Once again, I come back to the fact these guys have created a situation where one of the UK's leading, cis female athletes is scared to go to the loo alone, and the fact that they are celebrating this as a step forward for women's rights.

Equality and Human Rights Commission@equalityhumanright.bsky.social · 23h ago

Our code of practice for services, public functions and associations comes into force today. It provides practical guidance on how the Equality Act 2010 applies to services, public functions and associations. Find out more: https://ow.ly/alIf50Zwrkx

ok this sucks but it is kind of interesting how people use "medieval" when they actually mean 19th century the actual structures of university life - the things faculty, for example, actually DO - would not, in fact, be recognizable to William of Ockham

Jon Becker@jonbecker.bsky.social · 17h ago

This Clay Shirky essay about AI in HE uses the word medieval, so we are all obligated to ping @lollardfish.bsky.social and @profgabriele.com . It's just the rules.

Any cis women who are disgusted by the Burnham government's transphobic policy of segregation can sign the @nionwomen.bsky.social petition, which is now closing in on 110,000 signatures. notinourname.org.uk

Home - Not in our name

Not In our Name: Women in support of the trans+community

notinourname.org.uk

Here a compilation of stupid things library consultants have said to me in solidarity with library pals at Lambeth Libraries where genius consultants has decided that a qualified head of library service post isn't really essential.

'A contraction in the higher education sector is inevitable, Johnson said, due to “an unsustainable funding model for domestic teaching and a reduction in international student recruitment”. This will see universities become “smaller and doing less”.' 2/3

'Ben Johnson, co-director of...Science Works and a former government science adviser, told Research Professional News the government must understand how and where the sector is contracting or risk losing pockets of research capability.' That horse is already exiting the stable. 1/3

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · yesterday

Government ‘doesn’t know where research capability lies’. Contractions in the university sector need to be understood, former government science adviser says. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Bede's World! Bede's World! Party time! Venerable!

"History involves sorting and organizing hundreds of thousands of facts" I remain astounded by how loud and wrong people are about what history actually is.

‘At his best, his deranged images and impeccably glazed sentences create a powerful sense of puzzlement or terror without his having to spell it out.’ Edmund Gordon reads M. John Harrison’s Booker-longlisted novel 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Edmund Gordon · Uncanny Little Blighter: M. John Harrison’s​ ‘The End of Everything’

‘What’s the point of an alien artefact you can recognise?’ Harrison asked in Wish I Was Here. ‘As a branch of...

lrb.co.uk

My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

I'd forgotten how good Giant Days was.

look, if fear of having everyone on the internet celebrate your death by bringing up every bad thing you’ve done is what it takes to stop people being cunts while they’re alive, i say let’s give it a go

Definitely the case here. In two weeks we find which 9 of 12 in my group will be gone. The other 3 will then have a month to prepare and find hourly-paid replacements for all the classes across two degrees. And supervise 25 PhDs. Plus admin and pastoral care and research. Management doesn’t care.

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d ago

If you're arriving at uni this autumn, or maybe dropping your kids, remember that there could be a ghostly phalanx of absent redundant staff, lost modules and degraded degrees making it a very unhappy place. It may *look* the same, but it won't *be* the same. www.ft.com/content/e5b0...

Few people understand that the UK university system is in crisis, but even fewer realise that many of the people losing their jobs are amongst the best in their fields

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d ago

So it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)

Meanwhile they're trying to cut title IX funding. It's all a crock. It's a vehicle for basic ass misogyny

Joe is Me@yeahjeetsyeah.bsky.social · 7d ago

What galls me is this claim that they care deeply about women's sports. They never gave a fuck about women's sports until they realized they could use it as a tool for their bigotry.

“so you’ve spent decades becoming the world expert in this topic and instilling a love of it in students, we understand. but there’s no box for “inspiring” on the spreadsheet and honestly a unit with only 30 students taking it doesn’t sound v efficient you know”

will pooley@willpooley.bsky.social · 6d ago

debates about academic meritocracy arent new. but astonishing to see so many dynamics that involve literally penalizing success. when the consultants tell a university to fire everyone above X grade. when good teachers are rewarded with… more teaching. +specialists are ordered NOT to specialize

'"We played a part in the transatlantic slave trade. That is clear. Part of the Christian belief in repentance is about action, so we are putting in place action to support those communities that feel the legacy of the slave trade," she added.' 1/2

Archbishop of Canterbury committed to £100m slavery fund

Dame Sarah Mullally has renewed her commitment to the fund on a visit to Cape Coast Castle in Ghana.

bbc.co.uk

Recruitment suspended on UG environment & sustainability, mathematics and physics. At postgraduate level, suspended courses include international corporate finance, water & environmental engineering and environmental strategy. If you think your subject is safe because not Humanities, rethink. 1/2

Course closures at University of Surrey raise concerns

Science and maths programmes among those suspended in recent months, with UCU claiming decisions are being made ‘in haste’

timeshighereducation.com

Medieval bat in stained glass at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge

Endnotes.

Sanjay Srivastava@sanjaysrivastava.com · 7d ago

What is an extremely nerdy/obscure/specific thing you hate with a white-hot wrath?

In fifteen years, the UK has deleted coal power from their power system, halved fossil gas use, replaced most of that with wind and solar, and the country has not suffered the hellish blackout apocalypse conservatives and media outlets promised would happen. ember-energy.org/data/electri...

4/4 … with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification”. Do read Barry Renfrew’s book to find out more.

3/4 This was twice as much as Germany dropped on Britain in WWI. Orwell used Air Control as an example of how language hides truth: “Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire

2/4 How many know about Air Control methods between the wars? Presaging drone warfare the RAF routinely bombed villages across swathes of NW India, N Africa & the Middle East. In one 1930 campaign alone, it dropped 23,000 bombs & 80,000 incendiaries on villagers & livestock.

Folks, Deadline Hollywood (???) has covered JCO’s tweet about Emily Wilson’s review of the blockbuster film version of the timeless epic composed long before recorded history began. We are so back.

Joyce Carol Oates Defends Christopher Nolan's 'Odyssey' Against Critics

One of America's finest writers responds to criticism from 'Odyssey' translator Emily Wilson and others, especially those who decry Nolan's use of modern language.

deadline.com

I clicked thru to the ‘proof of human authorship’ and for the record, if you wrote a 345 page book in 19 hours, no the fuck you didn’t

It’s really starting to grind me down

Meanwhile in Mediterranean life.

Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · last wk.

It is putting it mildly to describe these people as a death cult.

You can log on to Bluesky where the Classicists, Archaeologists, Historians, and Culture critics are all yelling at one another about The Odyssey you can log on to X where people are debating if women are "real people"