Update on my trying to use Claude Code to implement some research code. On the plus side: It generates a lot of code. Quite a lot. Some of it works some of the time. On the minus side: I've not yet figured out how to keep it from going into the weeds of error.

Not the poetic reminder I was hoping for today.

@jmcoghlan.bsky.social this might be of interest.

'A new national initiative, Civic 2.0, has been launched to strengthen the role of universities in their towns, cities and regions – building on the legacy of UPP Foundation’s Civic University Commission and the Civic University Network.' 1/3

Our statement on yesterday’s #UKHE ballot result is now on our website. #UCU ucucommons.org/industrial-b...

We must do better. #UKHE #UCU

Can’t believe it’s our fifth one of these already! Do have a read #UKHE #UCU

We're doing pogroms in America now

If you teach on undergraduate history courses, please spread the word. Small sums can often make a huge difference.

"This environment is taking a toll on staff wellbeing: two-thirds of respondents report negative impacts on mental health, alongside rising workloads and job insecurity. "

This is a good account of where we are, sadly: www.ft.com/content/5e61...

Every sympathy for University of Essex (and pressures facing them) but this is very bad news for Southend. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Essex university to cut 400 jobs as overseas student numbers plummet

Gods, if i had that when i was homeless in my 20's, i'd have that college degree and actually be saving up for a home right now

@bma.org.uk Labour government lied with statistics on level of support for last resident doctors' strike - pollster Peter Kellner (who actually opposed the strike) explains how Labour did this www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This happened during Bush II too. Trump takes it to the next level but I’m always amazed at how little self respect and basic propriety these folks have. Their crawling servility toward their clown kings coupled with their ugly viciousness to their enemies and out groups…why be like this?

This is why it's important to have Arts/Humanities courses AND STEM courses. It all fits together, they compliment each other. There's no such thing as useless education.

😔💔😢Please read and share these harrowing testimonials from people terrified about plans from @northumbriauni.bsky.social senior management to freeze pay to force through pension changes: ucu-unn.org.uk/news/315-tes... @ucu.org.uk

Look, there is no way to avoid TPUSA. You can give trolls a C-, B, B+. It won't matter. They can even get an A overall but if you give the feedback the very constructive OU instructor did, you're on the list. The assignment could be 2% of the grade (it might be in that class!). There is no defense.

Like, for example, what does the US Department of Defense use as a literal example of a "clearly illegal order?" Why, it's firing upon shipwrecked sailors! JFC

we are well past the point at which anyone who cannot identify bad faith like this is disqualified from commenting on it the girl and her mother are basically screaming THIS IS A BAD FAITH ATTACK ON TRANS PEOPLE at the top of their lungs and if you can't see that you're stupid or lying

I have come to the idea that we have to collectively, brutally, ritualistically kill Target just to show capital that we truly aren’t fucking around.

If you are a chair of a department or supervise grad students, it might be important to collaborate with your colleagues on ways to strategize when a "problem essay" comes down the pike. It's one small way of protecting each other.

The fact that this is even *exists* is a damning commentary on the depths of depravity and corruption to which we have descended as a nation

Turning Point is attempting to suggest that giving a student a bad grade for a poorly written and transphobic essay in a psychology class is a violation of the 1st Amendment. 'Free Speech For Me But Not For Thee' by @queenmab.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/miabrett...

she went to state legislators, TPUSA and conservative media outlets within a few hours of getting her grade, if you can’t identify the bad faith that can be seen from space, you need to get your eyes checked

I have scripts memorized for how to deal with students disrupting various lectures. I have plans I have rehearsed and chains of who to contact memorized. So far I've been fortunate in my current position, but every semester it's the same panic again and again.

This is just my opinion, but I don't think departments need to change their strategy for reading or grading student work. Departments need a strategy for responding to harassment and attacks.

This Day in Labor History: December 1, 1868. A young black former Union soldier named John Henry was among a group of convicts sent from Richmond to West Virginia to blast a railroad tunnel, where he would soon die. Let's talk about the real John Henry!!!

Should definitely be of interest for #ucu colleagues!

thinking more about this: it is highly ironic that at the same time that it serves as a test case for the "unitary executive," this administration is all but being led by two subordinate officials with no immediate political accountability.

trump is the president in the sense that he holds the office but he very clearly isn't the president in the sense that he has basically relieved himself of its duties

For context the 'Middle England' referred to here is the 0.5% of households living in homes worth more than £2 million

I know people say an Englishman’s home is his castle, but this is ridiculous.

The last Liz Truss appointee, emblematic of the success of her policy choices generally, has now left the building.

"Why is there grade inflation? Why do our courses lack rigor?' "Also we will immediately throw any graduate student TA or instructor who upsets an influential constituency under the bus, no matter how obviously manufactured their outrage is." 🤷‍♂️

Honestly, that all made me sad. It so weird that these arrays of losers exist much less have as much uptake as they do.

Your Party name proposal: The People’s Front for Embodying Every Possible Leftist Dysfunction, or PFEEPLD (rhymes with Peopled)

I mean every bit of your goofy party info reinforces the point that Corbyn isn’t an effective party leader.

the primary thing that TPUSA provides to young conservatives is a blueprint for weaponizing the abject cowardice of university administrators against individual teachers and instructors, and university admins should take a long look in the mirror and think about what that says about them

This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started

TIL that the so-called "cartel" de Los Soles, which the Trump regime recently designated as a terrorist organization, is just the Venezuelan regime itself. This is getting ridiculous.

'Witch-hunt' implies people who have done nothing wrong are hunted down because they are suspected of being dangerous. Or, in the very least, are suspected of doing things they haven't (they might also be deeply horrible). Not 'knowingly breaking the rules by double-carding to cause chaos'.

The president is a political cartoon of corruption come to life, a gaudy grifter who is selling off pardons and lining his pockets, building a golden ballroom and protecting his fellow sex predator elites, all the while regular Americans are suffering and struggling to make ends meet. Run on *that*

There’s some genuinely useful tech in all this. I think with the right experts current LLMs can be very useful for development and some kinds of analysis. I’ve had some experimental success. But it’s not “everywhere” useful at the moment and the path to that is not clear.

"All of this falls apart if humans don't adopt the tech. This is why you've seen Meta cram its lame chatbots into WhatsApp and Instagram. This is why Notepad and Paint now have useless Copilot buttons on Windows. This is why Google Gemini wants to "help you" read and reply to your emails."

Oh god. Your Party voted to call themselves “Your Party”. Such is the level of original thinking in the room.

"They're trying to change our habits, because all of the projections rely on people becoming truly dependent on the technology. Whether or not it's actually a good thing for society isn't considered to be a factor."

"How did you go bankrupt?" "Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly." Wonkhe covering how close a lot of UK Higher Education providers are getting to the "suddenly" phase, and how few answers ministers seem to have: share.google/fklT7uq2ZY1c... share.google/fklT7uq2ZY1c...

Tony Smith on Ch4News saying international students should be limited because they’re “economically inactive”. International students pay around £27k p.a. in fees to their universities, at least half again to landlords and they spend their parents’ hard-earned money in local shops.

There was a time when UK universities would have welcomed this. Just not sure that that time is now.