Dr Sharon Prendeville
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sharmarval.bsky.social
Dr Sharon Prendeville
@sharmarval.bsky.social
58 followers 170 following 63 posts
Mercurial design academic—long-time em dash fan.
Posts Replies Media Videos
sharmarval.bsky.social
US abandons Syria's Kurds, risking regional turmoil and IS resurgence

theconversation.com/us-abandons-...
US abandons Syria’s Kurds, risking regional turmoil and an IS resurgence
Kurds are the casualties of a US Syria strategy that aims to keep America afar, Iran out and Israel and Turkey apart.
theconversation.com
January 29, 2026 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Dr Sharon Prendeville
emilymbender.bsky.social
Really enjoyed the @ghostdoc2026.bsky.social premiere today! A must-watch, as soon as you get the chance.

www.thewrap.com/creative-con...
'Ghost in the Machine' Review: Documentary Delivers a Searing Takedown of AI, Elon Musk and Techno-Fascism
'Ghost in the Machine' Sundance review: documentary delivers a searing takedown of AI, Elon Musk and Techno-Fascism
www.thewrap.com
January 27, 2026 at 5:09 AM
Reposted by Dr Sharon Prendeville
tbij.bsky.social
A social media ban for under-16s would be popular. But would it actually help?

Our Big Tech editor James Clayton shares his thoughts 👇
January 28, 2026 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Dr Sharon Prendeville
disabilitystor1.bsky.social
more countries should do this, tbh.
hypervisible.blacksky.app Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2d
“The French government announced that it will stop using American video conferencing platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and replace them with Visio, a French platform.”
Zoom Is the First Casualty in France's War on American Big Tech
Homebrewed video conferencing may not be a moonshot, but you gotta start somewhere.
gizmodo.com
January 27, 2026 at 8:35 PM
Reposted by Dr Sharon Prendeville
jugistoteles.bsky.social
The Board of Peace - Dallas mashup has apparently been taken down here and there. This video works for the time being at least:
Board of Peace - Season 1
YouTube video by Led By Donkeys
www.youtube.com
January 27, 2026 at 12:30 PM
sharmarval.bsky.social
A great way to realise sovereign renewable energy infrastructure and alleviate dependence on despots, East or West, is to not invest billions in new #LNG infrastructure for fracked US fossil gas imports, Ireland.

www.thejournal.ie/ireland-nort...
Ireland among North Sea nations to sign wind power pledge to resist Russian energy 'blackmail'
The EU’s Commissioner for Energy and Housing said the agreement was a ‘very clear signal to Russia’.
www.thejournal.ie
January 26, 2026 at 10:39 PM
Reposted by Dr Sharon Prendeville
adamserwer.bsky.social
I am just gonna say it, these guys are completely emasculated by the knowledge that they have been out-organized by a group that is significantly made up of women, and all the bullshit call of duty nonsense is cope for their wounded egos bsky.app/profile/jeet...
jeetheer.bsky.social Jeet Heer @jeetheer.bsky.social · 3d
MAGA military geniuses are talking about Minnesota protestors like they are the Iraqi insurgency, the Taliban, and the Viet Cong all rolled into one.
January 26, 2026 at 6:12 PM
sharmarval.bsky.social
If I was to write this article again, I would focus on how regions as distant and connected as the West of Ireland/Scotland, Newfoundland and Greenland have sisterly geomorphologies with research actively funded to observe this relation.

fojournal.org/policy/when-...
When Extraction Comes Home - Future Observatory Journal
The Critical Raw Materials Act, a new piece of EU legislation, will dramatically increase mining for rare earth metals across the continent, securing supply chains but damaging landscapes. Design rese...
fojournal.org
January 26, 2026 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Dr Sharon Prendeville
carolecadwalla.bsky.social
Compare & contrast. This is Trump’s demand for Greenland. And this is Hitler’s for the Sudetenland.

There is no difference. The language. The unstoppable need to dominate. The megalomania. It’s the same.

And Keir Starmer’s response is appeasement. We are in that moment.
1/
January 20, 2026 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by Dr Sharon Prendeville
gsoh31.bsky.social
Remember that the UK has far, far weaker protections against state power than did the US. And the latter folded up like a pack of cards. The US is a warning from the British future.
January 24, 2026 at 4:42 PM
sharmarval.bsky.social
'If the bubble bursts we will be fine'—'we' doing a lot of work there.
January 24, 2026 at 5:05 PM
sharmarval.bsky.social
""It’s hard to script a clearer emblem of what I’ve called education’s auto-cannibalism: universities consuming their own purpose while cheerfully marketing the tools of their undoing."
January 24, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Reposted by Dr Sharon Prendeville
rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social
Just discussing at what age kittens stop being kittens. Did a google search to find out and what on earth is going on here? I don't want to know the length "without tail" of an imaginary cat
Google Q how long are cats kittens a picture of a car with the caption "cat > length" 46cm without tail
January 23, 2026 at 10:24 PM
sharmarval.bsky.social
"But there’s a difference between tools and technologies. Tools help us accomplish tasks; technologies reshape the very environments in which we think, work, and relate. " #AI #Education

www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
January 24, 2026 at 1:18 PM
sharmarval.bsky.social
"If complexity (in a broad sense) is not a new phenomenon, and complexity (in a narrow sense) is practically useless to us, why is it so present in conversations and articles?"
silviolorusso.com/publication/...

#Complexity #SystemicDesign
January 24, 2026 at 1:11 PM
sharmarval.bsky.social
Design in the Age of Uncertainty—submission deadline 1st Feb. www.designhistorysociety.org/news/view/de...
Design History Society 2026 Conference - Call for Papers now open - News - Design History Society
We create, research, and teach in an age of uncertainty driven by war, mass migration, and climate change. In 2019, Nancy Fraser invoked Gramsci’s...
www.designhistorysociety.org
January 24, 2026 at 10:44 AM
Reposted by Dr Sharon Prendeville
andrewsimms.bsky.social
The published security assessment of heating's impacts on nature was abridged: “This government is hiding the true danger of climate change from the people. We need to have an honest conversation about the risks we face to our prosperity and how to mitigate them" www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...
Suppressed climate report warned of mass migration and nuclear war
Unabridged document said disappearing forests and rivers drying up could drive people to Europe and lead to conflict in Asia
www.thetimes.com
January 23, 2026 at 10:24 AM
Reposted by Dr Sharon Prendeville
melaniemitchell.bsky.social
NeurIPS reviewers typically review 6+ papers, each with 100 or so citations. The reviewers can't possibly check that every citation is real. But why don't we have an automated way to do this checking (and desk-rejecting if fake citations found) *before* the papers are sent to reviewers?
January 21, 2026 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Dr Sharon Prendeville
carlbergstrom.com
And just like that, the US has left the World Health Organization.

Link goes to the official announcement—lies pretending to justify a decision that will kill countless numbers—from people too stupid to even include a proper twittercard.

www.hhs.gov/press-room/u...
United States Completes WHO Withdrawal WASHINGTON —  January 22, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of State today announced the United States’ completion of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) due to the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a joint statement on the termination of U.S. membership in the WHO.President Trump on January 20, 2025, announced the U.S. plan to leave the WHO. During the yearlong process, the U.S. stopped funding WHO, withdrew all personnel from WHO, and began pivoting activities previously conducted with WHO to direct bilateral engagements with other countries and organizations. With the exit from WHO, the U.S. will be coordinating with WHO solely in a limited fashion to effectuate withdrawal.  The WHO delayed declaring a global public health emergency and a pandemic during the early stages of COVID-19, costing the world critical weeks as the virus spread. During that period, WHO leadership echoed and praised China's response despite evidence of early underreporting, suppression of information and delays in confirming human-to-human transmission. The organization also downplayed asymptomatic transmission risks and failed to promptly acknowledge airborne spread.After the pandemic, the WHO did not adopt meaningful reforms to address political influence, governance weaknesses or poor coordination, reinforcing concerns that politics took priority over rapid, independent public health action and eroding global trust. Its report evaluating the possible origins of COVID-19 rejected the possibility that scientists cre…
January 23, 2026 at 3:05 AM
Reposted by Dr Sharon Prendeville
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
how many nights would you guess it typically takes to turn a boat?
factpostnews.bsky.social FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · 7d
Vance on the economy:

"You don't turn the Titanic around overnight"
January 22, 2026 at 8:04 PM
sharmarval.bsky.social
I'm not alone in wondering where it takes us "...When confronted with one of the "wickedproblems" of the 21st Century, the average policymaker likely knows enough systems theory to be fearful of unintended consequences. Complexity thus induces paralysis.'
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/602...
January 22, 2026 at 9:01 PM
sharmarval.bsky.social
"History will one day have its say; it will not be the history taught in the United Nations, Washington, Paris, or Brussels, however, but the history taught in the countries that have rid themselves of colonialism and its puppets."
January 22, 2026 at 3:59 PM
sharmarval.bsky.social
Art imitating my life this past week.
atlathewriter.bsky.social Atla Hrafney @atlathewriter.bsky.social · 9d
In the 2010s, the Icelandic tv station Channel 2 accidentally added subtitles from a gritty crime drama to an episode of Teletubbies.

I have translated some of the highlights
A screenshot of Lala and Po from the teletubbies. The screenshot is clearly taken from someone's phone, as the borders of the tv can be seen, as well as glimpses into the apartment behind them. Po is in bed wrapped up in a blanket. The text below them reads "I know you were high at my mother-in-laws funeral..." More screenshots from the Teletubbies. Lala seems to be upset with a terrified Po. the text below reads "Did you kill the dog? Why would you do that?!" A third screenshot from the Teletubbies, this time the same scene as before. Po is wearing an apron while Lala seems to still be upset at him. The text below reads "You're nothing but a failure of a man."
January 22, 2026 at 3:48 PM
sharmarval.bsky.social
Is systems thinking a new form of structuralism? Does this even make sense? A bit withered by it anyway.
January 22, 2026 at 3:27 PM
sharmarval.bsky.social
A welcome reckoning for AI-slop aesthetics: Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback

www.404media.co/comic-con-ba...
Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback
The famed convention's organizers have banned AI from the art show.
www.404media.co
January 21, 2026 at 2:30 PM