Mary O'Connell
@mary1010.bsky.social
Lecturer in English at UCC. Mama to Dylan. Loves Victorian lit, the Romantics, crime fiction, football. Not necessarily in that order.
The new Ursula K. Le Guin exhibition at Oregon Contemporary is a sprawling love note to Portland's most far-out visionary.
The exhibition compiles her hand-drawn maps, and features a reproduction of her NW Thurman writing room... plus doodles of cats!!
The exhibition compiles her hand-drawn maps, and features a reproduction of her NW Thurman writing room... plus doodles of cats!!
Oregon Contemporary’s Le Guin Exhibition: Earthsea Maps, Cat Drawings, and a Full-Scale Reproduction of Her Writing Room
A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin isn’t a typical exhibition. Ursula Kroeber Le Guin wasn’t a typical artist. Curated by her son, Theo Downes-Le Guin, the new show installed at Oregon Contemporary i...
www.portlandmercury.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:13 PM
My students said they love my rants on it. Taught The Time Machine. Told them OpenAI wants them to become Eloi.
This is why OpenAI is selling so aggressively to education at all levels—they want to create entire generations of users incapable of reading, writing and thinking without ChatGPT to hold their hands
And teachers and professors should call this out for what it actually is
And teachers and professors should call this out for what it actually is
To bear out this rosy projection, HSBC assumes that OpenAI will become "as ubiquitous [...] as Microsoft 365" (345mm users worldwide) while bringing in 10x the number of users (3bn).
November 26, 2025 at 6:09 PM
My students said they love my rants on it. Taught The Time Machine. Told them OpenAI wants them to become Eloi.
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
Even God Is Worried About ChatGPT
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
www.vulture.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
It’s insane that a tool like this a) exists and b) is useful.
Slop Evader is a tool from artist and researcher Tega Brain that lets you search the web for results exclusively before November 30, 2022—the day that ChatGPT was released to the public.
'Slop Evader' Lets You Surf the Web Like It’s 2022
Artist Tega Brain is fighting the internet’s enshittification by turning back the clock to before ChatGPT existed.
www.404media.co
November 26, 2025 at 4:46 PM
It’s insane that a tool like this a) exists and b) is useful.
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 4:15 PM
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
I am.
You’re all still thinking about Eze aren’t you?
November 25, 2025 at 8:22 AM
I am.
GET IN!!!
November 24, 2025 at 10:04 AM
GET IN!!!
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
Cluedo inventor's daughter hands over archives to Birmingham museum
Cluedo inventor's daughter hands over archives to Birmingham museum
Anthony Pratt's daughter explains how evenings performing at country hotels inspired the murder-mystery game.
www.bbc.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Cluedo inventor's daughter hands over archives to Birmingham museum
It really is this. They did not need Isak. Also, hilarious.
Liverpool spending a billion pounds, paying no attention to midfield or defense, and then watching it repeatedly blow up in their face, is both hilarious and just.
November 22, 2025 at 4:57 PM
It really is this. They did not need Isak. Also, hilarious.
Got up early to try to get some marking done, and read an essay on Sherlock Holmes that was so good I went and read it twice. After a not very nice few weeks at work, it is lovely to be reminded that this is what it is all about. So proud of this student. 😊
November 22, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Got up early to try to get some marking done, and read an essay on Sherlock Holmes that was so good I went and read it twice. After a not very nice few weeks at work, it is lovely to be reminded that this is what it is all about. So proud of this student. 😊
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
138 years ago #OTD November 21, 1887, the first story to feature Sherlock Holmes - A Study in Scarlet - was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual. Written in 1886, and rejected by a variety of publishers for being either too long or too short,
November 21, 2025 at 4:07 PM
138 years ago #OTD November 21, 1887, the first story to feature Sherlock Holmes - A Study in Scarlet - was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual. Written in 1886, and rejected by a variety of publishers for being either too long or too short,
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.”
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
I Set A Trap To Catch My Students Cheating With AI. The Results Were Shocking.
"Students are not just undermining their ability to learn, but to someday lead."
www.huffpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:22 AM
To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.”
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
Started Volume 1 last night. Enjoying so far.
My review of the third part of Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume - one of the most exciting things happening in fiction right now observer.co.uk/culture/book...
Paperback of the week: On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Started Volume 1 last night. Enjoying so far.
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
comrade JCO gets it completely
CHOP FROM THE TOP
(solemn vow never ever to screenshot badsite; solemn exception for this urgent story; rally against these anti-intellectuals detonating public goods for the working people of NJ!)
CHOP FROM THE TOP
(solemn vow never ever to screenshot badsite; solemn exception for this urgent story; rally against these anti-intellectuals detonating public goods for the working people of NJ!)
November 19, 2025 at 3:03 PM
comrade JCO gets it completely
CHOP FROM THE TOP
(solemn vow never ever to screenshot badsite; solemn exception for this urgent story; rally against these anti-intellectuals detonating public goods for the working people of NJ!)
CHOP FROM THE TOP
(solemn vow never ever to screenshot badsite; solemn exception for this urgent story; rally against these anti-intellectuals detonating public goods for the working people of NJ!)
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
It was the honour of my academic career to co-nominate and co-deliver (with the amazing Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh) the citation for Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's Honorary Doctorate from @ucc.ie. ❤️
aosdana.artscouncil.ie/general/aosd...
aosdana.artscouncil.ie/general/aosd...
Aosdána member and Saoi Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin awarded Honorary Doctorate of Literature by UCC - Aosdána
The trailblazing poet, scholar, editor, Saoi of Aosdána and former Ireland Professor of Poetry, Professor Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin was honoured the Honorary Doctorate by University College Cork (UCC) fo...
aosdana.artscouncil.ie
November 17, 2025 at 10:22 AM
It was the honour of my academic career to co-nominate and co-deliver (with the amazing Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh) the citation for Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's Honorary Doctorate from @ucc.ie. ❤️
aosdana.artscouncil.ie/general/aosd...
aosdana.artscouncil.ie/general/aosd...
Absolutely delighted for him.
You'd have to have a heart of stone not to love that for Kieran Tierney ❤️
November 18, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Absolutely delighted for him.
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
im beginning to think it was a mistake to stake our entire economy on chatbots and fake internet money
November 18, 2025 at 12:39 PM
im beginning to think it was a mistake to stake our entire economy on chatbots and fake internet money
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
I also saw this in an article in nymag.com - how fucking depressing is this?
Shopify run ads on the Arsecast, but I will be informing Acast to immediately cease any further campaigns with them.
Shopify run ads on the Arsecast, but I will be informing Acast to immediately cease any further campaigns with them.
November 18, 2025 at 7:42 AM
I also saw this in an article in nymag.com - how fucking depressing is this?
Shopify run ads on the Arsecast, but I will be informing Acast to immediately cease any further campaigns with them.
Shopify run ads on the Arsecast, but I will be informing Acast to immediately cease any further campaigns with them.
What's great about this is that one of them will absolutely nail it, and you're impressed, and then it refreshes after a minute and the same model will be laughably bad, and this is 100% my professional experience with LLMs.
Hahaha! Er. Someone has used AI to make analogue clocks with the live time.
Analogue clocks are really hard.
AI: spectacularly confident. Can be both subtly and spectacularly wrong. This is a lovely illustration of that.
clocks.brianmoore.com
Analogue clocks are really hard.
AI: spectacularly confident. Can be both subtly and spectacularly wrong. This is a lovely illustration of that.
clocks.brianmoore.com
November 17, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
What's great about this is that one of them will absolutely nail it, and you're impressed, and then it refreshes after a minute and the same model will be laughably bad, and this is 100% my professional experience with LLMs.
Hahaha! Er. Someone has used AI to make analogue clocks with the live time.
Analogue clocks are really hard.
AI: spectacularly confident. Can be both subtly and spectacularly wrong. This is a lovely illustration of that.
clocks.brianmoore.com
Analogue clocks are really hard.
AI: spectacularly confident. Can be both subtly and spectacularly wrong. This is a lovely illustration of that.
clocks.brianmoore.com
AI World Clocks
The current time as rendered by 9 different AI models. By Brian Moore.
clocks.brianmoore.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:27 PM
What's great about this is that one of them will absolutely nail it, and you're impressed, and then it refreshes after a minute and the same model will be laughably bad, and this is 100% my professional experience with LLMs.
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
Has masculinity not been central in literary fiction? Am I forgetting the great feminist focus of Cormac McCarthy?
The Guardian view on the Booker prize winner: putting masculinity back at the centre of literary fiction | Editorial
The Guardian view on the Booker prize winner: putting masculinity back at the centre of literary fiction | Editorial
Editorial: David Szalay’s Flesh breaks from a decade of female-centred interiors and reopens a genre many thought closed to men
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Has masculinity not been central in literary fiction? Am I forgetting the great feminist focus of Cormac McCarthy?
Reposted by Mary O'Connell
Troy story 3
📸 Attila Kisbedenek
📸 Attila Kisbedenek
November 16, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Troy story 3
📸 Attila Kisbedenek
📸 Attila Kisbedenek
Proud today!
Troy Parrott in tears on RTE - very emotional.
November 16, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Proud today!