A hummingbird hawk-moth visits my friend's garden in Manchester regularly and loves to feed on his rose campion flowers. He genuinely had no idea what it was the first time but has now filmed it a couple of times. They're incredible little things

The Guardian@theguardian.com · last wk.

‘Grey lump with orange wings’: migrating moth descends on UK gardens

Who's doing the entertainment between full time and the start of extra time? Pat Benatar? The cast of Chicago Fire? Bubbles the Chimp ft Hristo Stoichkov and John Aldridge?

Brits, Our Friends In The North, one of the finest drama series of the past 35 years, is starting a run of repeats on BBC Four this evening from 10.20pm. (I feel old; I watched this when it was new.) www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Why Our Friends in the North still thrills 25 years on

An incredible cast – from Daniel Craig to Gina McKee – and Shakespearean narrative add up to make a modern classic

theguardian.com

It’s wild that politicians don’t seem to grasp the degree to which universities contribute to the economy- local, regional, national. The failure to intervene is a stain on this govt - a shocking dereliction of duty to every worker, every local business, every student, every area that is suffering

Stephen Shapiro@stephenshapiro.bsky.social · 2mo ago

UK to Universities: drop dead archive.is/PN5y7

All solidarity to my brilliant former colleagues at Exeter. The careful, deliberate dismantling of british higher education by its nominal 'leaders' - focused especially on the arts & humanities - is going to be rememberd as one of the major scandals of this generally awful/scandalous age.

Ben Phillips@benphillips1989.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.

My son’s primary school sending kids home at lunchtime all week due to heat. This will get Political at some point soon.

I don't have strong opinions on a social media ban, but I don't understand why you'd legislate against a load of platforms and not WhatsApp, where big group chats are a real problem for bullying and the sharing of inappropriate photos or videos.

You have to feel a bit sorry for Russell T Davies. He's just written another incredible state of the nation drama, and all he's going to get over the next few weeks now is people moaning about Doctor Who

If I could go back in time and do one thing, I'd ask Julian Huxley to have better handwriting

A hard border in south Manchester

Lab +12

Peter Stefanovic@peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Andy Burnham says he would ban VAR if he had the power "You can't celebrate a goal because you think someone, somewhere in an industrial unit is going to rule it out"

More internal Labour strife

a man is standing in front of a window and says just when i thought i was out they pull me back in

Alt: Al Pacino in the Godfather 3, standing in front of a window and saying just when i thought i was out they pull me back in

media.tenor.com

Very ominous sky over south Manchester

My wife's just updated her banking app and it now sends a push notification whenever money is debited from our joint account. This is very bad, as she can see just how much I spend on coffee when I'm in work. I need to disable this feature asap

This is unfathomable to me! As well as being stupid and cruel, it doesn't even make financial sense! Humanities subjects are cheap! They are subsiding expensive subjects! Please someone stop this mindless destruction!

University of Hertfordshire UCU@uhertfordshireucu.bsky.social · 3mo ago

On Friday afternoon before the Bank Holiday, colleagues in the Humanities department were called to a meeting on Tuesday. They were informed that the University Portfolio Review had decided that English Language, English Literature, Philosophy, History & Creative Writing UG degrees would close

The invitation to the launch party for the next issue of Planet Bee 🐝, our science magazine run by students, edited by students, and with content by students. www.manchester.ac.uk/about/bicent...

Someone didn't proofread the Lib Dem leaflet that came though our door this morning. I thought I lived in Old Moat, not Name Name

The "Office for Students" needs to be shut down. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Sussex University overturns £585,000 fine as high court rejects free speech breach claim

Ruling is blow to Office for Students after it issued fine for handling of protests over professor’s trans rights views

theguardian.com

I know some will raise their eyebrows and say these mind-blowing marathon times in London must be down to doping, so it's worth pointing out Sawe has been undergoing an unusually rigorous testing process for the last two years in an effort to prove he is clean www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/d...

Sabastian Sawe: the marathon star on a mission to be drug tested as much as possible | Sean Ingle

This year’s London Marathon winner deserves credit for offering more than enough proof he is clean while setting a new standard for other athletes to follow

theguardian.com

Sabastian Sawe has just run sub 2 hours in the men's marathon. Genuinely historic. Wow

Watching the London marathon and remembering the only and only time I did one. My parents were waiting at the finish line and saw an ambulance roll in. My dad nudged my mum and joked 'I bet Duncan's in that'. I was in it ☠️

Lots of chat about Andy Burnham here today, so I'll just say this. His work on Hillsborough from 2009 onward was genuinely significant and achieved an enormous amount in the face of official indifference. Without him, there'd have been no Independent Panel and no verdict of unlawful death.

I found a newspaper report marking my grandfather's retirement from medical practice yesterday. It was probably newsworthy because he worked in one place for 40+ years, starting just after WW1 and retiring in 1956 when he was in his 70s. I also discovered from this he got run over by his own car!

JOB ALERT: Two 4.5 year postdoctoral positions to work on my Wellcome-funded project 'Conserving Global Health: Biodiversity Protection and the Prehistory of Planetary Health'. Please share widely! CLOSING DATE: 23 April (the date on Jobs.ac.uk is apparently incorrect)

I would have initially said Threads in answer to this, but I actually rewatched that this week. So I'd have to say Klimov's Come and See instead, which is a genuine masterpiece but utterly harrowing

Andrew Male@andrewmale.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Best film I'll never watch again? Easy. 10, Rillington Place.

Allegations of “family voting” was *the* top story on the BBC news summary the morning after the by-election. It was specifically alleged or implied by spokespeople from every major political party. It was directly reported by the political editor of Sky and the political editor is the Spectator.

Politics UK@politicsuk.com · 4mo ago

🚨 NEW: Greater Manchester Police say they have found "no evidence" of family voting in the Gorton and Denton by-election

The fawning over these two, purely because they're Hollywood actors, drives me mad. When did you last hear the owners of any other club do a full 90 minute commentary on a televised match? It's embarrassing. Football clubs are community assets and should be owned by their fans.

This is a wonderful article that resonates with a lot of my experiences growing up. I knew a lot of older people whose first language was Welsh and who spoke English rarely and hesitantly, including my great aunt Gwenllian and lots of my grandma's friends in Colwyn Bay.

Where Duolingo falls down: how I learned to speak Welsh with my mother

The long read: Once violently defended from extinction, Welsh is still a part of daily life. By learning my family’s language, I hoped to join their conversation

theguardian.com

Condolences to all the people I grew up with in north Wales, who mysteriously started supporting Wrexham a couple of years ago.