This is interesting - imo the most straightforward way to compensate authors for AI training on copyright works would be the equivalent of a public lending right, but why not take it further?

My standard advice for academics who want to do more public-facing work is that if you can explain it to the disengaged second years on the compulsory module, you can explain it to pretty much anyone

Located in Caddam Wood just outside Kirriemuir in Scotland, this forest track has been identified as a Roman road. If it is, it would be the most northerly stretch of Roman road in the entire world. #RomanSiteSaturday

The Da Vinci Code, obviously.

When I moved to London 5 years ago, I did not think that I would ever wonder if it was safe to move through the city just because of the color of my skin. Today, this is the case. Yet again. Far-right agitators and thugs are roaming the streets. Empowered and emboldened by the rhetoric and politics

Impressed by all the people on here who can remember how many of the top 100 novels they’ve read. I’m looking at the list and thinking maybe… or did I just see the film… was that one we had to read for English or was it a different one by the same author?

John, Susan, Titty, Roger, Nancy and Peggy

Need a quick reply to those book club scammers, fellow authors? Look no further

Yeah, I was around back then and you learned HTML because your employer sent you on a course for it, and then once you knew it you’d be the person who set up the websites of your various social groups as required - but it was really not an ‘everyone‘ thing

So this prime minister stuff is all very interesting but if the Burnham thing works out who's going to be mayor of Greater Manchester?

Eligible for visa sponsorship per the ad

Yes, for proper British PM vibes he should start using his full name Wescester (pronounced Wester)

time to revive my idea of a central portal where everyone can post a single A4 page summarising their best research idea, funder panels browse through and invite full bids as appropriate

the UK Defence University

In The Firearm Revolution, @catherinefletcher.info explores the emergence of firearms in Renaissance Italy & beyond, describing the social transformations that accompanied the evolution of the handgun. Out now! Read a free preview here: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #History #Renaissance

A small upside of the Canvas situation is that my elementary Spanish class has now learnt the phrase ‘han pagado los hackers’.

ALAKESON: I guess we can assume a Streeting leadership challenge is coming then. STARMER: Oh please. Even I can't lose a leadership fight against transphobic Harry Potter. CUTHBERTSON: Isn't that just... Harry Potter? STARMER: I mean, yes. But the point still stands.

Labour MPs calling for an orderly transition but unfortunately their government needs to be at least 18 years old with four doctors to sign off first

This is a cyclical phenomenon in which we take turns apologising to each other for our embarrassing politics, first the Italians for Berlusconi, then the Brits for Brexit, then the Italians for Meloni etc etc

true to current government form, this is one of the most boring falls from power I have witnessed

ILGA-Europe’s @ilgaeurope.bsky.social 2026 Rainbow Map is out today. It is a stark reminder that the UK is not just standing still on LGBTI rights, we are going backwards. Explore it here: rainbowmap.ilga-europe.org [1/7]

I love this quote (improvised by Orson Welles) and confess to citing it myself but it does need to be qualified with the fact that Switzerland provided large contingents of mercenaries for a lot of those Italian wars

Sheffield Hallam management rebranding as the University of Steel City in the desperate hope of a bailout

This. I miss being able to try a variety of clothes on during an afternoon and come home with something I know both suits me and fits.

fab late #medievalsky / #earlymodern history job folks! considering what magical unicorns perm jobs in history departments are these days, i can only imagine with some trepidation how many apps this well get... 🗃️

Twenty years ago my PhD funder accepted my case for a year abroad to do archival research. Absolutely no chance that would happen now, despite the long-term benefits in terms of familiarity with multiple archives, language acquisition, etc.

Local authority evening classes

Sure I’m not the only FT reader skimming through the election coverage this morning and demanding a Posh George long read

This is absolutely bananas. Why on earth should working in the local education system disqualify you from being a councillor? Surely there are ways to manage the occasional conflict of interest.

Some weekend reading from me. First up, my regular round-up of new history and non-fiction. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/medieval-h...

Finally catching up with new season of BBCFreeThinking. Here’s an episode that means so much to me. @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social is joined in discussion of guns & weaponisation by @catherinefletcher.info @markurban.bsky.social, Tobias Ellwood, Hew Locke, Hailey Austin www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Whole bunch of annoyed London voters currently stuck on the Avanti West Coast line not going anywhere. I was meant to leave Manchester on the 1534 and I’ve only got to Macclesfield.

A side-effect of my Netflix consumption is that whenever I’m watching a film set in a particular place I try and switch it to original language with English subtitles and get extremely cross if that option doesn’t exist.

Polling station in the Manchester Piccadilly Hilton again this year, definite improvement on the crappy budget hotel we got for the 2022 elections, insert your preferred Andy Burnham insight here

I generally think that people should not be drinking at 6am before a flight but there are exceptions, like the time I got upgraded after a delayed overnight flight and was waiting in the posh lounge with the free champagne when the news came through that Thatcher had died.

With only two weeks to go before our CfP closes, we are pleased to confirm this year’s conference activity: a tour of Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), led by our very own Zara Money @zara-money.bsky.social. Remember to send us your abstracts to [email protected] by 22 May!

talking in a college seminar like: "yeah, no, I haven't done the reading" "has anybody done the reading?" ... "two of you. right, okay, let's take ten minutes so you can at least skim through the reading that you should have done"

On Friday afternoon before the Bank Holiday, colleagues in the Humanities department were called to a meeting on Tuesday. They were informed that the University Portfolio Review had decided that English Language, English Literature, Philosophy, History & Creative Writing UG degrees would close

I should get the BBC to report all my trips like this

There are two types of history: one that’s unexpectedly exciting and one that’s a lot more boring than you thought

OpenAI says ChatGPT has robust safeguards. That didn’t stop the chatbot from giving @markfollman.bsky.social extensive help as he simulated planning for a mass shooting. Don't believe us? Watch for yourself in our latest video ⬇️

Today’s reading reminds us that no matter how embarrassed you were it wasn’t this “In the case of Nicholas Conyll, his wife’s suit for an annulment because of his alleged impotency led to a physical examination carried out by a panel of nine men who scrutinised his penis on behalf of the court” BUT

we should also do this

My book is not in this sale but you can and should be paying full price for it while also saving on many other great titles

Also maybe they were friends. Maybe they had an expansive and historically complex notion of friendship, and our very narrow and marginal status for friendship is the problem.

The Business of War in the Early Modern Baltic Sea Region, 1530–1765. Open access. @smh-historians.bsky.social hup.fi/books/e/10.3...

Some more news on Venice Noir 2026 davidhewson.com/venice-noir-...

18th-century machine gun massacre

This is a fantastic resource