After 9 days of striking, solidarity, flamingos, and bees, we are heading back to work today. However, until compulsory redundancy is ruled out, we remain in dispute: Action Short of a Strike is still on. The race to save Scholar and LINCS staff is still on.

Our concerns are grave. That doesn't mean our protest needs to be. The inflatable animals are *such* an upgrade to the whimsy on the picket line.

My (thankfully) short speech from today's rally @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social @hwucu.bsky.social @ucuscotland.bsky.social #SaveScholar #SaveLincs

Thank you to @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social for hosting our joint rally. It was lovely to BEE there. To talk about the ELEPHANT in the room (1000s of rooms in 100s of building, UoE!) - there is money, but not for Education, not for staff. Thank you to our incredible students for speaking.

More photos from today's joint rally with @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social We brought our banners We brought our animals The rally brought the solidarity PROTECT SCHOLAR SAVE LINCS NO COMPULSORY REDUNDANCY

Ed (ucate) the ELEPHANT will not FORGET about Scholar. Protect Scholar at Heriot-Watt! We believe in learning. We support equity We believe universities are there not just to run as businesses, not just for bits of paper, but to reach out into their communities, to educate. #saveScholar

Today we had our last day of strikes...for now... followed by a joint rally with @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social It was wonderful to BEE there, enjoying the BUZZ

Today is #TransDayOfVisibility - today, and all days, I stand in solidarity with trans people. #TDOV

What a privilege it has BEEn to spend the last 8 days striking with @hwucu.bsky.social comrades... the costumes have spawned, hatching new plans to fight exctinction... see you tomorrow @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social

We should #beeworking but we're striking for no compulsory redundancies #ucu @hwucu.bsky.social

Day 5 MAMBO #5 Clap your hands once and clap your hands twice And if it looks like this then you doin it right A little bit of DINOSAUR in my life Little bit of CHICKEN on my side Little bit of BEE is what I see Little bit of STRIKING in the sun A lot of SOLIDARITY all night long Save Jobs No CR

WATT !? Coming to Bristo Square tomorrow, Wednesday, at noon. Heriot-Watt UCU and UCU Edinburgh @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social JOINT RALLY RESISTING COMPULSORY REDUNDANCY Bristo Square 12 noon Wednesday 1st April

This is something I've been reflecting on for the past few days. What are my male colleagues and friends saying to other men about men's violence? We've seen the horrors of the Pelicot case, a rape chat group with 70k men as members, the alleged sexually hostile workplace on a film set.

Friends - I have book tokens for Christmas - what shall I buy? Fiction only and nothing which will make me feel (even) worse about life and humanity.

Chris Green. 'Imagine a world with no men’s violence against women and girls – what is preventing this? Us. All men need to do more to create a world fit to live in' I'm a bit tired of male commentators expressing shock - do something about it www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

Friends - I have book tokens for Christmas - what shall I buy? Fiction only and nothing which will make me feel (even) worse about life and humanity.

And I thought adding £200pcm onto my mortgage was bad enough, now she's wrecking roast potatoes

My very elderly cats with their Christmas toys from their friend in the US.

Ran the gauntlet of Tesco - nearly taken out by more than one furiously speedy trolley, but I survived. Cats better like their treats for tomorrow

Alone or lonely at Christmas? New to social media? There’s a great tradition with the hashtag #joinin, you just search for it and see lots of friendly messages. Someone has also created a feed here: bsky.app/profile/did:...

On the left, my image. On the right, the Al image that was clearly trained on, and designed to plagiarize, my image. All Al generated imagery is inherently theft. It's unethical, environmentally disastrous, and does irreparable harm to both artists and society.

For those of us who research labour market trends, these surveys are vital (even with their limitations). Couldn't have done my PhD without them.

I’m doing research into the experiences of disabled people looking for employment. I’d be grateful if you could share this survey with people it might be of interest to. The survey is at: cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... #Disability #AcademicSky Thank you

‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/b...

In lieu of Christmas cards, I donated to @msf.ca this year. This article shares why www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

Generally I'm not a fan of banning things but I do think it's time for an end to general public sale of fireworks. The loss of the red panda and her cub are awful, but many more non-human animals suffer as a result of fireworks. Horrid things

We can’t stand by while the rights of vulnerable young trans people are undermined If the government is committed to the values of the NHS and the well-being of all its citizens, it must reverse the decision to ban puberty blockers and ensure every child has access to the care and support they need

UCU members who were balloted voted to reject the pay offer (68%), in favour of IA for an improved offer (53%). No turnout wasn't great (27%), but it exceeded by some way the turnout for the NEC and GS election (15.1%). A ballot gives us a second opportunity to say what we want.

I see toxic UCU twitter has made its way onto this place.

Very glad to see neurodivergent burnout receive attention and to have the opportunity to feed some of our work into the piece @edicaucus.bsky.social uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/neurodi...

It's a small success I know, but I've had an abstract accepted for a conference next year. It's a new project idea which I'm excited about - but it's also the first time I've really led on something new since the difficult year I've had.

New project: understanding the experiences of disabled and neurodivergent researchers and innovators - particularly around intellectual property rights - please share if possible forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Never cross a picket line!

I thought Oppenheimer was quite dull and certainly not Cillian Murphy's best work. Might have worked better as a series perhaps

Gaslighting of women by the medical profession www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

Signs of life

This one, on the right, has been diagnosed with diabetes. Two creatures who look well, but are living with life long conditions.

Why How Are You can be an upsetting question for someone with a life long condition such as Graves themighty.com/topic/graves...

This is so disgusting to me www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

New publication led by our fantastic PhD student David Thorpe The Lived Experience of Autistic Adults in Employment: A Systematic Search and Synthesis www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/...

While being so ill I'm finding it hard to watch illness and death in tv/film. Has anyone else had that experience?

Completely exhausted today. I'll be spending the day flaked out watching TV I think

So for those interested I have Graves Disease causing tachycardia & hypertension. 4am woke up w/ a pulse of 131, chest pains & v high BP. Ambulance called. I now have cardiac 'issues' to go with the rest of it all. Pls don't allow your GP to dismiss you as a perimenopausal woman w/anxiety

Home

Being sent home thankfully

Turns out I’m seeing in the New Year in hospital