"By using AI, tasks like essays that used to take hours can be completed in minutes!" Sure, like how if I arrive at the gym and immediately go for a shower, my workout is done in record time. And if I throw my sandwiches straight in the bin, I can finish my lunch in under 10 seconds.

James Blunt and Ross Kemp can SAS all they like, Jerry Hall was married to Rupert Murdoch. There’s only one boss here

I think the prime minister should have said this

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · last mo.

Former PM Rishi Sunak in the Sunday Times challenges the rise of ethno-nationalism in British politics, as an argument within the right about Britishness being about ancestry, DNA and ethnicity www.thetimes.com/article/e89d...

All day Piddington's womminfolk have been telling news how they will be terrified of "hundreds of young men nearby, free to come and go as they please." NOT ONE JOURNALIST has asked: "How did you cope when it was an army base? Who came and went then? Nuns?" Soon as you ask that, all becomes clear.

Alex Andreou@sturdyalex.bsky.social · last mo.

The people of Piddington have spoken. I say, grant them independence. Border controls. Visas to cross into the UK. Tariffs on goods. No GBP. No NHS. No benefits or pensions. Let us know when your little lilywhite enclave has gone all Mad Max and you started eating each other. BUH-BYE!

There is something off about this NYT photo on AI development that I can't quite put my finger on.

The irony, an Atari chess AI continuously beat modern AI in chess, because Modern AI kept trying to make illegal turns and justify it by halucinating their own rules for chess.

But nothing beats the obstetrics textbook wherein one of the authors made his wife do the index, so she slips this one in:

it's me i'm "unknown"

James Chalmers@jameschalmers.bsky.social · 2mo ago

@magnets.eurosky.social Have you seen this?

This is pretty funny tbh. The US gov wades in with its big bully boots to protect the 'academic freedom' of this scientifically illiterate weird little racist, who actively opposes the academic freedom of others, for a 1 yr postdoc on a subject he shows no track record for. Well done all concerned.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Nathan Cofnas and the US Ambassador to Belgium say that the University of Ghent have now lifted his suspension, thanking the US government for supporting him (with threats of retaliation). The Ambassador says that Cofnas will be able to complete his one year appointment to March 2027.

why have universities conspired to do this?

Graduate job vacancies drop by almost 50% in a year, survey suggests

Job site Adzuna said the number of graduate vacancies was the lowest since 2016

bbc.co.uk

Relevant again, as always

Rebecca Sear@rebeccasear.bsky.social · 2y ago

The myth of value-free science is an important part of why scientific racism is so hard to eradicate. Many scientists will protect scientific racism as long as those who produce it claim to be doing legitimate science, despite its blatantly political conclusions. Please read 👇

This is astonishing.

Omar Khan@omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The higher education participation rate for UK born Bangladeshi women went from around 2% (not a typo) in 1983 to nearly 67% in 2025 This must be one of the most dramatic, fast social changes in recent British history, and one that is barely noted or understood

Quakers were a big part of supporting me and my friends when it wasn't even less safe to be a queer young person - in the 90s - they paid for me to go to the LGB & not-yet-T March in DC in '93. (I was 16.) And here they are being good again when it's not politically easy. I'm a big fan of Quakers.

Ruth Pearce@notrightruth.bsky.social · 2mo ago

UK Quakers commit to continued, explicit trans inclusion. "...toilet facilities labelled with a 'female' sign remain available to cisgender women, trans women, and others for whom those facilities best align with their lived experience."

Think we should stop letting teenagers do mickey mouse subjects like maths, physics and chemistry and force them to take serious shbject like media studies, sociology and philosophy.

Toby Nangle@tobyn.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Why do so many more people manage to get top grades in STEM A-Level subjects? Are STEM A-Levels just much easier?

White professor ‘ MattGPT ‘ whose most recent book contained fabricated quotations, non-existent source references, & left ChatGPT URLs accidentally embedded in footnotes is sad about Jason Arday’s death but still wants Arday & all black academia held to higher standards than his own writing .

Look, put simply, people should not be comfortable saying that in public and the way to fix society runs directly through making them afraid to say it again.

Gregory Kohn@kohngregory.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In the wake of Arday's death, Nathan Cofnas (who led the X mob against him) states his motivation. Beyond whistleblowing, he states that after a 'revolution' removes professors like Arday, it will open opportunities for him to become 'head of the department of eugenics and race science at Harvard'.

Well this is interesting! Some needs to do an analysis of names with the steepest social gradient

Owen Boswarva@owenboswarva.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Baby names by National Statistics Socio-economic Classification, England and Wales, births registered in 2025 www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula... ad hoc ONS release of counts of baby names for boys and girls in seven NS-SEC Analytic Classes #babynames #opendata

The day I will pay attention to politicians guffing about "parity of esteem" is the day one of their children goes to an FE college.

New books on the to read pile - some of which I’m overdue catching up on! Excited to read @suzannerblack.bsky.social, @sjartt.bsky.social, @shannonvallor.bsky.social, @ruha9.bsky.social, Shoshana Zuboff, and the new edition of @drdaveobrien.bsky.social, @orianbrook.bsky.social & Mark Taylor’s books!

‘Homer’s original’ 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I will never understand why anyone ever mistook Musk for a genius. The man has the intellect of a towel rack.

Ok, talking about class in vox pops is now banned until it starts making any sense.

Week 2 of the Couch to 5k for reading is here! open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...

reading instead of scrolling will make you happier

'couch to 5k' for reading, week 2: some lovely readers have made us *trackers*! and: how has it gone?! how are you enjoying it?

open.substack.com

No.10 North is a good example of a symbol: it works literally and figuratively at once. As I wrote last week: "Perhaps Burnham the English Lit graduate grasps that politics needs to be conducted in metaphors and symbols as well as metrics & stats." www.newstatesman.com/comment/2026...

Jane Green@profjanegreen.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Number 10 North is strategic, policy-wise, but I think it will probably be more important for its ‘symbolic politics’. Making voters in the north feel more represented because of a tangible, high profile political symbol. These symbols emphasised by @ffaucher.bsky.social.

I'm stepping down to a new role in the autumn to try to get a bit more "life" in the "work - life balance" thing, so there's a vacancy to do my job: overseeing the research and policy output of RF. What a fab job for someone.

Ruth Curtice@ruthcurtice.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Lots of jobs changing at the moment - but let's focus on the most important. I am recruiting for a new partner in crime. Take a look, and get in touch if you want to help us deliver higher living standards across the UK, with an incredible team. www.resolutionfoundation.org/director/

It's rare that a newspaper says this out loud.

Liz Tamny@etamny.bsky.social · 4mo ago

www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/04/m...

My main worry is that we’re banning social media for kids but not AI. So you can’t speak to real people online anymore, kids, but you sure can talk to your fake artificial friend who weirdly loves to talk about taking your own life!

I love giving talks and standing up and talking off the cuff from my own brain (usually with a few planned bullet points). I cant imagine anything worse than reading out a talk written for you by AI. I did wonder during covid if my skillset was redundant, if we'd ever have audiences again. We do!

Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical@alwaystheself.bsky.social · 4mo ago

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 +

90% of MPs went to University compared to 19% of the working age population. It is real time that MPs started acknowledging the role that Education has played in their career success. www.suttontrust.com/our-research...

Parliamentary Privilege 2024 - The Sutton Trust

What are the educational backgrounds of the new MPs elected to the House of Commons?

suttontrust.com

Something's up with Google Scholar - related to ChatGPT? The following article has recently been added to my profile but it .. doesn't exist. Not slightly wrong, or wrong authorship, the entire article is made up by GS says it has 80 citations..

Job! Creative Manchester Research Associate (Maternity Leave Cover) www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRV865/c...

Creative Manchester Research Associate (Maternity Leave Cover) at The University of Manchester

Apply for the Creative Manchester Research Associate (Maternity Leave Cover) role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.

jobs.ac.uk