Our vice chancellor states that he agrees w/ Andy Burnham re HE: “I have long argued that university is not the right choice for everyone” When people make claims like this they ought to be clear. Who are the people for whom university is not “the right choice”? How does this map onto race & class?

Running up to the end of your fixed term contract, desperately searching, applying, interviewing. Getting rejected, even for the small stuff. Swallowing the disappointment, the bitterness. Again & again & again & again. It sucks.

It may have cost a lot of money, but at least right leaning voters are now more satisfied than they were before about immigrant numbers.

Peter Whitewood@pwhitewood.bsky.social · 4w ago

Discouraging an activity with a benefit-to-cost ratio of nearly 10:1. A triumph of policymaking.

(2/) Some potential redundancies are apparently deserving of petitions and widespread horror on social media, and yet some certain redundancies are not at all - and yes, it's also, as colleagues have noted, clear that this applies to different institutions differently, but also apparently FTC staff

Also working-class autodidacts didn't just read alone - they read in groups, set up libraries and reading rooms, and battled for Mechanics' Institutes (many long ago merged into unis) to teach music, history, and politics. They built the public adult education infrastructure that's being destroyed

Peter Whitewood@pwhitewood.bsky.social · last mo.

This misses the point. Self-education has become more accessible in the last 20 years than at any point in history, though not through ‘amateur reading’. The problem isn’t access to information but learning how to evaluate it critically - and that brings us back to universities (and Humanities)

www.theguardian.com/politics/202... Was this written by Ses Wtreeting?

Andy Burnham supporters divided over who should be his chancellor

Briefing war breaks out between advocates for Wes Streeting and those close to Ed Miliband

theguardian.com

If you suggest police officers shouldn’t kick people in the head, you’ll get the chief of the Met condemning you on national television. If you say the police are institutionally racist against whites and suggest people should riot, you’ll get invited onto a BBC couch to expand upon your theories.

I understand this impulse, but it neglects the fact that planning is inevitably & inescapably political. This just moves the politics elsewhere. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Rachel Reeves to protect ‘critical’ clean energy projects from legal challenges

Chancellor’s planning shake-up would ‘reduce exposure from judicial review on all but human rights grounds’

theguardian.com

Fuck Jim Ratcliffe today & every day.

That’s right folks. Kamala Harris has not only found, but captured and killed, the legendary ape man known as Bigfoot

David S. Bernstein @dbernstein.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Something’s happening

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQJ557/l... I wonder if at any point during the drafting of this advert did the people involved think they were taking the piss? Or has academia become so inured to pisstaking that it just drifts on by?

Lecturer in Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at University of Greenwich

Explore an exciting academic career as a Lecturer in Landscape Architecture and Urbanism. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

jobs.ac.uk

Providing feedback on suspected AI-generated material is so difficult psychologically - if you can't be arsed writing something, why should I bother my arse writing a response to your non-effort?

I am striding for Palestinians in aid of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) over the next few weeks. Please consider sharing & donating. medicalaidforpalestinians.enthuse.com/pf/andrew-snow

Stride for Palestinians 2025

I am striding for Palestinians in aid of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). Starting on Nakba Day, I will be completing 107km in one month and virtually covering the distance from Occupied East Jerus

medicalaidforpalestinians.enthuse.com

Typing into AI image generator: Me, Donald Trump, as pope. Hmmm Trying again: Me, Donald Trump, as pope. 100 pounds lighter. Great - save!

I’m very interested to know if it was an editorial decision to include the qualifier that settler encroachment & violence “is a problem of individuals rather than an entire nation”. This is, at best, contentious. At worst, it excuses the govt & state’s role. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

The Settlers review – this vital film forces Louis Theroux to do something he’s never done before

The documentarian manages to stay calm and polite as guns are repeatedly pointed at him in the West Bank. Then someone shoves him …

theguardian.com

Stand up for trans rights 🏳️‍⚧️ Join me and @GoodLawProject and help us fight the Supreme Court’s harmful decision: goodlawproject.org/s/c41bb8

Help us challenge the Supreme Court’s judgment on trans rights | Good Law Project

goodlawproject.org

“Standing with” running “thoughts & prayers” close in the means nothing race.

I know I'm probably the only person in the country who didn't realise this, but do not use Trainline to book train tickets! There are hidden fees which massively hike the price of your journey, particularly if it's across different rail service providers. Always go to the provider's site/app.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, here's my (actually short!) open access manifesto on why carbon markets & taxes are silly. When the target is 0, not fewer, emissions, we don't need a financial sorting function to find the "best" emissions to keep. The order of phase-out is a planning need.

It will never not be funny to me that my next door neighbours put a plastic Christmas tree in their green recycling bin.

Literal goosebumps.

Josh | writer, painter, tinkerer@tworuru.com · 2y ago

this rules 🇳🇿 #nzpol