Andrew Frayn

Also, if you are going to write to anyone at Holyrood, do it asap, as Parliament is dissolved for the pre-election period on 26 March...

Given that there are further possible strikes at UoE and Stirling, and there has been recent action at Strathclyde and UWS, if you believe in the value of Higher Education in Scotland, please write to your MP/MSP. I will be writing to all of mine, as well as Ben McPherson, the HE Minister.

Great to see support from @lornaslater.bsky.social for Edinburgh Napier @eisunion.bsky.social strikers. I'd point out, though, re: her post (last repost) that we've already lost over 50 staff through "targeted voluntary redundancy", as well as many more unfilled posts and ended fixed-term contracts.

Pleased to stand with @eisunion.bsky.social and meet affected staff from Napier to hear their concerns about potential job losses 👩‍🎓

This really epitomises the issues with so-called generative AI (LLMs) - the people who promote and code them really think like this. The fear of ambiguity, ambivalence and difficulty is, in and of itself, characteristic of fascism.

I know everyone has posted this, but this isn't clunky. It's an ellipsis which is both recoverable (you can work out that what is missing is "you might", at the beginning), and generative, in that the terseness tells us something about the character.

CAIL = prerequisite knowledge for a critical perspective, such as to tell apart nonsense hype from true theoretical computer scientific claims. For example, the idea that human-like systems are a sensible or possible goal is the result of circular reasoning and anthropomorphism. olivia.science/ai

🧵

In just over a month I'm contributing to a panel at the @baftss.bsky.social conference on navigating research/pedagogy as an 'independent scholar'. I strongly dislike the term 'independent' and wonder about other possible terms. Has anyone come up with a better alternative?

Yet more great evidence about how important and skilled English graduates are @univeng.bsky.social

Nicola Beauman's v.g. biography is indeed called The Other Elizabeth Taylor. Worth delving into further- I also read and enjoyed her first, At Mrs Lippincote's. Jessica Gildersleeve has an essay on Taylor and anxiety in my co-edited collection Beyond Modernism (out later this year with Bloomsbury).

I appreciate the emotional sensitivity of Caroline Zilboorg's edition of the letters between Aldington and H.D., which does cover the whole life; Vivien Whelpton's recentish 2-vol edition adds in a huge amount of archival detail to the narrative.

I think Beci and I differ so radically in whether one might be sympathetic to Aldington's poetry that I can't respond to that assessment. But if you want to read more, Charles (he was known as Mike) Doyle's biography isn't the go-to any more. (+)

Does anyone have a list of a) books/culture journalists or b) bookstagrammers that you would contact with a news story? Posting in the hope that one of you might be able to save me a lot of time...

These are the 4 things AI can do well:

•Clean up your email inbox (badly)
•Give my shittiest neighbor (Alan) something to talk about at a party
•Tell a 12 yr old to kill himself
•Incinerate a school at 10:16 AM on a Tuesday

You can see why we need to base our economy around it

This is really disgraceful. A Labour government should be ashamed of this happening on their watch. They probably won't be though.

Teaching this on Monday, on my World at War module... Somehow it's timely every year.

Maybe also I Love Dick?

If you're open to translation, Yagisawa's Days at the Morisaki Bookshop might go well. Yellowface might cover some of these boxes too, depending on your angle - I think it would teach well for intro classes.

And I'll be dragging myself out of bed for this in the morning: bsky.app/profile/eisu...

Through the door 1.53am, thanks for your concern one and all!

Mornington Crescent!

I mean, Edinburgh Waverley.

Or, the absolutely worst part of it to be dropped at 1.10am (Market St)

Hello East Craigs

Hello Linlithgow

Hello Bellshill

The laptop is off, I repeat, the laptop is off

Hello to anyone who's in Lesmahagow, where we're currently passing

It is 5 minutes to midnight and the woman is still working on a presentation. It is called "Unlocking Complexity" #BuzzwordBingo

#AccidentalPartridge

And the bus is going all the way up the M74 and down the M8, rather than cutting off time and distance up the A702

The bus lights have now been turned off, so the massive square of white light is now even more headache-inducing. Luckily nothing from the feet