Ali Messer
@freereed59.net
History. Trad music. Teacher Education. #HistoryEducation #TeacherEducation #UKteaching #SSChat #ContraDancing 📒🕰🎓🗺 No DMs unless we talk irl. https://intheoryandinpractice.wordpress.com/2023/04/11/and-then-the-bell-rang/ https://linktr.ee/Freereed59
Well, I'm back at the glorious Lyme Regis Museum today for another full-on day of Jurassic Art! 😮 We're making 'Paper Plate Plesiosaurs' and I'll be perfecting that tongue twister all day. 😆 If you're around, come and join in. 👍🙂 www.darrellwakelam.com #edusky #UKEd #artworkshop #museum
El Niño could push 50m people into acute hunger before end of next year
El Niño could push 50m people into acute hunger before end of next year
UN forecasters warn of worsening conditions in 45 countries currently experiencing severe food insecurity About 50 million people are likely to be pushed into acute hunger before the end of next year by the rapidly developing El Niño weather system, according to forecasting. This is in addition to the hundreds of millions of people already facing dangerous levels of hunger, owing to years of drought in parts of Africa and pressure on food prices from the war in Iran. Continue reading...
theguardian.com
Google is an absentee landlord. In 2019, they chose to *deliberately worsen* search results in order to make you search repeatedly to find the information you're seeking, because every fresh query lets them serve fresh advertisements: pluralistic.net/2025/05/26/b... 9/
Pluralistic: Who Broke the Internet, Part IV (26 May 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net
Google - a thrice-convicted monopolist - is the gateway to the internet, with more than a 90% search market share that it attained by buying out all its competitors and bribing Apple more than $20b/year not to start a rival search engine: www.democracynow.org/2024/8/6/goo... 3/
Google Is a Monopoly: Judge Rules Against Tech Giant in Landmark Antitrust Case
In the biggest antitrust case in decades, a federal judge ruled Monday that Google illegally maintains a monopoly over the online search industry, using its market dominance to shut out competitors an...
democracynow.org
I’m glad that the @goodlawproject.org is launching a legal challenge against the EHRC’s new Code of Practice, which is dangerous, unworkable and has been opposed by a quarter of all MPs. The Code will discriminate against trans people and subject many others to gender policing based on stereotypes.
Pro-trans groups challenge EHRC guidance on single-sex spaces as rules come into force
Good Law Project’s trans rights lead, Jess O’Thomson, criticised the government’s approach, calling the code of practice “transphobic”.
attitude.co.uk
Really recommend Tracy Campbell's "The Year of Peril: America in 1942" Couldn't be more appropriate for 2026.
Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · yesterdayMaking me want to rewrite (I can’t do every unit in KS3!) Maybe I can tweak. #historyteacher I was only looking for evidence in Stamford and for Capability Brown who did the landscaping at Burghley, and now I’ve added more to the list of stuff. discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10... It’s open access
Royal Historical Society@royalhistsoc.org · yesterdayThank you to all who attended today's meeting on the 'Crisis in UK HE: the Future for History'. Very valuable proposals in difficult times for history in HE / UK HE more widely. We've also a new guide bit.ly/4z1fAjO listing 100+ UK #history societies & networks supporting historians #Skystorians
Excited to see my forthcoming book (PhD dissertation) on @routledgebooks.bsky.social: Silver, Spices, and the Slave Trade. The Coymans Family and Dutch Entrepreneurship in the Spanish Americas (1580-1700). It will be published in December 2026. www.routledge.com/Silver-Spice...
Silver, Spices, and the Slave Trade: The Coymans Family and Dutch Entrepreneurship in the Spanish Americas (1580-1700)
Silver, Spices, and the Slave Trade: The Coymans Family and Dutch Entrepreneurship in the Spanish Americas (1580-1700) explains how Amsterdam entrepreneurs, specifically the Coymans family, built prof...
routledge.com
Jordan is convening an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from Arab and Islamic world over what it says is an “imminent” threat of an Israeli takeover of the most important Muslim site in Jerusalem, with the potential to “trigger a religious conflict”. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
Jerusalem’s most important Muslim religious site facing ‘imminent’ threat of Israeli takeover, says Jordan
Country convenes emergency meeting of ministers from Arab and Islamic world, fearing such a move could ‘trigger a religious conflict’
theguardian.com
3/4 Vocational education then became framed as the route for pupils who had not succeeded academically, rather than a demanding route chosen positively by pupils with different strengths, interests and ambitions. ⬇️
Richard Tice investigated by parliamentary standards watchdog
Richard Tice investigated by parliamentary standards watchdog
Tice says the complaint related to a debate on Israeli influence and whether he should have referenced his register of interests.
bbc.com
Taking photos to send to the grandkids. A picture is worth a thousand words as they say. Tricky to recognise snippets of #Orkney coastline from the air. Been checking maps. We flew in over Skaill Farm. Skaill - the name for a feasting hall. Must be the remains of one there. Somewhere. #ale #beer
merryn@merryn02.bsky.social · 2d agoFlew into Orkney yesterday. Took some photos. This one is over Skaill Farm, Deerness. Those long narrow fields echo a #Viking field system where they grew the barley that they malted, mashed and lautered to make #ale for the feasts. Exciting to me cos I'm a brewing archaeologist and historian. 🍺 😃
Stephen Cox@etzsmc.bsky.social · 2d agoNew (free) TMUA resource. Three pairs of mini-TMUA exams (8 questions each) on themes (Logic & Proof; Geometry & Graphs; Algebra). Do one of the pair, think about the answers (provided), then do the second of the pair with more confidence. www.tes.com/teaching-res... 70 days and counting...
The real thing going on that causes me alarm is the BBC reporting. The history of the NHS shows that dependence on expertise from around the world is not new. This racism is not new either but BBC reporting may have contributed to a resurgence by pandering to Reform.
Jonathan Portes@jdportes.bsky.social · yesterday"There's a real thing going on in the composition of the staff...does that not have to be looked at as well?" Nick Robinson, on Today, discussing this news.sky.com/story/nhs-st...
'The NHS could not function without the skill, dedication and compassion of healthcare workers from across the world' www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
NHS radiographers report rise in overt racist abuse by patients
Survey reveals medics were called ‘monkeys’ and ‘dirty foreigners’, and patients refused to be seen by black or Asian staff
theguardian.com
I found a nice niche of scholars, artists, and thoughtful people here from whom I have learned a lot. I hope this isn't about to end for me and many others.
The Verge@theverge.com · 2d agoBluesky's new CEO Toni Schneider on the platform's reputation for being a liberal bubble: "Yes, we definitely want that to change. It is already changing. It certainly wasn’t designed to attract one specific group of people."
Historical Association@histassoc.bsky.social · 2d agoIntroducing our new short course: The World of the Normans! This course offers a fresh perspective on one of the most influential periods in European history. Bringing together leading UK-based scholars to explore the wider Norman world. historical-association.cademy.io/ha-short-cou...
Very obliging of #r4today to lead with Reform’s ‘plan’ to stop the boats using the Royal Navy, pretending it’ll be some great WWII-style escapade, rather than a hateful, costly, diplomatically incontinent mess. A total waste of everyone’s time as they’ll never be in power and it’s unworkable anyway.
The media should not be pandering to the people who demand that the UK military massacre people in the Channel.
Fascinating change in BBC news bulletins about Reform. Farage announcement on small boats only gets the third spot and is balanced by critics saying he's trying to distract from allegations over his finances. Quite the change from the uncritical coverage earlier this year.
I agree! And I also think the idea of electoral fragmentation as a long term phenomenon is somewhat overdone.
George Eaton@georgeeaton.bsky.social · 2d agoIt’s long been clear that Reform is beatable – Farage’s terrible personal ratings, toxic brand, mass tactical voting against them. The narrative that victory for them is inevitable was based on superficial analysis + wishful thinking on the right.
An Article describing the way one education consultancy firm, Nous, is directly connected to the dismantling of multiple universities from Australia to Canada (and now UK). The Uniforum software they use for benchmarking was used @exeter.ac.uk Some gems quoted below: renthomas.ca/theres-a-nou... 1/4
There’s a Nous in Dal’s house – Ren Thomas
renthomas.ca
Here's some good news from Texas, where the state court of appeals found that the First Amendment protected a Texas history professor in writing about a conflict within the state's premier historical association, and that the AHA was protected in publishing it. 🗃️
They don't build library systems like this anymore: inside the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris in 1938, a librarian stands next to a pneumatic tube, holding a reader's call slip requesting access to printed materials (Jacques Boyer/Roger-Viollet) 🗃️
