In Bristol for a guest lecture and research seminar and it's so rainy, I checked into my hotel at 3pm yesterday and haven't moved. It's been FANTASTIC.

Had an idle look at non-flight travel options to Reykjavik, and it's 3/4 nights each way so I think that's a no for ISA. Oh well.

There will be many specific reasons for these declines - chemicals, changing farming practices, climate change, insect populations, disease - but over all its not that complex. We extract too much, we pollute too much, we are too careless and leave too little. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Shocking and sobering’: UK bird populations fall to lowest level on record

Nearly half of species are in decline, with farmland birds and seabirds the worst hit, conservation bodies say

theguardian.com

David v Goliath on Teesside: @ladyhaja.bsky.social talks to filmmaker @jeaniefinlay.com about her brilliant, infuriating documentary All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea about the industrial pollution decimating the north-east coast’s ecosystem #AllRiversSpill

This is a story I've been following for quite a bit. It's about environmental destruction and corruption on a massive scale happening in the North East, and it is shocking (or perhaps not, sadly) that it hasn't been getting more attention.

THE NERVE@thenerve.news · 3d ago

Read the full piece and subscribe to our free, twice-weekly newsletter on our website: www.thenerve.news/p/all-rivers...

Came home last night and Paul had built my desk and put my office together. I have an office for the first time since we moved!

NEW: I wrote about why so many people wanted to believe that Ukrainian airstrikes on a Russian data center reduced troll and bot activity online, even though it's almost certainly not true. Featuring @noupside.bsky.social: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Drone strikes didn't take out a Russian bot farm, but we were primed to believe It

A viral rumor illustrates people’s hunger to make sense of the division we see online.

motherjones.com

This is a disaster. The ethics committee in Denmark that approved the Guinea-Bissau study which will withhold the birth dose of HepB vaccine “had never considered medical studies before but it changed the rules in order to vote on this one”. Four members of the committee have resigned in protest.

Controversial vaccine trial touted by RFK Jr gets go-ahead in Guinea-Bissau

Recommended dose of hepatitis B vaccine will be withheld from thousands of newborns by Danish researchers

theguardian.com

“The children who are randomly selected not to receive the birth dose of the vaccine, those who “lost the lottery”, face in their earliest days the risk of contracting hepatitis B, which can cause irreversible lifelong damage.” No words. I am speechless. This violates all ethical boundaries.

Controversial vaccine trial touted by RFK Jr gets go-ahead in Guinea-Bissau

Recommended dose of hepatitis B vaccine will be withheld from thousands of newborns by Danish researchers

theguardian.com

More than 1 MILLION UK adults who have never smoked are now vaping. That should set alarm bells ringing. “less harmful” does not mean harmless, and we still don’t know the full consequences of regular use. A public health time bomb being built in real time. buff.ly/rSWJl70

One million UK adults who have never smoked are now vapers

Latest statistics also show, for the second year in a row, more over-16s vape than smoke.

buff.ly

Disability doesn’t care how old you are. Specialist food is no cheaper if you’re 19. Employers don’t lose their prejudice if you’re 21. This is blatant intergenerational inequality from Labour. Younger disabled people of all severities deserve better. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Key disability benefit for young people may be axed under major welfare changes

Exclusive: Plan under discussion involves intensive support to help young people into employment

theguardian.com

Awful for employees sacked Bad for employees not sacked Unacceptable for students Disastrous for UKHEI Thread 👇

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 3w ago

'A spokesperson for Wolverhampton’s UCU branch said that the loss of staff through voluntary severance at the start of the year meant that “the pressure on remaining colleagues is becoming intolerable”.'

How the f- is any of this normal? Labour can choose to undo this immediately. Deproscribe Palestine Action. It was a disastrous decision by the Starmer admin and Burnham can undo it.

Defend Our Juries@defendourjuries.bsky.social · 3w ago

94-year-old Jewish human rights barrister, Margaret Owen OBE, arrested under the Terrorism Act outside @labouruk.bsky.social conference. Her crime? Holding a piece of cardboard with the words “I oppose genocide - I support Palestine Action” on it. She was among hundreds doing the same.

Our School of Politics and International Relations at @ucddublin.bsky.social is hiring two permanent (!) Assistant Professors in any field of political science, international relations, political theory, or development. Deadline: 9 November Start date: 30 August 2027 my.corehr.com/pls/coreport...

Acting as external examiner today on a fantastic thesis. Also chairing an event which I'm really excited about. Have been in bed for a week and a half, so maybe these could have been on different days, but oh well!

Tomorrow! www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...

Charlotte Weatherill@ckweatherill.bsky.social · 4w ago

A week today! The show must go on? Revisiting the script of international climate cooperation 10 years after Paris 30th Sep, 1-2.30pm BST. On zoom, free and open to all. Drawing on a new SI in GEP, and featuring the editors and six of the authors. Register here: www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...

This is quite cool. My university is the first organisation in the world to force Microsoft to allow us to turn off copilot summaries in Word 365, after a backlash against it from staff (including, very vocally, me). That cannot have been easy for our heroic IT people so hats very much off to them!

Last chance for Environment and Climate Politics Working Group event on the state & direction of global climate governance 10 years after the Paris Agreement 📣 'The show must go on? Revisiting the script of international climate cooperation 10 years after Paris' 🌍 👉 https://ow.ly/C03U50ZOEE9

Tomorrow! www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...

Charlotte Weatherill@ckweatherill.bsky.social · 4w ago

A week today! The show must go on? Revisiting the script of international climate cooperation 10 years after Paris 30th Sep, 1-2.30pm BST. On zoom, free and open to all. Drawing on a new SI in GEP, and featuring the editors and six of the authors. Register here: www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...

AI companies are doing some of the most irresponsible shit in human history and universities are responding by partnering with them. It's great to see colleagues, individually and collectively, pushing back. But too many academics either have their heads in the sand or are enabling this imposition.

"Rising seas and environmental degradation are disrupting traditional Pacific practices, eroding Indigenous cultural connections and severing their relationships with ancestral lands and oceans ... we're talking about a massive rupture to culture and to cosmologies."

Climate change legal precedents begin to unravel Pacific culture's emerging rights

Rising seas and environmental degradation are disrupting traditional Pacific practices, eroding Indigenous cultural connections and severing their relationships with ancestral lands and oceans accordi...

nit.com.au

Yung En Chee@yungenchee.bsky.social · last yr.

As always the inimitable Julian'To Hell With Drowning' Aguon brings to life the harms to these rights & dignities across Yakel (Vanuatu), Kikori River Delta (Papua New Guinea), Vunidogoloa (Fiji), Lilisiana (Solomon Islands) & eloquently explains the remedies of binding obligations & accountability

📣 #BISA2027 date change - 30 June - 2 July 📣 Recently announced Oasis concerts coinciding with the original conference dates have had a significant impact on hotel availability and prices for delegates. The move will help keep the conference accessible. Read more 👉 https://ow.ly/p1Fp50ZQWPC

"It is Macklemore, not Sheeran, who has been barred from performing... The incident fits a broader pattern in the discourse around ‘free speech’ and ‘cancel culture’: whatever comes from the top down is freedom; whatever comes from the bottom up is bullying and censorship." 🔥

Laleh Khalili@lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 4w ago

What an absolutely brilliant scorching indictment of Sheeran, the BBC, and all the assholes both-siding a genocide www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/se...

A week today! The show must go on? Revisiting the script of international climate cooperation 10 years after Paris 30th Sep, 1-2.30pm BST. On zoom, free and open to all. Drawing on a new SI in GEP, and featuring the editors and six of the authors. Register here: www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...

A week today! The show must go on? Revisiting the script of international climate cooperation 10 years after Paris 30th Sep, 1-2.30pm BST. On zoom, free and open to all. Drawing on a new SI in GEP, and featuring the editors and six of the authors. Register here: www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...

There were a lot of dialogues taking place at the June Climate Meetings in Bonn, which offered me an opportunity to reflect on the structures of dialogue within the UNFCCC and different modes of speaking science and vulnerability by countries ➡️ camamazon.aber.ac.uk/2026/09/22/b...

NINETY programmes, fucking hell

Josh Pizzuto-Pomaco@joshpizpom.bsky.social · last mo.

EXC: 90 programmes in Edinburgh University's College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences are to be closed. The casualties, which include 48 language and literature programmes, will be 'taught out', w/ no admissions after 2027. @heraldscotland.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/news/2655839...

Occasionally, when I want to feel angry, I look at my SLC balance.

I'm not at all sure BlueSky functions in the same way as the old space (in the good times) but I'll give this a try anyway... Folks who are thinking about attending BISA 2027: anyone keen to collaborate on a panel or roundtable (or some other kind of event) on neurodiversity in academia?

Academic Cat Wearing Glasses

Alt: White floofy cat wearing glasses

static.klipy.com

🚨 Register now 🚨 'Things fall apart? Towards an anticipatory International Political Economy' 🌍 IPEG-BISA is hosting its annual workshop at the Department of Politics, The University of Manchester on 15 and 16 October 2026 🌟 Register now and find out more here 👉 https://ow.ly/brq650ZNO1M