Nick Johnston
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nifjnick.bsky.social
Nick Johnston
@nifjnick.bsky.social
Project Support at Queen's University Belfast
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nick-Johnston-5?ev=hdr_xprf
& Ed Admin for @jrlepp.bsky.social

Views are personal and not those of my employers or funders
Nothing says "party" like being forced to sit too close to people you don't know in an uncomfortable seat, sharing the same air, and being charged an arm and a leg for even daring to want something to eat or drink.
I can't wait to dress up and fly again!
November 21, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Ah right - sorry, thought they were in same car.
(My excuse is that it's late here and I've been working on a funding application that is due far too soon.)
Thank you!
November 21, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Apologies for not being able to find out - was the other passenger arrested/prosecuted/released?
Thanks
November 20, 2025 at 11:54 PM
As Taylor Swift should have sung:
"Cockwombles gonna cockwomble, cockwomble, cockwomble..."
(it kind of scans if you let it)
November 20, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Maybe literally once - like stopped clock tells the right time once (ok ok ok it's twice)
November 20, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Word
November 20, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Damn it
November 20, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Ultimate Catch-22 for the world?

He's what we get if the other guy kicks the bucket 😭
November 20, 2025 at 5:53 PM
November 20, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Never a snail around when you need one

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2cB...
Snail Helps Save Whale! @GruffaloWorld: Snail and the Whale
YouTube video by Gruffalo World
www.youtube.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:15 PM
If that isn't a good plot for a Back to Future style murdering spree, then I don't know what is.

(If actors playing BoJo and DaCa meet grisly endd then they can take my money even if the rest is dross)
November 20, 2025 at 3:28 PM
A question in ignorance - bots I have heard of, but what is a cutout in this context? (Presumably something else I should be worried about.)
Thanks
November 20, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Takes like his always remind me of Asimov writing about the relativity of wrong, with this one being close to "The earth is flat" in degrees of wrongness...
November 20, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Not to trivialise your point, but back to HHGTTG and the Total Perspective Vortex to describe the scale/size of the benefits - "a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot"
November 20, 2025 at 1:07 PM
I think I agree with you more and more. It can't be too long before someone gets sued (if only for students to get their money back), which is going to wipe out what I suspect is the real reason for it - a cheap money grab
November 20, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Sadly I bet this isn't the last time we hear of “a framework for academic professionals leveraging AI automation” in HE teaching policies.
What's more annoying for you - that they did it, or that they weren't honest about it?
November 20, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Oh absolutely! It kind of makes a mockery of earnestly trying to convince researchers that public engagement/dissemination is an essential part of their training and activities, but such is life.
(I should try and make it less obvious that we're in the last throes of submitting a funding proposal 😞)
November 20, 2025 at 11:10 AM
I said this on the orginal post too, but it's almost a point of bitterness that you can get more publicity with a spoof/troll paper than something from an established research group
November 20, 2025 at 10:46 AM
There's some kind of lesson to be learned for those of us who are concerned with things like increasing research impact, but it makes my head hurt to think that troll papers get more coverage than 'real' ones!
November 20, 2025 at 10:43 AM
I was convinced it was a spoof article - whilst being simultaneously impressed with your niche HHGTG knowledge - but it is/was a real thing! With people writing responses!!

www.bmj.com/content/331/...
The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute
Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom. Design Longi...
www.bmj.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Sweet mercy - if you click on the DOI and check the actual BMJ 2005 article there are around 70 responses!

www.bmj.com/content/331/...
The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute
Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom. Design Longi...
www.bmj.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:37 AM
I would give anything to win a 'How I Met Your Mother' style slap bet with that man
November 19, 2025 at 5:42 PM