Helen Traill
@traillhelen.bsky.social
Sociologist, lecturer in pol econ and sustainability, love a community garden/allotment, fervent reader
Reposted by Helen Traill
“His insomnia leads him to sit and read in his armchair. Like in the old days, when the computer didn’t limit his time so drastically.” —Enrique Vila-Matas being brutal @ everybody alive
December 13, 2025 at 6:56 PM
“His insomnia leads him to sit and read in his armchair. Like in the old days, when the computer didn’t limit his time so drastically.” —Enrique Vila-Matas being brutal @ everybody alive
This is such a cool image - so tiny, but kind of tripe-like? A bit mesmerising
We're excited to announce the finalists of the #RSPPhotoComp 2025! 🎉 Starting with #microimaging and overall winner, 'Mesmerizing spider threads' by Dr Martin Ramirez, capturing two exceptional silk threads of the Australian net-caster spider (sample obtained by Dr Jonas Wolff @evoimec.bsky.social).
December 5, 2025 at 11:10 AM
This is such a cool image - so tiny, but kind of tripe-like? A bit mesmerising
Reposted by Helen Traill
Glasgow Housing Struggle Archive are hosting a talk by Ståle Holgerson on his new book, Against the Crisis
4 Nov 6:30-8pm Civic House free but ticketed
www.eventbrite.com/e/against-th...
“The most clarifying dissection of ‘crisis’ as concept and reality to appear in several decades”
--- Andreas Malm
4 Nov 6:30-8pm Civic House free but ticketed
www.eventbrite.com/e/against-th...
“The most clarifying dissection of ‘crisis’ as concept and reality to appear in several decades”
--- Andreas Malm
Against the Crisis: Economy and Ecology in a Burning World -Ståle Holgerson
Join Ståle Holgerson to discuss his new book Against the Crisis, hosted by Glasgow Housing Struggle Archive
www.eventbrite.com
October 24, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Glasgow Housing Struggle Archive are hosting a talk by Ståle Holgerson on his new book, Against the Crisis
4 Nov 6:30-8pm Civic House free but ticketed
www.eventbrite.com/e/against-th...
“The most clarifying dissection of ‘crisis’ as concept and reality to appear in several decades”
--- Andreas Malm
4 Nov 6:30-8pm Civic House free but ticketed
www.eventbrite.com/e/against-th...
“The most clarifying dissection of ‘crisis’ as concept and reality to appear in several decades”
--- Andreas Malm
I hope this day is soon
I am waiting patiently for the era when being an eccentric curmudgeon is a super power.
September 2, 2025 at 2:51 PM
I hope this day is soon
Reposted by Helen Traill
Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
Wikipedia:Signs of AI writing - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
August 31, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
Reposted by Helen Traill
Don’t know who made this but thank you
August 26, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Don’t know who made this but thank you
Schools are back (in Scotland) and somehow I still can't do everything? It's almost as if society is not built to facilitate full time working, caring parents to have any peace or hobbies or a life...
August 25, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Schools are back (in Scotland) and somehow I still can't do everything? It's almost as if society is not built to facilitate full time working, caring parents to have any peace or hobbies or a life...
Reposted by Helen Traill
Revealed: Israeli military’s own data indicates civilian death rate of 83% in Gaza war
Revealed: Israeli military’s own data indicates civilian death rate of 83% in Gaza war
Figures from classified IDF database listed 8,900 named fighters as dead or probably dead in May, as overall death toll reached 53,000
Figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database indicate five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians, an extreme rate of slaughter rarely matched in recent decades of warfare.
As of May, 19 months into the war, Israeli intelligence officials listed 8,900 named fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as dead or “probably dead”, a joint investigation by the Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call has found.
8,900
Named fighters listed as dead or ‘probably dead’ in Israeli database as of May 2025 Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
August 21, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Revealed: Israeli military’s own data indicates civilian death rate of 83% in Gaza war
Reposted by Helen Traill
The people who hung this banner outside the Labour headquarters have been arrested and will face trial in the UK in January.
These are the extreme Orwellian measures Western governments must take to normalize Israel's genocide and war crimes.
These are the extreme Orwellian measures Western governments must take to normalize Israel's genocide and war crimes.
August 20, 2025 at 2:28 PM
The people who hung this banner outside the Labour headquarters have been arrested and will face trial in the UK in January.
These are the extreme Orwellian measures Western governments must take to normalize Israel's genocide and war crimes.
These are the extreme Orwellian measures Western governments must take to normalize Israel's genocide and war crimes.
Reposted by Helen Traill
My job as a professor is not to create a serviceable worker. My job is to help foster thoughtful citizens or community members.
If that sounds fanciful it’s bc corporate interests have spent decades framing how we talk about education so they don’t take the heat for immiserating labor conditions.
If that sounds fanciful it’s bc corporate interests have spent decades framing how we talk about education so they don’t take the heat for immiserating labor conditions.
Do not accept the premise that education is to blame for abysmal jobs outcomes.
“The fantasy economy's framing of economic inequality… focuses exclusively on education…deflects attention away from decades of public policies and changing business practices that have…contributed to stagnating wages”
“The fantasy economy's framing of economic inequality… focuses exclusively on education…deflects attention away from decades of public policies and changing business practices that have…contributed to stagnating wages”
August 18, 2025 at 5:48 PM
My job as a professor is not to create a serviceable worker. My job is to help foster thoughtful citizens or community members.
If that sounds fanciful it’s bc corporate interests have spent decades framing how we talk about education so they don’t take the heat for immiserating labor conditions.
If that sounds fanciful it’s bc corporate interests have spent decades framing how we talk about education so they don’t take the heat for immiserating labor conditions.
Reposted by Helen Traill
governments would rather beg consumers to reduce their minuscule individual resource usage than go to therapy*
*properly regulate corporate energy consumption and end the use of fossil fuels
*properly regulate corporate energy consumption and end the use of fossil fuels
sorry you're experiencing record breaking temperatures and drought. Have you tried deleted some of photos of your grandmother about it?
UK Asks People to Delete Emails In Order to Save Water During Drought
As Britain experiences one of its worst droughts in decades, its leaders suggest people get rid of old data to reduce stress on data centers.
www.404media.co
August 13, 2025 at 1:36 PM
governments would rather beg consumers to reduce their minuscule individual resource usage than go to therapy*
*properly regulate corporate energy consumption and end the use of fossil fuels
*properly regulate corporate energy consumption and end the use of fossil fuels
Reposted by Helen Traill
Extraordinary words from an extraordinary man
August 11, 2025 at 6:25 AM
Extraordinary words from an extraordinary man
Reposted by Helen Traill
AI folks have now discovered “thinking”
July 29, 2024 at 9:43 PM
AI folks have now discovered “thinking”
Reposted by Helen Traill
Do you have a fabulous MA student who is interested in the 1990s? Send this fully-funded 4 year AHRC doctoral studentship their way. They'll get to work with me (yay?) and the fabulous @jessamycarlson.bsky.social (yay!) www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...
History: Fully Funded PhD Studentship in Early education, education, education: childcare in the policy and imagination of New Labour’s England, 1994-2003 (RS852) - Swansea UniversityMenu
We offer a wide range of funded and fully funded research scholarships in all subject areas. Explore your options and apply now.
www.swansea.ac.uk
June 23, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Do you have a fabulous MA student who is interested in the 1990s? Send this fully-funded 4 year AHRC doctoral studentship their way. They'll get to work with me (yay?) and the fabulous @jessamycarlson.bsky.social (yay!) www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...
What if every game does not in fact need an optimisation bot? Can I just... Be bad at it but still enjoy it? (NYT games, I'm looking at you)
June 25, 2025 at 9:27 AM
What if every game does not in fact need an optimisation bot? Can I just... Be bad at it but still enjoy it? (NYT games, I'm looking at you)
There's dystopian and then there's whatever this is...
Don’t think I’ve ever muttered the words “fuck me sideways” quite so much reading a story as this one.
They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.
www.nytimes.com
June 13, 2025 at 1:16 PM
There's dystopian and then there's whatever this is...
Reposted by Helen Traill
pretty shitty that young people now have to learn with both a 24/7 torrent of entertainment microtargeted to their neuroses in their pocket and a learning environment full of chirpy little prompts to press a button and fake their homework so they can spend a little more time in the neurosis torrent
June 5, 2025 at 7:30 AM
pretty shitty that young people now have to learn with both a 24/7 torrent of entertainment microtargeted to their neuroses in their pocket and a learning environment full of chirpy little prompts to press a button and fake their homework so they can spend a little more time in the neurosis torrent
This. I want to show all my students this. Because they think a plausibly strung together sentence means something it doesn't.
June 4, 2025 at 11:17 AM
This. I want to show all my students this. Because they think a plausibly strung together sentence means something it doesn't.
The horror. The absurdity of everyday stuff while you know it's going on.
Cuddling my children and thinking of the children in Gaza. Pushing the buggy home thinking about the babies in Gaza. Folding tiny t shirts and thinking about the mamas in Gaza. Buying milk thinking about the dads in Gaza.
What’s happening is an obscenity.
What’s happening is an obscenity.
May 22, 2025 at 8:29 PM
The horror. The absurdity of everyday stuff while you know it's going on.
Reposted by Helen Traill
At this rate MAGA will only be able to afford to rent the libs.
April 7, 2025 at 2:29 PM
At this rate MAGA will only be able to afford to rent the libs.
Okz this is pretty useful, and allows me to consider this place as a kind of work adjacent procrastination
Hello world! We are building *personalized* feeds to help you make sense of research discussions on BlueSky! Pin our first feed below, which shows posts about papers from accounts you follow! Follow this account for more updates!
bsky.app/profile/pape...
bsky.app/profile/pape...
March 14, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Okz this is pretty useful, and allows me to consider this place as a kind of work adjacent procrastination
Reposted by Helen Traill
I am ordering all of my opinion-writing employees to only write about the importance of personal liberty, if they don't want to write on the assigned topic, they will lose their jobs
February 26, 2025 at 3:10 PM
I am ordering all of my opinion-writing employees to only write about the importance of personal liberty, if they don't want to write on the assigned topic, they will lose their jobs
Reposted by Helen Traill
The answer was not the point. The answer was never the point. The process of searching is the process of learning.
February 18, 2025 at 1:48 AM
The answer was not the point. The answer was never the point. The process of searching is the process of learning.
Reposted by Helen Traill
Come work with me (and Ross Beveridge (PI), Andy Cumbers and Allan Cochrane) on what we think will be a really interesting project!
Job alert! 2-year Postdoctoral researcher position on Democratic Localism and Global Policy Mobility in Leverhulme funded project. Based in Urban Studies & Social Policy at University of Glasgow. Deadline: 20/2/2025. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DLR158/r... #urban #sociology
Research Associate at University of Glasgow
Explore an exciting academic career as a Research Associate. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.
www.jobs.ac.uk
February 3, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Come work with me (and Ross Beveridge (PI), Andy Cumbers and Allan Cochrane) on what we think will be a really interesting project!
This is a nice case made for letting snakes stay. There's a critical parallel with the way we treat humans who are being/going to be displaced by climate change...
Jokes aside, this piece is written by an ECR on the project to study these snakes, and the article definitely doesn't go where you think it will. Quite a nice morning read, actually.
Aesculapian snake: Britain has a new snake species – should it be allowed to stay?
If follows two cases of accidental introductions
www.independent.co.uk
February 13, 2025 at 11:42 AM
This is a nice case made for letting snakes stay. There's a critical parallel with the way we treat humans who are being/going to be displaced by climate change...