Why is Hugh always floating around at the back of photos? Strange lad. Anyway, if 'likely' = better than evens, yes, interested!

Funnily enough, ‘eccentric’. It turned up in an ‘O’-level text (yes, I'm that old), and someone thought they’d lob it across the classroom at me in some pejorative manner. Aw, bless.

I see *Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade* is on, a film made in a simpler age when Nazis were generally understood to be the bad guys.

Very early memory seeing these (so early, I'm not sure it wasn't a past life).

My novel ‘The Ice Maiden’ is now available as a paperback on Amazon. 🌈🌈💗🥰 When Claire is sent to Novosibirsk to catalogue artefacts she believes that the Ice Maiden, A Bronze Age Princess whose remains were found in the Altai mountains, has compelled her to undertake an impossible task.

Definitely on the Mount Rushmore of TTRPGs.

I remember 1st edition way (waaaaaaay) back. One of us was playing a mattress. (It may have been me.)

It’s a big one! The 200th episode of #ContinuingConversations with my cohost Michael Dismuke and our special guest, John Freeman! #LLAP youtu.be/ukdG3Af4D8w?...

It should be on the editors that if they send a manuscript our for review, they have done a basic quality check that the refs exist. If not, editorial rejection, full stop.

The big question is this: Can you (will you) sue the AI company/companies which are responsible for these fabrications, which undoubtedly damage your reputation as a scholar in your field? Real accountability, I think it’s over due!

And what happens if the quotations from the fake paper you never wrote are damaging to your research or reputation? This is horrifying... #AcademicSky

I'm suspicious of those who don't aim to haunt a bookshop or a library. If the afterlife isn't the point you tackle the eternal 'to be read' pile I'm not sure we can ever call ourselves friends. If I am not allowed to read as a ghost there will be much trouble. – #DAKilroy #Books

I assume 'desperately seeking storytellers' doesn’t stretch to contacting people with storytelling degrees.

Plan: School asks for draft personal statements by Dec 15 to give feedback. School to forward UCAS form early Jan; portfolio request deadlines in Feb. However: School simply forwarded daughter’s UCAS form. Result: Colleges now requesting portfolios in Jan. Xmas now cancelled. Thank you, school.

Attended an open day 7 weeks ago. Daughter tried to apply via UCAS, but apparently they’ve cancelled the course. 7.5-hour round trip. Who thinks I should invoice them for the petrol? Who thinks I should name them?

Just spilled Dr Pepper all over my keyboard. Incredibly, this is a first. No 'Electric Dreams’-style sentience yet, but it’s worth some bump in productivity, surely?

Such a privilege and joy to see my research on the weaponization of the PhD being used by the ABC to understand the treatment of women in our doctoral programmes. It was tough - dark - research. I am so thankful it has been useful... #skyphd - www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

It hasn’t happened for a couple of decades, but if I ever attend another interview where they’re clearly going through the motions, I swear I’ll invoice them a consultancy fee plus travel expenses. Not even kidding.

Are you interested in my work... well, here you go! Come explore Gothic theologies with me :)

'Responding to the decision, Devine, 80, said: “In principle I am opposed to changing historic artefacts to suit ­today’s tastes. To do so is presentism, imposing 20th-century values on those of the distant past.' '20th-century'? Bit of an own goal Sir T.

I know how it feels.

Grand Designs is just people with unlimited money, time, and freedom saying, "Ever since I was a little heir, I've always loved featureless squares."

Heya writer types, new video up. Ready for some self-introspection? WHY do you write? The answer might help inform your decisions and your path forward. #writersky #writing youtu.be/BByAGAkZ21A

I also apparently need to say that I am literally a scholar in Romanticism, have been employed as an expert in Romanticism, have had a job as a lecturer in Romanticism, have a book written on the Romantic period and two forthcoming. I know the difference between romantic and Romantic.

The one with the Sontarans in it? Nah, I didn’t think much of it either.

'Fewer than half are even fully aware that universities conduct research.' Real indictment of universities' strategies and comms this. An own goal that could and should be rectified. Engaging broad publics with research is not rocket science. And if it were, universities have rocket scientists. 3/3

Genuinely curious as to which bits of Britain Farage and the NuKippers actually like. They seem to hate the BBC, the NHS, the England football team, all of British literature, and the arts sector more broadly.

Joke of the day from Moscow: Russia tried to unveil its first humanoid AI robot, Aidol. Key word: tried. The robot collapsed during its debut, forcing organizers to cut the presentation short. Their rushed attempt to lift the prop only made things worse.

I last heard it 16 November last year, Wimbledon, en route to @unioftheartslondon.bsky.social open day. Not only does that mean I beat #Whamageddon last year, but I'm just two days from a whole year without it. (Now I've said that, very much not going out this weekend.)

every company in 2025

If you ever see a charity desk in a hospital, stock up. They’ve always got the best stuff.

Roads to Cornwall remained pretty similar until the 1970s, as I recall.

It is 8.45pm, and the one person round here who could afford fireworks seems intent on rushing them.

"changes would “encourage students to study a greater breadth of GCSE subjects inc the arts, humanities and languages alongside English, maths and science” Okay, govt spokesperson, but can we get the same commitment to such subject diversity for universities? www.theguardian.com/education/20...

The reform party nativity scene. No unmarried mothers. No Middle Eastern people. No refugees. No people seeking emergency accommodation. And not a wise fvcking man in sight…

It’s branded with the Metro logo, but they rely on Mail Online ‘reporters’. Whole thing owned by the Mail Group.

First half of my publishing career, everything – EVERYTHING – hit the deadline. The more workflow software became a thing, the less that happened. Now, deadlines are such fantasy, everybody quotes fake ones in the hope of addressing 'real' ones. Please, Please... WHEN is it going TO PRESS?

Yes, please paint them. I keep thinking they’re chocolate. (Damn... going to the shops, now.)

This. Happening today. Expect sprites.

I'm reminded of first seeing the slogan 'Lightening the load' while following a Safeways truck. I mean, 'load'... sheer soul-crushing drudgery. Even Safeways couldn’t solve it, only partially ameliorate the Sisyphean purgatory of it all. I barely quelled the impulse to pull over and lie in a ditch.

Goodness me, some cracking archive telly recovery news.

as someone says in the comments on that piece: instead of AGI we are developing AGS - artificial general search. the search function of ChatGPT is really very good and sophisticated now! these days that's my primary use - research searching, which I *obviously then check*

I think the favourite thing I've ever seen in this genre is people asking whether Byron would be cancelled today. He was cancelled so hard in his own day that he had to leave the country and he never came back.

Look, I've read the letters of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, C. L. Moore, Hart Crane, and Ernest Hemingway. Y'all got no idea.

They should have inverted the logo.

Rob Shearman has been hugely stitched up, and anyone who knows him knows how much he loves and cares about Doctor Who. This clickbait shite shames so many.

"three years suspended between childhood and the adult world" – The Spectator. And yet... "More than half of UK students working long hours in paid jobs." – The Guardian. Maybe Spectator journos’ experience of uni was different. www.theguardian.com/education/ar...

I know, I'm very simple, but... don’t these problems have known solutions? Problem #1: Students submitting #AI -assisted essays. Solution #1: Viva-style follow-up discussions. Problem #2: Universities need more income, more capacity. Solution #2: More #DistanceLearning delivery options.

Who’s going be teaching them? English graduates, of cour— Oh, wait.