Michelle Bastian
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Humanities at Edinburgh College of Art. Field philosopher working on clocks, phenology and questioning the charisma of our favourite time solutions. Image from artist David Horwitz
- Reposted by Michelle BastianIt's the little titbit at the end, that the impact assessment found reducing migration would have a negligible impact on community cohesion, that I especially like. That seems to be the government's current sole justification for their policies: www.ft.com/content/2b60...
- Reposted by Michelle Bastianand here we are in an institution with no deficit having finished our second round of voluntary redundancies, something a majority of institutions with actual deficits haven't resorted to; they're not even trying to make it make sense
- Reposted by Michelle Bastian[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Michelle BastianEthnographic methods in philosophy? Submit an abstract for this exciting looking conference organized by Deborah Mühlebach’s CRITICAL AGENCY project! The deadline for this CFP has been extended to this Friday, Dec. 5 philevents.org/event/show/1...
- Reposted by Michelle BastianI ended up drafting an email that didn't really lean on research specific to grade school education, but expressed my concerns in the most basic terms. I removed the personal details and have shared it as a template here for folks who might find it useful: bit.ly/TeacherEmail...
- I searched for Australian caramel slice recipes and this 'advanced chat model' gave me australian tuna and rice, and australian roast beef recipes. Turned it off, and there we go - the recipes I actually need. Good to hear you're contributing to killing the planet Duck Duck Go for utter BS results.
- 📣 New advanced chat models have landed on Duck.ai! Unlock GPT-5.1 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 and boost your productivity with a DuckDuckGo subscription. (As always, the basic models are still free to use without a subscription.)
- We read one of her papers for my #envhum seminar a couple of years ago. So good.
- Looking forward to hearing Joanna Allan talk about her prize-winning book Saharan Winds: Energy Systems and Aeolian Imaginaries in Western Sahara in the @greenhouseuis.net #envhum book talks tomorrow (Monday, 1 December) at 16:00 CET / 15:00 GMT. Hope you will join us for the live discussion!
- Reposted by Michelle BastianThere is only hours left in our #StAndrewsDay sale! Save 50% on all published and pre-order books. Shop away... edin.ac/32O7hNr
- Reposted by Michelle Bastian7. the kinda appealing, but substantively indefensible, idea that somehow AI is different to other technology, like calculators, in a pedagogical context — but we totally ban a great deal of technology in the classroom. (Section 3.7 here doi.org/10.5281/zeno...) 9/n
- Reposted by Michelle BastianWe can't really say this enough... > Anastasia Berg [at UCL Irvine] said that new research — and what she's hearing directly from colleagues across various industries — shows that employees who heavily rely on AI are losing core skills at a startling rate. www.businessinsider.com/ai-tools-are...
- This aspect of temporal injustice is where time policy awareness for local governments can be very helpful. Planning is not only about spatial issues, but could include time issues as well.
- Apparently it’s 2:1 FDNY ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/h...
- See the Barcelona Declaration on the Right to Time ajuntament.barcelona.cat/usosdeltemps...
- Reposted by Michelle Bastian🔴 NEW: The University of Edinburgh has quietly paid more than £750,000 to a controversial consulting firm amid job cuts - staff say bosses ignored "repeated" questions about its role. Read more about 'Nousferatu' 👉 www.theferret.scot/p...
- Reposted by Michelle Bastian
- I remember someone telling me that they heard from their doctor relative that we should not be going out and voluntarily stayed home 3-4 days before the actual lockdown. Ie we were operating on rumours and having to make our own decisions.
- Hard-hitting truth-telling from UCL Prof Anthony Costello…. “The Covid Public Inquiry is a devastating critique of medical advisers, civil servants and politicians who led the UK to the worst public health disaster in a century. More than 230,000 deaths.” www.bylinesupplement.com/p/230000-dea...
- Reposted by Michelle Bastian📣Urgent action: the UK's single largest carbon emitter, Drax, has applied for government support to power an AI data centre in Yorkshire by burning trees! 🌳🔥😮 🏭 Please call on your MP to say NO to Drax's AI data centre bid: actionnetwork.org/letters/urge... 🔥🌳🔥 #StopBurningTrees #AxeDrax
- Woohoo. A great book. Cant wait to see the film
- Reposted by Michelle BastianICE DETAINED MARILYN. Fuck these people. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
- Reposted by Michelle BastianThe Northern Exposure episode where the town marks Thanksgiving with Indigenous residents pummeling white people with rotten produce feels pretty apropos right now. 🍅 (Redmond is an affluent-ish suburb of Seattle & home to Microsoft & Nintendo, for those not in the know.)
- ICE DETAINED MARILYN. Fuck these people. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
- Reposted by Michelle BastianBiodiversity, water, food, health and climate are linked more tightly than many realize. Our new interactive, inspired by the @IPBES.net #NexusAssessment, shows how decisions ripple across the sectors and why integrated thinking matters now. Check it out: www.besnet.world/a-nexus-appr...
- I really valued the basic bits of formal logic I did, and more general things like how to reconstruct an argumemt + informal logic. These parts I definitely think everyone should take.
- Just had the third bike accident of my life where I would have had a really bad head injury if not for my helmet. I went through a deacde or so of being made fun of, particularly in Oz, for this. But after a plea from kids at my school who lost their friend at age 12, I committed to it.
- Her friends and her familys activism on her behalf has saved me multiple times now. And everytime Im mindful again of the importance of this kind of bike safety. Please wear your helmet.
- Reposted by Michelle BastianProud to see London is fast becoming a cycling city ⤵️ 📈 Daily journeys are 12% up from last year to 1,500,000 trips 📈 Up by more than 40% since 2019 This is just the start, we’ll continue working with partners to improve safety and invest in more routes.
- Reposted by Michelle BastianSince 2011 the fuel duty freeze has cost the Treasury £133 billion. This huge amount could have paid for lower train and bus fares, better stations, safer walking, wheeling and cycling and much more! www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
- Reposted by Michelle BastianCameron Toll would be the ideal transport interchange - a covered, cross platform interchange with high capacity, rapid trams. Would reduce the number of buses using the key Bridges corridor allowing more space for pedestrians along the line Good for business too - if integrated with the centre?
- Reposted by Michelle BastianMeta halted internal research that purportedly showed (young) people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious, according to an unredacted legal filing released on Friday. www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/m...
- A great project, but gives people insight in a system where it will then be almost impossible for them to get officially diagnosed and given the right treatment. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #adhd
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- apparently the unprecedented wealth and inflcuence big tech is amassing at the cost of the most marginalised is not enough. big tech ceos are not that different from drug cartels www.irishtimes.com/business/202...
- Reposted by Michelle Bastian*All-time record* set at the Omni Centre cycle lane on the 7th November - 2,265 cycle journeys. I can only speculate that the rollout of Voi e-bikes has significantly boosted cycling in Edinburgh this autumn, bucking the seasonal trend.
- Reposted by Michelle BastianTwo exciting postdoc positions available! Historical windstorms - working with two insurance companies to explore UK wind risks: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... Extreme event storylines - working as part of a EU collaboration on event attribution: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
- Reposted by Michelle BastianLooks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..." arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
- Reposted by Michelle BastianEdinburgh Council is not proposing the 'destruction of a park', it's proposing the restoration of a former railway line to meet climate targets, reduce congestion, improve air quality, provide economic opportunities, enhance mobility and reduce social inequality. www.bbc.com/news/article...
- Reposted by Michelle BastianEvery time the shocking, perplexing tactic of “giving money to people who need it” is tried, it turns out to work. And yet people who have more money than they could ever need remain baffled.
- I was on a CAHMS children's facing website and in the corner is an AI chatbot. It states initialy that you are not talking to a real person, but then uses a cute robot icon to say "Hi I am Balm".
- Reposted by Michelle BastianSo good, by @cammy-06.bsky.social @sapiens.org: "Selkie stories often centered female autonomy. Female selkies choose their partners, return to the sea leaving families behind..Giving voice to women’s agency, these narratives shape reality, empowering human women" #Orkney #anthropology #multispecies
- Reposted by Michelle BastianRelying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other. Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
- Reposted by Michelle Bastian
- Reposted by Michelle Bastian@argonautbooks.bsky.social has put together a letter to Waterstones, which you can read and sign here: c.org/BW7b88mRSw
- Reposted by Michelle BastianIt's about deep-sea mining and how it could impact the animals that migrate through potential mining sites, but it's also about the month I got way too into eels. What we know we don’t know: impacts of deep-sea mining on whales, dolphins, sharks, turtles, and other migratory species.
- Reposted by Michelle BastianGreat turn out at @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social rally at the Scottish Parliament!
- Reposted by Michelle Bastian"Higher education generated £24bn in export earnings for the UK in 2022-23, far above aircraft manufacturing with £12bn, legal services with £9.5bn and telecoms with £8.8bn." #HigherEd www.theguardian.com/education/20...
- Reposted by Michelle Bastian#Tram consultation - Spokes submission --> www.spokes.org.uk/wp-content/u... 🙋 You have till midnight Monday for your own response! HERE--> consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/sfc/tram-nor... @edi.bike @edinreporter.bsky.social @edinburghminute.bsky.social @thecockburn.bsky.social @edfoc.bsky.social
- Reposted by Michelle Bastianvery funny to read these emails and then remember summers wondering whether the leaky pipeline in stem was because women are inherently bad at math
- Reposted by Michelle BastianNEW: Statement from the PCI RR Managing Board on the withdrawal of Infant and Child Development as a PCI RR-friendly journal, and the decision by Wiley to refuse preprints that have been peer-reviewed by @peercommunityin.bsky.social / @pci-regreports.bsky.social Read here ➡️ osf.io/tn8mh
- Reposted by Michelle Bastian
- Reposted by Michelle BastianI am bewildered that this labour of Sisyphus is being carried out by volunteers, while Southern Water, which has admitted responsibility for the catastrophe, is doing nothing to remediate it.
- Reposted by Michelle BastianCongratulations to our newest Green councillor, Cllr Mike Dunn, on winning the Long Ashton ward by-election in North Somerset with a huge Green vote!
- Reposted by Michelle BastianUp to £2,500 for 2-4 weeks in 2026. Open to postdoctoral researchers, or those with comparable records of research.
- 📣Our UofG Library Visiting Research Fellowships are now open for applications! We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections. Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li... 📆Closing date: 5 January 2026 #UofGLibraryFellows
- Reposted by Michelle BastianI cannot really see how their 'data centre watch' project can be separate from the company, given how one of their advertised services is essentially creating reports on local oppo against data centres for the companies that are building them archive.ph/RBPxF
- At the same time you have Joe Rogan invoking peer reviewed research, as the kind of proof needed if claiming election fraud.
- Reposted by Michelle BastianWe need more of this: www.theguardian.com/education/20...
- Reposted by Michelle BastianIt’s also at some level green industrial strategy because investing in the industries we need more of by channeling public and private money towards them creates and sustains jobs, builds workforces, and drives experience curves which in turn tends to drive down the costs of clean technology
- Reposted by Michelle BastianOne important thing to understand about these policy support mechanisms (“benefits for middle class voters”) being scrapped or slashed is that they are *expressly designed* to incentivise people with money to spend it on clean technology, on basis that public spending can’t deliver transition on own
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View full threadReposted by Michelle BastianE-bikes that are adequate car substitutes for families simply do cost £1000s so if you’re going to make those e-bikes ineligible for salary sacrifice then you urgently need to incentive their uptake with a different policy mechanism. That’s not on the cards though so this is straightforwardly bad
- Reposted by Michelle BastianThe ethics council to the vast Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (largest in the world) has been suspended by the Norwegian government. Important & troubling piece by @martinsandbu.ft.com www.ft.com/content/f6b3...
- Like cutting heat pump subsidies, cutting the cycle2work scheme because of middle class scare mongering, sets back the wide adoption and normalisation of green tech transitions. Get your £4000 cargo ebikes to replace your car while you can I guess.
- Reposted by Michelle BastianThey market their cars as weapons and we allow them on the same roads as children cycling to school. And I still get weird middle-aged men in my notifications obfuscating for and defending this. This is not a serious society.
- Reposted by Michelle BastianWatching Labour MPs take a wrecking ball to nature makes me so angry & so sad. Their action tonight voting down amendments to the #PlanningBill intended to protect wildlife & habitats from destruction is so reckless & so counterproductive. People didn’t vote Labour for this 👇
- Reposted by Michelle BastianMass redundancies, courses & departments closing across the country, finances existentially bad, government policy making things worse, strikes & looming national industrial action. But hey, the execs get to put on suits, drink champagne, clap each other on the back, & pretend it’s all fine.
- Hello from Edinburgh, where we’re about to kick off the 2025 #THEAwards and will be sharing updates here throughout the event. Tonight, the 21st annual “HE Oscars”, we’ll be handing out trophies in 21 categories. See the full shortlist: ow.ly/P0hi50XpUKN
- Reposted by Michelle Bastian2025 British & Irish Botanical Conference #BIBConf25 takes place at Edge Hill University on Saturday 29 November. We have a fabulous programme lined up for plant-lovers! Exhibits & 8 talks inc. a keynote by Prof John Rodwell (of NVC fame). Programme & bookings: www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...
- Ive watched tonnes and tonnes of apocalyptic tv and films and this has been a really unique take so far.
- This really can't come soon enough.
- This has been doing some numbers today. And I hear there may be T-shirts for sale... Chaos is coming for scholarly publishing: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...
- Reposted by Michelle BastianRegistration is open for the 2026 Local Phenology Leader Virtual Conference! Connect with fellow LPLs, get updates about the new Nature’s Notebook app, hear from phenology experts, and more. View the full schedule, learn how you can participate, and register today. usanpn.org/community/Lo...
- Reposted by Michelle BastianThe senior leadership team at @edinburghuniversity plan to cut staff expenditure by £90m, which is more than 10%. This would mean about 1 in 8 members of staff losing their jobs. With hundreds of jobs already lost, a further 1,000+ jobs are on the line. www.instagram.com/p/DQuFjwBjHB5/
