Of course the UK governments don't know where research is! They know almost nothing about it! No-one is in charge, no-one has a plan, no-one is steering: that's one of our main problems.

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 23h ago

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...

This is such a grotesque attempt to make it impossible for trans people to exist in public. To do it in the name of "equality and human rights" is especially cruel. Solidarity to all UK trans friends and colleagues facing this collective madness. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ehrc-gu...

EHRC guidance on single-sex spaces a ‘big shift’ for universities

New code confirms trans people can be excluded from facilities on basis of biological sex but experts say that does not make grappling with competing responsibilities any easier

timeshighereducation.com

If you have a direct thing you'd like to ask for (help, advice, a research interview, to discuss a specific problem) then ask straight away - the worst thing that can happen is you won't get a reply. Busy people (unless they are v v kind) likely won't have time to send an email asking for more info

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.

I will be advertising a funded PhD studentship shortly, for a project on adding psychological theory (social identity) to modelling of epidemics ( @leverhulme.ac.uk funded, with Marijn Stok). The studentship will start in January 2027. Get in touch now for informal enquiries.

I have questions like: if all of these lads think this appalling person was a standout, an exemplar of their profession - what is their profession? What exactly is it that they get paid to do. Are they being paid to ensure the public are well informed, in a healthy and pleasant democratic society?

Methods. A reason AI papers tend to present concept synthesis is this is what GenAI is good at. It's the affordances of AI shaping what academic methods get used and which types of articles get “written.” If you used AI to draft up "empirical" findings that would actually be research misconduct. 5/

I also think divisive views on whether mental health meds are "good" or "bad" can miss the point that regardless of the debates, lots of people take these meds and should be supported to start, stop or continue them as safely as possible with access to good information to inform their decisions.

Also like I want my pals to live longer so I’m happy if they stop smoking to be clear! I just think there are a lot of unintended consequences to pushing it as hard as it has been and banning it on hospital grounds (including outdoors) including shifting the discourse on the mortality gap in

Yes! Epistemic injustice is exactly what this is. Decades of falsifying the testimony of tens of thousands of people too unwell to defend themselves from the slander.

Long Covid Kids@longcovidkids.bsky.social · 4d ago

Recommendations for journalists to counter epistemic injustice in reporting Long Covid and similar conditions. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... #Journalists #LongCovid #Children #Childhood

Lot of Opinion Havers drawing clear Conclusions from the article they read that were very scrupulously *not drawn* by the lawyers who approved that same article for publication. Not my favourite kind of journalism, and not my favourite kind of reader.

The entire world experienced Covid, in real time, as a direct personal event, a reality, and a horror, barely more than five years ago. And well-connected people have never stopped trying to lie to us about what happened, and why. And to call other people liars for trying to remember.

This is irresponsible posting, at best. (See what I did there?)

Really enjoying this bondo LP. It's all played in my base language. bondo.bandcamp.com/album/bondo-2

Bondo, by bondo

11 track album

bondo.bandcamp.com

Brand new video at The Philosophy Garden & our first under-water fable! We tackle AI & sycophancy: youtu.be/tsZWGXqypws?... thanks @lalumera.bsky.social @kmurphyhollies.bsky.social @lucyosler.bsky.social & @annelijefferson.bsky.social #philsky #AI #philosophyforeveryone #philosophyforkids #edusky

The Remora and the Shark

YouTube video by The Philosophy Garden

youtu.be

Why I've spent the last few months telling anyone who will listen that Reform are very beatable. There is a winning progressive coalition out there for the taking, even in areas written off by the national media as inherently reactionary. (Holding it is another matter...)

Daniel Trilling@trillingual.bsky.social · 3mo ago

IF WE TOLERATE THIS is out today! These are worrying times politically but if there's one thing I want to get across, it's that the slide into far-right nationalism is not inevitable. Please help me spread the word. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...

Someone had just emailed me on a Friday night to ask if I have any thoughts to share on AI in digital govt and I think my answer is that we should focus on making basic services work for everyone and stop worrying about AI

@jheathershaw.bsky.social on the structural shift towards unaccountable managerialism in UK HE and the effects at Exeter. 👏🏻

Inside Britain's university crisis

As teaching staff face job loss, their bosses have netted pay rises and bought advice from a “vampiric” management consultancy, writes Prof. John Heathershaw of the University of Exeter

open.substack.com

I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful

I've spent weeks profiling orgs listed in Amnesty UK's reports. Methodology, definitions, & inclusion criteria should have been explicitly stated. They could've republished a revised version with that included. Instead, they capitulated to anti-rights bigots. www.transgendermap.com/issues/group...

Lee Hurley@hleehurley.com · 6d ago

Amnesty have issued an apology to JK Rowling and the rest. Adjust your expectations, and donations, accordingly www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/an-ap...

Peer support workers want to help people recover. Low pay, thin funding and blurry job boundaries often get in the way, 35 interviews in England show. buff.ly/BBQMo4s #PeerSupport #MentalHealth

Do you have #BipolarDisorder? Would you identify as LQBTQI+? Please consider taking part in our resarch! 20-30 min online survey. tinyurl.com/BipolarGenderSexualityStudy Many thanks! #gender #sexuality #bipolarclub #bipolarfamily #mania #bipolarawareness

It's fine. I'll take care of all the stracciatella.

Nat Guest@unfortunatalie.bsky.social · 6d ago

This is like ready salted always coming out top of the crisps. I really don't know what to do about people.

We've been here so, so many times with this 'technical skills' argument, and the divide between lovely practical trades and silly old 'education'. For hundreds of years! And every time it proved to be... a load of old rope. Let's see this time shall we. theskillsagenda.substack.com/p/ministers-...

Ministers should first learn the history of British technical education

Andy Burnham is not the only newly minted PM to promise an overhaul of English technical education which all his predecessors have tried but failed over decades.

theskillsagenda.substack.com

your apartment, the sport of basketball, and the Republic of Korea are all social constructs. mere recognition of this fact does not actually make the question of whether you are standing in your own apartment, playing basketball, or a Korean national up in the air until settled by op ed editors

she swear im colorblind produced by kenny segal feat billy woods out now via @backwoodzstudioz.bsky.social ditto.fm/doomed_ome

Test, trace, isolate, support plus masking plus air filtration might have changed the game - though the UK’s status as a travel hub would always have been a problem. Again: close the border early and it’s a different convo, but that is a big call. Easy for me to propose!

Worth reading because there’s a depressing amount of lockdown revisionism floating around in 2026.

Prof Christina Pagel@chrischirp.bsky.social · 6d ago

🧵On @thenewsagents.co.uk yesterday, school closures and the lab leak theory were offered as two examples of legitimate questions that were hard to ask. Both have in fact been asked constantly since 2020. But here's a thread on why I think they were wrong and dangerous on school closures 1/12

The course of my child's life was changed because schools opened before children were vaccinated

Prof Christina Pagel@chrischirp.bsky.social · 6d ago

And covid was not harmless to children. Being at lower risk than adults does not mean harmless. There was acute illness needing hospital, late onset rare but serious inflammatory disease, Long Covid and 13,000 UK children who lost a parent. (more details in substack post at end) 8/12

After 1st wave, we didn't run summer catch up programmes or improve ventilation in schools - we didn't even try until 2021, months after the last school closures. We didn't recommend masks (let alone good masks) in classrooms until after the last school closures. 5/12