Daaaamn. “AI is the asbestos we're shovelling into the walls of our technological society. Our descendants will spend generations digging it out again, and the longer the bubble goes on without popping, the longer it will take to repair the damage." www.thenerve.news/p/cory-docto...

Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying

It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our t...

thenerve.news

💪🏻💪🏻

University and College Union (UCU)@ucu.org.uk · yesterday

Spending a reported £4.5m on new land while threatening to cut up to 100 jobs? Make it make sense. Glasgow Caledonian staff are on strike today to defend jobs. Show your support to colleagues! www.ucu.org.uk/article/1459...

Just to add, I am very *very* aware how privileged I am to be still lecturing and writing and researching under the employment of a University when many colleagues are not getting to return this academic year. Ones who thought they would be, just as much as those on openly precarious contracts. /

Dr Jen Baker@jendeavour.bsky.social · yesterday

My second unit is on Detecting and Mapping the (British) Supernatural. Top 3 texts pictured are primary along with Danny Robins' audiodrama The Witch Farm. Fnal week, we examine a range of material on ghost walks/ tourism and psycho geographies. Very excited to get back to teaching in October!

My second unit is on Detecting and Mapping the (British) Supernatural. Top 3 texts pictured are primary along with Danny Robins' audiodrama The Witch Farm. Fnal week, we examine a range of material on ghost walks/ tourism and psycho geographies. Very excited to get back to teaching in October!

Dr Jen Baker@jendeavour.bsky.social · yesterday

My first Unit in my co-taught module "Haunted Britain" is on Britain's Haunted Youth: specifically in Gothic / low fantasy works written for children/YA. Examining themes of troubled Histories; education systems; time-slips; the National Trust; & more. Top 4 are primary texts. Rest supplementary 👻

My first Unit in my co-taught module "Haunted Britain" is on Britain's Haunted Youth: specifically in Gothic / low fantasy works written for children/YA. Examining themes of troubled Histories; education systems; time-slips; the National Trust; & more. Top 4 are primary texts. Rest supplementary 👻

Enjoying getting myself organised for various shows I will be seeing over next few months 😁🍿 (starting with Sweeney Todd at Bham rep next week with @publicradionerd.bsky.social !)

i just decided to ruin my day! #nowwatching survivors: the spectre of threads (2025), a documentary about the background and making of one of the most chilling movies ever made. certainly the scariest and bleakest tv movie i've ever experienced.

I too am not a fan of any "it's 'just' a..." discourse. Am not saying it needs to heralded as some sort of religious text, but surely all art, all objects, all places, are more than "just" the sum of their parts. And if everything like it was so meaningless, then what the f**k is our job about?

Dominic Dean@drdominicdean.bsky.social · 2d ago

Lots of different takes on The Odyssey, clearly, but I really do not understand Humanities scholars saying ‘it’s just a film’ or variants thereof.

Me: Come on self, we've got so much to do. Let's get on with it. Also me:

Baymax Deflated and Tired Going Down Stairs

ALT: Baymax Deflated and Tired Going Down Stairs

static.klipy.com

This Hummingbird moth is definitely teasing me - I have only managed a few seconds of video every time, but a real pleasure to see it loving the salvia (not that I don't live seeing all the bees on it too, but this is pretty special)

Outdoor cinema with my sister at #WestonbirtArboretum paying tribute to Sam Neill. Doobie doo-bee doo, doobie doo-bee doo 🦕🦖 #lifefindsaway

If you're interested, at the moment there's also a fundraiser to open Sylvia Townsend Warner'a archive to the public. It's hosted by Dorset Archives that also host material by Thomas Hardy.

A really interesting watch - particularly the angle from which she interviews him (not as a professional film critic, but with different investments)

Greg Jenner (Historian)@gregjenner.bsky.social · 4d ago

Fantastic Nolan interview by a Chinese PhD student who asks all the best questions, and receives all the best answers about his interpretation of the Odyssey youtu.be/wa4I8Ch2TRo?...

Some surprising— and very welcome— news. With huge thanks to Sarah Lewis and @uniwalespress.bsky.social for publishing all 170 000 words of it 🙈

Completely off topic but the word "chowder" (not so frequent on my life) *always* conjures this scene (and pronunciation) for me

Say It, Frenchy. Say Chowdah!

ALT: Say It, Frenchy. Say Chowdah!

static.klipy.com

davemakes🔶@mixolumia.com · 5d ago

obsessed with the font on IKEA's clam chowder packaging. this is what's in the freezer on the Nostromo

Extremely considered, intelligent and engaging response. Captures much (and much more) of my own thoughts.

Dominic Dean@drdominicdean.bsky.social · 6d ago

I've written up some thoughts on Emily Wilson's review of The Odyssey; a little on what she got right, a lot on what I think she missed, and why it matters. dominicdean.wordpress.com/2026/07/30/o...

I have yet to read the essays McDonagh responds to but her article in Volume 141 - Issue 2 - March 2026 of PMLA is extremely interesting to those who like me, are less familiar with the evolutionary history of "Victorian Studies" and want to interrogate it more

Horrible scepticism about all things—paralyzing my mind. Shall I ever be good for anything again?—ever do anything again?

Bridget Phillipson, reflecting on her years spent standing idly by while UK higher education crumbled into the abyss and tens of thousands of university workers implored her to do something, literally anything, to save their jobs: BUT WHAT ABOUT ME THO www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

‘It hurts to lose a job you love’: Starmer loyalist Bridget Phillipson fights on despite cabinet demotion

Exclusive: The former education secretary on her new role as Labour chair and continuing as the minister for women and equalities

theguardian.com

It’s alive!

Thrilled at the invite to give a talk at London Month of the Dead 🖤 "The Cradle & the Grave" will take place on 17th October, at the atmospheric Brompton Cemetery in London. There is an absolute wealth of other activities happening up until 1st Nov too! londonmonthofthedead.com/cradlegrave....

Absolutely delighted to let you know that the Punch's Pocket Book Archive project has just been selected for a substantial grant from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (2026-2030). We would like to thank all members of the project, past and present, for their contribution to the venture.

ANR - Agence nationale de la recherche@agencerecherche.bsky.social · last wk.

📢 Appel à projets générique #AAPG 2026 : l’ANR publie la liste des projets sélectionnés pour financement (JCJC, PRME, PRC et PRCE) dans le cadre de l’ensemble des comités d’évaluation scientifique. ➡ anr.fr/fr/detail/ca...

Wildfires are tearing across the continent and here in the UK as well. This is what climate breakdown looks like. It's time our governments stopped fuelling the crisis and started tackling it.

Anyway. Back to my favourite Odyssey adaptation

That Don't Make No Sense Idiot

ALT: That Don't Make No Sense Idiot

static.klipy.com

Very exciting to see the cover! I have a chapter in this on the transnational ghost story; honoured to be amongst such excellent company 😊🖤👻

Roger Luckhurst@theprofrog.bsky.social · last wk.

This will be coming out in 2027. 79 contributors, it’s a monster!

So cool!

Johnny Mains@johnnymains.co.uk · last wk.

Donna Edwards at ME OLD CHINA has made me some amazing plates - here is Aickman, Machen and Nesbit. My ADHD will now see me collect all the dead authors, like Pokemon.

Now I am back on home turf, a huge thanks to @rs4vp.org for accepting my abstract for #RSVP2026 in Dublin for my first in-person rsvp. Everyone was extremely generous & kind, great panels, and I also got to catch up with familiar faces from other networks. Well done to all the organisers!

Any UK-based media lecturers looking for a new job, and fancy coming to work with me in Beijing? www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSI946/l...

Lecturer in Media Communications and Production (Beijing) at Nottingham Trent University

Recruiting now: Lecturer in Media Communications and Production (Beijing) on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board

jobs.ac.uk

Dublin is a 45min - 1hr 15min flight to Birmingham. But from start to finish: I left Trinity college at 6.45am to ensure get through security in time and get some breakfast. Flight was supposed to be 10.30am but we arrived in Birmingham at 1.30pm and we have been waiting for bags for about 20mins.

Princess Bride: Where Were We? Pit of Despair

ALT: Princess Bride: Where Were We? Pit of Despair

static.klipy.com

Dr Jen Baker@jendeavour.bsky.social · last wk.

Board plane, they do all the intro safety stuff, we started to move and a minute later the plane pulls over, engine turned off, and captain says there is a technical issue with computer 😳 25mins later...have to change planes.

“Oxford academic Prof George Garnett counted 93 penises in 2018 – with 88 belonging to horses and another five to men. But Dr Christopher Monk said he had counted one more on another man.” bbc.com/news/article...

Penis count debate rages over Bayeux Tapestry

A podcast has again investigated the penises on the embroidery, which has a replica in Reading.

bbc.com