Smut Clyde, X-Ray Haruspex
@smutclyde.bsky.social
Hyperbolic Tangent Distributed Observer. Snark is my first language.
So red wine does *not* cure erectile dysfunction after all. I am disappoint.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 19, 2025 at 7:06 PM
So red wine does *not* cure erectile dysfunction after all. I am disappoint.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 19, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Smut Clyde, X-Ray Haruspex
The Fribourg Declaration
forbetterscience.com/2025/11/17/t...
forbetterscience.com/2025/11/17/t...
The Fribourg Declaration
“The papermill crisis is not an external attack on science but a mirror held up to its dysfunctional ecosystem. The for-profit publishing industry, posing as a newly found saviour of research…
forbetterscience.com
November 17, 2025 at 6:13 AM
The Fribourg Declaration
forbetterscience.com/2025/11/17/t...
forbetterscience.com/2025/11/17/t...
@retractionwatch.com One for your Confabulated References archives.
These references were hallucinated by ChatGPT!
@elisabethbik.bsky.social
@elisabethbik.bsky.social
November 16, 2025 at 4:44 AM
@retractionwatch.com One for your Confabulated References archives.
I did enjoy @scalzi.com's cheerful disinclination to identify his narrator / protagonist as male or female. "Does it matter? You choose! Which do you prefer?"
To the annoyance, I am sure, of readers who think that clearly gendering the characters is part of an author's job description.
To the annoyance, I am sure, of readers who think that clearly gendering the characters is part of an author's job description.
I read The Kaiju Preservation Society to my two children* and we were all delighted to see Murderbot get a mention…
“My master's thesis had been on bioengineering in science fiction from Frankenstein through the Murderbot novellas…”
💖💖💖
*they’re quite grown up now!
“My master's thesis had been on bioengineering in science fiction from Frankenstein through the Murderbot novellas…”
💖💖💖
*they’re quite grown up now!
November 12, 2025 at 7:07 AM
I did enjoy @scalzi.com's cheerful disinclination to identify his narrator / protagonist as male or female. "Does it matter? You choose! Which do you prefer?"
To the annoyance, I am sure, of readers who think that clearly gendering the characters is part of an author's job description.
To the annoyance, I am sure, of readers who think that clearly gendering the characters is part of an author's job description.
This is *not* how to plagiarise text by asking Chat-GPT to paraphrase it.
November 10, 2025 at 9:33 AM
This is *not* how to plagiarise text by asking Chat-GPT to paraphrase it.
One of the first papermills was 'MedChina' - a Dr Jia-Li Liu - following a template to churn out fake meta-analysis papers.
forbetterscience.com/2022/06/07/t...
12 years too late, the editors of Gene finally got around to checking the .doc metadata of the manuscript.
pubpeer.com/publications...
forbetterscience.com/2022/06/07/t...
12 years too late, the editors of Gene finally got around to checking the .doc metadata of the manuscript.
pubpeer.com/publications...
November 6, 2025 at 4:16 AM
One of the first papermills was 'MedChina' - a Dr Jia-Li Liu - following a template to churn out fake meta-analysis papers.
forbetterscience.com/2022/06/07/t...
12 years too late, the editors of Gene finally got around to checking the .doc metadata of the manuscript.
pubpeer.com/publications...
forbetterscience.com/2022/06/07/t...
12 years too late, the editors of Gene finally got around to checking the .doc metadata of the manuscript.
pubpeer.com/publications...
So I thought that Elsevier was already as enshittified as possible. I was wrong.
November 4, 2025 at 4:19 AM
So I thought that Elsevier was already as enshittified as possible. I was wrong.
Starting a petition to replace the word 'palindrome' with 'palinilap'.
November 3, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Starting a petition to replace the word 'palindrome' with 'palinilap'.
"Additionally, the author stated that they have used AI tools for generating some images, including Fig. 1."
Reviewers and editors could not work that out for themselves.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reviewers and editors could not work that out for themselves.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
October 31, 2025 at 5:42 PM
"Additionally, the author stated that they have used AI tools for generating some images, including Fig. 1."
Reviewers and editors could not work that out for themselves.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reviewers and editors could not work that out for themselves.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Happy Birthday!
Inclusive: For Better Science is 10 years old now!
One Decade of For Better Science
forbetterscience.com/2025/10/28/o...
forbetterscience.com/2025/10/28/o...
October 28, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Happy Birthday!
Today I realised that the 'Madonna in the Dry Tree' was a stock image, and the original owner of the version in the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum didn't want to pay Petrus Christus to paint a legitimate copy, which is why it's adorned with the little 'A's of the Alamy watermark.
October 23, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Today I realised that the 'Madonna in the Dry Tree' was a stock image, and the original owner of the version in the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum didn't want to pay Petrus Christus to paint a legitimate copy, which is why it's adorned with the little 'A's of the Alamy watermark.
The editors of ACS Omega cheerfully accepted the authors' excuses and replacement image for this weird shit.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
H/t Leonid @forbetterscience.bsky.social
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
H/t Leonid @forbetterscience.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 11:34 PM
The editors of ACS Omega cheerfully accepted the authors' excuses and replacement image for this weird shit.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
H/t Leonid @forbetterscience.bsky.social
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
H/t Leonid @forbetterscience.bsky.social
"You left two witnesses."
In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.
“The tapes wouldn’t start”
“The tapes wouldn’t start”
In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.
“Translate 'yoroshiku onegai shimasu'”.
“Translate 'yoroshiku onegai shimasu'”.
October 12, 2025 at 8:50 AM
"You left two witnesses."
Have they tried *paying* them?
Nothing so grand as Australia. The future is apparently kumara farming in Dargaville.
I wish I was joking.
(via www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...)
I wish I was joking.
(via www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...)
October 6, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Have they tried *paying* them?
EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH GOOGLY EYES
While doing research on ancient languages for a novel I'm working on I discovered Dr. Martin Worthington at Cambridge University. After years of study, he's come up with an approximation of Akkadian. You can listen to The Epic of Gilgamesh here:
www.openculture.com/2010/10/the_...
www.openculture.com/2010/10/the_...
Hear The Epic of Gilgamesh Read in the Original Akkadian and Enjoy the Sounds of Mesopotamia
This clip gives you a taste of what Gilgamesh, one of the earliest known works of literature, sounds like in its mother tongue, Akkadian.
www.openculture.com
October 5, 2025 at 6:37 AM
EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH GOOGLY EYES
Meet Richard Frye, whose research record on leucovorin traces the gulf between promise and proof.
By Brendan Borrell
www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/exc...
By Brendan Borrell
www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/exc...
Exclusive: Meet Richard Frye, who studies leucovorin for autism
Frye has led two placebo-controlled trials of the folate supplement in autistic people; the first was suspended by regulators, and the other has yet to be published.
www.thetransmitter.org
October 2, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Me [serving a sachet of wet food for the feline overlords]: If this is pronounced 'sashey', a small axe is a 'hatshey'.
Fraud Doktorin: [picks up the Frying Pan of Loving Correction]
Fraud Doktorin: [picks up the Frying Pan of Loving Correction]
October 2, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Me [serving a sachet of wet food for the feline overlords]: If this is pronounced 'sashey', a small axe is a 'hatshey'.
Fraud Doktorin: [picks up the Frying Pan of Loving Correction]
Fraud Doktorin: [picks up the Frying Pan of Loving Correction]
I grieve to report that this absolute mantlepiece of text engarblement has been depublished. Along with 13 others from the same thoroughly fraudulent Special Issue.
pubpeer.com/publications...
I included it in this report from the fake-science economy:
forbetterscience.com/2024/06/17/r...
pubpeer.com/publications...
I included it in this report from the fake-science economy:
forbetterscience.com/2024/06/17/r...
October 1, 2025 at 4:27 AM
I grieve to report that this absolute mantlepiece of text engarblement has been depublished. Along with 13 others from the same thoroughly fraudulent Special Issue.
pubpeer.com/publications...
I included it in this report from the fake-science economy:
forbetterscience.com/2024/06/17/r...
pubpeer.com/publications...
I included it in this report from the fake-science economy:
forbetterscience.com/2024/06/17/r...
PRO-TIP: You don't have to copy-paste *everything* from the Chatbot response straight into your scholarly manuscript.
October 1, 2025 at 12:36 AM
PRO-TIP: You don't have to copy-paste *everything* from the Chatbot response straight into your scholarly manuscript.
If you're looking for a nice thing to say about a zombie friend, "She looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth" is generally true. Except on hot days.
September 29, 2025 at 6:24 AM
If you're looking for a nice thing to say about a zombie friend, "She looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth" is generally true. Except on hot days.
Keep fish and seals and cetaceans out of the sea - they injure the pollutants.
September 26, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Keep fish and seals and cetaceans out of the sea - they injure the pollutants.
Reposted by Smut Clyde, X-Ray Haruspex
If Ilka knows about FBS, surely she must have searched for maths papermills? Like this from 2020, by @smutclyde.bsky.social :
forbetterscience.com/2020/06/15/b...
forbetterscience.com/2020/06/15/b...
Begger’s test for Schrödingerean predator-prey system
Why is it that nobody remembers the name of [the famous mathematician] Johann Gambolputty…
forbetterscience.com
September 25, 2025 at 9:11 AM
If Ilka knows about FBS, surely she must have searched for maths papermills? Like this from 2020, by @smutclyde.bsky.social :
forbetterscience.com/2020/06/15/b...
forbetterscience.com/2020/06/15/b...
Not really.
September 25, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Not really.
Reposted by Smut Clyde, X-Ray Haruspex
time lapse of Janine receiving her baby spinach leaf
September 22, 2025 at 10:27 PM
time lapse of Janine receiving her baby spinach leaf