Saturn's tiny icy moon Mimas hangs in space against a backdrop of the giant planet itself. The rings cross the bottom of the view, and cast their shadows onto the planet beyond. NASA Photojournal PIA06142, taken by the Cassini spacecraft on 7 November 2004 some 3.7 million km from Saturn.

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Which fictional character would you spend Christmas with? Tag 3 friends. Me: Richleau, obviously. Tall, well-read, self-possessed, and would take me to a damned good party.

The truth - out loud. open.substack.com/pub/davekeat...

New year, new job? Join us at the Department of Sociology & Nuffield College. The post is open to candidates from different areas of empirical specialisation and at different levels of experience. Please consider applying! closes Jan 5th. www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/event/associ...

"In what was the golden age of joyful disillusionment, we carried out the critique of all illusions -- the metaphysical, the religious and the ideological." - The Perfect Crime

🚨🚨This is worse than we could have imagined: Full version of #Trump's national #securitystrategy reportedly calls for “pulling Poland away from #EU”. 🧵 notesfrompoland.com/2025/12/10/f...

It has become received wisdom in Brussels and Washington that there is a new “euro-sclerosis”: that the EU economy is lagging the US This view is wrong A little primer on the measurement of productivity – and why reports of the economic death of Europe are greatly exaggerated🧵

Dragging terminally ill people from their death beds to appear in court to plead their case is objectively cruel. Should peers cause the #AssistedDyingBill to fail, it would be unimaginably devastating for terminally ill people and their families. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

🇺🇸🥔 US lifts sanctions on Belaruskali plant, - Trump envoy says 📍Belaruskali is a large Belarusian state-owned enterprise, one of the world's largest producers and exporters of potash fertilizers. 📍Exports products to over 130 countries through its trading company.

The very same commentators that spent years condemning anti-semitism in UK politics as a major national scandal, have suddenly lost interest now that it implicates one of their own www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-farage...

Donald #Trump wants a Europe in chaos - a sure sign for Britain to shore up its democracy by Polly Toynbee With the US threatening to support 'patriotic' parties here, we need better defences, starting with tough new rules about political donations www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Trump hints at walking away from Ukraine and calls Europe ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’

Bombs on train tracks. Arson attacks on malls. Poisoned water supplies. These are just some of the recently foiled plots in Russia’s growing campaign of aggression across Europe. What was once a mere nuisance has escalated into a serious threat. An #FTEdit 🧵 on the new era of Russian sabotage 👇

BREAKING: Bernie Sanders just now:

Tomorrow we make our final Visit of 2025: to historians @lshtm.bsky.social and @ioe.bsky.social. Our focus is on working as a historian outside 'traditional' history departments - something that's increasingly common. The RHS welcomes historians to join us, wherever they work bit.ly/3KBcnTy 1/2

⚡⚡The Kremlin flexes with parades, nukes, and TV rage, yet inside Putin’s system is brittle, paranoid, and bleeding people, cash, and power. 👉The louder the propaganda, the more his own elites smell collapse. jasonjaysmart.substack.com/p/fire-in-th...

The United States new National Security Strategy has declared Europe the enemy, it is now official US policy to weaken and destroy the European Union in order to subjugate the continent under Russia.

"The math is brutal and the juxtaposition stark: millions for OpenAI while pink slips go out to longtime lecturers. The CSU isn’t investing in education—it’s outsourcing it, paying premium prices for a chatbot many students were already using for free." www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

2/Here the Under Secretary of State is pretty clear, "The nations of Europe cannot look to the US for their own security at the same time they affirmatively undermine the security of the US itself through the (unelected, undemocratic, and unrepresentative) EU". www.politico.eu/article/top-...

Decline in Christians is not because of a decline in White Britons. 2021 Census data shows that it is actually non-White Brits propping up church attendance. Data show most regions, where White Britons have a majority, have seen a steep decline in congregation numbers. apple.news/AbnI4cYZ5SL-...

This Spanish City has been car-free for more than 20 years. Air pollution is down by 61%, no traffic deaths since 2009: buff.ly/2D3Ghwd We have so many solutions. Implement them. #ActOnClimate #climate #energy #renewables #carfree #phaseoutfossilfuels

Face à l’IA générative, l’objection de conscience : l'Atécopol lance un manifeste pour l’enseignement supérieur et l’éducation nationale Plus d'infos (texte, lien pour signature, etc. ) ici : atecopol.hypotheses.org/13082

More than 1000 French academics from universities countrywide have signed a manifesto declaring their conscientious objection to the deployment of degenerative AI in their institutions. #ResistAI ✊🏽

Universities: investing millions so students ”develop literacy in the language of AI” Also universities: defunding the humanities so students are illiterate in ordinary languages

If you missed the four tenure track positions' deadline (today) in my department, there's another position in Geography @ucalgary.bsky.social as Assistant Professor in Climate Change and the Critical Zone. Come be my office neighbour! careers.ucalgary.ca/jobs/1710469... 🧪⚒️

Bannon Comes Clean and Reveals His Alliance with Putin’s Fake Holy Russia The cat is out of the bag. Now Bannon’s proximity to Epstein and his plans for European subversion are exposed, he doubles down on his support for Putin and Dugin open.substack.com/pub/pdjukes/...

This is beyond sick. It should be outlawed and anyone found operating and using it should be forcibly sent to the front in Ukraine or elsewhere to find out what deadly conflict really means. 🤬

"The Growth of Christianity in China May Have Come to an End" by @yunpingtong.bsky.social & me is the most read article on @sociusjournal.bsky.social over the last 6 months. We're grateful our research has connected with readers! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Tom Burgis does a deep dive into the Trump family's global moneymaking campaign. The White House says there's no conflict of interest. But from Serbia to Vietnam to crypto it's being called "pay to play" on a vast scale.

An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.

Pointed out by my friend @carloshasanax.bsky.social . There's something weird and unsettling about a fairly homogeneous culture spread out across Europe that then collapses into an orgy of genocide. www.science.org/content/arti...

Witkoff is the enemy, as surely as Putin is the enemy.

More powerful evidence of the disaster of #Brexit from @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social. If we’re to avoid yet more austerity, we need to start by rejoining the customs union & single market. Brexit was a reckless waste of money we simply can’t afford @europeanmovement.co.uk

Happy weekend everyone

Former Finnish PM Sanna Marin put it bluntly: “To end the conflict, Russia must leave Ukrainian territory.” Just one point. Nothing more to discuss.

🚨🚨This is no "peace" plan, it is a recipe for further suffering and #Russian imperialist expansion in the #west. It is difficult to appreciate just how much damage the #trump administration has done to #Ukraine and its war efforts. It is disgusting beyond words. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Trump suggests Khashoggi had it coming: "You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don't have to embarrass our guest."

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

Pour un modèle spatial européen au service du bien commun Par Marina Mesure, députée La Gauche (GUE-NGL) au Parlement européen. ➡️ https://l.humanite.fr/esd

Liz Truss on Fox News supporting Trump suing the BBC "There are lots of people in Britain who are cheering President Trump on and want him to sue the BBC" "And I believe the organisation needs to be defunded"

Zeteo has made a searchable database of all new 26,000 files related to Jeffrey Epstein. Despite Trump saying this is a scam with "all arrows pointing to the Democrats," these have a whole lot of Trump in there. In fact, he's mentioned in these more than anyone else. Take a look for yourself:

🔉What dangers does X pose to our democracy? And should the government stop using it? Good to hear yesterday from @sundersays.bsky.social and @petergeoghegan.bsky.social on the immense risk of X as it ignores legal obligations and its owner tries to influence UK politics. @commonswec.parliament.uk

Here’s a gift link (no paywall) to the article, “Catholic bishops condemn ‘indiscriminate mass deportation’ in rare statement”: wapo.st/448fDw6

Job opportunity! There's still time to apply for a Research Associate position on the project “Money, History, and Moral Economies: Communicative Functions of Monetary Information in the Institutional Historiography of the Later Middle Ages (1250–1530)” funded by the German Research Foundation! 1/2

This isn't a case of whataboutery -- there's little real equivalence here. But what is at stake in the core deliberative concept of an informed citizenry -- with all that that entails for democratic legitimacy.

‼️The Pro-Trump Bias of the 'Neutral' Sources in the Leaked BBC 'Prescott Dossier' @nafeez.bsky.social’s analysis of key sources in the memo about the BBC’s alleged ‘progressive bias’ shows it relied on highly partisan right-wing, Trump-aligned organisations bylinetimes.com/2025/11/11/p...

Legal experts and politicians criticise process used to ban Palestine Action

I wanna invite Pope Leo to my Intro to Science and Technology Studies class

Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design. news.sky.com/story/the-x-...