More Argentinians crying please cameraperson!

Yass!

Love how it's just been gradually forgotten that there were two other countries co-hosting this World Cup.

This is good on the problems with the "40 years of decline" rhetoric. Parties should honour their past, but they cannot live in it. A movement that dreams of mines and shipyards, in a country that has few of either, is not a living tradition but a historical re-enactment society.

Wouldn't it be funny if they took it seriously, had a proper look at the financing of all the major AI companies as and said 'lads, this isn't going to go well'.

Bellingham!!!!!

I am going to puke if this gets more tense.

OH and I mesmerized by why this Gen AI design and other examples of this kind are so repellent. Everything in it somewhere between slightly and very wrong. Generates a reaction a bit like the Upside Down in Stranger Things. I wonder why ppl think it will help them sell stuff.

If true, we get 3 things. None good. 1. The direct negative growth/fiscal impacts of cutting immigration. 2. A Chancellor who prioritises their own personal/ideological obsessions over the UK economy. 3. A PM who through myopia or weakness chooses 1 and 2.

One lives in hope that it will be the Chancellor. But not much hope.

The very best I can make of this is: a trap to make her understand the massive economic problems her approach to immigration is creating and actually grasp the concept of trade offs, which have clearly eluded her so far. Probably wishful thinking.

“.. I asked a few AI researchers whether they could name any other real-world software that scales so poorly. None of them could think of any. “.. By economic and engineering measures, generative AI might be the worst technology ever deployed.” @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Our Chief Executive, Hetan Shah, argues in the Financial Times that now is the moment to embrace the humanities, not retreat from them. Read more: https://bit.ly/4vxfGMQ

Amongst many important points in @jdportes.bsky.social article is the succinct explanation of why universities are vital to a coherent economic strategy.

A couple of years ago a family member sent me a link to an article about how much money Meta was spending on the Metaverse and said "surely that'll work with that much money ?". And here we are. A good read via @jamesrball.com & @prospectmagazine.co.uk

England parking the bus

It’s out. aDNA analysis reveals that well-known Upton Lovell Early Bronze Age metalworker burial was that of a woman: www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

See also this new research which shows the vital role universities play in supporting place-based growth and innovation around the creative industries pec.ac.uk/state_of_the...

The killer lines in this are the ones about the drop in early career roles while managerial and professorial role numbers remain stable or are increasing. That's a sector ingesting it's own offspring. In terms of regional inequalities, it looks like many humanities subjects...

Here's the update on the #UCU website: www.ucu.org.uk/article/1458...

Also the pervert glasses. They're advertising the pervert glasses.

Watching the AI ads between the Macdonald's and crisps and pop ads around the world cup and realising it's just fast food for the mind.

At which point are journalists allowed to say "nope, that's not an answer. You're failing in your duties by repeating this very obvious deflection for two years in a row. You need to give an actual response now."? Or else publish just "the DfE said the same thing they did for 24 months".

Who doesn't love a bit of gossip?

Under a Binface government, anyone who doesn’t accept human-made climate change as fact will be sent back to school, from Year 1 right the way to A Levels, to see if anything goes in the second time round. #VoteBinface

This is what drives me nuts about this slop, no designer would get away with such mistakes, the client would’ve said “WTF is this crap, go away & fix it”, but because they can do it cheaply themselves it’s somehow OK, it just needs the right feel on a macro level

this did make me laugh, fair play

Well.

You might admire Thibault Courtois for his fine goalkeeping skills. I like the fact that he's one definite article away from being a minor character in a thirteenth-century Arthurian spin-off. Or possibly a tentatively-identified medieval French poet.

Ah yes. Kortrijk-sur-Mer, with an extra I.

Glasgow is hiring a lecturer in medieval history (c.800-1500) on an open-ended basis. We are a lovely bunch in the medieval area, would be great to have a new colleague! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSF052/l...

If the problem is an increase in research grants then a less drastic solution is to make a greater proportion 2-stage: brief EOI followed by full application by, say, 30% of those submitting an EOI. When my husband, who does grant writing for museums, heard I was putting in a 1.2 mil application...

Fresh cuts to the Strategic Priorities Grant are of grave concern for our disciplines. In history-based subjects like archaeology, trends in university provision indicate large emerging cold spots - where courses are shrinking or disappearing in some regions. 🧵1/2

Has any other politician ever called a by-election on an explicitly anti-transparency, pro-sleaze ticket before?

The prospect of Nigel Farage fighting a people vs the establishment by-election in which the only other candidate is Count Binface - is too hilarious for words.

Jealous of friends and colleagues who are at @imc-leeds.bsky.social #IMC2026 medieval studies conference! If you know of anyone looking for a temporary 10-month #job teaching #Medieval #English #Literature just up here at @newcastleuni.bsky.social then please apply! jobs.ncl.ac.uk/job/Newcastl...

Did Nigel "migrant hotels" Farage just talk about how terrifying it is to be surrounded by a baying mob?

Farage presenting himself as a successful businessman who creates wealth and employs people is a bit of a stretch for a guy who says "Up the Ra!" for cash.

This is madness from Farage. He thinks he is more targeted than Jo Cox or David Amess.

Wishing I was back at the Oude Markt Leuven watching the football last night. The atmosphere for Belgium-Senegal there was amazing; can't imagine how it must have been last night. Have a fridge full of Westmalle, Grimbergen, Rochefort (Beer, that is), and Curtius (Liege special) to celebrate later.

They have learned nothing from the consequences of deindustrialization for parts of the North and Wales. The consequences of the closure of what is often the second largest employer in a regional town or city will be felt for decades.

Can I ask: the Office for Students is (at least according to our overlords) demanding more internships and 'experiental' modules, but they haven't been resourcing that for years (see: Group C2). Do they assume that these kinds of things just happen when you yell hard enough?

The government does not appear to have any strategic priorities.

Bluesky this morning:

They want to shut us down.

I must say, it's very nice being able to watch the football out at a bar with a cup of tea and it not be weird.

They briefly turned over to watch the Belgians warming up, but we're now inexplicably back to Blair and the Good Friday Agreement. Belgians around us understandably getting shirty, while we try not to laugh.

Outside a bar in Leuven waiting for the Belgium-Senegal match and there appears to be a documentary about Tony Blair on the big screen, dubbed into Flemish. Seriously, they've just interviewed Peter Mandelson. We really hope we're not in the only bar in Belgium showing a deep dive into the new...

Paging the UK government. If it can't get it right with cars, how's it going to get it right with human health, DWP assessments and all the other proposed uses?

Sorry but hahahaha