And I think that's what the forced imposition of gen-AI onto students, educators, and learned institutions is: a kind of violence that is assaulting the independent critical mind of the learner.

"Under the agreement the institutions would merge by the end of summer 2027, and be known as King’s College London"

“We repeatedly heard stories about staff giving overly complicated explanations” Well, perhaps the explanations are complicated. Did you not realise you were studying at a university?

Benjamin Netanyahu says he made secret trip to UAE at height of Iran war #GI4059 #MiddleEast

Such a coincidence that so many Reform politicians are fixated with Hitler and fascism

"I'm like an ocean wave that's bumped on the shore"

This is lovely. I Won't Dance performed by Lucille Bremer and Van Johnson, for me the highlight of Till The Clouds Roll By (1946), a star-studded but pretty lacklustre recounting of the life and music of Jerome Kern

Pondering what Trump would make of either Rayner or Streeting. If the latter, he’ll probably try to order a cheeseburger, fries and coke from him, while wondering where his little paper hat has blown

Congratulations to my wonderful colleague @danceswithcloud.bsky.social. Very well deserved!

And it would quite spectacularly get up the nose of that gigantic orange moron across the pond

At this point the UK would probably be a happier place if it was run by an imperial proconsul appointed by the EU Commission

It’s gotta be worth sticking a quid on John Bercow 🤣

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

“What happened?” Your bullshit about the benefits of bullshit machines got called out, that’s what happened

Amen

The calculation was done by Gemini, no doubt

“Let me be clear: this is not a golden calf” is pretty funny.

‘The odds are not in our favour’: who sets the Doomsday Clock – and what can they tell us about the future of humanity?

When have either of them been interested in screwing well?

Zelenskyy: “I hereby decree: to permit the holding of a parade in the city of Moscow (Russian Federation) on May 9, 2026”

Oh great. Woking’s useless former MP has been elected to West Surrey Council. Worplesdon: what were you thinking?

I’m looking forward to Trump bitching about MBS like he did Starmer, but I won’t hold my breath

Russia’s top secret spy school teaching hacking and election meddling #GI7037 #GI5051 #espionage

Hahaha! When I was Dean for a few years (pre COVID) I carried on teaching and did about half a normal teaching load, mostly because no one could bother me when I was in the classroom.

What a marvellous and quintessentially French story

But I thought American diplomats were now supposed to hold and espouse the values of the president

Protests at the Russian and Israeli pavilions at the Venice Biennale Apparently the president of the festival is named Buttafuoco - or is that what Putin did to him?

Oh FFS! Can we just agree there are some areas of life into which bullshit machines should not be introduced? You'd think conflict resolution would be one of them www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/mediat...

For miles from Byfleet, the Wey is densely lined with trees, but just after Ripley Weir it opens out so you can catch glimpses of the ruins of Newark Priory

Students have to record a podcast for one of my assignments. Material is often really good and gets high marks. But they fall down quite often on the basics (don't make it sound like you are recording in a downstairs cupboard whilst being held hostage, don't read at 95mph). Life lessons in here.

A "dome", the term "protective ring" having already been discredited

But that's fine, say universities. Let's go ahead with building the use of generative AI into our curricula and assessments

Live your life in a way that makes it possible to locate 12 people who don't hate you.

‘Total peace’ or ‘all-out war’? Colombian voters face stark choice as rebel attacks surge #GI4059 #LatinAmerica

It appears King Charles was far too subtle for this dunderhead

The diplomacy at play behind the King's speeches #GI5052 #GI7037 #statevisit

“Give us a ring”: Charles gives Trump a submarine bell #GI5052 #GI5051 #GI7037

I fear they don’t think about us as much as we fret about them

Iran's #ambassador to UK summoned over 'unacceptable' and 'inflammatory' social media remarks #GI5051 #GI7037 #embassy

And what’s the point of that, apart from showing that bullshit machines often pump out utter bullshit? It sounds like academic departments have been scrambling around trying to find AI applications in their disciplines in response to directives from the centre

Reagan actually got shot at the same hotel and never asked for a ballroom

How about drinking WHILE voting in parliament?

Russia's 'regime survival packages' for African regimes don't look so hot #GI4059 #africa

BBC correspondent Gary O'Donoghue reports that Director of FBI Kash Patel was on the floor at the White House correspondents’ dinner, lying on top of his girlfriend (at 13 mins). He doesn’t say if he was already in that position before the shooting began

In our #GI7100 Public and Diaspora Diplomacy class on the UK, we discussed the continuing GREAT campaign, which none of the students were familiar with. I took this photo on Woking train station in March 2025. Probably time to lay it to rest

Well, it is Friday evening Wordle 1,770 3/6 ⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛ ⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩