Buzzz Ard
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buzzzard.bsky.social
Buzzz Ard
@buzzzard.bsky.social
170 followers 800 following 30 posts
British, gamer, NAFO adjacent, Ukraine supporter, rocker.

Here to absorb information and share.

Posts Replies Media Videos
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dereklowe.bsky.social
The latest from an honored member of the Royal Society. Every week he attacks the foundations of society in the UK and the EU and @royalsociety.org is apparently too worried about retribution to do anything about it.
A screenshot taken by someone on Twitter/X of Elon Musk agreeing with a tweet that shows the EU flag being peeled back to reveal a Nazi one. For Elon’s purposes here Nazis are apparently bad, but you can’t rely on that with him, of course.
December 7, 2025 at 6:27 PM
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robmoon.bsky.social
That didn’t work for me at all, but after animated discussion with 3 other scientists I have something that works for my brain. Choosing a goat on first choice means swapping always yields car. Choosing car then swapping always yields goat. 2/3 chance of picking goat on first choice so always swap.
October 3, 2024 at 8:32 AM
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alexdecampi.bsky.social
UNBOUND AUTHORS: Leftover copies of your books in the UK (MacMillan) warehouse will be pulped within the next week or two. DM me for a link to the warehouse stock list and contacts.

If you have no dosh, another publisher (Wilton Sq) is willing to buy the books & distribute on a 50/50 profit split
November 27, 2025 at 3:25 PM
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thenerve.news
NEW There's no overstating how significant the Nathan Gill case is. On Friday, the close associate of Nigel Farage was jailed for over 10 years for taking bribes ultimately from a friend of Putin. It's a complex, detail-heavy story that raises questions about Farage’s claim Gill was ‘one bad apple’🧵
Picture of Nathan Gill arriving at court. Headline: Reform UK and Russian Bribes. A Nathan Gill Timeline.
November 23, 2025 at 11:53 AM
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Is it milk?
A handy guide to measuring like a Brit.
November 18, 2025 at 7:08 AM
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juliet-turner.bsky.social
POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success
November 17, 2025 at 7:20 PM
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mikeachim.bsky.social
In January of 2021, photos started bouncing round the internet of this deeply weird thing happening in the sky above Glasgow, Scotland. Photoshop trickery?

The bizarre truth:
- yes, everyone really saw these
- no, they're not faked or manmade
- they absolutely don't exist.

1/
November 8, 2024 at 5:31 PM
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mikeachim.bsky.social
And look at this absolute *belter* of a photo taken in Norway, combining aurora and light pillars AND a selfie of the photographer, Alexandre Correia?

petapixel.com/2022/03/16/p...

Magic in all directions. Bonkers.

11/
November 8, 2024 at 5:44 PM
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danneidle.bsky.social
NEW - we've data showing huge numbers of people reducing their income to avoid high marginal income tax rates. Not just at the £100k point (as previously reported). But at the £50k point:
November 14, 2025 at 12:47 PM
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hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
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dankaszeta.bsky.social
Use only water or fresh air on tear gas or pepper spray.

No milk, vinegar, antacids, urine, etc. and especially not in eye.

Thank me later,

An actual expert
October 9, 2025 at 8:06 PM
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kuntieplopkins.bsky.social
The express poll asking whether reforms migrangt visa plan is racist is about 91% "no" so it REALLY needs your help - this is a direct link to poll

xd.wayin.com/display/cont...
POLL: Is Reform's migrant visa plan racist?
xd.wayin.com
October 1, 2025 at 12:09 PM
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foundationsofthedigitalstate.com
There you go @iandunt.bsky.social a structured process by which the Government should leave Twitter (and not just a No 10 Comms mad dash reaction)

open.substack.com/pub/digitalp...
How the government should leave Twitter
by not leaving twitter
open.substack.com
September 16, 2025 at 7:02 AM
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eddavey.libdems.org.uk
I've written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, urging them to join me in condemning Elon Musk's dangerous remarks inciting violence yesterday.

As leaders, we must stand together and make clear Musk will face serious consequences for these actions.
Letter from Ed Davey to Keir Starmer condemning Elon Musk for inciting violence and urging unity to defend democracy.
September 14, 2025 at 6:30 PM
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chrisrivers50.bsky.social
Rafael Behr - “The UK state is heavily centralised by the standards of most democracies, yet the people at the centre don’t feel powerful. Ministers are made to feel answerable for all that is ill in the world from hyperlocal to geopolitical”
⬇️

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...?
While Starmer struggles with a broken system in Westminster, real power keeps leaking elsewhere | Rafael Behr
Far from No 10, Nigel Farage has been amassing power in the sprawling, networked space where 21st-century politics happens, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
www.theguardian.com
September 5, 2025 at 6:01 AM
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jfruh.bsky.social
just realized i never posted this one here but it might be of interest to some of you!
August 25, 2025 at 4:20 AM
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holz-bau.bsky.social
i've been thinking about donald appleyard's research on social interaction diagram a lot in relation to some of the topics in my book and some recent podcast discussions

specifically the social isolation crisis, and how we plan and build multifamily housing in the US today
donald appleyard research on social interactions on street types
August 15, 2025 at 5:10 AM
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dankaszeta.bsky.social
No. This is malpractice. Don't put maalox or other antacids on your skin or eyes.

Not only that, the residue marks you out as a participant and could get you arrested.
garrison1979.bsky.social RESIST @garrison1979.bsky.social · Aug 1
Don’t forget the maalox!!! Mix with water. It fights the tear gas.
50501supporters.bsky.social 50501 Supporters @50501supporters.bsky.social · Jul 23
Modesto, CA.
AUG 2ND.
Rage Against the Regime.
August 9, 2025 at 2:40 PM
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shiplives.bsky.social
I've run across at least three things this week that underscore the challenges/risks associated with using generative AI tools. I'll make this a short 🧵.

We'll start with this one, which highlights why you should *not* outsource your thinking.
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
OpenAI unveils ChatGPT-5 and its hyped ‘PhD level’ intelligence struggled with basic spelling and geography
Some users on social media found the model making basic errors. The chatbot repeatedly claimed there were three Bs in ‘blueberry’
www.theguardian.com
August 8, 2025 at 7:17 PM
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carlbergstrom.com
1. Federal funding for research promotes tech, biomedical, and scientific discovery in the US, and provides training for the sci/tech workforce that has brought immeasurable wealth to the US over the past 75 years.

Today's executive order includes a provision that will obliterate both functions.
Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal
www.whitehouse.gov
August 8, 2025 at 1:13 AM
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covertshores.bsky.social
Ok, for each retweet I’ll provide one insight, fact, or opinion on unconventional naval warfare, like submarines, explosive boats, special forces or crazy ideas

0/n 🧵
August 7, 2025 at 11:25 AM
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petergeoghegan.bsky.social
PS: You may have read this story already. The BBC ran a version of it yesterday

We shared our FOI docs with their reporter and press office.
Their response? To publish the story - our story - without even notifying us.

A £6bn public broadcaster selling out a tiny investigative newsletter. Nice. 😔
August 7, 2025 at 7:30 AM
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dabbermatt.bsky.social
August 3, 2025 at 10:10 PM
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robertsaunders.bsky.social
Catastrophic subtitling on the 1941 movie "Love on the Dole".

(It should read "She's a strange lass, is our Sal"...)
Still from the 1941 film "Love on the Dole", with the unfortunate subtitle "She's a strange lassie's arsehole".
August 3, 2025 at 9:40 PM