I am going to be reminding you again tomorrow, but this consultation closes next Tuesday 4th August If you haven't already completed it, please set aside some time to do so this weekend - it's really important

Tits McGee@scientits.bsky.social · 2w ago

Self-employed people! Sorry to put a downer on your Sunday, but in case you'd not seen, the Government wants us to pay our tax *monthly* like we're employees or something With the World Cup and all the politics, I'd missed the consultation they put out last month, which is here: 1/

Bridget Phillipson, reflecting on her years spent standing idly by while UK higher education crumbled into the abyss and tens of thousands of university workers implored her to do something, literally anything, to save their jobs: BUT WHAT ABOUT ME THO www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

‘It hurts to lose a job you love’: Starmer loyalist Bridget Phillipson fights on despite cabinet demotion

Exclusive: The former education secretary on her new role as Labour chair and continuing as the minister for women and equalities

theguardian.com

Earlier this year UKRI launched a funding call to invest £40M in ONE AI lab. www.ukri.org/opportunity/... For some unknown reason they decided to fund TWO AI labs at the cost of £60M. An extra £20M. Just found. That's the equivalent of 7 more years of Jodrell Bank. www.ukri.org/news/ukri-la...

UKRI launches two AI research labs to stay ahead in global race

Two new labs will back British researchers to develop next generation artificial intelligence (AI) systems, helping secure the UK’s position as a global leader.

ukri.org

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

‘Growth in every postcode’ = every postcode gets a data centre Dealing with the cost of living crisis = you can’t afford heating, but you can huddle beside the heat-emitting data centres Sorting water quality = there’s no shit in the rivers because there are no rivers because data centres

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 3w ago

Minister for AI to sit in Cabinet 👀 www.thetimes.com/article/c10e...

Guess when you’ve spent a large part of your filmmaking career making derivative work reliant on cultural appropriation, and leveraged your enormous power to force technological change on exhibitors with no thought for workers, using genAI must be like breathing www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ju...

George Lucas likens AI sceptics to luddites clinging to horses and carts

Star Wars director calls AI technology ‘the future’ of film-making and says ‘there’s nothing you can do about it’

theguardian.com

On the off-chance anyone is travelling between Cornwall and Leeds on Sun 12 July I have a train ticket that’s not being used anymore owing to a change of plans. It’s non-refundable, so at this point would be glad for someone else to get the use of it

Tech firms should release environmental data on AI and universities should measure use. But there's tonnes of research on the ecological impacts of gen AI and data centres already - PRODUCED BY ACADEMICS IN UNIVERSITIES. The evidence is not hidden, it's just that sector 'leaders' don't care

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.

'University leaders have been urged to lobby firms to release environmental data connected to the use of artificial intelligence to help institutions get a handle on how increased reliance on the technology is impacting on climate goals.' 1/1

Listening to a BBC news report about racist riots in Belfast. Describing men as ‘dressed in black and wearing masks’ is a really roundabout way of saying ‘white’

Kier Starmer: “felt cute, might delete the university sector later 👁️ 👄 👁️ “

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Breaking: Government set to cut strategic priorities grant. The government is on the cusp of cutting public funding for higher education teaching, the head of Universities UK has told MPs, placing institutions under even more financial pressure. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

How anyone, let alone the CEO of Universities UK, can discuss young people’s disillusionment without addressing her peers culling 1000s upon 1000s of university staff is beyond me. They may not have oversight of loans but they are responsible for devaluing degrees www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Shrinking graduate premium sours views on value of a university education, UK poll shows

Worries over AI and loan debt mean 34% of people think degrees are usually not worth the time and money

theguardian.com

With poor turnout expected for The Mandalorian and Grogu, I spoket to Hanna Flint alongside @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social for Hanna's deep dive on where Star Wars has gone wrong. (It may feel like homework because I'm mid-book, but the overproduction is very real) www.bbc.co.uk/culture/arti...

'It's felt like homework': Why Star Wars went so wrong

The Mandalorian & Grogu is released this week and is set for the lowest opening weekend of any Star Wars film ever. With the TV shows also struggling, here's why interest is waning.

bbc.co.uk

Having watched MAFS in the past, when a family teen started on the most recent series I tuned in so we could talk about what healthy, toxic, and abusive relationships look like because the show couldn’t be trusted to. I’m only surprised this hasn’t come out till now www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Married at First Sight UK brides say they were raped by onscreen husbands

Channel 4 was aware of one of the rape claims before broadcast, but the woman involved still featured in the show.

bbc.co.uk

Probably my favourite thing about writing a book is taking hours of National Archives research on, say, the 1970s scrap metal industry in Britain, and turning it into one (1) sentence before realising there’s a related but distinct topic you need to discuss that you have no source material for

Wait til he finds out that loads of university managers have already stripped degrees of critical and creative material and turned them into debt-inducing technical proficiency pipelines to industry

Prem Sikka@premnsikka.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Battle of ideas and new politics. Andy Burnham plans: Reindustrialisation of UK. Stronger public control of essentials, such as water and energy. A massive council house building programme. Reforms to promote technical education Proportional representation for general election.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Grogu

Dr Dion Georgiou 🇨🇾❤️🇬🇾@drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, et Grogu

12 May is Mass Observation Day in the UK! If you want to be part of this cool ongoing social history project, read more here - massobs.org.uk/12th-may/

12th May - Mass Observation Archive

Our 12th May diary day is your chance to be part of recording everyday life. Sending us your dairy helps us record everyday life in the UK.

massobs.org.uk

Just saw a Linkedin post in which someone's calculated the cost *to universities* of UK academics doing peer review work, as if any academic in the year 2026 is peer reviewing research during paid hours, or even at this point being paid at all

Saw these newt tadpoles feeding on a pond flower on my evening walk. Looking at the photo makes me feel we passed into a strange and murky netherworld. Like haunted Victorian spirit photography, but newts

“The suit, filed by actor Q’orianka Kilcher, alleges that Cameron ‘extracted her facial features’ and ‘directed his design team’ to base the key Avatar character Neytiri on her appearance after seeing her in an LA Times advert for Terrence Malick’s 2005 film The New World.”

Indigenous actor sues James Cameron for ‘stealing’ her facial features for Avatar character

Suit says director used Q’orianka Kilcher’s features without permission after seeing her in advert for The New World

theguardian.com

Travelling down to Brighton for a research day at Sussex tomorrow on film and the environment, where I'll be talking about the practical and digital erasure of wild animals, plants, and fungi on Star Wars location shoots, and how animals are corporately re-branded as creatures to be exploited as IP

Browsing Met Gala photos and sooo many are like eliminated-in-week-5 Drag Race looks. If you're getting wrapped in celluloid at least go for an interesting silhouette?! Or say something about the (fossil, animal) material? Or the medium's political potential? That one really sums up the banality

Dead excited to share that my forthcoming book 'A Star Wars World' will be out next May with @bloomsburyacademic.bsky.social. It's an accessible/trade deep-dive into the labour, materials, designs, locations, and animals and plant lives that the franchise has depended on over the past 50 years

This May 4th, I’m very happy to launch the CFP for a major scholarly conference on Star Wars, which will take place at Durham University in 2027. Please share widely across your networks and indeed to anyone who might be interested! starwarsat50.webspace.durham.ac.uk

Call for Papers - Star Wars at 50: Forces, Forms, Legacies

A one-day scholarly conference at Durham University scheduled for May 7th 2027.

starwarsat50.webspace.durham.ac.uk

The Last Jedi is actually a pretty close remake of The Empire Strikes Back and nowhere near as radical or breakaway a Star Wars film as people like to think it is

Local Observer 🇮🇶🇵🇸🍉@observer46664.bsky.social · 3mo ago

ENGAGEMENT BAIT! What is your MOST CONTROVERSIAL Star Wars opinion? And I don't want embarrassingly lukewarm takes like "Jabba The Hutt was actually a good employer". I need opinions that could land you in jail. GO!

For #Maythe4th 2026... All the Star Wars films, Ranked! The Global Heating and Jet-Fuel Shortage Edition i.e., I calculated the films' aviation emissions based on one crew member flying to all locations. Solo comes out least worst (breathe easy, you still don't have to like the prequels)

hard numbers here from @brodiewaddell.bsky.social are pretty sobering 1 PhD awarded for every 5.5 current staff in history departments in the UK. for all PhD students to take up a full time post this means a historian’s career should av. < 6 years postphd🗃️ manyheadedmonster.com/2026/04/23/h...

Historians, PhDs and Jobs in 2026

Brodie Waddell When I last wrote about the employment situation for historians back in 2023, the situation was not looking very bright. It has, however, somehow gotten much worse since then. This s…

manyheadedmonster.com

will pooley@willpooley.bsky.social · 4mo ago

friend asked me for advice on returning to university and aiming for an academic career. it’s so hard to realistically portray for someone how unrealistic that is in 2026 without sounding incredibly bitter and pessimistic. but honestly who would advise someone that this a good career path?

At the stage of book writing that feels something like Wake up: book. Work: book. Rest: But also book? The bit where you're dreaming in endnotes

Sometimes the ‘we are the university/managers are the institution’ dichotomy feels a bit glib. It’s not that simple. But having spent 3 days having animated, passionate, nerdy, technical chats with people about… well, everything, and hearing some fab research at #baftss2026 it certainly _feels_ true

In 2024 The Conversation had 8.3M in revenue and 7.8M in expenses and paid $0 to writers. Is that really ok with you? projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/o...

The Conversation Us Inc - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica

Since 2013, the IRS has released data culled from millions of nonprofit tax filings. Use this database to find organizations and see details like their executive compensation, revenue and expenses, as...

projects.propublica.org

We should all know about the politically motivated arrest last week of activist Lisa Minerva Luxx (beyond The Greyzone sharing details, news outlets are, unsurprisingly, eerily quiet).

Harsha Walia@harshawalia.bsky.social · 4mo ago

lisa minerva luxx, incredible spokesperson of Filton 24 & Palestine Action, has just been detained under Schedule 7 of Terrorism Act. (As reported by UK organizers) Fillton 24 have endured ongoing political repression (re-arrest of Qesser Zuhrah, retrial of six defendants) but refuse to back down.