Under a Binface government, anyone who doesn’t accept human-made climate change as fact will be sent back to school, from Year 1 right the way to A Levels, to see if anything goes in the second time round. #VoteBinface
Rachel Moss
@menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Associate Professor in History @uninorthampton.bsky.social, Departmental Tutor @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social. Current research interests: late medieval family, gender, literary culture; medievalism and the extreme right.
Microsoft wants to build three massive AI data centres in Leeds. It’ll drain thousands of litres of water from the River Aire and become the city's biggest carbon emitter. We can still stop the council's final sign-off, but we need more voices. Add your name: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/pr...
Stop the Microsoft AI megasite in Leeds!
Microsoft want to build three huge AI data centres at Skelton Grange. It would drain the River Aire and become the city's biggest carbon emitter. We can still stop it - add your name to the petition.
you.38degrees.org.uk
The chaos being created by Reform in local government is almost as scandalous as the issues around its funding at national level.
Reform Party UK Exposed@reformexposed.bsky.social · 17h agoReform UK Warwickshire under George Finch’s toxic leadership have haemorrhaged councillors. They have now just 17/57. He wouldn’t survive a vote of no confidence.
it’s a sad sign of the times that when I got an email saying a publication was withdrawing a recent review because of plagiarism that I almost felt nostalgia. Old school copying rather than using AI! How quaint.
Welcome to the CAMBRIAN FECAL REVOLUTION. We didn't name it the Cambrian fecal explosion for obvious reasons. I'm happy to share this paper on fecal matter and its role in Cambrian ecosystems. So if you want to read a really shitty paper (50 days free access): authors.elsevier.com/a/1nYg8cZ3X7...
I recall we had a period of time where the response of Starmer and Cooper to concerns about these groups was ‘I like flags’
Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 2d agoLeaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.
Incredible sight: Brioc, a replica high medieval leather boat, has sailed from Brittany all the way round England, Wales and now Scotland. The crew navigate, dress and cook exactly as their medieval counterparts would have⛵️ bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0n259yx7no
Bluesky is a "liberal bubble" because fascist chuds can't get traction without algorithmic assistance and because people here trained themselves to block "debate me" trybois the instant they roll up
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."
This week the befrazzlement of having two jobs works in my favour, as I get to live here all week!
I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful
Looking for BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS! Novels about Ancient Greece that are actually historical (there are lots of novels at the mo about myths, which are fun but often lighter on historical context than I'd like). Think Mary Renault but published more recently, perhaps!
Oof, my brain is a little sore from planning. I'm used to having 12 weeks to teach the WOTR so doing it in an intensive week is going to be quite different! Esp since I can't assume my students have any prior experience (summer school for lifelong learners). Hope they will enjoy the materials!
"UEFA and its 55 member associations stand as one. We unanimously and unequivocally reject FIFA’s proposal to transfer ownership interests in the World Cup and other FIFA competitions to private investors. ... And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale."
Legendgerry@gerald-t-mc-evoy.bsky.social · 6d agoOh wow. FIFA is done. www.uefa.com/news-media/n...
Putting my materials together for WOTR course next week and now updating the section on the Battle of Wakefield in light of @davidgrummitt.bsky.social and Paul Dawson's findings!
Logged in after a wk's holiday to find I got an article accepted! 🥳Subject to revisions, some of which are slightly tricky, so that's gonna be my next task of the summer - in my brief downtime from teaching my first summer school for Oxford next week! lol to everyone who thinks I have a summer off 🫠
I’m at 80% of my target fund and have been working hard to reach my work goals! If you’d like to chuck in a couple of quid to support sepsis prevention and care, click: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/...
10,000 Steps a Day in July
Help Rachel Moss raise money to support UK Sepsis Trust
justgiving.com
This is important from @zackpolanski.bsky.social: As an education academic I will be working on this push-back, informed by theorists like Friere and hooks, in alliance with a number of fantastic activists from different backgrounds. www.scenemag.co.uk/zack-polansk...
ALL MY GRADING IS DONE AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In addition to today's data on staffing in UK HE, @britishacademy.bsky.social has produced several briefings, including one on the very significant decline in early career academics, 2012-24: bit.ly/4wGBTcl History has seen a 32% decline in early career staff numbers since 2012/13 #Skystorians 1/2
It has been A Week and it’s only Wednesday - my mum’s been in hospital, I’m co-hosting a conference tomorrow, I’ve marked 18 essays and have another 17 to do by end of Friday, I’ve had 5 meetings… and this sweetpea had her primary school graduation 😍😡
Received my copy of the Ricardian today @richardiiisociety.bsky.social - some great articles in there, and also a review of John Watts’ new book by yours truly. spoiler: I enjoyed it a lot!
Just finished my Wars of the Roses marking for @lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk (though if any students are following me, you may not receive feedback immediately). Just Chivalry to do and then grading is done (yes, weeks later than colleagues in other places, but that's the nature of this work!).
Fantastic - but bleak - overview of Andy Burnham’s inheritance by @samfr.bsky.social. Astonishing to me that there are still people who think Starmer was doing a good job, as opposed to planting bombs under his own government. Astonishing to me Reeves is still trying to keep her job:
Burnham's Inheritance
Five of the biggest challenges facing the new prime minister
open.substack.com
today!
Rachel Moss@menysnoweballes.bsky.social · 3w agoWe have an in person event at the Centre for Historical Studies, @uninorthampton.bsky.social on Thursday - but as we had some overseas applicants, we're having an afternoon online session tomorrow. If you'd like to log in, let me know and I'll send you the teams link. 🗃️
We have an in person event at the Centre for Historical Studies, @uninorthampton.bsky.social on Thursday - but as we had some overseas applicants, we're having an afternoon online session tomorrow. If you'd like to log in, let me know and I'll send you the teams link. 🗃️
Amnesty International put out a major report documenting the influence of UK based anti trans gender critical organizations and their funding. Within hours, GC groups threatened defamation lawsuits and Amnesty was forced to pull it down. Proving the point they're anti rights. Anyways, here it is.
This interview with him is quite interesting, and it describes his own accommodations as a disabled academic. I feel genuinely bad for him, because it's clear that he wanted his students safe and supported, and then this happens.
Professor denounces mass AI fraud on an exam at Brown University: ‘Academic integrity is at risk’
The renowned economist Roberto Serrano has ‘overwhelming evidence’ that his students cheated. He thinks the time has come for an in-depth debate so the technology does not signal the end of higher edu...
english.elpais.com
Serrano is blind, and I wonder how much of his iniital pedagogy of offering take home midterms and exams was shaped by a need to make the classroom accessible. But either way, this story highlights how impossible universities, AI companies, and able-bodied students are making accessible classrooms..
![Beyond the numbers, many of the answers, even when correct, felt slightly off. They had a “very convoluted style,” Serrano said. When he and his grad students ran the exam questions through ChatGPT, they received similar results.
A suspicious Serrano decided that he would make the final exam in-person; he would see if students did similarly well on it. He emailed his class, telling them, “I am not declaring [the midterm] void for now. I am going to give the class a chance to prove me wrong. That is, if the distribution of the final exam is roughly similar to the distribution of the midterm, I will count the midterm. Otherwise, which is of course what I expect to happen, I will declare the midterm void and reweigh the final accordingly.”
Eighteen students suddenly dropped the course, while nine others didn’t even attend the final exam. Of those 27 students, El País noted, “22 had scored a perfect 100 in the midterm exam.”
Among those who took the test, the average score plunged—from 96 all the way down to 48.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7a4j47j42ezdr3au7pxdlzjt/bafkreiepbbxtg5snlpob33jjkw7hyb6dfmdn4gvbv3bx3cmv63i7qrz3oi)
Adolfo Neto@adolfoneto.elixiremfoco.com · 4w ago"AI cheating" arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/w...