Jack Ryan 🙏🧪
@jacksonwryan.com
Not a spy.
Freelance investigative / science journalist.
President, Science Journalists Association of Australia.
I write about people, science, integrity, dodgy stuff, video games, art (oh yeah and Pepsi Max (once))
Inconsequential post detective.
Freelance investigative / science journalist.
President, Science Journalists Association of Australia.
I write about people, science, integrity, dodgy stuff, video games, art (oh yeah and Pepsi Max (once))
Inconsequential post detective.
On the Factor Fexcectorn and autism bicycle AI slop study: I got an answer from Springer Nature this morning that this scientific paper will be retracted! 🧪
Full story: nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the...
Full story: nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the...
Riding the Autism Bicycle to Retraction Town
Does anyone *really* know their Factor Fexcectorn?
nobreakthroughs.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:25 AM
On the Factor Fexcectorn and autism bicycle AI slop study: I got an answer from Springer Nature this morning that this scientific paper will be retracted! 🧪
Full story: nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the...
Full story: nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the...
Reposted by Jack Ryan 🙏🧪
If you don't know about factor fexcectorn yet, you 👏 haven't 👏 been 👏 listening 👏
November 27, 2025 at 8:42 AM
If you don't know about factor fexcectorn yet, you 👏 haven't 👏 been 👏 listening 👏
Uhh,,, Figure 1 shows you... what exactly? Trying to understand Medical fryrmbial, runctitional features and mum's legs going through concrete.
This whole article is a bit of a disaster. And it's very difficult to find other published work for the author. Strange! 🧪
(via @smutclyde.bsky.social)
This whole article is a bit of a disaster. And it's very difficult to find other published work for the author. Strange! 🧪
(via @smutclyde.bsky.social)
November 27, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Uhh,,, Figure 1 shows you... what exactly? Trying to understand Medical fryrmbial, runctitional features and mum's legs going through concrete.
This whole article is a bit of a disaster. And it's very difficult to find other published work for the author. Strange! 🧪
(via @smutclyde.bsky.social)
This whole article is a bit of a disaster. And it's very difficult to find other published work for the author. Strange! 🧪
(via @smutclyde.bsky.social)
Reposted by Jack Ryan 🙏🧪
Frikkin amazing stuff.
November 26, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Frikkin amazing stuff.
Hell yeah!!! We're at the "basic concepts in biology have entirely broken down" stage of capitalism!!! This should go well!!!
In the craziest celebrity interview this year, Underworld star Kate Beckinsale says her daughter's boyfriend has laid two eggs. https://bit.ly/3K5LLdb
November 26, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Hell yeah!!! We're at the "basic concepts in biology have entirely broken down" stage of capitalism!!! This should go well!!!
Reposted by Jack Ryan 🙏🧪
On the same day CSIRO announced it was cutting 350 jobs, the Australian newspaper ranked the country's top 250 researchers and institutes by field.
Don't mean to yuck yums but... Citations and metric ranking feels like a bad idea folks!!!!! 🧪
nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/are-you-in...
Don't mean to yuck yums but... Citations and metric ranking feels like a bad idea folks!!!!! 🧪
nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/are-you-in...
Are You in Australia's Top 250 Researchers? Who Cares!
(Yet) An(other) argument for science journalism in the newsroom.
nobreakthroughs.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:38 PM
On the same day CSIRO announced it was cutting 350 jobs, the Australian newspaper ranked the country's top 250 researchers and institutes by field.
Don't mean to yuck yums but... Citations and metric ranking feels like a bad idea folks!!!!! 🧪
nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/are-you-in...
Don't mean to yuck yums but... Citations and metric ranking feels like a bad idea folks!!!!! 🧪
nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/are-you-in...
On the same day CSIRO announced it was cutting 350 jobs, the Australian newspaper ranked the country's top 250 researchers and institutes by field.
Don't mean to yuck yums but... Citations and metric ranking feels like a bad idea folks!!!!! 🧪
nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/are-you-in...
Don't mean to yuck yums but... Citations and metric ranking feels like a bad idea folks!!!!! 🧪
nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/are-you-in...
Are You in Australia's Top 250 Researchers? Who Cares!
(Yet) An(other) argument for science journalism in the newsroom.
nobreakthroughs.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:38 PM
On the same day CSIRO announced it was cutting 350 jobs, the Australian newspaper ranked the country's top 250 researchers and institutes by field.
Don't mean to yuck yums but... Citations and metric ranking feels like a bad idea folks!!!!! 🧪
nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/are-you-in...
Don't mean to yuck yums but... Citations and metric ranking feels like a bad idea folks!!!!! 🧪
nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/are-you-in...
Reposted by Jack Ryan 🙏🧪
This might be my favorite PowerPoint slide I've seen recently.
JR: The science misconduct-reporting ecosystem today: The shonks keep on shonking! No one ever notices. Some sleuths catch it, universities investigates but keeps quiet, and the shonks keep on shonking!
Where should science journalism fit in?
#IRICSydney
Where should science journalism fit in?
#IRICSydney
November 18, 2025 at 1:06 AM
This might be my favorite PowerPoint slide I've seen recently.
Reposted by Jack Ryan 🙏🧪
¡pɐǝɥǝɹoℲ uɐᴉpɹɐnפ uɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀ u∀
The Ashes: what you need to know about the 2025-26 series in Australia
The Ashes: what you need to know about the 2025-26 series in Australia
The 74th Ashes series begins this week. How can cricket lovers follow all the action? Will England be competitive this time? Your questions answered
The first ball will be bowled in Perth on Friday at 10:20am local time, or 1.20pm AEDT in Sydney and Melbourne. In Brisbane, tune in just after midday.
Perth, starting 21 November
Brisbane (day nighter), 4 December
Adelaide, 17 December
Melbourne, 26 December
Sydney, 4 January Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:38 AM
¡pɐǝɥǝɹoℲ uɐᴉpɹɐnפ uɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀ u∀
This image messed with my brain so bad
The Ashes: what you need to know about the 2025-26 series in Australia
The Ashes: what you need to know about the 2025-26 series in Australia
The 74th Ashes series begins this week. How can cricket lovers follow all the action? Will England be competitive this time? Your questions answered
The first ball will be bowled in Perth on Friday at 10:20am local time, or 1.20pm AEDT in Sydney and Melbourne. In Brisbane, tune in just after midday.
Perth, starting 21 November
Brisbane (day nighter), 4 December
Adelaide, 17 December
Melbourne, 26 December
Sydney, 4 January Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:53 AM
This image messed with my brain so bad
I'll say it until my bones are dust but when newsrooms don't support science journalism, it's just easier to let science funding wither and die. [Katter voice] DONT SAY THAT pollies won't bend to pressure from the papers. They can be terrified of it (see news weaponising the social media ban...) 🧪
November 19, 2025 at 9:34 AM
I'll say it until my bones are dust but when newsrooms don't support science journalism, it's just easier to let science funding wither and die. [Katter voice] DONT SAY THAT pollies won't bend to pressure from the papers. They can be terrified of it (see news weaponising the social media ban...) 🧪
We know that citation count is not a very good metric. A major Australian paper perpetuating this ideal of citation = quality is particularly problematic, props up the perverse incentives of scientific publishing and is easily manipulated. Put a science journalist on your staff ffs. The end.
🧪
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November 18, 2025 at 10:19 PM
We know that citation count is not a very good metric. A major Australian paper perpetuating this ideal of citation = quality is particularly problematic, props up the perverse incentives of scientific publishing and is easily manipulated. Put a science journalist on your staff ffs. The end.
🧪
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I'm still trading off the eternal EB Games story
Next: Jackson Ryan with 'Strengthening research misconduct reporting without eroding trust' / 'Pulling teeth from a rabid fox'
He once was fired from a video store after posting a video of him jumping over some boxes - his blog post was the jumping point to a career in journalism.
#IRICSydney
He once was fired from a video store after posting a video of him jumping over some boxes - his blog post was the jumping point to a career in journalism.
#IRICSydney
November 18, 2025 at 3:04 AM
I'm still trading off the eternal EB Games story
Reposted by Jack Ryan 🙏🧪
We're having a sale! Get your first month of Aftermath for just $1.
aftermath.site/aftermath-vide...
aftermath.site/aftermath-vide...
November 13, 2025 at 9:47 PM
We're having a sale! Get your first month of Aftermath for just $1.
aftermath.site/aftermath-vide...
aftermath.site/aftermath-vide...
Hate calling out every "is this AI?" but ...is Prime Video running this image of John Beam during his tribute through AI? Why? What possible reason could these letters have got messed up like this? It seems the original is a Netflix press image? Maybe that??? Wth. Gross.
November 15, 2025 at 3:24 AM
Hate calling out every "is this AI?" but ...is Prime Video running this image of John Beam during his tribute through AI? Why? What possible reason could these letters have got messed up like this? It seems the original is a Netflix press image? Maybe that??? Wth. Gross.
The genre of mainstream writing about games that is "go to a space I've never visited or understood to find out what's *really* going on" only ever ends up with a story that is "I found lots of bad stuff!!! can you believe this?" at a surface-level, lacking context, insight or any solutions.
Kudos and congrats to the most unhinged and least rigorous "video game extremism" take I've ever read, and the bar is soo high nypost.com/2025/11/13/t...
Exclusive | Inside the world of Discord and the far-left-coded games radicalizing young boys
What is really happening on these gaming and chat platforms?
nypost.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:50 PM
The genre of mainstream writing about games that is "go to a space I've never visited or understood to find out what's *really* going on" only ever ends up with a story that is "I found lots of bad stuff!!! can you believe this?" at a surface-level, lacking context, insight or any solutions.
Reposted by Jack Ryan 🙏🧪
aside from the newsom and collargate stuff, good reminder that even game recommendations on reddit are thoroughly compromised
November 10, 2025 at 12:13 AM
aside from the newsom and collargate stuff, good reminder that even game recommendations on reddit are thoroughly compromised
I can, sadly, inform my audience: The fear of many scandals is well-founded but ... will anyone publish about them (at a rate that sustains the cost of living)? Not really, no. 🫠
…just by amplifying and reporting what was going on.
I’m glad the guardian published this, but i fear how many scandals are going around without sunlight and disinfectant with the growing absence of journos keeping the games industry honest
I’m glad the guardian published this, but i fear how many scandals are going around without sunlight and disinfectant with the growing absence of journos keeping the games industry honest
November 13, 2025 at 2:34 AM
I can, sadly, inform my audience: The fear of many scandals is well-founded but ... will anyone publish about them (at a rate that sustains the cost of living)? Not really, no. 🫠
Reposted by Jack Ryan 🙏🧪
not to harp on about old drama, but this is dubious ethical behaviour is a pattern. keighley also had evidence from JS’s victims who spoke out when she was nom’d for future class.
nothing happened, until public outrage forced their hands.
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
nothing happened, until public outrage forced their hands.
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
‘We were effectively props’: young stars of game development feel let down by the ‘gaming Oscars’
Announced in 2020 by the Game Awards as an inclusive programme for the industry’s next generation, the Future Class initiative has now been discontinued. Inductees describe clashes with organisers and...
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:16 AM
not to harp on about old drama, but this is dubious ethical behaviour is a pattern. keighley also had evidence from JS’s victims who spoke out when she was nom’d for future class.
nothing happened, until public outrage forced their hands.
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
nothing happened, until public outrage forced their hands.
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
Reposted by Jack Ryan 🙏🧪
In an Australia first, I used FOI to get the AI chat logs of Australia's top national security bureaucrat.
They show how he used Microsoft Copilot to ghostwrite speeches and messages to colleagues.
This comes as the government looks to push AI use in the public service.
www.crikey.com.au/20...
They show how he used Microsoft Copilot to ghostwrite speeches and messages to colleagues.
This comes as the government looks to push AI use in the public service.
www.crikey.com.au/20...
November 12, 2025 at 2:01 AM
In an Australia first, I used FOI to get the AI chat logs of Australia's top national security bureaucrat.
They show how he used Microsoft Copilot to ghostwrite speeches and messages to colleagues.
This comes as the government looks to push AI use in the public service.
www.crikey.com.au/20...
They show how he used Microsoft Copilot to ghostwrite speeches and messages to colleagues.
This comes as the government looks to push AI use in the public service.
www.crikey.com.au/20...
+ there's very few who covered video games ethically left to teach the next generation of journalists how to work. Those that scraped through, they're still scraping by... to pay the rent. The ABC cutting jobs creates a generational black hole. Knowledge goes in, gets eaten up, never comes out.
Hard not to connect yesterday's Media Watch stuff to more games media job losses.
Sad fact: these fuckups are inevitable when there is no way for people to cover video games ethically and pay the rent.
We exist in an ecosystem built to sell us shit with zero oversight. It's all by design. Borked.
Sad fact: these fuckups are inevitable when there is no way for people to cover video games ethically and pay the rent.
We exist in an ecosystem built to sell us shit with zero oversight. It's all by design. Borked.
November 12, 2025 at 1:55 AM
+ there's very few who covered video games ethically left to teach the next generation of journalists how to work. Those that scraped through, they're still scraping by... to pay the rent. The ABC cutting jobs creates a generational black hole. Knowledge goes in, gets eaten up, never comes out.
Around this time last year, the Telepathy Tapes podcast exploded into the mainstream, with claims autistic children who speak few or no words “possess gifts that defy conventional understanding, from telepathy to otherworldly perceptions"
It was, many experts said, dangerous and exploitative. 🧪
It was, many experts said, dangerous and exploitative. 🧪
November 11, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Around this time last year, the Telepathy Tapes podcast exploded into the mainstream, with claims autistic children who speak few or no words “possess gifts that defy conventional understanding, from telepathy to otherworldly perceptions"
It was, many experts said, dangerous and exploitative. 🧪
It was, many experts said, dangerous and exploitative. 🧪
Reposted by Jack Ryan 🙏🧪
Good day to financially support subscription games and tech websites that do the right thing across the board. CHEERS.
November 10, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Good day to financially support subscription games and tech websites that do the right thing across the board. CHEERS.
I like new Aftermath
As you may have seen, we've launched a brand new website today! And while we're excited about some of the big stuff involved--like a sale and new payment methods--here are some other neat features we hope readers and newcomers will appreciate.
aftermath.site/aftermath-rela...
aftermath.site/aftermath-rela...
November 11, 2025 at 12:19 AM
I like new Aftermath