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Using my favourite pencil in the hopes that it will bring me luck. 🙂 I'm a VERY slow solver, so 'Unch' provides excellent value for money - it'll keep me scratching my head for months! (Looks great, by the way.)

"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"

Also.

One of mine for the current new look @bigissue.com . Don't be shy, get a copy from your local vendor when you see one.

I strongly urge everyone to not just read this warning from @marcwatkins.bsky.social, but heed it, and be vocal and forceful pushing back against using AI to grade student writing. This must be anathema if we're going to have a world where learning means something. substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Today is World Sight Day, and as good a time as any to remind you that if you haven't had an eye test for 2 years or more, you should book one today! 😎

Word of the Day is ‘tandsmør’, from Danish. It describes bread that is buttered so thickly you can see tooth marks in it after every bite. Its literal translation? ‘Tooth butter’.

A very entertaining episode of Off Grid! I particularly enjoyed the section about Irish curses and think I shall start adopting a couple... 🤣

We went to check out Tina's work in this quirky little shop on Saturday and can highly recommend it! 🙂

This month: taking people under your wing, having the wing recede rapidly above you, and jumping out of your seat in the dark. You might want this other cola, but I've only got albatross. It's the #trivia of #OffGridPod, of course ... offgrid.tlmb.net/2025/08/31/a...

You get out a sandwich and, as if by magic, a ravenous seagull appears. He pretended not to be interested whilst inching closer and closer, practically licking his beak in anticipation.

Enjoying the Herne Bay Cartoon Festival 2025! #HerneBayCartoonFestival #BeachCreative

Ahhh looking nostalgically back at some of my appearances at previous #HerneBayCartoonFestival S ad to say that this year I'm being replace by the prototype MarshAI bot😢 Check out the festival details here procartoonists.org/herne-bay-ca... This Weekend Sat & Sun in #HerneBay #cartoons

🥁🥁🥁 Coming Soon — a brand new cryptic crossword magazine we’re calling Unch. Interested? Sign up for email updates at unchcrosswords.com to find out more. And we’d love it if you could repost this to your own followers 👍

Normally now I'd be preparing for the weekends #HerneBayCartoonFestival but they've replaced me with a MarshAI bot🤖 AND not only that they're rubbing it in by merching up the droid doppelgänger drawist!😠 So DON'T go to the this link to buy this stuff...no siree! redbubble.com/shop/ap/1725...

Co-signed. openletter.earth/an-open-lett...

'I did sometimes wonder if it might have been more straightforward for the students to, you know, actually read the sources and write the essays themselves.' www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

"Chat GPT is, by design, a bullshit machine." open.spotify.com/episode/3peJ... Worth a listen!

Aaaah, it's the weekend! Now to have a nice cuppa and decide what to read, after a stressful week at work in the midst of yet another restructure...

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j... Fellow insomniacs may be interested in this.

The use of swearing to relieve stress, anger, pain or frustration is known as ‘lalochezia’.

@ejb117.bsky.social 😬😂

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@skirwingle.bsky.social - an interesting section on AI approximately 35 minutes in, discussing the use of unregulated AI in financial systems and the threat of the destruction of the capacity for human thought.

In case you missed it last week: Surrey & @ucudmu.bsky.social are facing fire & rehire, with jobs moved to a newly-established subsidiary company with worse pay & conditions. #SaveHE #UKHE

It's National Biscuit Day! I'm celebrating with a custard cream. What's your choice of twice-baked delight?

Stop! ... what you're going; these fish are armed. It's the last Sunday of the month so it's time for #OffGridPod ep. 52 offgrid.tlmb.net/2025/05/25/r...

I wrote about the widespread adoption of AI in education, and why there needs to be more resistance to it open.substack.com/pub/irinadum...

For anyone who has the opportunity to vote in a local election today, this tactical voting site may be useful: stopthetories.vote Remember to take your photo ID!

This month's Off-Grid podcast includes a brief education on Ibsen and some entertaining discussion about tactile paving... give it a listen!

A useful and very relatable article for anyone enduring yet another restructure in HE at the moment... www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-funding-k...

MPs being (rightly) recalled over the 2,700 jobs at risk in British steel, while 5,000 university jobs are actively being cut this year with a further 5,000 jobs under threat and very little intervention is... interesting. Academia is also an industry in collapse. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1393...

Seeking advice from Braille users! I work for a university and a colleague in Student Support would like to purchase a Braille embosser for VI students and staff to use. She's looking at the Tiger Braille Embosser model: shop.rnib.org.uk/products/vie.... She's wanting feedback from Braille users...

RNIB is celebrating 200 years of Braille this year, yet simultaneously cutting its free Braille transcription service. Please sign and share the petition.

For anyone who still partakes in the apparently quaintly old-fashioned pursuit of letter-writing or sending hand-written cards, the cost of postage stamps is (again) increasing from 7 April. Beat the price hikes now! Then how about practising your handwriting and making someone's day?!

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