I wrote a tiny essay about language learning lacunae moderndaybartleby.wordpress.com/2026/06/27/g...

Did you know we have a real sixth sense? Proprioception is the word, another one from the dusty old Wordfoolery Archives - December 2016 this time - wordfoolery.wordpress.com/2016/12/06/p... #etymology

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Somehow I missed this incredible Weird Al Yankovic song that's entirely in palindromes when it came out, so in case that's also you, please enjoy it now

Take note (and a crucifix)...

Those who vilified @carolecadwalla.bsky.social over her revelations about Cambridge Analytica, Vote Leave overspending, and Leave EU’s Russian gold and diamond discussions, at least declared their joint project a few years later - the Brexit Battalion Media Corps bylinetimes.com/2026/06/23/w...

I keep seeing versions of this argument. Yet I am still waiting for it to be taken seriously by those institutions responsible for maintaining the humanities.

Relatedly: I’m on a self-directed journey to learn more about the history of Chinese bookmaking and in particular, and the literati tradition. Any and all leads welcome!

Au delà de la nature de X et de Musk, il faudrait un jour réaliser que l'audience sur ce réseau social, même quand c'était Twitter n'a jamais été très importante. L'engagement non plus. Un site propre ou un blog personnel et un taf de qualité ont plus d'impact qu'un compte a 100k à mon avis

Coming up this Tuesday! If you're interested in volunteering on our social media, website and email channels, join us for our Digital Volunteer Meetup on 21st July, at 7pm.

We will prevail (son Eddie’s clip)…

On time for brunch…

The weekend starts here…

I’ll be force feeding my piece down your throats bit by bit for the next few days. This is about why loss of research capability in universities isn’t just a linear bit of market forces but a messy process of universities sometimes doing panicky short term cuts

English Trends now contains 90+ billion words and grows by over 100 million words each week. Follow current English usage in the largest English monitor corpus. Free trial available. #CorpusLinguistics #bigdata www.sketchengine.eu/english-tren...

Phrase of the day-so far...https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026/jul/17/adversarial-clothing-are-garments-designed-to-confuse-facial-recognition-systems-about-to-go-mainstream

Weaponised words

I am so stupid, must be the heat: makingsciencepublic.com/2025/05/09/w...

There's an idea for a good language investigation in this report. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Today 🤩

My work on Labour‘s representations of the NHS and nationhood is going to be a short-form book with Routledge Focus. Delighted! I guess I better crack on with it.

AUTUMN COURSES NOW AVAILABLE! Visit our website to browse our full range of courses for the autumn term and book your places in advance!

700+ participants. Since 2001. Join Lexicom 2026 in Palermo 🇮🇹 (14–18 Sept) for hands-on training in digital #lexicography, #corpuslinguistics, dictionary building, and lexical computing. 🔗 lexicom.courses/lexicom-2026...

Lecturer (Below the Bar) in English Literature 1700 - 1830 School of English & Digital Humanities University College Cork www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSD801/l...

Chain for Wolf Fenris. "This nerve or string" was made of six things, viz. of the noise made by "cats feet; of a woman's beard; of the roots of mountains; of the nerves of bears; of the breath of fishes; and the spittle of birds, &c." (with much more.) OLD NORSE: Fenrir / Fenrisúlfr

Sobering to see in one chart how June temperature records have been broken this year in so many European countries www.ft.com/content/5f06...

@imcmillan.bsky.social Morning, Ian. Thank you so much for your wonderful endorsement. It has pride of place. 😁 oneworld-publications.com/work/the-met...

It's conference season, so I wanted to share the AI refusal statement I put at the end of my presentations and book talks. Feel free to use it!

LinkedIn is wild. Who's going to break the news to the conversation analysts that no-one has yet studied um conversation?

It would be wonderful if bad faith spiteful dimwits could be persuaded to stop lazy, vacuous references to an imagined ‘Establishment’

Flies, created by Martin Birch c.midC20th in the art therapy studio at Netherne hospital where he was compelled to live. The large number of his surviving cartoonish works are filled with biting wit, literary & philosophical references & critique of the psychiatric system which held power over him

A good initiative - sign up below.

The UK AI pushback: 42% of people are deliberately limiting their AI use and 70% of people think it would be difficult or impossible to avoid being exposed to AI even if they wanted to. New report from us at @kings-dfi.bsky.social : www.kcl.ac.uk/news/over-40...

35 degrees earlier today.Your good health!

Every time you buy something with a card, walk with your phone, or search for a word, that action gets translated into data. The article by Moraes & Sousa (2026) argues that translation is never neutral — it carries the values of whoever designed the system. doi.org/10.25189/267... #datajustice

I have checked what the Japanese media are saying and there seem to be competing names for the man. Some are going with ゴミ箱伯爵 (Gomibako Hakushaku - Count Trashcan) whilst others are using the katakana that you have for foreign loan-words and opting for ビンフェイス伯爵 (Binfeisu Hakushaku).

"Will there be accusations of family voting?" Meme (AI content) via John Corne

CFP: Special issue 'Critical Discourse Analysis of subversive practice in Global South artwork' Guest editor, Mark Nartey think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...

The latest buzzword from Japan 🙄 (For those who don’t speak the language, it’s pronounced nah-tsu-bah-tay, not a more intuitive English pronunciation that rhymes with, well, you know..😬)

Australia: Language access is not a privilege: Critics reject One Nation’s English-only push neoskosmos.com/en/2026/07/0... #multilingual #langsky cc @nicknasev.bsky.social

Our best-selling study guide to Jekyll and Hyde divides the text into manageable sections and includes lots of useful activities to further your students' understanding of the novel. Find out more: buff.ly/DKy4s5c

In 12th‑century England, two green‑skinned children appeared in Woolpit, speaking an unknown language. The girl said they came from sunless "St. Martin’s Land." Explore the mystery ➡️  w.wiki/8YN

Defunding history (of course), Computing? NURSING?! But “medicine” is protected? Nursing IS medicine. Who’s going to be doing the nursing seeing as they’ve restricted immigration?

Regarde les doigts!