Heat pump orders up 2x in a month. Solar panel inquiries up 250%. EV leases up 85%. The Iran crisis has made energy security feel personal. I understand why: I have solar panels, a heat pump & EV on a flexible tariff. When gas prices spike, my bills barely move. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

The Sexey Thing is everywhere in certain quarters of Somerset. You forget to snigger in the end.

Just been asked if I'm a student (vicinity of University of London) and not sure what I think about this.

They should. Absolute state of the Ajax project, worse than most people understand. On top of many scandals, and revolving door between top brass and defence companies repeatedly exposed by Private Eye. More money won't fix this until practices until someone puts the plug in to stop the drain.

Objections to popes pontificating are very, very funny. You can disagree - many Catholics hard disagreed with some previous popes and some aspects of this one's views. But it is the job.

👉 Deadline approaching! Funded PhD position in The Netherlands on medieval representations of disability

Ten hail Mary's for that one.

Enjoyed reading "The Unaccountability Machine" by Dan Davies: at turns thoughtful and hilarious. Goes deep into cybernetics, history, neoliberalism, and accounting (!). A friend sent me this quote which is pretty funny and on target unless you're an academic; then the joke is on you (and me).

I'm looking at this picture too much because, leaving aside antichristiness, AI slop is so weird. The nursidoctor on the left has has headgear that stops halfway across her head, and the planes have bits sticking out all over the place and are not flying in the same direction. An the guy on the...

As a medievalist I can't help but get strong 'antichrist performing false miracles' vibes off this stuff.

Wahay!!!! Finally some good news...

This has the hallmarks of internal targets operating. My instinct is that the HO has been told to reject e.g. 5%. They either don't care about the impact on unis or it's part of the point; they want as many institutions as possible on the red list.

See also planning queries and objections, any complaints procedure. Easy now to drown any system where a human has to read stuff in a swamp of slop. The proposed solution will of course be that humans stop reading, but the tech isn't good enough for that.

The only shame here is the obnoxious shit didn't get to lose his shirt along with his reputation.

all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant

This had already been called out as suspiciously unsalted alongside a bunch of other not started stuff. There is a whiff of 'now look what you made me do!' about this.

Unlike a lot of HE think-pieces out there I think this one is an honest and good faith attempt to address problems, though I don't agree with everything, by any means. Off the top of my head, its problems are 1/ not addressing that the tuition fee deficit for UK UGs is the major cause here.

“…the researchers argue that AI systems have given rise to a categorically different form of “cognitive surrender” in which users provide “minimal internal engagement” and accept an AI’s reasoning wholesale without oversight or verification.”

The higher ed thinkfluencer-industrial complex churned out thousands of pieces just like this one

Academics of the world, do with this info what you may. Even better, uninstall it from your devices 🧪

Doing my university's budget holder training and I AM SO BORED.

Applications close soon for an extraordinary PhD placement opportunity supporting the development and curation of our major exhibition on the Norman Conquest. Apply by Monday 6 April. Find out more here: link.bl.uk/dnv

This is really true. I've disabled Gemini on my phone, but there it is anyway, every day, pestering me to activate it. I feel like I need to take out an injunction.

NEW on Wonkhe: Universities serve purposes beyond market demands. Jim Dickinson asks if the pendulum between planning and markets is about to swing back - and what that should mean to protect student interests bit.ly/3XDc1z6

I have this conversation all the time with mid-careers. Uni bosses could think a bit more about the long-term harm caused to the sector when most people mid career and senior people assume they won't be in it for more than 5 years and start to act accordingly.

Ich thynke but litel of a Mondaye bleake Tuesday grey and Wednesdaye eke Thursdaye Ich care not for thee Yet Fridaye Ich am yn love [extendid lute solo] Mondaye thou kanst fall awaye Tuesdaye, Wednesdaye, myne herte slaye No mirthe ys founde upon Thursdaye Yet Fridaye Ich am yn love

And one in Theology and Religious Studies! www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/f... - deadline 22 May

We have a PhD studentship available in History or Archaeology at CCCU www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/f... - deadline 22 May. #skystorians 1/

in higher education, warning that failure to act risks “irreparable damage” to the sector. Universities up and down the country are looking to downgrade staff pension benefits. Read @drjogrady.bsky.social's letter to the Education Secretary and Skills Minister 👇

1/ I hate marking. But the reason I hate it is that it provides honest feedback on my work as a teacher. If a few students misunderstand a key concept or go badly wrong it's likely they skipped class. If most of the cohort does, I need to look at my teaching, course, or assignment design.

This is naked union-busting. Where is Labour? The more they succeed in this the more places will do it. And then they're done it to the teaching-only roles they will do it to the rest eventually. Because they know they can.

Pop Leo asked if he should put on gloves to turn pages in the gorgeous Renaissance Bible and the librarian explained why it’s better to do so with bare hands. Glorious reaction. Every rare books librarian & archivist feeling very seen, I gather. www.instagram.com/reel/DUcpEBY... #BookHistory

Same here, but once a week. Last hospital appointment letter never came at all.

Oh my God! What an amazing guy! Might have something in my eye...

Go Edinburgh academics!

Perhaps we shouldn't be tipping all our existing books on 1066 into the shredder just yet. www.marcmorris.org.uk/2026/03/king...

I hope they both lose.

The tech equivalent of a nation where everyone makes a living by taking in one another's washing.

This is true of my students. Anti AI posters have been up on the student noticeboard since the start of the year. You get them talking about it and they are informed, critical, and angry.

Whatever else is going on the planet, it's all happening in bird-world at the moment. I highly recommend 20-30 minutes of walking / watching / listening if you can. Chiffchaffs are back, as are blackcaps (the ones that left). Only a month and a bit til the swifts. Birds are great.

Hello, have you missed us? We’d love to hear from you.   Tell us your favourite British Library manuscript and we’ll post an image for you.

This is actually incredibly funny.

Did King Harold Really Sail to the Battle of Hastings? I'm not convinced... www.marcmorris.org.uk/2026/03/did-...

Yep. In fact, the real failing of students was when we stopped requiring them to regularly search a library catalogue for their reading and instead produced lists with hyperlinks that students simply had to click. As soon as they have to go off list, they’re lost.

it's comforting and easy to financialize markets to talk about these topics in a detached and seemingly rational manner but the world's ability to feed billions of people is predicated on a stable supply of Nitrogen adjuncts. It's genocidal via 2nd and 3rd order impacts

Good.

Reform's brains explode.

Excellent!

Does anyone else sing 'this could be a case for Bosworth and Toller' to themselves to the tune of Catationia's 'Mulder and Scully' when they have to look up a word in the Big Old English dictionary, or is that just me? #medievalsky

Don't tell me, let me guess... Is it that they might stay and help us run by vital public services like the care system where we consistently struggle to recruit and retain British-born staff so that they don't collapse, taking the economy and our society with them?