'Disability history largely remains a missing part of the UK's story. Understanding it helps explain why contemporary debates often feel so fraught' New article by me in The Conversation theconversation.com/todays-argum...

Today’s arguments about disability benefits have been raging for 500 years

From Tudor welfare claims to modern PIP assessments, disabled people have long faced suspicion and bureaucracy.

theconversation.com

This is appalling! It should be "domestic-abuse enthusiast Rod Liddle"; hyphenation matters!

Trains Across the Sea@jnotj.bsky.social · 15h ago

Kudos to whoever updated it

Here a compilation of stupid things library consultants have said to me in solidarity with library pals at Lambeth Libraries where genius consultants has decided that a qualified head of library service post isn't really essential.

Rewatched the Prog Prom. Peter Hammill (@sofasound.bsky.social) did a fine job singing Refuge as did Vanessa Wayne with Great Gig in the Sky, but I can't help thinking that the more artistically adventurous choice would have been for them to swap

Gravel is ableist

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.

Long ago Rod Liddle once sent me a King Crimson CD, and spared me the Rolf Harris single he'd threatened to include in the package. This was before he set about his life's project to turn himself into a terrible person.

How have we had keyboard innovations like the Windows key (lol) or the Fn key, but still haven't made the Caps Lock key change the capitalization of highlighted text?? If I highlight a sentence and hit Caps Lock, it should cycle through ALL CAPS, all lower, And Title Case like come ONNNNN

#iTeachPhysics: Nice new video from Minute Physics

The Bizarre Way Strings Actually Vibrate

YouTube video by minutephysics

youtube.com

It's quite restful to watch this on the app from another room

Fee fi fo FEM I smell the prose of an LLM (posting this here because I just restrained myself from posting it on a Teams thread at work)

I have just received an invitation to a training session to be held via zoom. The invitation suggests that I "find a quiet space, away from distractions (like telephone and email!)"

Give up? They're both songs about Fellows of the @royalsociety.org! Anyone know any about other FRSs, past or present?

Matthew Wright 👨🏼‍🦼@mcmwright.bsky.social · last wk.

Tiebreaker question: what does this song have in common with the UK national anthem?

Tiebreaker question: what does this song have in common with the UK national anthem?

Paul Eric@pauleric70.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Carsie Blanton 😎💙👏😂 "Elon Musk"

The BBC Prog Prom began with orchestral arrangements of group arrangements of orchestral pieces, which was a bit uncanny valley

You are approached by three ghosts. The ghost of Bridget past shows an education minister wrecking university’s finances as part of the wider attack on immigrants. Who promised to review student finances, only to raise them instead. Who decried a ‘Hate Speech Charter’ and then implemented it.

To be fair, a Dublin taxi driver once insisted fairly forcibly that the place he'd driven me to was my home, even though it wasn't

Rodney Brooks@rodneyabrooks.bsky.social · 3w ago

Waymo is not a taxi service. It is an experiment. After driving me to my door at home many times, tonight it insisted on dropping me on another street. Customer service told me the road was blocked and that it was an easy walk home. There was no blockage, and it is one of the steepest hills in SF.

Everybody, I'd like you to meet Fifi

It's been only nine months since we had all our doorways widened, and the penny's just dropped that I can up the speed setting on my powerchair

Yes universities can change, yes they should be accountable, but our path to Sports Direct style sweating of old brands for bargain basement delivery is a sign not of rationalisation but of hollowing out. If the OfS governs HEIs like big schools, they behave like them while speaking LinkedIn-glish

Good morning @dsquareddigest.bsky.social

STAFFORD BEER - official video

YouTube video by Carsie Blanton

youtube.com

If you'd only read the word diaeresis and not heard it you might wonder how to pronounce it. If only there was a way to indicate where the second syllable starts

Matthew Wright 👨🏼‍🦼@mcmwright.bsky.social · 2w ago

Tired: Heavy metal umlaut Wired: Heavy metal diaeresis! #Koördinator #Semi\:{i}nfinite

Tired: Heavy metal umlaut Wired: Heavy metal diaeresis! #Koördinator #Semi\:{i}nfinite

OK, we've got a week's trial of Apple TV, what should I be watching?

OMG, I'd missed that Colonel Oliver North has a writer's credit for an episode of The Americans

I saw an interview with a park ranger who was asked "Why can't they build bear proof dumpsters?" His reply was perfect: "There's a considerable overlap between the smartest bears and the dumbest people."

As Margaret Thatcher famously said "A man who, beyond the age of 26, still doesn't find himself on a bus can count himself as a failure"

Dan Kaszeta FRHistS@dankaszeta.bsky.social · 2w ago

Buses, famously for the richer classes and upper orders.

Quick question for those in UKHE: does your VLE allow your students to view recorded material from modules/programmes other than the ones they're enrolled on? Also, what do you think about that, or what would you think if they were?

I hyphenate adjectival phrases, mentally tut when others don't

Black Aziz Anansi@blackazizanansi.blacksky.app · 2w ago

What's your old person trait?