Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252: Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email. Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results: - AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2% - ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1% - ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%

Saving this for next time I see gammon whinging about casting choices in early medieval film & TV. Two seventh-century people found with west African ancestry – a story of diversity and integration in early Anglo-Saxon society theconversation.com/two-seventh-...

Woooooooo, landslide victory for Zack in the Green Party leadership elections! That's a huge blow for the boring centrists who don't believe that radical policies can get support.

I am proofing an upcoming chapter I wrote, sitting here thinking, I am so clever, which is a pretty nice feeling; way better than thinking I am useless or broken, which, you know, are also options. Here is a relevant passage that I love, but OMG ALL this stuff is so damn good, I am very clever:

How you sound when you say "there's no point in my caring about my personal CO2 emissions because Jeff Bezos is worse"-- "look we already know there's microplastics in the swimming pool so it won't make any real difference if I take a dump in it"

Videogames are capable of telling just as complex and emotionally engaging stories as any other medium -- more so, in some ways -- but not if studios think that consumers only want slop. www.pcgamer.com/games/we-can...

tldr: do continue to keep your climate apocalypse cupboard topped up with canned beans and such iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

Thanks to a bit of advice from @sturrock.bsky.social , I've been able to strip the fantasy world map back to the basics and repopulate it digitally. Photoshop isn't particularly intuitive to use, but once I got the original scan cleaned up, Paint does the job nicely. #booksky #book #fantasy #sf&f

Finally finished watching Andor! No big spoilers below I think. 1) Rogue One is now MUCH better. It was always pretty decent but also always flawed, and Andor S1-2 fixes most of the flaws. (a Jyn prequel exploring her connection with Saw could fix the rest -- I believe there's a novel out already)

Animex Symposium on Game Cultures and Net Zero Games allow us to play with imaginary futures and situations. For example, humanity's own future, as the Anthropocene era comes to a dangerous close and we begin to consider the post-Anthropocene. CFP and more at: www.tees.ac.uk/minisites/an...

I got permission to share this, and I'm extremely grateful for that. The Onion got this letter from one of our subscribers in Alaska. She works with dementia patients and decided to leave a copy in the car for each one. This email made my year. Read it and you'll see what I mean. People are good.

"kids these days have too many genders and air-source heat pumps" -- the Right, probably atmos.earth/fossil-fuel-...

The river is a god, and they killed her. All Will Rise, our game about dragging the wealthy to court for destroying our future, now has a gorgeous trailer, please spread it far and wide: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXQa...

Men are extremely keen to explain to me that Britain *needs* a domestic steel production plant and doesn't necessarily *need* universities. Okay. Steel contributed about £1.7bn to the UK economy in 2024. Universities contributed more than £200bn.

Original source unknown

Firing people for AI: not going so well pivot-to-ai.com/2025/05/26/f... - text www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7M8... - video

If you have money to spare, please give it to people in Gaza who are in urgent need. If you have money left over after that, back our Kickstarter (which is almost at its goal!).

Academic freedom in the United States has found itself periodically under siege, but the current attacks from the federal government raise a new level of alarm. nyer.cm/u405qvQ

Kind of enjoying "Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram", Iain Banks's only nonfiction book. It helps that it's not really about whisky. I mean I like whisky and it's good to hear his thoughts: he rates Macallan & Highland Park very highly, but is too enthusiastic about Laphroaig for my taste.

Really interesting stuff... fits well with my current exercise philosophy of aiming for 2-3 short exercise sessions a day (10 min yoga first thing, 10 min kettlebell workout or axe throwing later, etc.). Might start adding some hangs though. www.youtube.com/watch?v=73D6...

Acceptable! No official results released yet so no clue how I did in my age group, but, wasn't last, at least.

My story, "Do You Love the Color of the Sky?" (which I think is the best thing I've ever written) is up to read FOR FREE on Trollbreath Magazine. So if you like dodos and hate colonialism check it out. magazine.trollbreath.com/do-you-love-...

#bdigra2025 Lightning talks to start, mostly on queer and eco perspectives on gaming. I wonder when it will be too late to even consider whether we can persuade the games industry to care about its emissions, though, and when it'll be time to adapt games to the ongoing climate apocalypse. DnD sesh?

I am really frustrated that the press is discussing the destruction of USAID as something that has happened rather than an illegal action that will likely be undone in two weeks when courts tell the world that it was illegal.

A "break" from gardening and decorating Jill's old house today so that we can do day job work. Jill has a proper job so, proper work setup, even away from her home office. I'm also proper, maybe even more so: the 2nd pic looks the same as my home "office" except I have a mouse there for Minecraft

Have just done a bulk buy chocolate restock from this company, consisting of Ombar chocolate which gets a high ratings from Ethical Consumer. £10 off via this link plus JULY25 gets you 25% off orders over £120, just about bringing cost down to supermarket fancy choc costs. www.healf.com/DXNGL1296