My trusty 3M Peltors are now held together with duct tape but wow was I glad of them for The Odyssey.
back when our uni was doing "curriculum transformation" instead of "spending restraint" I tried to tell anyone who was asking for input that the biggest proven gold standard higher ed intervention we were missing and should invest in was foundation writing courses plus writing centre
Mary Lewis@profmarylewis.bsky.social · last wk.It‘s quite possible that with this move, @harvard.edu could become the only Ivy League university without a writing center. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
A measured and sensible response from Jon Moses to those who object to ‘Scottish style’ responsible access south of the border.
Right to Roam@righttoroam.bsky.social · last mo.Should the access movement be less political? Is it all about paths instead of wider rights? In our first substack, co-director @jon-moses.bsky.social responds to comments from the author and geographer, Nicholas Crane, about the right to roam campaign. righttoroam.substack.com/p/should-the...
He didn’t even pay for his own spectacles … he only ever saw the world through the lenses of a plutocrat.
I don't think any university teacher is ready for the next academic year. It's a crisis without precedent.
Jeff Sharlet@jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 2mo agoAt the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/
‘There needs to be a co-ordinated strategy that tackles not only acts of violence but also the narratives that make them possible.’ Essential reading from Luqman Saeed in Belfast.
London Review of Books@lrb.co.uk · 2mo ago‘We are living under a kind of house arrest, unable to go out, with an oppressive sense that an assault could occur at any moment.’ New from Luqman Saeed in Belfast: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...
The rapid erosion of the mainstream political taboo on Powellism and Mosleyism (etc) is one of the most striking and alarming features of the present moment. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Owen Winter@owenwntr.bsky.social · 2mo agoIn his white lives matter address, Nigel Farage calls George Floyd a career criminal and says "the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities" in Britain
One of the oddest things about Tony Blair is that he has turned into the cartoon image drawn by Steve Bell since the 1990s. It’s spooky.
Tony Blair tells Starmer and rivals: abandon net zero and move closer to Trump
In highly unusual intervention, ex-PM says his party’s ‘almost infinite capacity for self-delusion’ makes it likely to lose next election
theguardian.com
‘The task facing a mature society is to adapt its methods of financing universities to sustaining the purposes for which such institutions exist – rather than, as at present, the other way round’. Essential context for Britain’s university crisis.
Stefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs: Bonfire of the Universities
The problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and...
lrb.co.uk
Acrid smoke now in East Edinburgh. WHO recommend a PM 2.5 limit of 5 µg/m3, tonight it’s over 82.
Fraser MacDonald@frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 2mo agoThat’s Arthur’s Seat ablaze again. 2026 bushfire season starting in May not August.
That’s Arthur’s Seat ablaze again. 2026 bushfire season starting in May not August.
Fraser MacDonald@frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 12mo agoScotland has not adjusted to the reality that we now have a bushfire season. So many implications, not least for air quality.
"wild swimming ... causes issues with private ownership" is genuinely a sentence written by the national park authority for Kinder Scout, the locus classicus of public access protest in England
Right to Roam@righttoroam.bsky.social · 2mo agoIt would be nice if, on a hot sunny day, the @peakdistrict.bsky.social, spent its time advising how swimming can be done safely without impacting wildlife, rather than acting like the most normal thing in the world is a dangerous act of criminality. #RightToSwim
First time I've seen a Cinnamon Bug (Corizus hyoscyami), seems unusual for Scotland but seems to be spreading north. Striking colour against spinach.
The late Ian Jack would have had a cracking column out of this story.
The National@scotnational.bsky.social · 3mo agoMore than 40 passengers who had been left stranded after their CalMac ferry broke down were picked up last night by the world's last sea-worthy paddle steamer, the Waverley ⚓
I’d love to hear how other academic colleagues are managing written assessment in light of AI. (but please not “I let them use it but ask that they reflect on their use of it”)
Fraser MacDonald@frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 3mo agoIt’s so impossible. Exams: pedagogically awful + uni estates are no longer configured to do this at scale. Oral exams: impractical. I thought about getting students to submit interim drafts along with a final essay but AI could just write those too.
I teach both academic writing and creative writing to geographers and this has been the most dispiriting semester of my career, for many of the reasons below.
Jonathan Gibbs@jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 3mo agoI’m marking undergraduate creative writing at the moment, so reading the supposedly AI story ‘The Serpent in the Grove’ was a familiar experience. I've been reading it, in their work, all week. It makes you despair, but it's also fascinating for what it tells us about literary fiction as a genre.
Josh Pizzuto-Pomaco@joshpizpom.bsky.social · 3mo agoSir Tom Devine: "Edinburgh’s plight is mainly due to inept decisions taken by the current Principal and his senior management group" Scatching words from one of Scotland's preeminent historians on Edinbugh Uni's financial woes. @heraldscotland.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/news/2611944...
I witnessed this from the public gallery. The weight and pain in the Assembly Hall were palpable. Moving responses from Jamaican, Nigerian and Ghanaian churches.
Josh Pizzuto-Pomaco@joshpizpom.bsky.social · 3mo agoThe Church of Scotland has apologised for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. 'We are sorry for the ways in which the Church of Scotland ... contributed to and benefitted from the enslavement of people of African descent' @heraldscotland.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/news/2611338...
The situation at the University of Edinburgh is so grim right now. To deduct 100% salary for a marking boycott … is a likely illegal move from management.
Alicia Bruce@aliciabruce.bsky.social · 3mo agoThis is the end of a second week of strikes for those of us teaching final year Fine Art at eca 🪧💕 @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk @commonwealmagazine.org
At the height of George Osborne’s austerity, we used to joke that keeping your job is the new pay rise. Under this Government, it is literally true.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3mo agoThousands of University of Nottingham staff told they are at risk of redundancy
I could not be angrier or more heartbroken today as thousands of staff at the University of Nottingham receive official communication that they’re up for redundancy. But I also could not be prouder of my inspiring colleagues who refuse to simply accept this as inevitable. We will fight for our jobs!
LopaLeach@lopa.bsky.social · 3mo ago@uonucu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk . www.theguardian.com/education/20...
I went to check in on Gulliver’s foot and ankle this afternoon – one of the most interesting listed ruins in Edinburgh. c20society.org.uk/news/remnant...
One of their MSPs is a Tommy Robinson supporter who wants to deport all Muslims. Project hate and expect a welcome? Naw, man, being hateful is lonely.
The National@scotnational.bsky.social · 3mo agoNEW: John Swinney has angered Reform UK after refusing to meet with their Scottish leader to discuss his priorities for the new parliamentary term
Pleased about this, not least because she made the case for prison reform which is electorally unpopular but principled yet @katenevens.bsky.social held firm.
Scottish Greens@scottishgreens.org · 3mo ago🟢 @katenevens.bsky.social elected to represent Edinburgh & Lothians East region! Kate is one of four Scottish Green MSPs elected in Edinburgh & Lothians East today, taking our total across Scotland to seven - so far!
Really perceptive piece that no-one in power will want to read.
Ewan Gibbs@ewangibbs.bsky.social · 3mo agoNeither the left or right are prepared to face Britain's grave energy crisis. I've written for @theguardian.com on how decades of complacency cannot be magicked away by drilling in the North Sea – or even by hoping that renewables will quickly power everything.
I'm Lead Judge of the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction, awarded at University of Edinburgh since 1919 and due to be announced this month. But the university is currently withholding 100% of my pay for participating in a marking and assessment boycott. So, at present, there will be no prize.
My day started with the song of my first whitethroat, and it ended with this requiem for a palm tree. Wonderful.
Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt.bsky.social · 3mo agoReally enjoyed Karine Polwart's Windblown at the Lyceum this evening. Coming out of a residency at the Botanics & marking the necessary felling of the centuries old palm, it was sad, beautiful and uplifting (and #histSTM - there was even a sunshine recorder on stage!) lyceum.org.uk/events/karin...
Truly one of the easiest and most delicious things to grow, taste is incomparable from supermarket versions, 10/10 radish win
honestly, what a choob but credit to Ross Greer for rapid-fire moral clarity
The National@scotnational.bsky.social · 3mo agoMalcolm Offord was laughed at as his attempt to attack the Greens completely backfired during the STV Leaders' Debate