Famous first lines with joke follow up 2nd line. You set them up Bill and I'll knock em down. #books

Just seen this incredibly sad news. Dave did countless bulletins on my old radio shows, and we usually spent longer waffling about music and old telly then we did doing the actual travel. A great presenter in his own right and an absolutely top bloke to boot. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Presented without further comment

Just been in a department weekly briefing. It's really heartening* to know that we are developing an institutional AI strategy mostly being driven by FOMO at senior levels. * spot the sarcasm

Important data point here: “A sharp fall in Labour's performance is accompanied more often by an above average Green performance than it is by a strong Reform performance”. The Greens have already hurt Labour even before any direct gains.

Happy hundredth to a man who not only became the voice, face and mind of natural world broadcasting, but also helped shape the idea that television could be so many things in one schedule. His stint running BBC2 and then BBC1 as well in the 60s and early 70s is a model on how you do it. HB, DA.

I feel so sorry for all those students and staff in UK and North American universities who are now stuck with no online learning environment because Canvas has been hacked and ransomed. I'm also astounded that it's not yet in the news. #AcademicSky It's Finals time 😬

Couldn't be arsed to read this, but going to assume they were making sourdough cocks or something.

Absolutely THIS

David Attenborough is 100 tomorrow. When he was born films were silent.

Oh no 😔

Jesus, that is so fuck ugly I bet Kevin McCloud would be nominating it for an architectural award

Commemorating that time Whispering Bob Harris was chased around the Norfolk coast by a ghostly force, "The Old Grey Whistle and I'll come for you Test" is available now. www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/1805...

Seeing as I appear on a couple of Bluesky lists accusing me of it, I thought I'd better mention a few salient things.

Dispatches from British Academics Missing from the discourse on UK Higher Ed is those on the frontlines. This month's Director's Note from Christopher Newfield outlines why it's crucial to include academics in conversations on the conditions & possible future of universities

I joined Andy Miller (@iammilliam.bsky.social) from the excellent @backlisted.bsky.social at the similarly excellent @deadinkbookshop.bsky.social for a chat about The Golden Age Of Children's TV... timworthington.org/2025/04/10/d...

I’m starting to wonder if this is how the monks felt when Henry VIII started his “wide-ranging restructure of the monastery system”.

J.G. Ballard understood everything about Reform UK decades ago. He saw them very clearly.

I miss Douglas #TheFilmCrowd

"A world where fridges talk?" And phone home to their manufacturer, and sell your personal data to advertising companies, and provide a perfect attack vector for hackers, because the vendor cares nothing about security and never does firmware updates, etc. etc,etc... #TheFilmCrowd

35+ years on, and most people still couldn’t give two shits about VR #TheFilmCrowd

Oh look, it’s Zuck’s Metaverse. Only with better graphics #TheFilmCrowd

I do remember a lot of research into non-linear hypertextual creative writing at the start of the century #TheFilmCrowd

This is media studies. Try telling me this stuff isn’t hugely important on the current world #TheFilmCrowd

The face of archive and data science has transformed immensely since this point. And the ability to connect things *semantically* has been a big factor #TheFilmCrowd

And Guernica! I do miss when TV was a good friend #thefilmcrowd

Just think, when this was made, there wasn’t even a public World Wide Web to speak of (May 91), and Douglas would have been avoiding writing by messing with HyperCard on his old world Macs #TheFilmCrowd

Another Dirk Gently idea reimagined, or rather given new context #TheFilmCrowd

All the Dirk Gently vibes … #TheFilmCrowd

Big Doug E coming up. And boy was his background interesting #TheFilmCrowd

Man, I remember writing about Vannevar Bush when I started a PhD at the start of the century #TheFilmCrowd

Strange old legacy - the man who pretty much gave the world rolling news, for better - or worse.

CLOSING UG HISTORY. 💔 Please look after our Hertfordshire colleagues, #SkyStorians (& @royalhistsoc.org )

The main effect of multiparty politics on Britain is seemingly to replace two useless parties with five of them. These elections are an embarrassment inews.co.uk/opinion/fara...

I wrote this retrospective of the classic British TV comedy series Bread for the @britishcomedy.bsky.social to celebrate the shows 40th anniversary. I hope you enjoy it. #comedianhistorian #writer #articles www.comedy.co.uk/features/com...

😭Sad news😭 The authorities have finally caught up with us so this will be our last post on BlueSky. It's been a blast and we love you all. Especially our BFF @merchantshallyork.org 🥰🥰 Keep up with the posting, everyone. Together you can conquer the scourge of work-based productivity...

Why is @theregister.com's new makeover so UGLY? Baaaah.

Radio fans may recall my love of post-punk synth-folk combo Rudolf Rocker. I took afternoon tea with the original line-up now reformed, @mgoodall.bsky.social, Steve Goodall & Jeremy Dyson (yes, him) to discuss their ace new album Rocker's Revenge... it's in the current @electronicsound.bsky.social!

Please tell me some jobsworth middle manager hasn't told you that your fabulous outreach on this platform somehow falls outside your job description?? You should be getting a bonus for this account, not a slap on the wrist. FFS. Am properly cross now. eheu

Let him piss money up the wall to make it. And then let it utterly tank. The tech companies won't particularly care of course (they'll be off trying to cannibalise some other market), but it may make the likes of Avary more reticent, realising that this won't be a licence to print easy money.

Good news if you don't fancy sleeping for about a fortnight. Ooh, @scarredforlife.bsky.social! @reecedinsdale.bsky.social said it!

#BrokenNews: Left Wing Voters

Nah, think I’ll just read the poem again, thanks.

These elections are LOCAL. The General Election is FAR AWAY.

University of Hertfordshire closes a swathe of Humanities courses, accelerating the sweeping tide against Human-centred disciples in the UK. Because understanding humans is so yesterday today. With such happy consequences, as we see when we look around us.

Aye. Heard today that my university is closing UG History, Philosophy, English Lit, Linguistics, and Creative Writing in one go.

NEW from me: many of our universities are now in a dying fall. A new global-national-regional-local split is opening up, which could choke off progress on almost all the Government's plans. Do they have a plan? Nope, nothing, not a clue. 👇 isrf.org/blog/whats-t...