Hey INTERNET please restore the ability for us to turn off GenAI in our use of technology. GenAI is utterly shit, a massive cost to the environment, and utterly shit.

If you do not find this funny please report to your nearest Robot Loyalty Chip Installation Facility as soon as inhumanly possible!

Good to know my own LLM can be kept in good condition. Thanks Lidl!

scissores (n)
/ˈsɪz.əz/
Plural of ‘scissor’ which is the part of a pair of scissors if it was disconnected, resulting in two scissores
[Image shows three scissores. Or is it 1.5 scissors?]

Today’s word for consideration is:

Apparatchik

Discuss

The Chilling Effect. Self-Censorship. Intimidation intended to gag. Fear of losing your job. All these are real when a friend suggests keeping your head down.

No

GROWTH VS FIXED MINDSETS
Listening to the You Aren’t So Smart podcast recently – we all need to be reminded of that, every now and then – I was introduced to the concept of triggers for either a growth mindset or a fixed one…

https://doctormikereddy.com/2025/04/02/growth-vs-fixed-mindsets/

…different categories - but 100% of them reported experiencing harassment. All of them.

There were other less than ideal nuggets, but (and this is the point of a staff satisfaction survey) we shouldn’t be afraid of the negatives. They allow us to address the problems, when often they are hidden otherwise; such as in an environment of fear, where people feel unable to speak out for fear of reprisals.

ENDS

…infographic distributed to staff on the USW Intranet, which gives the most positive spin on the better sides of the survey. This isn’t misrepresentation. There ARE some positives in staff attitudes captured by the survey. It just disappears when the questions relate to the leadership.

For me, the most important elements are very high levels of harassment being reported. For example, and this is eye opening, 80% of Executive responded to the survey - generally it was two thirds of workers in…

…bit, either because of the fear of reprisals - if they are found out this would compound matters - or the lack of taking responsibility. This is, of course, assuming that the sharing of public information is in fact misconduct?

I think, this unnamed lecturer should be able to make such comments freely, openly, and not be afraid of the consequences. The raw data is pretty damning, but the Nation Cymru coverage goes little further than the highlights disseminated in the official summary…

…it seems.

What is weird about the Nation Cymru article is, firstly, their use of the term “leaked”, because it was a “public” document; the distribution of publicly funded information isn’t leaking. It is dissemination, which academics should thrive on.

The second concern is the “lecturer at the university who didn’t wish to be named” being quoted. I’m guessing here that it was this person who ‘leaked’ the document. The problem (and it can be seen two ways) is the ‘not wanting to be named’…

https://nation.cymru/news/staff-unhappy-with-leadership-of-the-university-of-south-wales/
…redundancies.

The answer I was given was that it was on a USW SharePoint site, so only for USW staff. However, as a Government funded body, USW like all universities in the UK, is subject to freedom of information legislation. There should be no confidentiality unless for a valid reason; FoI has exceptions in law, which is right and proper. While I acquiesced to the implicit “don’t share” reply I received, someone took the “public” tag on the document at face value,…

Post

Two recent worrying reports about USW, but not worrying for the obvious reasons:

https://www.business-live.co.uk/opinion-analysis/university-south-wales-seen-alarming-31300796
AND
https://nation.cymru/news/staff-unhappy-with-leadership-of-the-university-of-south-wales/

The latter of which involved a leaked document related to the results of a recent staff survey. I’d actually asked myself if this raw data was public, as the document itself was marked by Office365 as “Public”; documents can be marked Confidential, which restricts access through encryption, and this option has certainly been used recently in relation to…

Stubstiture (v)
/ˈsʌb.stɪ.ˈtʃʊr/
To replace with something better

@anachrocomputer will be in Bristol this afternoon and tomorrow morning if that works

More @LeightonAndrews in the media regarding Cardiff University’s “slash and burn” policy:-
Wales Online:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/cardiff-university-job-cuts-400-30882168#google_vignette
BBC News:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgpkmk783ko
BBC Sunday Supplement
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0028r7n
15:39-25:12
“Maybe I’m in a more privileged position than most… I’m not afraid to speak out, but I think there are people who are very afraid to speak out.”

I’m not in a privileged position. I’m still not afraid.

@anachrocomputer give me an address and I’ll be there :)

@anachrocomputer hi. When are you free to exchange the robots? I am down that way on the 20th March, and free in the morning or early evening

@LeightonAndrews OP

https://ukania.substack.com/p/how-to-trash-a-universitys-reputation

However, @LeightonAndrews is right that if they [Cardiff University Executive] sign off on what he calls “transformation psychobabble” they have to own it. It’s going on all across Wales (the UK?) but why down to individuals unafraid to raise issues, to attempt to stop uni execs everywhere from risking everything?
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