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Andy Buckley

agbuckley@mastodon.social

<p>Particle-physics prof at Glasgow Physics &amp; Astronomy. Author of those physics codes you like, and that one you don&#39;t. Enthusiast for dirty QCD physics, data re-use, model-independent searches, and computational statistics.</p><p>Also: child owner, mountain climber/biker/skier/etc. when poss, drummer, busy. Recovering Norn Irish. Still trying to be a Really Useful Engine.</p>

Posts

  • Post #3114762

    @mcnet Lonely chairs at #Lunga

  • Post #3114761

    https://news.sky.com/story/cameron-urges-government-to-reject-disappointing-prostate-cancer-screening-guidance-13548774 On one side, experts weighed the pros &amp;amp; cons of invasive tests and rates &amp;amp; impacts of false-positive diagnosis, and recommended more targeted, less blanket testing. On the other, this ex-politics bloke with zero objectivity has a reckon. FFS, will life (or at least news media) stop emulating comedy about themselves: https://youtu.be/98CWbGG2DJ0?si=c-GekBtaekcl...

  • Post #3114760

    Super-dodgy quasi-academicing: https://retractionwatch.com/2026/05/27/h-index-citation-networks-retractions-special-issues/ Other than particle physics and our thousand-author papers, it&amp;#39;s ludicrous for anyone to write 500 papers in a decade... complete with a ton of retractions, investigations, coercive citation in review, the notorious &amp;quot;special editions&amp;quot;, and a self-referencing co-author network. Red flags _everywhere_. This isn&amp;#39;t research, it&amp;#39;s SEO

  • Post #3114759

    Brenda-from-Bristol feelings. #NotAnotherOne

  • Post #3114758

    I visited a (long) retired Glasgow physics teacher this week, who wanted to know if our dept was interested in buying some of his overflowing physics-book collection. A nice visit, largely to be some company, but also sobering to realise how deeply institutions remake themselves. All these books, huge effort by hundreds of experts, 99% forgotten and superseded. And tales of my dept and uni characters, also completely forgotten by the current incumbents. Anyway, back to finishing the book... 😬

  • Post #3114757

    Glasgow U, along with many or all institutions now has policy assuming that #genAI will be used in all non-invigilated assessment – the compliance step for students is to declare what they used and how, and for that to be responsible (ha ha). An elephant in this room is inequity of access. Universities aren&amp;#39;t providing AI subscriptions, so those who can afford premium plans (free will likely ~disappear soon) can pretty much buy better grades. A fresh new hell without clear, good solutio...

  • Post #3114756

    Amused that Heathrow&amp;#39;s marketing folk have chosen to illustrate their new #AI assistant with a chat session that shows it missing several cues obvious to humans. The (weirdly written) query clearly asks about a departing flight, and surely by default you assume that people ask such a thing on the day of travel, probably while already at the airport. This is exactly as formulaic and inconvenient as completing a web form 😄

  • Post #3114755

    I can&amp;#39;t overemphasise how much this sort of thing can fuck off