Ric Crossman
@riccrossman.bsky.social
Statistician. Educator. Union man. Occasional pop culture critic for ATB Publishing (and himself). Just wants everyone to be happy, a fact that has made a number of people EXTREMELY angry. He/him/Comrade.
Indeed, especially considering South was the newest college of the university. A fair few people, quite rightfully worried about how entrenched in ‘tradition’ some of the older colleges might be, picked South for a breath of modernity in an otherwise very historic university, but not so 😭
The only time I even remotely intersected with Rod Liddle is when I was part of the efforts to show solidarity to black and trans students at Durham, after he (entirely predictably) insulted them during a speech he was unaccountably invited to give after a college Christmas Party.
Statement from Durham UCU in response to the events at the South College Christmas formal held on 3 December 2021 and their aftermath: – Durham UCU
durhamucu.org.uk
Excellent thread, starting in sci-fi, ending in how not to talk about the consequences of the UKs response to COVID.
Nick Harkaway@nickharkaway.com · 3d agoSelective time travel is one of the most interesting aspects of SF narratives around time. A lot of shows will talk about “fixed points” in time, essentially to prevent the characters from strategically or logistically deploying time travel to dismantle the crisis the story is about.
Evening re-up.
Ric Crossman@riccrossman.bsky.social · 4d agoNew month new post! A long look at life at #StarfleetAcademy, taking in both in-franchise history, and how real-world higher education has functioned past and present. Burning questions tackled include: why does a world with transporters insist on roommates, and why choose a lapling as a mascot?
New month new post! A long look at life at #StarfleetAcademy, taking in both in-franchise history, and how real-world higher education has functioned past and present. Burning questions tackled include: why does a world with transporters insist on roommates, and why choose a lapling as a mascot?
12.1.3 The Oxbridge Academical Companion To Starfleet Academy, Chapter 3 (Academy Life)
It is difficult to examine Starfleet Academy without thinking about the future.
idfc.co.uk
My review of #SNW Episode 4.2: "The Griffin Incident" is up now. Spoilers ahoy as standard.
Strange New Worlds Review: The Griffin Incident
We return once more to the Scary Place.
idfc.co.uk
My review of the #StrangeNewWorlds Season 4 premiere "Valles Marineris" is up now. Spoilers from jump, people.
Strange New Worlds Review: Valles Marineris
I guess we got one more Doctor Who story after all. We probably should've been more specific about the details.
idfc.co.uk
Billionaires are going to do the Let’s Make Another Robocop, How Difficult Can It Be? sequence in Robocop 2
Return of the Cmonmacques@cmonmaque.bsky.social · 2w agoA billionaire is gonna try and fail to turn themselves into a cyborg so soon and I’m very here for it
If you opt to keep Shabana Mahmood in her role as Home Secretary you are telling everybody on the left that you are not interested in actually learning from what Starner did wrong and quite like a lot of it.
Genuinely feel like I'm going insane how little rolling news is talking about the Mahmood appointment, it's a massive strategic blunder that overshadows everything else
Mahmoud walking in at all is a damning indictment of Burnham.
Alex Andreou@sturdyalex.bsky.social · 2w agoShabana Mahmood and Ed Milliband walking in together is a mgnificent piece of trolling and I hope it was deliberate.
Incredible statement from the Church in Wales on the ignominious Code of Practice: "The Church in Wales will not use equality law exemptions to exclude trans people from our worship, our sacraments, our pastoral care, or our common life." www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/news-and-...
Statement of the Bench of Bishops of the Church in Wales on the publication of the EHRC Draft Code of Practice - Church in Wales
churchinwales.org.uk
So tired & drained and overwhelmed and unable to meet the vast scale of current challenges. Blurgh
This seems, um, really, REALLY bad.
elia ayoub@ayoub.bsky.social · 3w agoJesus. 35 UK universities quietly- without debate - joined the Ministry of Defence’s “Battlefield Alliance” which seeks to “reorientate academia towards Defence and National Security” They’re destroying the social sciences and humanities while militarising the institutions
A nice day at the homestead - the book I co-wrote a chapter for has arrived. Shaping UK Higher Education in the Shadow of Racial Injustice: Decolonising Curriculum, Pedagogy and Practice (Hind Elhinnawy ed.).
Lindsey Graham spent his career delaying and eroding human rights for LGBTQ people. He co-sponsored DOMA, voted for the federal marriage amendment, against the repeal of DADT and the Respect for Marriage Act, opposed employment nondiscrimination, and compared gay marriage to polygamy. What a life.
Taniel@taniel.bsky.social · 3w agoSudden, major news tonight: Senator Lindsay Graham has passed away. www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...
Busy but rewarding day of branch discussion and planning today. Always good to be in a room with members, talking about where we've been, where we are, and where we're going.
The rest of the thread sounds worse but this is going to get any disciplinary mechanisms there are moving
Josiah Mortimer@josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 4w ago"On at least one occasion, Orr unilaterally delegated his university lecture obligations to one of his own graduate students. The student, a foreign national, was asked to deliver material which Orr had been contracted by the university to teach. The student was unpaid"
If a racist resigns in disgrace, And sparks an electoral race, And the rest step aside, Could the people decide On a man with a bin for a face?
Coverage counts, and we are pleased to see the joint statement we shared with over 40 other women’s groups is being picked up by the media: diva-magazine.com/2026/07/07/e...
Government urged to scrap trans “segregation” EHRC code: Here’s what you need to know
Trans advocates, women’s organisations and MPs have spoken up against the EHRC’s updated Code of Practice
diva-magazine.com
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/
I think the origin of the idea that the GCs were successful through dinner parties rather than being funded by fascists is also a form of astroturfing. The reality is that they have no significant popular base.
Jess O'Thomson@jessothomson.co.uk · last mo.This GC discussion tells me that people don't realise just how much time and skill goes into running a lobbying organisation, pitching endless op-eds, running a website, making socials content etc. etc. Being able to pay people to do these things full time is so useful. Before we get to legal fees.
There are broadly two types of people involved in education - those (like me) who think improving things for our students will help prompt improvements in society, and those who think we should make things harder for our students to "prepare" them for an ever-worsening future.
pickwick@pickwick.bsky.social · last mo.At risk of being branded humourless, I think it's bad to treat school merely as "training" for work, and bad for work to have such a strong culture of overtime and presenteeism that the rates of burnout are sky high
An example: Wes Streeting was heir apparent because he was *adored* by politics journalists and Conservative MPs. The latter couldn’t stop praising him to his face on TV, to the point it became an embarrassment. Where is he now? Nowhere, because it’s only journalists and Tory MPs thst liked him.
flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · last mo.The lesson here is: politics has to be an organic thing that arises from the public. If it’s ruthlessly curated and fenced off by the press, where only weird, exotic creatures they’ve hand-reared under heat lamps in a terrarium can participate, then yes: it is a comically awful slapstick disaster.
Incidentally, this highlights a general problem about people who confuse respect for the right to hold their beliefs with respect for those beliefs. Within the general bounds of politieness, I don't have to respect anyone's beliefs. I can think you are stupid and wrong.
Unofficial BBCNews (UK) Bot@bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social · last mo.Kate Forbes: I was 'slam dunk' for SNP leadership until revealing gay marriage views
