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AnnaCupani

@annacup.bsky.social

530 followers 240 following 1.2K posts

Scientist. Recovering academic. Works in Research & Biz Innovation in Data & Health. Professional career coach, writing guide, academic mentor (get in touch here or on annacupani.com) Storyteller, walker and music lover.

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AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · Apr 11

To all my Italian-speaking friends: this is a podcast you want to listen this April.
It retells the last months of WWII in Padova. The Resistance and the key role that its university played in it. The tortures, the silences, the meaning of anti-fascismo for us today
open.spotify.com/episode/2YRQ...

Episodio 1 – Ultimo viene il corvo

Dietro gli scuri. L’ultimo inverno della Banda Carità · Episode

open.spotify.com

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 8h

I refrain from interacting but always want to ask "why???"

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 8h

What is it? I thought I knew but it makes no sense in the context of London.
I like to remind anyone going down the "they make more money here doing menial jobs than as graduates in their countries" that this is simply not true.
Also, I am anything but cheap labour, trust me!

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 12h

And finally (sorry, you can tell this stuff has been bugging me for a while!) on LI I once replied to someone smugly critical of LLM that we can avoid anthropomorphic verbs (thinks, listens, lies, is confused, apologises). The reply I got: that's what normal people use so I'll keep using them. 🤦🏻‍♀️

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AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 12h

That first sentence is already irking. What does it mean??? Where's the editor?

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AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 13h

Another instance I have seen on LinkedIn (which is in a league on its own when it comes to AI nonsense) is profs 'debunking' pseudo science with (awful)AI generated images that make no sense in themselves and have no relation with the content of the article.

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AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 20h

I see this a lot among academics. They treat the models as they would treat a student caught cheating. Of course when I try to explain why this doesn't work, I am not listened to because I am not a professor so what do I know. And on we go...

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AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 22h

On the Eurostar back home, still thinking of this.
I don't remember this "rite of passage" vibe (maybe I'm not middle-class enough, I came on a scholarship!), what I think we felt was a sense that an entire continent was now our home. We did what many Brits did, came to London, to stay, maybe.

Posts by user Edward Barrow. "A couple of years in London was absolutely a rite of passage for a section of middle-class European youth (as it was/is for Australians on the working holiday visa). They came in enough numbers to be a very noticeable demographic - when they were here, and when they had left."
"Tehy weren't planning on settling or making careers here - so took fairly menial hospitality jobs. Same as young Brits going to ski resorts. Its effect on London in particular was noticeable. Maybe only S. London?"

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 23h

Is this not parody?

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 1d

No point in commenting as young people are not on here but I remember during a schooltrip a friend queuing to call home from a booth (the ones on the street!) and accidentally calling My Home because that's the number she called every day.

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 1d

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 1d

Omg, I'm in bits! 🤣🤣🤣

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 1d

I even dated a Brit, with no plan to marry and settle. Irresponsible me!

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AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 1d

It's such a weird thread altogether. I do remember thinking people meant it when they said "see you later" and I've probably hugged people a bit too enthusiastically. IMAGINE!

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AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, because it still has Not!
As far as I know, the proposal is still with the Lords.

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 1d

I'm having a flashback of a concert at the Bozar in Bxl. Max Gazzé started introducing his songs in French, then asked "who here does not speak Italian?" a couple of hands went up, he said "sorry guys!" and switched to Italian.
Very weird.

Edward Barrow @ejoftheweb.bsky.social · 1d

We went to an event at the Hootenanny in Brixton, 2015ish I think. Our kind of music funk/soul/reggae, his was almost the only black face there, ours almost the only English voices - it was rammed with young Italians. Very weird.

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 1d

This attitude is incredibly dangerous, imo.
They won't use religious fundamentalism in the UK, they will frame it differently. If the conversation around trans people's rights is anything to go by, they'll invoke feminism.
Also, Google "abortion decriminalised in the UK" and see where we are...

Tom Scott @tom--scott.bsky.social · 1d

Right-wingers who think tactics they've used to criminalize abortion in the US will have the same kind of traction in the UK fail to grasp that religious fundamentalism is widely viewed as nuts in the UK, & has been for many decades, if not centuries.

As much chance of abolishing UK gun controls.

Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 1d

The right-wing campaign group that helped topple Roe v Wade in the US is now working to roll back abortion laws in the UK, with the help of Nigel Farage.

Its first step? Trying to create a debate around "free speech"
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

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AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 1d

*exposed to a bore of a man

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 1d

That place is something else... So much crap, and I'm not sure it is all just AI crap!

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 1d

Absolute Truth!
I mute liberally. I wonder if such people have ever interacted with others in real life.
I've just been exposed by a bore of a man explaining my own life experience to me. But he's my friend's partner, so I nodded along and thought "at least I go home later".
Silence is an option.

Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 1d

going viral here is worse than it used to be on twitter because half of the replies will just be pure pedantry

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AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 1d

I'd like to go and have a beer with the builders to learn what convo they had with the owners about this

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Reposted by AnnaCupani

Mai El-Sadany @maitelsadany.bsky.social · 1d

In relief beyond words that the bombardment has stopped and that those taken are reuniting with their loved ones, but there is something so deeply gross at the levels of self-congratulation global leaders are now partaking in.

Stopping a genocide two years in is not success.

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AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 1d

At first reading of the thread I thought he acknowledged the importance of such acts... Naive me!

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 2d

Growing old means loving a place and being happy to have left it.
And holding the contradiction in you heart.

Cornerstreet with an elegant late 19th century 3-story building in red bricks and white stone with big windows and a balcony. There's a cafe at street level with tables outside, the sky is lightly clouded.

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 2d

All the best and most interesting scientists I have met and worked alongside have creative interests.
Those who dismiss the arts are usually such bores.

Dr Joby Hollis @jobium.bsky.social · 5d

I was an artist before I was a scientist. Art is as much about communication as it is creation, and I've certainly found both to be essential pillars of doing good science. Most the praise my work has gotten over the last 10 years has been for the clarity of my writing and figures.

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 5d

I think scientists are sometimes dismissive of creative work. It's sad for a lot of reasons, one of which is certainly that creative work makes the world a richer place to live. Another one is that scientists are extremely dependent on the idea machine and ought to celebrate all its many dispensers.

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 4d

Not worth it, mostly due to missed wages. My pay has gone up significantly in the past 8 years, but I'll never make up for the previous 8 (spent getting a masters, a PhD and in precarious and poorly paid employment).

AnnaCupani @annacup.bsky.social · 4d

I'll bring this up, thanks for the suggestion!