Jacek Olender
@jacekolender.bsky.social
Heritage scientist, conservator, and philosopher. Local pub bore. European in the land of the free.
🇪🇺 🇵🇱&🇬🇧❤️🇺🇦
Views mine alone, unless they are yours too. Then we can be friends.
Vannevar Bush stan account.
(He/him) ↙️↙️↙️
🇪🇺 🇵🇱&🇬🇧❤️🇺🇦
Views mine alone, unless they are yours too. Then we can be friends.
Vannevar Bush stan account.
(He/him) ↙️↙️↙️
Reposted by Jacek Olender
Any statements from the totally serious "fight club" coalition?
Some choice words for the members in their own party? No? Good to know.
Some choice words for the members in their own party? No? Good to know.
December 3, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Any statements from the totally serious "fight club" coalition?
Some choice words for the members in their own party? No? Good to know.
Some choice words for the members in their own party? No? Good to know.
Reposted by Jacek Olender
I'd forgotten that I wrote this. A post from @hypervisible.blacksky.app reminded me.
Late last year I posted this response to a white paper on AI from our administration, to the local AAUP mailing list:
![If there is one thing I know about academics, it is that we want to see our names on works that we researched, that we authored, and that we are proud of. The omission of this basic information, present in nearly every comparable report, white paper, or set of recommendations, may therefore be considered a part of the document’s content.
Alexey J. Merz, Ph.D. [he/him/they]
Professor of Biochemistry, and Physiology & Biophysics](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:q25tg5qy6kzwtuecpe6b4shw/bafkreicxavd6h4gss7j2wkqvnos24xdqvvie64rrhp43cv3wyav4jkt3dm@jpeg)
December 2, 2025 at 4:25 PM
I'd forgotten that I wrote this. A post from @hypervisible.blacksky.app reminded me.
You earn $42k/yr, your car payment is $1.2k/mth (five years), your insurance is 2k/yr, and now you can also spend $5k/yr on gas, because the best you can hope for is 10 mpg.
That is on top owning the most unpractical and shittiest-built car on the the planet, that was rusting at the dealer's lot.
That is on top owning the most unpractical and shittiest-built car on the the planet, that was rusting at the dealer's lot.
lol it's just "big truck big".
*TRUMP TO ANNOUNCE PROPOSED ROLLBACK IN AUTO FUEL ECONOMY RULES
*TRUMP FUEL-ECONOMY ANNOUNCEMENT EXPECTED WED. AT WHITE HOUSE
*WHITE HOUSE MEETING TO INCLUDE EXECUTIVES FROM GM, FORD
*TRUMP TO ANNOUNCE PROPOSED ROLLBACK IN AUTO FUEL ECONOMY RULES
*TRUMP FUEL-ECONOMY ANNOUNCEMENT EXPECTED WED. AT WHITE HOUSE
*WHITE HOUSE MEETING TO INCLUDE EXECUTIVES FROM GM, FORD
Trump to address White House at 2:00 pm ET Tuesday
December 2, 2025 at 4:54 PM
You earn $42k/yr, your car payment is $1.2k/mth (five years), your insurance is 2k/yr, and now you can also spend $5k/yr on gas, because the best you can hope for is 10 mpg.
That is on top owning the most unpractical and shittiest-built car on the the planet, that was rusting at the dealer's lot.
That is on top owning the most unpractical and shittiest-built car on the the planet, that was rusting at the dealer's lot.
Reposted by Jacek Olender
If you run across a gen A.I. slop 🤖💩 diagram in an academic journal, I’d love to know about it! Please fill out this form:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Slop in journals is illuminating about journals’ quality control. And journals would like you to forget their mistakes.
#AcademicChatter
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Slop in journals is illuminating about journals’ quality control. And journals would like you to forget their mistakes.
#AcademicChatter
Slop graphics in academic journals
Use this form to share graphics (e.g., figures, covers, graphical abstracts) made using generative A.I. that have appeared in academic journals.
The plan is to compile these slop graphics in an ope...
docs.google.com
December 1, 2025 at 6:36 PM
If you run across a gen A.I. slop 🤖💩 diagram in an academic journal, I’d love to know about it! Please fill out this form:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Slop in journals is illuminating about journals’ quality control. And journals would like you to forget their mistakes.
#AcademicChatter
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Slop in journals is illuminating about journals’ quality control. And journals would like you to forget their mistakes.
#AcademicChatter
Apart from the fact that this post tells us more about the quality of writing tolerated at the law schools, the unspoken assumption made here is three-fold: 1) there was no syllabus or other explanation made outside of the prompt and 2) the feedback given is unwarranted, despite being explicitly...
December 1, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Apart from the fact that this post tells us more about the quality of writing tolerated at the law schools, the unspoken assumption made here is three-fold: 1) there was no syllabus or other explanation made outside of the prompt and 2) the feedback given is unwarranted, despite being explicitly...
One thing I've not regretted for a second this year was giving money to the 404 team. They deliver on and on.
if you've been on the fence about joining the coolest club in indie tech media, now is the time
We're running a 💻 CYBER MONDAY 💻 sale. Get 25% off an annual subscription: access to all of our articles, podcasts, bonus content, FOIA Forum trainings, full text RSS feed, no ads, and support independent journalism. Get yours here: www.404media.co/cyber-monday...
December 1, 2025 at 3:20 PM
One thing I've not regretted for a second this year was giving money to the 404 team. They deliver on and on.
Reposted by Jacek Olender
![1
Nurse:
It’s become a real problem in this area
2
Nurse:
We’ve seen the whole community lost to addiction
3
Show a building sign posted:
Westminster ‘X’ Addiction Clinic
With various Westminster people or looking at their phones outside it
Nurse:
Ministers, Spads, Researchers…
4
Nurse:
Most mornings we’ll get a call about someone acting strangely
[Nurse on phone taking a call]
Ok - we’ll be right over
5
Nurse:
We just have a gentle chat
[Nurses approach a minister –Robert Jenrick? - standing in the Palace of Westminster
Minister:
I understand your concerns…
6
Nurse:
Are you OK love?
Minister:
Yes I’m just hearing legitimate concerns from real voters
7
Nurse:
That’s a robot, a Nazi and a poorly-disguised Russian
[Show that the people he is talking to are precisely these characters]
Nurse 2:
Give us your phone, love
8
Nurse:
At the clinic we put them in a Grass-Touching Pod, with a real voter to talk to
[We see them back at the clinic, holding the minister's head and pushing him into a glass isolation booth with a grass floor. And it is a baffled looking woman, on a chair, ready to talk to him.]
9
Minister:
YOU MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COMING CIVIL WAR
[woman looks baffled]
10
woman:
I just want a bus service
Minister:
LOOK AT MY FLAG
[produces a St George's flag]
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreicahofq6s4xow7vowj7dx6odw6ejdwr4kwcmzta7qwi4hg2nvywji@jpeg)
Ah, so the Labour Party is racist in aggregate, but also doesn't want to be seen as being racist in aggregate. Great job everyone.
Polling reveals almost two-thirds of members oppose the asylum reforms package, but support individual measures
Members oppose government’s asylum clampdown – but back specific measures – LabourList
Almost two-thirds of Labour members are opposed to the government’s plans to make Britain’s asylum policy stricter, exclusive polling for LabourList reveals. Plans unveiled by…
labourlist.org
December 1, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Ah, so the Labour Party is racist in aggregate, but also doesn't want to be seen as being racist in aggregate. Great job everyone.
One note I posted elsewhere as well. This rank cowardice literally will kill the university business model. A university not just provides environment to learn to students. It also certifies to the rest of the society, that the graduating student has completed sufficient amount of learning.
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
December 1, 2025 at 1:48 AM
One note I posted elsewhere as well. This rank cowardice literally will kill the university business model. A university not just provides environment to learn to students. It also certifies to the rest of the society, that the graduating student has completed sufficient amount of learning.
I guess we've reached the "good tsar, bad boyars" stage of the regime.
The "If only Trump knew about this" response is such medieval peasant behavior. He knows: he's happy that he is taking stuff away from you.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘Deeply demoralizing’: how Trump derailed coal country’s clean-energy revival
Biden earmarked billions for former coal communities in Appalachia – and his successor came and took it away
www.theguardian.com
November 30, 2025 at 7:39 PM
I guess we've reached the "good tsar, bad boyars" stage of the regime.
Hahahahahaha. Incredible morons. Absolutely dumbest people on the face of the planet.
This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started
November 30, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Hahahahahaha. Incredible morons. Absolutely dumbest people on the face of the planet.
Reposted by Jacek Olender
I want to stress here for journalists covering Kennedy and his goons that this war on public health is driven by big money.
The wellness industry is a massive, massive grift.
The wellness industry is a massive, massive grift.
Mr. Kennedy said it’s an individual choice as to whether or not to vaccinate.
Then he and his minions started taking that choice away by making FDA approval of some vaccines impossible.
Then he and his minions started taking that choice away by making FDA approval of some vaccines impossible.
November 29, 2025 at 9:25 PM
I want to stress here for journalists covering Kennedy and his goons that this war on public health is driven by big money.
The wellness industry is a massive, massive grift.
The wellness industry is a massive, massive grift.
Reposted by Jacek Olender
Yep, and the anti-nuclear power misinformation and organic farming woo also helps funnel people into antivax spaces. Especially with the number of people in swing states who voted for Trump because they decided they were ok with fascism if they could get raw milk with a side of measles as a treat.
November 30, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Yep, and the anti-nuclear power misinformation and organic farming woo also helps funnel people into antivax spaces. Especially with the number of people in swing states who voted for Trump because they decided they were ok with fascism if they could get raw milk with a side of measles as a treat.
Reposted by Jacek Olender
"Liberal institutions must make constant adjustments to safeguard the fundamental openness of society, and liberal politics must be ready to adapt as emerging threats to that openness are identified." www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalisms-...
Liberalism's Positive Vision Must Be the Open Society
Liberalism is not just the mitigation of dangers. It is also an active striving towards a world that is truly free.
www.liberalcurrents.com
November 29, 2025 at 7:23 PM
"Liberal institutions must make constant adjustments to safeguard the fundamental openness of society, and liberal politics must be ready to adapt as emerging threats to that openness are identified." www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalisms-...
Reposted by Jacek Olender
The way you defeat them is to STOP BEING A STUPID SUCKER, and understand that they will NEVER admit to what they're doing, because THEY ARE LYING TO TROLL YOU. At some point you have to accept the evidence of your eyes and ears and not play the "some allege, but others disagree" game.
November 29, 2025 at 5:29 PM
The way you defeat them is to STOP BEING A STUPID SUCKER, and understand that they will NEVER admit to what they're doing, because THEY ARE LYING TO TROLL YOU. At some point you have to accept the evidence of your eyes and ears and not play the "some allege, but others disagree" game.
If @ec.europa.eu had any brains left, it'd be pushing now the MS to fund the @erc.europa.eu for €20bln/year budget instead of €2bln it has now. But EU prefers to stay an open-air museum and a tourist playground instead of real economic powerhouse.
Just got the word that the Trump administration is throwing a brilliant medical researcher friend of mine out of the country because they’re Chinese. Insane and unreal. Literally doing research in the US to help the US
November 29, 2025 at 3:58 PM
If @ec.europa.eu had any brains left, it'd be pushing now the MS to fund the @erc.europa.eu for €20bln/year budget instead of €2bln it has now. But EU prefers to stay an open-air museum and a tourist playground instead of real economic powerhouse.
Reposted by Jacek Olender
On international students:
November 29, 2025 at 1:17 PM
On international students:
Reposted by Jacek Olender
So apparently the administrators at Northwestern have caved to the extortionist demands of the Feds. Faculty voted 595-4 AGAINST this measure.
November 29, 2025 at 3:30 AM
So apparently the administrators at Northwestern have caved to the extortionist demands of the Feds. Faculty voted 595-4 AGAINST this measure.
JFC what pathetic schmucks. All of them.
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university
Full statement from NU below:
Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 1:20 AM
JFC what pathetic schmucks. All of them.
Reposted by Jacek Olender
There is allegedly a left democratic progressive party in power. They are not just suffering this stupid racist bullshit, they are promoting it and are morally bankrupt
November 23, 2025 at 5:28 PM
There is allegedly a left democratic progressive party in power. They are not just suffering this stupid racist bullshit, they are promoting it and are morally bankrupt
Reposted by Jacek Olender
if someone had recently given a speech as eloquent and intellectually complex yet clear-minded as the Thatcher speech Stephen mentioned, it would have led to Harry Cole hitting his big red head like an angry chimp and writing in the Sun that Big Words Bad Why Hate Britain Like This? Boo!
November 28, 2025 at 3:14 PM
if someone had recently given a speech as eloquent and intellectually complex yet clear-minded as the Thatcher speech Stephen mentioned, it would have led to Harry Cole hitting his big red head like an angry chimp and writing in the Sun that Big Words Bad Why Hate Britain Like This? Boo!
Left to right:
Professor
PhD student
Postdoc
Assistant prof
Professor emeritus
Professor
PhD student
Postdoc
Assistant prof
Professor emeritus
NDP leadership hopefuls confront their French shortcomings in Montreal debate montrealgazette.com/news/ndp-lea...
November 28, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Left to right:
Professor
PhD student
Postdoc
Assistant prof
Professor emeritus
Professor
PhD student
Postdoc
Assistant prof
Professor emeritus
Home Office needs to be abolished and everyone from the UKVI must never find public employment ever again, down to a street sweeper. Never.
I fully appreciate this is quite an open ended question, but what the actual f**k is wrong with the Home Office? How devoid of the most basic humanity do you have to be to do this?
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
UK rejects visa for girl left destitute in Jamaica by Hurricane Melissa
Lati-Yana Brown’s parents had asked for application to be expedited so she could join them in UK after house ruined
www.theguardian.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Home Office needs to be abolished and everyone from the UKVI must never find public employment ever again, down to a street sweeper. Never.
Reposted by Jacek Olender
Nuzzi is like Trump in this sense: the worst thing about America is not that someone that awful exists, the worst thing is that much of the press promotes and normalizes it for clicks.
November 27, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Nuzzi is like Trump in this sense: the worst thing about America is not that someone that awful exists, the worst thing is that much of the press promotes and normalizes it for clicks.