SCOOP: 404 Media placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it. What did we find? It ended up at an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. Yes. This is literally the logo outside the Amazon warehouse door. Read now:

We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility

We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.

404media.co

INSTRUCTIONS UNCLEAR, HAVE GONE BLIND TRYING TO VIEW THE SUN THROUGH AL DENTE PENNE.

JUST TO NOTE IF PEOPLE PLAN ON USING COLANDERS TO SEE THE ECLIPSE YOU ARE NOT LOOKING THROUGH IT, YOU ARE USING IT TO FILTER THE LIGHT AND WATCH THE SHADOW OF THE MOON ON THE GROUND/OTHER SURFACE

horror Ewacui@ewacat.bsky.social · last wk.

GOD NO NOT LIKE THAT this is my plan, to use a colander - BUT YOU HOLD IT OVER THE GROUND BECAUSE THE ECLIPSE SHINES THROUGH IT AND YOU WATCH THE SHADOWS

Coverage of our analysis in the @bigissue.com More children will get free school meals from September 2026. Here's what you need to know www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

Which children will get free school meals from September 2026?

The government has expanded free school meals so more children will be able to get them this coming school year. Could your child be eligible?

bigissue.com

No, it's not okay to use genAI for research- or writing-adjacent activities. Those actions are also part of writing and thinking and research! Don't fall for the con of genAI boosters. Hang onto your humanity. 2/ buttondown.com/surekhadavie...

The 'I only use AI for...' fallacy

Hallo friends, and welcome, new readers! I hope you’re managing to navigate safely whatever weather challenges may have come your way this year. In today’s...

buttondown.com

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Burnham to seek cross-party consensus over urgent reforms to social care

Prime minister invites Badenoch and Davey – but not Farage – to discuss how to fix one of most intractable issues he faces

theguardian.com

I just found this website yesterday which has lots of good advice on that. Struggling to keep our upstairs below 28 😐 www.heatwavetoolkit.com

Do non-migrants have any idea how *utterly terrifying* it is for those who have IDL in the UK; have built a life here, have British kids & forged a sense of love & belonging to be bombarded with news that a sizeable % of the population & government want to be able to take that away & deport us?

‘We urge the Government to prioritise this issue. Should this situation continue unchecked, the damage to the health of higher education, research and innovation will be profound and have long-lasting consequences.’ www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/stateme...

British Academy President: UK higher education crisis risks irreversible damage

As course closures, shrinking provision and widening regional inequalities threaten the future of UK higher education and research, President of the British Academy, Susan J Smith calls for an immedia...

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Something deeply troubling & shocking is happening at Exeter University*, where a mass cull of staff is planned, even though it's in surplus. No good justifications given. @jamesgdyke.info provides the details: www.technosphere.earth/the-bonfire-... *Disclosure: I have a Visiting Fellowship here. +🧵

The bonfire of the humanities

150 academic posts at the University of Exeter are to be cut, most in the humanities but also in social sciences, engineering and environmental sciences

technosphere.earth

No two musicians experience music in exactly the same way. I’m investigating how expert musicians experience music, with or without music-colour synaesthesia. 🎁 £50 voucher on completion of Session 2 🔗 carolinecurwen.com/music-imagination-study/ @leverhulme.ac.uk @musicpsychologylab.bsky.social

Business leaders back the Humanities and Social Sciences, noting their important to economy and culture in Exeter, Cornwall and the Southwest. This is one vital strand in defending the SHAPE subjects. Don't ignore it (or carp about it). Build on it. biz4humanities.com

Everybody in the "climate space" (which means everyone on earth...) needs to understand these mind-blowing figures. Google's "total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025." In ONE year. The AI corporate arms race is eating the world.

Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 2mo ago

NEW BLOG FOR YOU Google's energy consumption numbers in their new climate report are mind-blowing. 2 years ago they flipped from linear to exponential growth, and their climate impact is blowing out, too. A WILD testament to the obscene bloat and waste of GenAI: ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g...

'The proposed industrial action is over plans to cut 200 jobs as the Brighton facility attempts to save £35m annually. It comes after more than 600 staff were put at risk of redundancy across academic, technical and professional services departments.'

University of Sussex staff vote whether to go on strike over job cuts

Hundreds of people face redundancy as the Brighton-based facility tries to save £35m.

bbc.co.uk

Parked but not idle: The buses “will charge up their nearly 200-kilowatt-hour batteries overnight, when the power supply is at its cleanest & cheapest, then send energy back to the grid from 4 pm to 7 pm on days when the grid is strained. The district will earn revenue for the power it shares…”

In Massachusetts, parked EVs will start feeding the grid this summer

Three electric school buses will kick-start the state’s groundbreaking vehicle-to-grid pilot program once school's out, with more EVs to be added in the…

canarymedia.com

24 June 2016. The day after when EU citizens across the UK were told to ‘go home’; when the then PM said he would not protect our rights. Stories largely forgotten. BLEA - Brexit Lived Experience Archive - which I am launching today, is here to preserve this history. #Brexit brexit.migravox.org

Home - BLEA

BLEA. Brexit Lived Experience Archive Documenting experiences. Personal experiences provide valuable insights into how Brexit is lived and understood by those directly affected. Recording these accoun...

brexit.migravox.org

More slash and burn across UK Universities. 153 jobs to be lost at Exeter; 117 targeted at Humanities and Social Sciences. Exeter is not in financial crisis; this is a choice to align with narrowly conceived government strategies and priorities. Please sign. www.change.org/p/stop-redun...

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

change.org

Found out yesterday that my job is at risk. Feels terrible: multiple video-only "consultations" without even a q and a... Humanities and social sciences overwhelmingly targeted... Whole thing feels deeply ideological and also like payback aimed at the departments with high union density...

University of Exeter in talks to cut about 150 members of staff

The university says it is consulting with colleagues over "limited and specific potential changes".

share.google

'About 150 academic roles are set to go at the south-west institution, which said it was targeting areas that are “no longer sustainable” or have seen changes in student demand.' History and English are name-checked. 1/3

University of Exeter cuts an ‘existential threat to humanities’

Russell Group institution cites changing student demand as it puts 500 staff at risk of redundancy, with 150 jobs set to go

timeshighereducation.com

A grim day in a grim week in a grim month for UK higher education, with Dundee, Exeter and Hertfordshire all making major announcements of planned redundancies. Shrinkage of the research & teaching base by the invisible hand's visible fist is not an 'us' or 'them', SHAPE or STEM phenomenon. 1/2

A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.

'The University of Exeter is proposing to cut about 150 staff roles. A spokesperson for the university said it was "consulting with colleagues over limited and specific potential changes across some areas of our academic faculties".' 1/4

University of Exeter in talks to cut about 150 members of staff

The university says it is consulting with colleagues over "limited and specific potential changes".

bbc.co.uk

Morning all. Photographer Inge Morath London 1954.

“A.i.” reproduces all the sexism and racism and bigotry of its inputs. If you use it uncritically, you’re accepting and furthering all that bullshit.

Mel Andrews@bayesianboy.bsky.social · 2mo ago

When utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.

I'm attending a digital humanities event in Montreal. There was a keynote on AI and something about the talk made me wonder if it had been written by Claude. I said as much in the Q&A. As I posed the question, the speaker shifted, looking slightly uncomfortable. What he said next shocked the room +

Petition alert: I know there's lots of them but this one needs to get to 100,000 by the end of the month My good friend Nansi asked me to do a video to help raise awareness that widows used to get 18 years of support but now it's cut to 18 months Please sign: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/75...

Keir Starmer has condemned the riots in Belfast, encouraged and promoted on X by the platform's owner, by posting his statement on X.

The violent racism unfolding in Northern Ireland is shocking, but sadly unsurprising. What is unfolding follows a pattern of collective punishment, fuelled by the far right and enabled by weak political responses.

Homes set on fire in Belfast night of violence as MP says people targeted based on skin colour - follow live

On one street, hundreds of masked men carrying bottles and bricks set bins on fire and shouted "foreigners out", our reporter says.

bbc.co.uk

Morning all Photographer lan Howorth. Untitled from ‘A Country Kind of Silence‘ 2024.

A reminder of what Nigel Farage said following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer.