Sharing this lecture again today, while thinking about the ongoing crisis in feminism and care, and especially of my trans friends who are fighting for their right to exist. #feministkilljoy www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRtn...

A feminist killjoy at the AMS

YouTube video by Laurie Stras

youtube.com

The alternative to "progressive" is not "moderate" and it's bananas that that's the framing

LOL

Richard Smyth@rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · yesterday

Bede's World! Bede's World! Party time! Venerable!

A vote to confirm Todd Blanche is a vote against justice for Epstein survivors.

#LongCovid is not a ‘subject’ to dispute. It’s a health condition that changes people’s lives. Definitions can evolve & that’s not an excuse to dismiss the illness itself. Diagnostic criteria for diabetes have repeatedly changed over time but no one takes u seriously if you say diabetes in disputed!

Lewis Goodall@lewisgoodall.com · 4d ago

Long covid is a disputed subject, at best.

They were eating lobster?

The Halfway Post@halfwaypost.bsky.social · 2d ago

BREAKING: A brand new “Christian men’s gym” in Georgia that bans women so pious men can have “lust-free workouts” lasted just 6 days before three men were caught “violating Leviticus in the locker room.”

It is my hope that when I die, the world doesn't say a loud "good riddance bitch." I am trying to avoid that fate by *not* being a spectacularly awful person. However, if I do become awful, have at it. aka: Consequences.

Ben Goldacre@bengoldacre.bsky.social · 2d ago

Sad to see people posting on social media negatively about Rod Liddle, who died yesterday. If I have disagreed with you very strongly in life - and you die - I hope I'll be either silent, or kind.

The jump and run? <chef’s kiss>

Buckinghamshire Archives@bucksarchives.bsky.social · 2d ago

The Archive but it's a videogame from 1998.

Im a more or less professional discourser! I love to discourse! But the first rule of doing cool shit club is you don't talk about doing cool shit, especially online. If you find this hard just do what I do: tell yourself you're saving it for the memoir lmao

CN Lester 🏳️‍⚧️@cnlester.bsky.social · 2d ago

Should be pinned to the top of every single intercommunity argument about tactics. In particular: the people doing the kind of direct action work that other people like to fantasise about online are ABSOLUTELY not talking about it online, are you high? Doing the work > masturbatory discourse

The fact that various people are saying Liddle was nice in private speaks to a columnist disease - people having nasty and ugly views once a week for money, with little care for the social consequences. But enjoy that £1 a word!

Brilliant letter from Stuart Thompson to Jeremy Clarkson about his comments that benefit claimants should write weekly thank you letters to tax payers detailing how they spend their benefits each week.

Bad news for historians: dead people now off limits for criticism

Ben Goldacre@bengoldacre.bsky.social · 2d ago

Sad to see people posting on social media negatively about Rod Liddle, who died yesterday. If I have disagreed with you very strongly in life - and you die - I hope I'll be either silent, or kind.

I came through Canadian education. It's not perfect let me tell you, but I was still doing advanced physics and hell I could have done 'shop' class (cars, machines that cut things) in my equivalent of a-levels. Canada has a massive and successful college system (FE). Burnham's DfE should look at it.

Dr Dave Hitchcock@davehitchcock.bsky.social · 2d ago

One of the strongest ameliorations this country could use, but doesn't, is actually *less* specialisation demanded of students so early in their progression. Keeping their year 10, GSCE and AS curricula more broad allow a larger proportion of students to find a niche or subject that works for them.

I’m not buying the binary between clever and stupid, but secondary education free from 10-12 exams in a six-week period, a broad curriculum and a qualification based on credits not exam scores - like North American high school - serves young people better. 1/

Ed Cadwallader@cadwalladered.bsky.social · 2d ago

I agree with Sam that selection at 14 is a bad idea but the reason it keeps coming up is that there's a genuine problem we're not addressing with what school offers kids at the bottom of the academic distribution

This thread should be required reading for Michiganders, and will absolutely delight you no matter where you're from. Kathryn's grandmother is an all-timer.

Kathryn Tewson@kathryntewson.bsky.social · 3d ago

I have just been sent the transcript of a deposition my grandmother gave in 1977 while she was serving as an expert witness in a series of tribal rights cases and let me tell you, if nothing else this is proof that I come by it honest for every conceivable value of “it”

"They wanted permission to hate." I was listening in the car and I almost pulled over because I got a lump in my throat. I know those Americans. I'm closely related to a few of them. I've had to remove some of them from my life because their hate was more important than a lifetime of love.

Quiet Riot@quietriotpod.bsky.social · 4d ago

LIVE SHOW PART ONE Is out now. We talk all things Trump, tariffs, bridges, explosive diarrhoea, and more with Rick Wilson and Maya May. 🎧👇 open.spotify.com/episode/0Vhv...

So a whole lot of my talented Humanities colleagues are now unemployed as of today. A lot of understandable concern over Exeter. But for over two decades my Hums colleagues were in the top quartile for their research contribution to society. History top 10. Now gone with only a national whisper.

Between the 1970s and 1990s the UK state made a strategic bet to expand Higher Ed. They poured in untold billions of your money. Now it's been handed over to private creditors to burn in a furnace. Then they just laugh at you: at all the taxes you've ever paid or will ever pay. True story. (2/2)

According to the parliamentary annual report & accounts for the 2025/26 financial year, the cost of subsidising the bars in the House of Commons alone was around £5.8 million. Meanwhile, to save £3 million less than that, Jodrell Bank is being defunded and shut down. share.google/MRHIvCsCsKoc...

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

share.google

(the Roman Catholics really are missing out on this one, I gotta say. Nun Priests hit DIFFERENT.)

Going to say it once more: Academics like Wilson have entire careers independent of how many books they sell. We may not make millions, but it can be a good, meaningful and lovely job. She is not obligated to be "nice" about Nolan's adaptation, that is not how academia works.

Michael Speirs@natuphillies.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm sorry but your piece smacks of ingratitude. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer your translation has sold ONE MILLION copies, most I contend, due to the pr run-up and release of the Nolan film. You are entitled to your opinion but why bite the hand that fed you? Maybe silence would be wiser?

You know, this absolutely makes my heart sing

Royal Historical Society@royalhistsoc.org · 5d ago

"Details, in their singularity and idiosyncrasy, point to the capaciousness of human experience." New today in the Society's journal 'Transactions': Joe Moran 'On Detail in Historical Writing': bit.ly/44UMi8C Now available OA @joemoransblog.bsky.social @massobsarchive.bsky.social #Skystorians 1/2

A gardening story in three acts. The mini whacker was excellent fun. The paths are already for the gravel on Tuesday.

I’m delighted to inform you all that I have a plant called nun’s scourge volunteering in my garden. It’s a noxious weed so it will have to go. Of course.

Hey @musicologyduck.bsky.social your new home-from-home awaits.

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 3w ago

The duck who lives here must be absolutely fucking massive.

The brass neck on this when university workers are losing their jobs in droves and she and Jacqui Smith did sweet fuck all about the crisis for the two years she was in office! My god. #UKHE #UCU 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

I don’t want to be too sensationalist about this but also I’m the least violent person in the world and I think if someone said this to my face I’d hit them

Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele@drdragases.bsky.social · last wk.

No longer content with pillaging intellectual work and dismembering our environment (already critically weakened), AI companies are now hellbent on destroying books galore including rare editions. Shut down these nefarious enterprises already.

"Unison, Aslef, Usdaw, and the Musicians’ Union will not attend Labour Women’s Conference in September over the decision to ban trans women from formal proceedings at the event. The unions are among Labour’s largest financial backers..."

Powerful unions boycott Labour Women's Conference over trans ban

metro.co.uk

Digital decluttering is as important as physical decluttering, because everything digital is, in fact, physical. The cloud is data centers, WiFi originates from connected cables, each bit and byte lives on a drive or device in our material world.

Earlier this year UKRI launched a funding call to invest £40M in ONE AI lab. www.ukri.org/opportunity/... For some unknown reason they decided to fund TWO AI labs at the cost of £60M. An extra £20M. Just found. That's the equivalent of 7 more years of Jodrell Bank. www.ukri.org/news/ukri-la...

UKRI launches two AI research labs to stay ahead in global race

Two new labs will back British researchers to develop next generation artificial intelligence (AI) systems, helping secure the UK’s position as a global leader.

ukri.org

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...