancels Kennedy Center symphony premiere in protest of Trump's leadership
Philip Glass cancels Kennedy Center symphony premiere in protest of Trump's leadership
www.independent.co.uk
January 27, 2026 at 8:23 PM
Nice one Phil!!!
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Specialist higher education institutions have accused the government of undermining its own mission to grow the UK’s creative industries by cutting funding for arts courses and excluding non-STEM students from grants www.timeshighereducation.com/news/funding... via @helenpacker.bsky.social
Funding cuts undermining creative sector growth, say art schools
Exclusions from government funding pots exacerbating a challenging financial climate for creative institutions, which say talent pipeline for Labour’s priority sector at risk of being jeopardised
www.timeshighereducation.com
January 28, 2026 at 9:27 AM
Specialist higher education institutions have accused the government of undermining its own mission to grow the UK’s creative industries by cutting funding for arts courses and excluding non-STEM students from grants www.timeshighereducation.com/news/funding... via @helenpacker.bsky.social
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
‘Phantom’, the Sacred Memory Bank, Kirkby Gallery. Monday to Saturday until March 27th. Over a hundred Time Machines for your pleasure…
January 28, 2026 at 9:27 AM
‘Phantom’, the Sacred Memory Bank, Kirkby Gallery. Monday to Saturday until March 27th. Over a hundred Time Machines for your pleasure…
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
“I watched him die… then I watched them maneuver his body like a rag doll— only to discover it was because they wanted to count the bullet wounds and see how many they ‘got’, like he was a deer.”
January 28, 2026 at 5:46 AM
“I watched him die… then I watched them maneuver his body like a rag doll— only to discover it was because they wanted to count the bullet wounds and see how many they ‘got’, like he was a deer.”
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
Jeremy Noel-Tod on RF Langley, a writer I also knew a bit and whose writing has likewise had quite a deep effect on how I think about poetry. I put him on once at a literary festival in Bath, with Tom Raworth. Both poets were paid (in money). Read their poems, & pay the poets when you can.
On the fifteenth anniversary of his death, I wrote about one of my favourite poets, R.F. Langley, who I was lucky enough to know for ten years someflowerssoon.substack.com/p/we-speak-f...
We Speak From Out There
Remembering R.F. Langley, 1938-2011
someflowerssoon.substack.com
January 28, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Jeremy Noel-Tod on RF Langley, a writer I also knew a bit and whose writing has likewise had quite a deep effect on how I think about poetry. I put him on once at a literary festival in Bath, with Tom Raworth. Both poets were paid (in money). Read their poems, & pay the poets when you can.
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
The author of over a 12 collections of poetry & fiction, Graham's work has appeared on the BBC & in literary journals. He's taught for Arvon Foundation & is an Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at Lancaster University and a Higher Education Teaching Fellow.
January 28, 2026 at 12:54 PM
The author of over a 12 collections of poetry & fiction, Graham's work has appeared on the BBC & in literary journals. He's taught for Arvon Foundation & is an Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at Lancaster University and a Higher Education Teaching Fellow.
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
'The brain is a dreaming machine, it secretes reality, so to speak.'
–Professor Rodolpho Llinás
Join us for this wonderful course with @grahammort.bsky.social ✨
–Professor Rodolpho Llinás
Join us for this wonderful course with @grahammort.bsky.social ✨
January 28, 2026 at 12:54 PM
'The brain is a dreaming machine, it secretes reality, so to speak.'
–Professor Rodolpho Llinás
Join us for this wonderful course with @grahammort.bsky.social ✨
–Professor Rodolpho Llinás
Join us for this wonderful course with @grahammort.bsky.social ✨
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
This is utterly ridiculous, but it’s not imo *more* ridiculous than any of the other Shakespeare conspiracy theories, tho’ I see that as always it depends on classist (& laughably wrong) assumptions about what a provincial grammar school education meant back then.
www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/shak...
www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/shak...
Shakespeare was actually a black Jewish woman, new book claims
Feminist historian identifies Tudor poet Emilia Bassano as true author whose identity was hidden by literary establishment
www.standard.co.uk
January 28, 2026 at 11:55 AM
This is utterly ridiculous, but it’s not imo *more* ridiculous than any of the other Shakespeare conspiracy theories, tho’ I see that as always it depends on classist (& laughably wrong) assumptions about what a provincial grammar school education meant back then.
www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/shak...
www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/shak...
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
I signed up to the government's AI Skills Boost Hub to check its suite of courses and I am sad to report that the free AI training looks even worse than the thread below suggests aiskillshub.org.uk/aiskillsboost/
January 28, 2026 at 12:35 PM
I signed up to the government's AI Skills Boost Hub to check its suite of courses and I am sad to report that the free AI training looks even worse than the thread below suggests aiskillshub.org.uk/aiskillsboost/
This is really useful...
The upcoming St Bridget's holiday seems like a good pretext for reminding you of my blog anthology of 101 Irish women poets:
ellipticalmovements.wordpress.com/category/iri...
ellipticalmovements.wordpress.com/category/iri...
Irish Women Poets – Elliptical Movements
Posts about Irish Women Poets written by Billy Mills
ellipticalmovements.wordpress.com
January 28, 2026 at 3:19 PM
This is really useful...
Reposted by Robert Sheppard
My author copies arrived
January 28, 2026 at 2:32 PM
My author copies arrived