Never gets old stumbling on this in the wild; never fails to fill me with immense gratitude and satisfaction, even a dash of pride.

Wild that Altman is being sued by his sister for repeated sexual abuse and that doesn’t come up in basically every conversation about him. I get that it’s alleged but if that shit was happening to someone else I feel like that would come up, particularly if that person had a history of lying a lot.

Holy mother of god there are actual real life people fixing a pot hole right outside our driveway. I thought I’d seen it all by now. Resisting the urge to run outside and pinch them to see if they’re real.

Kids are back to school today lets fucking GOOOOO

Feeling strangely Christmassy tonight.

Hell yes! Suck it, Orban, you fuck!

Bluebell bonanza in the woods today.

Anyone have an opinion on the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge Laptop? My work laptop is 8 years old and physically fallen apart so I think it's time for an upgrade. Just abouts to pull the trigger on buying the Book Edge (for archive research / out and about writing / streaming on commute). Any owners?

I’ve noticed a quantum leap in the number of birds of prey in the skies along the South Coast, from buzzards and kites to what I think was an actual honest to god eagle the other week. Just saw a kite hovering over a neighbouring field. Can only be a good thing, surely.

Headline vs. 22 paragraphs in apnews.com/article/gaza...

The Green Party now has over 225,000+ members. Just to note; In December 2025, the Labour Party recorded that it had less than 250,000 members. It's likely, based on the analysis graph (included) that the Green Party now have more members than the Labour Party have.

Keir Starmer is under scrutiny after an RAF spy plane was tracked flying over Lebanon at the same time Israel killed over 250 people in a barrage of air strikes 🇱🇧

I’m dying…

‘Cognitive surrender’ is the most tragic term I’ve ever heard.

With The Firearm Revolution out next week, I'm delighted to announce that you can hear me talk about it in person *and live-streamed* at the @royalarmouries.bsky.social on Wednesday 29 April. Book here for your ticket / online link. 2pm UK, 3pm CET, 9am EST.

This damn post has absolutely ruined my brain every time I hear someone mention "for the time being." Major kudos to the poster, if I ever meet you in person I will congratulate you and then punch you in the face.

Please share and/or consider applying to the Cambridge Amplifying Grant for underrepresented scholars. Applications are due next Monday, April 13. www.cambridge.org/us/universit.... This is a great opportunity!

The entire world outside Europe and North America: America’s ‘goodness’?!

We’re sans girls today so me and the little fella have packed our rucksacks, pulled our wellies on, and are off on a hike to spend the day catching minnows and (hopefully) reading and dozing in camping chairs. Rinsing every second out of this summer-like day until the sun sets. Pics to follow!

Now, today will Keir Starmer: A. Condemn Trump for threatening genocide B. Praise Trump for “his” ceasefire deal C. Lol lmao just shut up and hope we all forget, maybe Reset the labour party again maybe attack Polanski for a lark

This passage from The Leopard describing a Sicilian ball scene in 1861 goes so hard - as the kids say - at the end.

The last 24 hours have shown what many have said for a long time. Britain's role as an accomplice to Trump's America must end. We must urgently decouple from a rogue US & seek security with allies closer to home. That starts with suspension of the US bombers on British soil.

Incredible that a world leader threatens to annihilate millions of innocent people and not a single news outlet that I can see has called him a war criminal. Diabolical.

Armageddon is terrible, but our only other option was diversity trainings at work.

Every committee in Gaza has been raising the alarm about escalating hunger but no one is paying attention. Please support families. Please ACT for their lives. Not marches and petitions. Something new and bold. Hit “weekly” on spare change to help six families eat: linktr.ee/hopegivingci...

Keir Starmer: "We are not involved." Meanwhile US bombers are taking off from British soil loaded with bombs for genocide in Iran. Stop gaslighting us. Kick US troops off British soil NOW.

This is the scene on the White Bridge in Ahvaz, Iran A human chain of adults and children spanning the bridge. Never seen anything like it. (🎥 Ariel Oseran)

No matter how you feel about bullshit, it’s use is growing more widespread and it’s important that educators understand how they could integrate it as a tool in their classrooms.

Today the two-child limit is gone. Parents have told us what this will mean for their kids: - A first-ever birthday party for a 10-year-old - Better quality food - Clothes that aren't completely worn out - Going on the school trip without getting into debt - A new mattress - Swimming lessons

Good morning from the deep boughs of the New Forest.

From someone on the Eurostar.

A glorious Easter Sunday morning.

Few places beat the New Forest (William II might disagree if he were still alive).

In 1693 a slave trader observed that to a person from West Africa, the word ‘Barbados’ invoked a ‘more dreadful apprehension than we have of Hell’.

We’re on holiday but I can sniff out a second hand book shop from ten miles away as the Nazgûl flies. Today’s haul.

My book is Online! 🥳🥳🥳 Race, Culture, and Politics in German Historical Thought, 1785–1815 represents the culmination of ten years' work. In it, I try to peel back our assumptions about how historiography worked in the German Enlightenment, situating it between the... academic.oup.com/book/62547

The UK spends significantly less than the OECD average on education. Education must be based on what's best for young people, not what schools can afford. Well said, Zack Polanski.

ICYMI earlier, I've written for the @financialtimes.com today about the boring, empty and unsuccessful 'strategies' being imposed on all our universities. If we go on like this, sooner or later we'll have 'reorganised' them all out of existence. www.ft.com/content/5032...

Henry pulled my manuscript out of the suitcase (yes I brought it on holiday with me!!) and is reading the first page. Bless him. Getting big Reviewer number 2 vibes, though.

Got to the holiday cottage and cracked open this bad boy. Reading the fascinating foreword and I’m thinking of using this in all my letters to my editors from now on.

How are you spending your Friday night? I'm looking through pictures of a recent archival trip and studying inventories of plantations on Barbados. Here's the names of 8 white indentured servants, 60 black enslaved men, 64 women, and 33 children (!!!) of the Byde Mill plantation in 1675.

I love this Victorian watercolour sketch c1860 of a man charting his illness in the West Indies.

DON'T GET IN MY WAY!!!

hmm

*You* didn’t write a novel then, did you, Stephen? You absolute bell end.

Writing for a non specialist audience is really fucking hard as an academic. To me the technicalities of indentured servitude are fascinating, but it’s doubtful the general reader gives a toss beyond ‘their life was shit for 5 years’. But my academic brain wants to give 10 examples from the sources.

Some die burning in agony, others peacefully in their sleep on tropical tax havens. It’s all the same, innit?

I spend a lot of time on here bemoaning the widespread use of AI, but my outrage does tend to overshadow that actually a lot of my students do not use it and are very vocal about wanting to throw themselves off a cliff rather than engage with that slop, and it shows in their authentic writing.