It was believed in medieval times that hedgehogs had spikes so they could roll over fruit to carry home to their children, which is not true but is a really cute idea

Open University SMT has banned staff from using the term 'Ancient Palestine' after pressure from UK Lawyers for Israel! Please read (and sign!) #gaza #palestine #academia #ukhe #history #medievalsky #archaeology docs.google.com/document/u/3...

I share this only to help those contemplating whether to tweet "I support Palestine Action".

Demand the removal of Palantir from the NHS the.organise.network/surveys/Stop...

Scottish politicians have been urged to back continued oil and gas extraction – including the Rosebank oil field – by an industry body ahead of the Holyrood 2026 election, prompting outrage from climate campaigners

This is eugenics. The flu shot saves lives. It’s bad enough that people are being discouraged from getting vaccines, now the regime is shutting down production of vaccines. It’s a cull. This is your regular reminder that a well fitted mask like an N95 protects against the flu and Covid!

I am still masking because despite the government saying COVID is ‘mild’ it’s not. No virus that carries post infection risks lasting 3 or more years is mild. I don’t want to pass on heart, immune damage, or neurological to other people.

£240m. With no tender. Palantir. I wrote to Wes Streeting last week demanding answers. Every day without any transparency deepens the scandal. Palantir out.

Many viruses are airborne not just #COVID and with vaccination levels low there are so many other things you can catch. Measles is even more infectious than COVID and TB cases are rising. Vaccine hesitancy is a growing issue. Think of ffp2/3 masks as a friend at this time.

These figures show trans suicides amongst minors went from 5 and 4 per annum to (at least) 22. The only explanation for the media not reporting that four or five fold surge is because it doesn't want to. And it doesn't want to because its trans panic was a cause of that surge.

1/ Absolutely this 👇 @cmadocs.bsky.social

Very happy to have an entry in this fabulous beast of a collection. 'Women’s Poetry in Medieval Gaelic Scotland' discusses four poems by three women compiled c.1520s in the Book of the Dean of Lismore, the earliest #Gaelic compositions made in Scotland attributable to named female poets.

I've asked so many people to please quit substack, and if I see a substack link, I rarely, if ever, click on it. and I know amazing people that I love and respect and learn from are on there and it makes me so sad. in case it helps you to finally quit that place: www.theguardian.com/media/2026/f...

Sad that some olympic athletes still believe COVID is a respiratory virus. Its is a neurovascular virus. It can & will infect/destroy endothelial lining anywhere. That means any blood vessel can be damaged by COVID anywhere resulting in heart attack/stroke/embolism. www.adn.com/sports/skiin...

We need an urgent review of the so called science behind JCVI decisions that show zero reflection of post infection risks: heart damage, vascular, immune damage, neurological. Also their claim on herd/or hybrid immunity given so few are vaccinated bsky.app/profile/elho... @ashleydaltonmp.bsky.social

Absolutely gutted that the Muirhead Oaks, an avenue of Category A, ecologically and historically important veteran Oaks in Chapelhall, Lanarkshire have been felled to build an AI Data Centre.

A bilingual Gaelic-English headstone in Perthshire has been likened to the 'Rosetta Stone' for the region's historic Gaelic dialect. It's also prompted a call-out for information on any more of these 'extremely rare' Gaelic-English headstones, with only 3 identified. www.bbc.co.uk/naidheachdan...

Long COVID is not psychosomatic. It is a complex, multisystem condition with physical causes documented across growing bodies of research. Preventing COVID-19 infections remains one of the most effective ways to reduce long-term harm. Shared from the WHN Voices section — (...)

@durhamhealthnc.bsky.social continues to provide the honest, effective public health messaging that we should’ve had since 2020. Imagine the world we might inhabit now if this had been the case. #COVID

One of several scholarships for Palestinian students available at the University of Liverpool. This one is for the MRes in Irish Studies. Please share to relevant circles. www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/fees-a...

We're looking to capture experiences of what it means to be queer in the UK today! To do that we're collecting day diaries for 12th February. It doesn't matter what you get up to, or how you record it, we'd love to have it!🧵 (1/4) #LGBTplusHM #lgbthm26

Acallam talk alert! 🔔 Register at [email protected] to get the link to Nina Cnockaert-Guillou's talk, next Monday 9th February at 18:00 CET. @ninacnock.bsky.social will discuss some of the Disappearing Text project's work so far, and the (many) different versions of Acallam na Senórach..!

Open Letter to every Edinburgh City Councillor ... Oppose AI Data Centres In Edinburgh bellacaledonia.org.uk/.../oppose-a...

Israel has murdered more than 500 Palestinians in Gaza since it signed the so called ceasefire. One of the latest is a 3 year old child.

USS has now agreed to adopt UCU’s proposed three‑leg valuation framework for 2026 – putting best‑estimate assumptions centre stage, making prudence more transparent, and prioritising contribution stability. ​ www.ucu.org.uk/artic... 1/3

OpenAI's president was the biggest donor in Trump's Super PAC's year-end report for 2025. Still using it? It's time to quit. quitgpt.org #QuitGPT

2008: Epstein is convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution 2018: Despite that conviction, [files indicate] he was invited by Rowling’s team - along with a guest of his choosing - to the Broadway opening of Harry Potter and the private after-party Protecting women and children, is it?

ICYMI: The US is currently holding three times as many people in immigrant detention as were detained in the Nazi concentration camp system in spring 1939 — six years into the Third Reich, and just before the start of World War II.

leftists sharing ai memes are doing everything wrong

saw this yesterday

Unless Scottish politicians & university leaders introduce new screening procedures for the - voluminous quantity of - US-derived students who visit us every new semester, this will shortly become commonplace in our classrooms and halls of residence. Since it's airborne, mask mandates also helpful.

" "The virus infects the heart itself, but it also infiltrates the cells in the artery walls and the cells inside plaque that has built up there," he said. "If we are seeing an increased risk of heart disease and stroke three years later, that infiltration may... "

Covid is causing vascular damage. Don’t catch it. Ffp2/3 Open windows Clean the air Vaccinate if you can

Some academic publishing contract advice: make sure your contract specifies 1. a qualified human copyeditor will copyedit on the MS; 2. a qualified human proofreader will proofread the MS; 3. that production must have a proper system for version control (!).

Two people have been abducted from Scotland in the middle of the night by the US military. Despite an order from our highest court that they be kept here. The Scottish Government must show that actions have consequences by evicting American troops from their base at publicly-owned Prestwick Airport

If you're in the Lothian region, my friend @katenevens.bsky.social is a list candidate for the Scottish Green Party. She's one of the best people I know and an utterly tireless fighter for the vulnerable. Having her as an MSP would be a great thing. Please register to vote (and then vote)!

This will continue to happen as long as Covid is allowed to spread relentlessly in schools. The virus can cause immune dysregulation, making kids more susceptible to other infections and reactivations

👉 New paper highlights that Long COVID is a widespread, multisystem condition with significant neurological & psychological impacts, underscoring urgent need for recognition, care & sustained public‑health attention - to improve the lives of those affected. @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Blocking an international education delegation from entering Palestine, including our general secretary Jo Grady, is an attack on education and international solidarity. UCU stands with Palestinian educators, students and their unions and with the Palestinian people.

Come for the drypoint doodles drawn with someone’s (Eadburg’s?) thumb, stay for the discussion of women’s engagement with books and book culture. A really fascinating article!

New study: “SARS-CoV-2 causes lasting immune dysregulation for over 20 months.” And if most or many people are getting infected once every 12 months, then when does their immune system have time to recover? Immune systems protect against colds & infections but also cancer & other diseases. #COVID

Missing from the coverage of redundancies at Edinburgh: this was done in such a haphazard, uncoordinated way, there are now core teams who have gone from 5 people to 1 with no change in workload or pressure and huge loss in knowledge of institutional process. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2576321...

A communication point we need to work on is that the immune system is not a muscle that needs to be flexed. It is a finite resource. Many parents I’ve talked to view illness sharing as a twisted form of community care for children and coworkers. That by spreading it, they’re making them stronger.

And one more thing. Students. If you have a professor who is, for some reason, outsourcing their own job to ChatGPT....drop the class. If they tell you to "ask ChatGPT" for sources, drop the class. Because they apparently don't know their own discipline well enough to teach it.

I have some bad news. One, if you need to use ChatGPT for your graduate application letter, you are not ready for graduate school. Two, no, not "everyone is doing it" and those who don't do it aren't "losing out." ChatGPT is not an advantage.

Both the @agrayarchive.bsky.social and the @aowensarchive.bsky.social are here on Bluesky – follow them for more information!

'..highlights the urgent need for long-term immune monitoring after SARS-CoV-2 exposure. Persistent T-cell reductions, particularly in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, raise concerns about *chronic immune dysfunction even in nonhospitalized individuals*'. *my emphasis. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In a large sample from multiple studies and 97 million people "SARS-CoV-2 infection increases the risk of autoimmune diseases, particularly those affecting vascular and connective tissue. Risk is amplified by severe infection and attenuated by vaccination" link.springer.com/article/10.1...

“She was so good at evoking the claustrophobia and darkness and poverty of economics but plenitude of mind." An excellent piece on Agnes Owens, by @danigaravelli.bsky.social. Dani has also written the introduction to a new edition of Gentlemen Of The West, which will be published by Polygon in May.

Avoid Covid to preserve your brain