"People should not die because of their work. They should not be vilified or ridiculed. They should never be bullied, much less subjected to a media onslaught. Full stop. None of this actually matters. It. Does. Not. Matter. The stakes are simply not this high."

Liz Lewis@lizlewisphd.bsky.social · 15h ago

I'm an anthropologist. I'm also the child of an academic who fell from grace, and I grew up with the aftermath of that exclusion animating our home. I have no animosity toward academia, but the numbers and stories don't lie. Here's what Jason Arday's death stirred in me. #altac #academicsky

My uni have just withdrawn Geography, History & Geography and Politics & Geography undergrad courses run from our Penryn campus. Terrible for Cornwall. How did the staff find out? When UCAS clearing opened at 8am 😡

What I've learned today: if you want likes and reposts, repost about stop-motion animation, not academic stuff. 😁 Totally outside of my expertise but I've always loved animation.

Fascinating piece. Stop-motion animation blending fantasy with real actors.

Animation Obsessive@ani-obsessive.bsky.social · 2w ago

Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts are amazing even now. He animated the sequence by himself for more than four months -- without computers or even an easy way to check his work. We're looking into how he did it: animationobsessive.substack.com/p/how-ray-ha...

Nauru to Naoero: What's in a name? share.google/lRzFEs5Zk2wH...

Nauru officially changes its name to Naoero

Pacific nation is latest country to signal a shift away from its colonial past with return to its traditional name

share.google

Thread from @patmcgovern.bsky.social on external examining and what is, in effect, the exploitation of goodwill- same arguments apply to undergrad externalling

Pat McGovern@patmcgovern.bsky.social · 2w ago

Liverpool John Moores University, where Jason Arday got his PhD, is currently offering £203 as a PhD examiner’s fee. Their PhD’s should have a maximum length of 80,000 words. That’s a novel of about 300 pages. Let’s assume it takes you 10 hours, between reading, checking citations and making notes.

On media narratives of wildfire and climate change, by @dougspecht.bsky.social

The Conversation UK@uk.theconversation.com · 3w ago

A wildfire can be explained by today’s barbecue, yesterday’s wind direction, a dry spring, four decades of land use change, or a century of emissions.

The socio-economic, academic and geographic implications of university course closures and redundancies www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities

Exclusive: Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year

theguardian.com

"...great powers care little for our humanity." A powerful piece on decades of military testing in the Pacific.

E-Tangata@etangata.bsky.social · last mo.

“China’s test came just days after the 80th anniversary of the first nuclear test in the Marshall Islands, when the US dropped a warhead into the lagoon of Bikini Atoll on July 1, 1946 — an event locals describe as ‘the day the sun exploded.’” — Jamie Tahana.

Trump"shows a clear understanding of the larger role that place names play in social life.He is clearly using naming as a 'technology of power,' a weapon for conferring legitimacy &public visibility on a particular ideological-political agenda" @derekgeographer.bsky.social www.rte.ie/news/analysi...

What's in a name? Florida airport renamed for Trump

Palm Beach International Airport is set to get a new name and call sign - move over PBI, here comes DJT.

rte.ie

York Walls in Bloom offering urban infrastructure for pollinators. A hot day for a Year 10 summer school field trip. 🥵

This is great news! The @britishlibrary.bsky.social EThOS (E-Theses Online Service) platform, referencing 650K PhD theses, is available again following systems restoration work.

Open Access Tracking Project@oatp.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · last mo.

EThOS records restored https://www.bl.uk/stories/news/ethos-records-restored

'Notably, a record 88.1 per cent of students who completed the NSS are positive about the quality of teaching on their course – with 93.6 per cent agreeing that teaching staff are good at explaining things.' 1/3

The NSS shows us that students still seem to like higher education

The 2026 NSS results bring evidence that most students are happy with their academic experience, and particularly appreciate the skills of their academic staff

wonkhe.com

Great to see someone identified as a geomorphologist in the news - and a female too! #geomorphology #geoscience #geography #geology www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tyrella beach: How beachgoers are turning snaps into science

Scientists hope to learn more about the impact of climate change on coasts through people's photos.

bbc.co.uk

"He’s bypassing barricades, crushing fences, lying on roads and bashing into at least one parked car." “He’s broken fences, he’s harassing people’s cars ....” There is a 1-tonne seal, named Neil, that is the deliverer of chaos and destruction to Tasmania. An excellent character.

A 1,000kg mammal is wreaking havoc in Tasmania – and Neil the seal is loved for it

The elephant seal has been crushing fences, blocking traffic and bashing into parked cars, in what experts say is play-fighting behaviour

theguardian.com

Great letter in the LRB on the managerial university and its consequences.

Football, identity and stories of migration open.substack.com/pub/gijsbert...

On 24-25 June, Two Football Matches Will Tell You Everything About Migration:

And Nobody Notices

open.substack.com

Interesting piece on the deskilling effects of AI. But this is not just about technical 'skills', it's also about judgment, i.e. expertise.

Rima I Anabtawi@rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Doctors 25% more likely to miss a diagnosis on a patient within 3 months after Ai is implemented. The results indicate Ai has an immediate negative effect on professionals skillsets vs prolonged reliance. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Football, dreams, and the power of one person who believes in you.

Michael Caley@michaelcaley.bsky.social · 2mo ago

this is just crushing a beautiful tribute www.theplayerstribune.com/yan-diomande...

At the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/

There is nothing that the rich will not try and steal from us.

You lovely people have got me up to 190 responses, so I'm going to keep going to 200! If you're an academic in UK HE who's had pastoral responsibility for students in the last 5 years under any title, please take 10 mins to share your thoughts about that work. Please do share to widen the pool.

The Role Of Interpersonal Relationships And Care In Personal Tutoring Within UK HEIS

Take this survey powered by surveymonkey.com. Create your own surveys for free.

surveymonkey.com

Here's the serious bit for anyone who'd rather skip the 4000 words of jokes

We need to "transform our conception of higher education-pivoting away from the idealization of knowledge & truth toward developing young people’s conceptual, critical, affective & practical capabilities that better equip them to nurture rather than destroy human & non-human life & the planet"

David Storey@davidstoreygeog.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"The neoliberalization and managerialization of UK universities, where we are expected to rubber stamp top-down initiatives, have led to our infantilisation...& the erosion of the universities’ academic community and intellectual life" @isrfoundation.bsky.social isrf.org/blog/dispatc...

In sampled HEIs (in a sample of unstated size [it's over 140] and % of sector), 38% are making compulsory redundancies, 79% voluntary redundancies, 31% cutting research, 44% are cutting courses. Link to the UUK report on the survey, which is open access, is below. 2/2

Two in five universities consider joining forces through 'multi academy trust' style models or mergers, new survey shows

A new Universities UK survey of more than 140 universities reveals the steps they are taking to respond to funding pressures and ensure they continue to deliver world-class education now and into the ...

universitiesuk.ac.uk

'Resources'. Continuity in the inequalities & injustices of resource extraction, connecting local to global scales.

E-Tangata@etangata.bsky.social · 3mo ago

“The curse is not just the environmental risks of mining — it’s what happens when people in need of money see the glitter of wealth in a time of extreme inequality.” — Catherine Delahunty.

A gem of a Google AI hallucination from a few weeks ago. Sounds like we have more to look fwd to. I'm increasingly using DuckDuckGo.

Sunday read: "Market" Jessica Whyte challenges the idea that markets are "natural," arguing that modern societies subordinate democracy, freedom, and collective decision-making to competitive economic systems. #Philosophy #Economics www.thephilosopher1923.org/post/the-new...

Market

Jessica Whyte’s essay explores how neoliberalism transformed the market from a tool of exchange into the dominant force shaping political and social life. Challenging the idea that markets are “natura...

thephilosopher1923.org

So geologists are...nice but disposable? 🤔 Struggling to think of any films with a geographer in. There must be some? As for geomorphologists...probably even less likely?

Science X / Phys.org@sciencex.bsky.social · 3mo ago

An analysis of 141 films since 1919 finds geologists are usually portrayed as likable characters, though nearly a third of on-screen geologists die, most often by murder or geological events. doi.org/hb3tq4

"Nature connection, belonging, and wellbeing of Black and Black-mixed heritage walkers’. Are you from a Black or Black-mixed heritage background? Please fill out the survey or pass on. If you have any questions, please email the researcher: Ceara Webster 2920900w@student.gla.ac.uk