Siún Carden
@s-carden.bsky.social
Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award for poetry, 2024. Lecturer at UHI Shetland. Anthropologish. Teaches on MA Art and Social Practice etc. From (the real) Newcastle, County Down.
https://www.siuncarden.com
https://www.siuncarden.com
Reposted by Siún Carden
Universities across the world seeing this:
"its only wrong 45% of the time!!
Lets buy free licenses for our students, staff and faculty!!
Lets lock into contracts with rapacious predatory AI companies with shitty technofascist politics, sucking up water and jacking up electricity prices!!"
"its only wrong 45% of the time!!
Lets buy free licenses for our students, staff and faculty!!
Lets lock into contracts with rapacious predatory AI companies with shitty technofascist politics, sucking up water and jacking up electricity prices!!"
October 23, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Universities across the world seeing this:
"its only wrong 45% of the time!!
Lets buy free licenses for our students, staff and faculty!!
Lets lock into contracts with rapacious predatory AI companies with shitty technofascist politics, sucking up water and jacking up electricity prices!!"
"its only wrong 45% of the time!!
Lets buy free licenses for our students, staff and faculty!!
Lets lock into contracts with rapacious predatory AI companies with shitty technofascist politics, sucking up water and jacking up electricity prices!!"
Reposted by Siún Carden
Free broadband: absurd communism, what would they even use it for
Psychosis Wormhole Premium in every home: Mr Altman, you’ve charmed me
Psychosis Wormhole Premium in every home: Mr Altman, you’ve charmed me
“The non-binding deal could give OpenAI access to government data and lead to its software being used in education, defence, security and the justice system”
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Deal to get ChatGPT Plus for whole of UK discussed by Open AI boss and minister
Exclusive: Deal that could have cost £2bn was floated at meeting between technology secretary Peter Kyle and Sam Altman
www.theguardian.com
August 24, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Free broadband: absurd communism, what would they even use it for
Psychosis Wormhole Premium in every home: Mr Altman, you’ve charmed me
Psychosis Wormhole Premium in every home: Mr Altman, you’ve charmed me
Reposted by Siún Carden
Laurie Anderson anticipating AI at the Hirshhorn Museum
August 23, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Laurie Anderson anticipating AI at the Hirshhorn Museum
Reposted by Siún Carden
People are lonelier than ever, so here is a robot you can talk to. It won't make you less lonely but it will drive you insane. That will be five thousand dollars.
August 14, 2025 at 4:17 PM
People are lonelier than ever, so here is a robot you can talk to. It won't make you less lonely but it will drive you insane. That will be five thousand dollars.
Reposted by Siún Carden
never take freedom of the press or access to news for granted. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/...
August 10, 2025 at 10:54 PM
never take freedom of the press or access to news for granted. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/...
Reposted by Siún Carden
Hot take: most online courses taught in universities right now are not designed to maximize student learning.
Why not? Because instead of spending money on recruiting and training excellent educators, universities are spending their money on Learning Management Systems that don't work.
Why not? Because instead of spending money on recruiting and training excellent educators, universities are spending their money on Learning Management Systems that don't work.
“…faculty members will be able to click an icon that connects them with various AI features…, like a grading tool, a discussion-post summarizer… Canvas’s parent company, Instructure, is also in partnership w/ OpenAI… so instructors can use generative-AI technology as part of their assignments.”
Instructors Will Now See AI Throughout a Widely Used Course Software
New features integrated into Canvas include a grading assistant, a discussion-post summarizer, and even a way to pair assignments with generative AI tools.
www.chronicle.com
July 23, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Hot take: most online courses taught in universities right now are not designed to maximize student learning.
Why not? Because instead of spending money on recruiting and training excellent educators, universities are spending their money on Learning Management Systems that don't work.
Why not? Because instead of spending money on recruiting and training excellent educators, universities are spending their money on Learning Management Systems that don't work.
Reposted by Siún Carden
remembered this today, which I wrote back at the end of 2023, and thought about how most of the people in the images and videos that prompted it will likely be dead now. My son is about to turn 7
![Fighting Age Males
[2 columns of text. The column on the right starts first. It is narrow, 1-3 words per line. At the end the lines become longer but more broken and fragmented. The text is transcribed below]
video taken on a phone silent men walking through the rubble young men, boys really old men dust and concrete an armchair now and then a part of lamp shards of once lived-in domesticity the men have found someone a child under the wreckage dust still alive one man pulls the child out lifts him up into the strong safe heat of his arms they look to the sky and praise God scroll on still image now men stood against a wall in a line warm colour of their fleshy human skin stark against grey all naked blindfold heads bowed soft bellies skinny legs the shameful shock of it oh fuck scroll past - scroll back- naked men gun point young men, boys really old men thirty to forty fighting age males stripped with hands bound not civilians it says but fighting age at them it says look at these males it says look men look at these Arab men look see look that are these fighting age males look
[see alt text of following post for text of left column]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wbvqv5jjfmj3ip627ln4pl7r/bafkreic2yel6tsnvbkubcwrwyxaxyhymcp67ojnwnt6rwcf6uqvdo2igci@jpeg)
July 21, 2025 at 9:58 PM
remembered this today, which I wrote back at the end of 2023, and thought about how most of the people in the images and videos that prompted it will likely be dead now. My son is about to turn 7
Reposted by Siún Carden
Absurd, and deeply troubling. Anyone with even a passing concern for basic democratic norms should be alarmed at what is happening in the UK at the moment.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
Two UK pro-Palestine organisations have bank accounts frozen
Groups say having access to funds cut off raise fears of wider attempt to silence voices speaking out about Gaza
www.theguardian.com
July 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Absurd, and deeply troubling. Anyone with even a passing concern for basic democratic norms should be alarmed at what is happening in the UK at the moment.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
Reposted by Siún Carden
Read the entire thread! Very perceptive analysis.
So: recruitment & funding aren't critical issues for PA; commitment is give-what-you-can; targets are plentiful (shutting down factories, not smashing the state); local groups can self-direct. This is why they previously survived very heavy policing. It's why they'll likely survive proscription too.
July 5, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Read the entire thread! Very perceptive analysis.
Reposted by Siún Carden
In a week when the divide between direct action protest and terrorism disappeared for the UK Government, Anne Alexander, @aliceellafinden.bsky.social and I share our thoughts on the dangerous chilling effect for Art 10/11 ECHR rights with @opendemocracy.net:
www.opendemocracy.net/en/palestine...
www.opendemocracy.net/en/palestine...
Palestine Action ban: We must learn from university protests
Government’s proscription of the group follows months of similarly chilling repression on campuses across the UK
www.opendemocracy.net
July 4, 2025 at 6:12 PM
In a week when the divide between direct action protest and terrorism disappeared for the UK Government, Anne Alexander, @aliceellafinden.bsky.social and I share our thoughts on the dangerous chilling effect for Art 10/11 ECHR rights with @opendemocracy.net:
www.opendemocracy.net/en/palestine...
www.opendemocracy.net/en/palestine...
Reposted by Siún Carden
This is a *really* extraordinary story from @kenzabryan.ft.com www.ft.com/content/84d9...
The extraordinary life and mysterious death of a carbon credits broker
How an Italian fugitive used diplomatic immunity to work with Dubai royalty and Liberia’s fallen hero
www.ft.com
June 29, 2025 at 9:37 PM
This is a *really* extraordinary story from @kenzabryan.ft.com www.ft.com/content/84d9...
Reposted by Siún Carden
Research from us looking at how social media platforms once again failed to take action on content inciting violence in Northern Ireland last week
After 2 Romanian teenagers were charged with an attack on a teenage girl in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, social media platforms were at the heart of a coordinated campaign of anti-migrant violence. Read ISD's analysis of an increasing pattern of online mobilisation translating into offline violence.
“Get them out, keep them out”: How social media fuelled violent attacks against migrants in Northern Ireland
After two Romanian teens were charged in an attack on a girl in Ireland, online hate fueled violence in Northern Ireland—the latest in a wider trend where platform failures lead to real-world harm.
www.isdglobal.org
June 20, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Research from us looking at how social media platforms once again failed to take action on content inciting violence in Northern Ireland last week
Baubi Urquhart of Yell, Shetland: "photographs of Baubi were once used to illustrate two quite different stories – one about folklore, specifically tales of ‘seal women’ or ‘selkies’ from the Northern Isles of Scotland, and the other about women’s work in the rural economy of the 19th century."
The Story of a Seal-Woman from Shetland – MAA Digital Lab
Baubi Urquhart’s portraits tell two stories—mythical ancestry and rural industry. Eona Bell explores how this woman embodied both in 19th-century Scotland.
www.maadigitallab.org
June 17, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Baubi Urquhart of Yell, Shetland: "photographs of Baubi were once used to illustrate two quite different stories – one about folklore, specifically tales of ‘seal women’ or ‘selkies’ from the Northern Isles of Scotland, and the other about women’s work in the rural economy of the 19th century."
Reposted by Siún Carden
Seems today is the day for Irish politicians to use technology to make a holy show of themselves.
www.thejournal.ie/ciaran-mullo...
www.thejournal.ie/ciaran-mullo...
Irish MEP used AI to write open letter about Gaza which quoted Swedish House Mafia
Ciaran Mullooly – a former journalist – also included an emotional story from a “fictional” girl in Gaza.
www.thejournal.ie
May 29, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Seems today is the day for Irish politicians to use technology to make a holy show of themselves.
www.thejournal.ie/ciaran-mullo...
www.thejournal.ie/ciaran-mullo...
Reposted by Siún Carden
The EU was asked 15 months ago by Spain and Ireland to consider suspending the favourable trade deal it has with Israel. They were ignored.
May 20, 2025 at 10:26 AM
The EU was asked 15 months ago by Spain and Ireland to consider suspending the favourable trade deal it has with Israel. They were ignored.
Reposted by Siún Carden
Trying to get my head round how this could make it to print. Many warning signs for all of us
This was just posted by @tbretc.bsky.social on another platform. The Chicago Sun-Times obviously gets ChatGPT to write a ‘summer reads’ feature almost entirely made up of real authors but completely fake books. What are we coming to?
May 20, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Trying to get my head round how this could make it to print. Many warning signs for all of us
Reposted by Siún Carden
I didn’t realize that *every* literary arts grantee, all 51, were terminated by the NEA. lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-d...
We Don’t Have Any Reserves | Los Angeles Review of Books
Adam Morgan writes on the impact of Trump’s coup at the NEA for small publishers and literary magazines.
lareviewofbooks.org
May 17, 2025 at 8:48 PM
I didn’t realize that *every* literary arts grantee, all 51, were terminated by the NEA. lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-d...
Reposted by Siún Carden
“The inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so.”
In an effort to avoid accusations of cheating, some students are recording their own screens for hours at a time or using keystroke loggers.
A New Headache for Honest Students: Proving They Didn’t Use A.I.
www.nytimes.com
May 19, 2025 at 7:32 PM
“The inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so.”
Reposted by Siún Carden
Local journalism is one of the cornerstones of a democratic society. @manchestermill.bsky.social's work on the University of Greater Manchester (formerly Bolton) is a reminder of just what we're missing as so many local papers become hollow shadows of themselves manchestermill.co.uk/the-universi...
The Casablanca Deal: Secret contracts and unexplained payments at the University of Greater Manchester
EXCLUSIVE: Senior executives at the university tried to divert hundreds of thousands in tuition fees into a private company which one of them owns
manchestermill.co.uk
February 19, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Local journalism is one of the cornerstones of a democratic society. @manchestermill.bsky.social's work on the University of Greater Manchester (formerly Bolton) is a reminder of just what we're missing as so many local papers become hollow shadows of themselves manchestermill.co.uk/the-universi...
Reposted by Siún Carden
The epilogue from my book. Siva said it best - “what Powell says today, the Tories say tomorrow and Labour legislates on the day after”
May 12, 2025 at 11:35 AM
The epilogue from my book. Siva said it best - “what Powell says today, the Tories say tomorrow and Labour legislates on the day after”
Reposted by Siún Carden
Worrying days for The Shetland Times and all of us. We hold all the editions on microfilm and it’s an essential historical resource. If we lose our newspapers it gets much harder to find and preserve consistent output by trained journalists.
The Shetland Times, Shetland's only print newspaper, has been put up for sale after 131 years of ownership by the Wishart family.
If a buyer cannot be found, the newspaper - along with its publishing arm and bookshop - could come to an end.
www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2025/04/25/u...
If a buyer cannot be found, the newspaper - along with its publishing arm and bookshop - could come to an end.
www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2025/04/25/u...
Uncertain future for The Shetland Times - The Shetland Times
After more than a century and a half, the future of The Shetland Times looks far from certain.
www.shetlandtimes.co.uk
April 25, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Worrying days for The Shetland Times and all of us. We hold all the editions on microfilm and it’s an essential historical resource. If we lose our newspapers it gets much harder to find and preserve consistent output by trained journalists.
Reposted by Siún Carden
The Irish Journal of Anthropology (IJA) has just released its special issue on "Islandness", which will be of interest to all scholars of Ireland, and of islands more broadly. The IJA is open access and hosted by University College Cork on behalf of the Anthropological Association of Ireland (AAI).
Vol. 26 No. 1 (2023): Irish Journal of Anthropology-Special Issue: Islandness
| Irish Journal of Anthropology
journals.ucc.ie
April 8, 2025 at 1:03 PM
The Irish Journal of Anthropology (IJA) has just released its special issue on "Islandness", which will be of interest to all scholars of Ireland, and of islands more broadly. The IJA is open access and hosted by University College Cork on behalf of the Anthropological Association of Ireland (AAI).
It's nearly 9 years since I moved to Shetland, so it must be at least 8 since my first Sunday Tea, which happened to be run by the Ex-Whalers Association. Delighted to have somehow snuck them into Irish Pages, via a poem called 'Swallowing the Anchor'. Looking forward to reading this Scotland issue.
Vol. 12 No. 2: Scotland – The Irish Pages Press
Ten years after the Independence Referendum, Irish Pages asks diverse Scottish writers of distinction – established, mid-career and new – to think about their country, and take stock of the current st...
irishpages.org
April 3, 2025 at 8:30 AM
It's nearly 9 years since I moved to Shetland, so it must be at least 8 since my first Sunday Tea, which happened to be run by the Ex-Whalers Association. Delighted to have somehow snuck them into Irish Pages, via a poem called 'Swallowing the Anchor'. Looking forward to reading this Scotland issue.
Reposted by Siún Carden
📣 Islands Symposium registration is now OPEN 📣
Book your place for Island Narratives of Kinship, Place and the Weather, bit.ly/3F0ESa0
📆 3-4 April 2025
📍 Hosted at Cnoc Soilleir with Ceòlas Uibhist &
UHI North, West and Hebrides (South Uist) and online
Book your place for Island Narratives of Kinship, Place and the Weather, bit.ly/3F0ESa0
📆 3-4 April 2025
📍 Hosted at Cnoc Soilleir with Ceòlas Uibhist &
UHI North, West and Hebrides (South Uist) and online
Islands symposium
Island narratives of kinship, place, and the weather 3rd & 4th April 2025 hosted at Cnoc Soilleir with Ceolas Uibhist and UHI NWH (South Uist) and online This 2-day hybrid event is hosted by th…
bit.ly
March 5, 2025 at 1:39 PM
📣 Islands Symposium registration is now OPEN 📣
Book your place for Island Narratives of Kinship, Place and the Weather, bit.ly/3F0ESa0
📆 3-4 April 2025
📍 Hosted at Cnoc Soilleir with Ceòlas Uibhist &
UHI North, West and Hebrides (South Uist) and online
Book your place for Island Narratives of Kinship, Place and the Weather, bit.ly/3F0ESa0
📆 3-4 April 2025
📍 Hosted at Cnoc Soilleir with Ceòlas Uibhist &
UHI North, West and Hebrides (South Uist) and online
Reposted by Siún Carden
look my ALCS payment isn’t going to be life changing but you know what it’s a lot more than any of the corporations paid me to rip off my work for their LLMs
March 25, 2025 at 9:12 AM
look my ALCS payment isn’t going to be life changing but you know what it’s a lot more than any of the corporations paid me to rip off my work for their LLMs