Nora J. Williams
@norajw.bsky.social
Academic & theatre kid| Canonical Misogyny out now from Edinburgh UP! | less funny half of @nashaxpodcast.bsky.social | she/her | 🇱🇧
FACULTY GREW TOO POWERFUL
excuse me while I laugh myself off this cliff
excuse me while I laugh myself off this cliff
Yes we all agree that this is the reason colleges are in trouble
December 9, 2025 at 5:19 PM
FACULTY GREW TOO POWERFUL
excuse me while I laugh myself off this cliff
excuse me while I laugh myself off this cliff
Reposted by Nora J. Williams
This entire grift relies on convincing people that they don't know how to do the things they have always known how to do, and ironically, if it works, we will, in a very short amount of time, forget how to do all the things we have always known how to do.
Jimmy Fallon: "And do you use ChatGPT when raising your baby?"
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
December 9, 2025 at 3:40 PM
This entire grift relies on convincing people that they don't know how to do the things they have always known how to do, and ironically, if it works, we will, in a very short amount of time, forget how to do all the things we have always known how to do.
Reposted by Nora J. Williams
People expect miracles from medicine, but refuse the miracle that would let them avoid needing emergency care in the first place
December 5, 2025 at 3:00 PM
People expect miracles from medicine, but refuse the miracle that would let them avoid needing emergency care in the first place
Reposted by Nora J. Williams
if you gut higher education successfully, it will take decades to recover. Subject experts, skilled pedagogues, and experienced research leaders don't pop off a factory line for next-day delivery. Once it's gone, it's going to be very hard work to get it back, even if everyone decides we want to.
December 3, 2025 at 8:51 AM
if you gut higher education successfully, it will take decades to recover. Subject experts, skilled pedagogues, and experienced research leaders don't pop off a factory line for next-day delivery. Once it's gone, it's going to be very hard work to get it back, even if everyone decides we want to.
The people driving the dismantling of the sector seem to believe that academic capacity is easily replaceable. Maybe that's understandable, when they're currently getting hundreds of applications from over-qualified mid-career scholars for paltry part-time and fixed term contracts.
But --
But --
I have a lot to say, including that it's despicable to drop this news 3 weeks before Christmas. I am devastated for my friends and colleagues. Butchering 20% of the university's staff poisons the working environment in ways that will linger.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
University of Essex to shut Southend campus and cut 400 jobs - BBC News
The Southend-on-Sea campus is home to the award-winning East 15 drama school.
www.bbc.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:50 AM
The people driving the dismantling of the sector seem to believe that academic capacity is easily replaceable. Maybe that's understandable, when they're currently getting hundreds of applications from over-qualified mid-career scholars for paltry part-time and fixed term contracts.
But --
But --
I have a lot to say, including that it's despicable to drop this news 3 weeks before Christmas. I am devastated for my friends and colleagues. Butchering 20% of the university's staff poisons the working environment in ways that will linger.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
University of Essex to shut Southend campus and cut 400 jobs - BBC News
The Southend-on-Sea campus is home to the award-winning East 15 drama school.
www.bbc.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:48 AM
I have a lot to say, including that it's despicable to drop this news 3 weeks before Christmas. I am devastated for my friends and colleagues. Butchering 20% of the university's staff poisons the working environment in ways that will linger.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Nora J. Williams
I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.
November 28, 2025 at 3:07 PM
I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.
Canonical Misogyny is currently 50% off, direct from the publisher Edinburgh University Press. That makes the ebook just £10 all weekend!
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-canonic...
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-canonic...
Canonical Misogyny
Canonical Misogyny
edinburghuniversitypress.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Canonical Misogyny is currently 50% off, direct from the publisher Edinburgh University Press. That makes the ebook just £10 all weekend!
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-canonic...
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-canonic...
Fab thread.
Truly nothing beats the moment when you're so surprised by executing something you've been working on that you lose it mid-stream and fall over/start crying or laughing/drop everything/however your body reacts 🤸🏻♀️ 🤸🏻♀️ 🤸🏻♀️
Truly nothing beats the moment when you're so surprised by executing something you've been working on that you lose it mid-stream and fall over/start crying or laughing/drop everything/however your body reacts 🤸🏻♀️ 🤸🏻♀️ 🤸🏻♀️
There's a part of learning, which generative AI completely turns into dogshit, which is *doing something you could not have done before*
Whether it's drawing, playing an instrument, solving a physics problem, organizing an essay, you find yourself doing easily what previously you found overwhelming
Whether it's drawing, playing an instrument, solving a physics problem, organizing an essay, you find yourself doing easily what previously you found overwhelming
November 25, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Fab thread.
Truly nothing beats the moment when you're so surprised by executing something you've been working on that you lose it mid-stream and fall over/start crying or laughing/drop everything/however your body reacts 🤸🏻♀️ 🤸🏻♀️ 🤸🏻♀️
Truly nothing beats the moment when you're so surprised by executing something you've been working on that you lose it mid-stream and fall over/start crying or laughing/drop everything/however your body reacts 🤸🏻♀️ 🤸🏻♀️ 🤸🏻♀️
Reposted by Nora J. Williams
Exactly one woman has won the Booker in the past six years www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 16, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Exactly one woman has won the Booker in the past six years www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Nora J. Williams
Open AI loses copyright case in Germany.
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Blow for OpenAI in Germany as court rules song lyrics used illegally
A German court ruled on Tuesday that OpenAI violated copyright on nine popular songs in a lawsuit that marked another attempt to prevent the free use of artists' content online. The Munich Regional Co...
www.yahoo.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Open AI loses copyright case in Germany.
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Reposted by Nora J. Williams
Here's Keir Starmer before the general election promising Ukrainian refugees that he will stand with them "as long as it takes".
Now his Government's own policy is that "the era of permanent protection [for refugees] is over"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ra9...
Now his Government's own policy is that "the era of permanent protection [for refugees] is over"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ra9...
Keir Starmer meets Ukrainian families on the two year anniversary of the war in Ukraine
YouTube video by Keir Starmer
www.youtube.com
November 15, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Here's Keir Starmer before the general election promising Ukrainian refugees that he will stand with them "as long as it takes".
Now his Government's own policy is that "the era of permanent protection [for refugees] is over"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ra9...
Now his Government's own policy is that "the era of permanent protection [for refugees] is over"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ra9...
As the great-granddaughter of a refugee,
fuck this all the way into the sun.
fuck this all the way into the sun.
To reiterate, this is about making life immeasurably more miserable and stressful for some of the most vulnerable people, in the almost certainly vain hope of winning over the votes of racists.
Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Asylum in UK to be made temporary under Home Secretary’s plans
Shabana Mahmood will lay out reforms modelled on the Danish system on Monday.
www.independent.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 10:34 AM
As the great-granddaughter of a refugee,
fuck this all the way into the sun.
fuck this all the way into the sun.
I have so many questions for the man biking down an unlit country road at 9:30 last night, in the pitch dark and pouring rain, wearing all black with no lights or reflectors.
November 14, 2025 at 9:29 AM
I have so many questions for the man biking down an unlit country road at 9:30 last night, in the pitch dark and pouring rain, wearing all black with no lights or reflectors.
Reposted by Nora J. Williams
I wonder if the United States can learn anything from the last time a major industrialized country decided to isolate itself from the rest of the world?
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
November 11, 2025 at 3:35 PM
I wonder if the United States can learn anything from the last time a major industrialized country decided to isolate itself from the rest of the world?
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
Check the thread for more 😄🎶
November 4, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Check the thread for more 😄🎶
Never ever speak to me about "cancel culture" and "ruining men's lives" because if that's true, wtf is Andrew fucking Cuomo doing all over my feed still
November 3, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Never ever speak to me about "cancel culture" and "ruining men's lives" because if that's true, wtf is Andrew fucking Cuomo doing all over my feed still
Amazing to feel politically hopeful in 2025. Go Zohran!
For New Yorkers who work the night shift, it can be nearly impossible to participate in political life of our city.
So tonight we’re bringing this campaign to them — starting with taxi drivers waiting at LaGuardia.
So tonight we’re bringing this campaign to them — starting with taxi drivers waiting at LaGuardia.
October 31, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Amazing to feel politically hopeful in 2025. Go Zohran!
Thank you, Izzi!! We had such a great audience last night-- thanks for coming out 🥰👑💀💐
Update - it was great!!
Such a fun concept and so well-executed - I particularly enjoyed the hand-puppet Rosencrantz 🐰 Thanks to @norajw.bsky.social for bringing this production to little old Colchester - thoroughly enjoyed it🌟
Such a fun concept and so well-executed - I particularly enjoyed the hand-puppet Rosencrantz 🐰 Thanks to @norajw.bsky.social for bringing this production to little old Colchester - thoroughly enjoyed it🌟
October 30, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Thank you, Izzi!! We had such a great audience last night-- thanks for coming out 🥰👑💀💐
BIRTH OF MERLIN LOBBY, ARISE!
🚨It's that time again - we're looking for a new project to produce into the next season of work. What play do you want to hear from us? This first round is open to all to help create a long list. Get your foot in the door.
Don't let the Shakerley Marmion lobby win! #vote forms.gle/8UPE1FVXTDhQ...
Don't let the Shakerley Marmion lobby win! #vote forms.gle/8UPE1FVXTDhQ...
October 29, 2025 at 12:58 PM
BIRTH OF MERLIN LOBBY, ARISE!
Reposted by Nora J. Williams
When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.
June 19, 2025 at 11:28 AM
When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.
I am SO disappointed not to be present for this!!! A great play for spooky season 🧙🏼♀️ 🐕 🔥
🚨Tonight! Our one off performance (recording live for the podcast) of The Witch of Edmonton by Dekker, Ford and Rowley. It's nearly sold out, but a few tickets are still on sale - Tonight at the White Bear Theatre with more plays across the week #horror #wyrd www.ticketsource.co.uk/beyondshakes...
October 21, 2025 at 9:14 AM
I am SO disappointed not to be present for this!!! A great play for spooky season 🧙🏼♀️ 🐕 🔥
I've seen so many people fall into the trap of ceding ground on immigration by agreeing that "illegals" shouldn't be allowed. But it's never about a legal pathway. It's about racism and white supremacy.
"Culturally coherent" isn't even a dog whistle ffs -- it's loud and clear.
"Culturally coherent" isn't even a dog whistle ffs -- it's loud and clear.
October 21, 2025 at 7:13 AM
I've seen so many people fall into the trap of ceding ground on immigration by agreeing that "illegals" shouldn't be allowed. But it's never about a legal pathway. It's about racism and white supremacy.
"Culturally coherent" isn't even a dog whistle ffs -- it's loud and clear.
"Culturally coherent" isn't even a dog whistle ffs -- it's loud and clear.
Reposted by Nora J. Williams
the aws outage should be evidence that running half the internet on a single company's servers is a terrible idea but i fear nothing will change
October 20, 2025 at 4:09 PM
the aws outage should be evidence that running half the internet on a single company's servers is a terrible idea but i fear nothing will change
"Too high" for what? "Too high" for whom?
Not everyone needs or wants to go uni, but everyone should have the opportunity to do so. Think about who gets cut out by reducing participation in HE. Spoiler: it's usually not the children of the wealthy and the powerful.
Not everyone needs or wants to go uni, but everyone should have the opportunity to do so. Think about who gets cut out by reducing participation in HE. Spoiler: it's usually not the children of the wealthy and the powerful.
'YouGov asked voters for their views after prime minister Keir Starmer recently scrapped the 50 per cent higher education participation target, saying it was not “right for our times”, in favour of a new target encompassing apprenticeships as well.' 1/3
Nearly half of UK public say university participation is too high
YouGov survey finds big differences in support for universities across different political parties
www.timeshighereducation.com
October 18, 2025 at 11:06 AM
"Too high" for what? "Too high" for whom?
Not everyone needs or wants to go uni, but everyone should have the opportunity to do so. Think about who gets cut out by reducing participation in HE. Spoiler: it's usually not the children of the wealthy and the powerful.
Not everyone needs or wants to go uni, but everyone should have the opportunity to do so. Think about who gets cut out by reducing participation in HE. Spoiler: it's usually not the children of the wealthy and the powerful.