Reading this story devastated me in the way only the best writing can. It is personal and specific, but also national and even global in scope. It's about one family's deciisons, but also about the loss we're all feeling, seeing our hopeful strivings for justice pushed back.

In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own? (Gift Article)

A decade ago, I made a decision about my daughter’s education that I hoped would challenge New York City’s separate and unequal school system. Now 16, she thinks I made the wrong choice.

nytimes.com

Powerful statements here, especially on allyship. Thank you.

Gregk Foley@gregk.co.uk · last wk.

Video below:

Really excellent piece on what the hell is going on with public inquiries. On all the ways they wear families out, and reinstate legal authority. And all the beautiful moments that kin create in their struggle to reclaim life and love

Máiréad Enright@maireadenright.bsky.social · 3mo ago

For the month that's been in it - I have this out today in Current Legal Problems. currentlegalproblems.org/article/dema...

They Wanted Me for My Blackness. Then the Calls Stopped. newrepublic.com/article/2149... via @newrepublic.com

They Wanted Me for My Blackness. Then the Calls Stopped.

The year 2020 changed everything—or so we thought.

newrepublic.com

OPINION: "Scholars of collective memory, also called public memory, have long argued that societies do not remember the past simply by preserving it," Stephanie A. Martin writes. buff.ly/ukGgvL3

Opinion | What We Forget When We Remember 9/11

Stephanie A. Martin writes about how public memory affects how we collectively remember the attacks on September 11, 2001.

mississippifreepress.org

"The whole “Oh no, our models went rogue” thing … When a bridge collapses, you don’t analyze whether the bridge was ethical or sentient or why it decided to collapse. You ask, who is the person who built this bridge to be so flimsy?" www.wired.com/story/one-of...

One of AI’s Fiercest Critics Says All the Doom Talk Is ‘Meant to Distract Us’

Timnit Gebru argues that AI companies are stoking fears of extinction to avoid discussing actual harms, like autonomous weapons.

wired.com

Read the piece below by Anil Dash about what '9/11' was actually like for New Yorkers. But also read this year's piece: www.anildash.com/2026/09/11/2...

At 25, we are all New Yorkers, again - Anil Dash

A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

anildash.com

Neil Lewis, Jr.@neillewisjr.bsky.social · 2w ago

Just re-read this great piece by @anildash.com "The constructed cultural narrative around the day bears almost no resemblance to the actual lived experience of anyone I know who was here that day. So maybe it’s worth telling a little bit of what I actually saw." www.anildash.com/2024/09/11/2...

We don't need to play by Elon Musk's rules. In the Commons yesterday, I commended Lisa Nandy on her decision to leave X and take DCMS off the platform. I left more than a year ago, for reasons that will be familiar to people on BlueSky. I would like to see the whole government follow her lead.

Should be very much worth attending if you can:

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 2w ago

Paperback edition of Homesick: The End of London is out next week! I have an event at Waterstones on Gower St on October 6 with the excellent Holly Smith (who writes about tower blocks) if anyone wants to come: www.waterstones.com/events/homes...

"If the Arday affair is to mean something more than his individual downfall, it should have those of us involved in the university confront once and for all the inequitable foundation of the university as an institution and its unequal distribution of resources."

Ordinary Notes@hystericalblkns.bsky.social · 3w ago

I'm going to keep posting this by @blacklikewho.bsky.social because i think its analyses are right on. It is urgent and brilliant. canadiandimension.com/articles/vie...

"Love and catastrophe are not opposed but entwined." This looks very much like a must read to me. Open Access too.

stilllife@stilllife0.bsky.social · 3w ago

Today is official publication day for Cultural Geographies of Love and Catastrophe, edited by @ajsecor.bsky.social @mikkojorge.bsky.social and myself, and published by @edinburghup.bsky.social. You can DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE TEXT FOR FREE via the EUP web page edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-cultura...

Human being versus AI: “our intelligence is embodied, evolved and biological, and inseparable from our bodies” Sheila Hayman

Natalie Bennett@nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · last mo.

Powerful and important letter about artificial so-called intelligence from Sheila Hayman from Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge, in the FT today

Please join us for the @leverhulmecal.bsky.social inaugural annual lecture with the incomparable Prof. N. Katherine Hayles. Kate’s work is foundational (& not in a foundation model kind of way…) #LLMs #AI #fiction

Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life@leverhulmecal.bsky.social · last mo.

We are honoured that the incomparable N. Katherine Hayles will give our inaugural lecture on 'Inverse awareness and LLM-generated fictions'. Join us on 12 October 2026, sign up here. Kate Hayles' work has been endlessly inspiring to the LCAL team. leverhulmecal.webspace.durham.ac.uk/event/invers...

newscord.org/editorials/j...

Jason Arday told the press he was at his limit. It answered with 188 more articles. He is dead at 41.

A full census of the 249 articles fifteen national outlets published about Jason Arday in 22 days, with the last day reconstructed hour by hour. Every article listed and linked.

newscord.org

A wonderful thread. Thank you for writing it @racheledini.bsky.social

con questi nuovi ritmi americani (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸🏳@racheledini.bsky.social · last mo.

I met Jason Arday in induction week in my first permanent academic job, at the University of Roehampton. We had been appointed during the same mass hiring, and spent a week together in more or less useless training sessions that felt like components of some kind of deranged summer camp. 1/

Two days ago, and a week after Arday resigned, The Guardian published this article. It betrays a shameful lack of research. You can sing a jingle or crack a joke and still be 'non-verbal'. It's called echolalia. Are your other articles on Arday any more credible? I'm not convinced after this one.

‘Always cracking jokes’: questions raised over Jason Arday’s claim he was non-verbal as a child

Fellow pupils at his primary school have challenged Cambridge academic’s story, though others support it

tinyurl.com

Gary Younge nails it

Sika@sikadm.bsky.social · last mo.

May your soul rest in peace, Jason Arday.

Thread with extensive summaries of the report.

Ruth Pearce@notrightruth.bsky.social · last mo.

I'm seeing a lot of people invoke the figure of the intersex person in current discourse on sex and gender, especially in relation to the UK government's anti-trans segregation regime. But the actual voices of actual people are getting lost. This buried report offers vital evidence to counter that.

New post: Common sense and knowing your place. nickdennisnrd.substack.com/p/common-sen...

Common sense and knowing your place

Jason Arday resigned from Cambridge University this week after the institution announced it would investigate allegations around plagiarism, fundraising and his public biography.

nickdennisnrd.substack.com

We should be remembering this. How easy it is to forget. #Hiroshima

Caroline Lucas@carolinelucas.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Today is the 81st anniversary of the nuclear bombing of #Hiroshima. Yet despite the gut wrenching horror, the 9 nuclear states have *already* amassed the equivalent firepower of 145.000 Hiroshima bombs & still want more. This is madness. #NoMoreHiroshimas @cnduk.bsky.social

"You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal." — James Baldwin, born on this day in 1924 #AmWriting

A Bed for the Night: Bertolt Brecht

open.substack.com/pub/lizzywil...

On Redundancy

Four weeks ago, the university that I have been working at for 9 years announced massive, unjustified, reckless job cuts, predominantly targeting the humanities, arts and social sciences.

open.substack.com

‘Y rhyw anghywir a’r lle anghywir’ – dathlu chwe degawd o waith Mary Lloyd Jones Arddangosfa newydd yn dathlu chwe degawd o waith un o artistiaid pwysicaf Cymru. ✍️ Guto Ynyr Elis

‘Y rhyw anghywir a’r lle anghywir’ – dathlu chwe degawd o waith Mary Lloyd Jones

Arddangosfa newydd yn dathlu chwe degawd o waith un o artistiaid pwysicaf Cymru.

golwg.360.cymru

"It is yet another foreclosure of the paths of unanticipated writing and creativity. Books torn to scanned pages, & pages to tokens" Thread.

Louise Amoore@amoorelouise.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I could weep, seriously. Some of the places I love best are those second-hand book stores in the side streets of small towns. Where the stacks contain surprises that shape how one thinks about something. Now LLMs need “pre 2022” texts to avoid the “contamination” of synthetic data 1/

An excellent and very well articulated video on the rise of transphobia (US centric), but as valid in the UK as in the USA and globally… Possibly the best and most succinct video out there without the usual Youtube BS that content creators include. Just straight to camera. youtu.be/Vt1S0p15afQ?...

The Real Trans Tipping Point

YouTube video by The View From Her Side

youtu.be

The EHRC’s bathroom ban is set to pass its parliamentary stage today, despite widespread opposition. It doesn’t take effect straight away, that is through a process called ‘commencement’ before it comes into force. Read more, and our joint response: www.transsolidarityalliance.com/post/joint-s...

Joint statement: EHRC Code of Practice passes Parliamentary stage

Joint statement from Scottish Trans, Trans+ Solidarity Alliance and TransActual: Today marks the end of the 40-day Parliamentary stage of the EHRC’s draft Code of Practice, with the government refusin...

transsolidarityalliance.com

This is amazing; 40 women’s organizations standing in support of trans people’s human rights against this government’s targeting of trans people against the EHRC transphobic code. Trans people and cis women’s rights are not in opposition.

Women’s organisations speak up against the EHRC's Code - LIVE

I’m Women’s organisations speak up against the EHRC's updated Code of Practice   We are a collection of women's organisations, networks and community groups that work with and support women across th...

docs.google.com

THIS DESERVES REPOSTING… This was posted online quite a while ago, but the message remains powerful…

Brilliant and inspiring from Stuart Hall. His thinking is vital and important now as it always was. I was so privileged to be taught by him at the Open University. More extracts from the same amazing lecture to be found here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

STUART HALL: THROUGH THE PRISM OF AN INTELLECTUAL LIFE - YouTube

A newly discovered recording of a seminal lecture now available for viewing.

youtube.com

Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️@chenchenzhang.net · 3mo ago

"We live in an imaginary lived relationship to our real conditions of existence". love this so much, and how passionately it's delivered. youtu.be/bHpht1nNtB0?...