After a difficult & cruel illness, my dad died this morning with us all at his side. World champion of sarcasm, railway enthusiast, abject socialist, Woodcraft Folk leader, and trade unionist to the end. Sleep well, you old bastard

The regional newspaper’s comments section is a bin fire of ignorance, barely disguised racism & flag-fanciers, but this deserves a medal for shitpost of the year. I’ve had hysterics laughing at this about Norfolk’s universities. Better crack on with my new module AMWN100A Marxism & Woke Nonsense

I’m biased, because it’s Norfolk, but this pingo resurrection project is glorious, joyous & hopeful. Worth a read

"We are told that AI is inevitable, that we must adapt or be left behind. But universities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically." www.ru.nl/en/research/...

Digital Cultural Heritage: Imagination, innovation and opportunity. There is a rich and growing global ecosystem of cultural heritage practitioners using technology to reimagine what heritage is, who it belongs to and how we may preserve it for future. www.britishcouncil.org/research-ins...

The start of term as my dad is at the edge of life is really a lot to juggle. My sister & I either sleep or care on repeat and we are exhausted. I’ve lost 12kg from stress. If this has been your experience, working & caring, how did you cope? What helped you?

91 years ago, yet here we are in 2025, handing a far right political party the nation on a plate, ready to devour

How big could East Anglia be, really, if you were going to have a massive Eastern Federation of universities?

Major university merger announced. The start of a wave?

'As universities close courses and departments in response to financial pressures...students in parts of the North, South West and East of England, as well as large areas of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, are losing access to social sciences, humanities and arts (SHAPE) courses.' 1/2

Nadine has a column to write, so I suppose this is perfect future proofing for her career as a 'journalist'

Off to tell my dad, again, that his mum died over half a decade ago. This is the part of life that I wasn’t prepared for, and I guess none of us are

Dan Snow the next Melvyn Bragg, I’ll put money on it

Nazi fest in Great Yarmouth has been cancelled! Fabulous news

“We reject the far right’s racist lies about ‘protecting’ women and girls. They are not defenders of women – they exploit violence against women to fuel hate and division." Words that very much need to be said.

I do love living in rural East Anglia but the high levels of flag nonsense really highlights how dim-witted many of my compatriots are (edited for language)

@lww.bsky.social THE TIGHTS ARE CALLING 🍂

This event has also been planned to coincide with Great Yarmouth & Waveney Pride. I wonder what the Yarco MP Rupert Lowe has to say about community safety for his constituents?

Norfolk folk, anti-fascists & anyone with a conscience: there’s a neo-Nazi music festival coming to Great Yarmouth in September, you can help stop this by emailing the Home Office ⬇️ Nazi scum off our streets & out of our seaside towns

Back in news is Sheffield University with more cuts Chemistry, civil engineering, management, materials science, East Asian studies all under review Who will apply to a dept threatened with closure? Catastrophe management from highly paid VC & executive team www.bbc.com/news/article...

In the chaotic blur of May - present, caring for parents & my dads illness means I’ve forgotten to email people, ignored messages & generally fallen off the face of the academic world. If I owe you something, I’m doing my best not to drown in my own cortisol at the moment, sorry for being shit

“Indigenous heartlands” in rural Wales

Dad fell this evening, and paramedics are finally here after he spent 1.5 hours on the floor waiting. A friends mum waited 5 hours for an ambulance a few weeks ago so I guess this is a good thing?

I never thought my sister and I would be providing personal care to our dad but apparently palliative care in Norfolk means there’s a phone line to call if you need advice about your feelings. There isn’t any functioning social care left in this county & we are exhausted

Dan Snow being given more time in Radio 4 right now to talk about the early medieval burials with West African ancestry & global trade routes rather than the actual archaeological expert involved in the project. Steam is leaving both of my ears

And yet we are told that degrees have to lead more directly to employability. I guess now that Cranfield, which focuses on engineering and business, has to lay off, we can start fighting that specious argument, that is used so often against the Humanities. www.bbc.com/news/article...

This is what happens when public understanding of history comes from watching shit documentaries on Netflix or Channel 5

England was pretty cosmopolitan in the early medieval period it turns out www.thetimes.com/article/9e23...

Good thing the UK government hasn’t gone all in on promoting AI, then, because I’m pretty sure the largest cooling load requirement in data centres comes from the vast amount of data required by generative AI. But it’s cool we’ve got the first “tech” version of paper straws.

I see Strong Academic Opinions are being rolled out again on here. Is it that time of year already? It’ll soon be time for ‘My A Level Results’ & ‘Using The Title of Doctor in Daily Life’ discourse

Number crunching: Monthly cut to universal credit for newly sick and disabled claimants from 2026 From the latest Private Eye, out now.

Navigating the trashed-beyond-repair local authority adult social services & NHS medical care for dad is a full time job, requiring more tracking & coordination than I ever need to use at work. Genuinely astounded how people aren’t being just left to die in their homes given how bad this system is

The decorated backplate of a copper alloy Iron Age mirror From a pit with mid-late 1st century AD Roman glassware Possibly part of a very late Durotriges grave assemblage Found at Chettle Park Dorset in 2003 Now in the BM (2009,8006.1) © The Trustees of the British Museum #FindsFriday

Are you an early-career historian interested in radical, public and digital history? We are currently looking for two part-time, paid Editorial Fellows to join History Workshop. Deadline is at midnight on 15th August. See below for more details! www.historyworkshop....

We’re going to hell in a handcart, but some 2500 years ago someone in what is now modern eastern Italy made this kyathos to mix wine in and it’s still an object of deep joy

A display of the craniometric equipment & anthropological masks at the Museum of Anthropology in Florence. Some 350 out of over 600+ in the collection were taken from living humans in Africa & India during the fascist regime of the 1930s & were displayed in what was formerly known as ‘The Race Room’

My dad has promised me he won’t kark it until I get back from my holiday, which is very generous of him, but mum says she can’t promise she won’t want to murder him before I return. Praise be for Norfolk County Council Adult Social Care & the NHS, which actually works when pushed

An open letter has been launched today (27/7/25) for members of the UK academic community (academics and other university staff) to sign, to press the UK Home Office to facilitate safe passage out of Gaza for 40+ students with offers for UK universities. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Spent a morning with the palliative care nurse organising the banalities of a drawn out death. There is so much paperwork involved in end of life care it’s shocking. Dad’s just worried he’s not going to get enough wear out of all his new trousers before he pops off

A difficulty in scrutinising ancient DNA from the outside is that the original methods are discussed in arcane terms in separate papers cast across the innumerable winds of scientific publishing. Here are 2 papers which attempt to discuss collections of common methods with plainer language.

Coming up on the 17th of July, Prof. Howard Williams presents a vital reflection on the intersection of Viking Archaeology, the far-right, and short-form online video content, drawing from his own experiences on TikTok. Visit archaeologistsrfa.wordpress.com/events/ for details and to register.

Seriously, We Transfer has just said they'll scrape anything you send through them for AI.

A lot of very useful resources and examples from QAA on generative artificial intelligence & how it can be used (or not) in HE teaching: www.qaa.ac.uk//en/sector-r...

Reviewer 2: “remove this author from your paper” Reviewer 3: “why doesn’t that author appear in your paper?” Lorna: 💥 🧠 💥

this is such a beautiful conversation with @zenakamash.bsky.social about the power of connection and healing through tangible and intangible cultural heritage—please take a few minutes to hear more about this amazing work! #PeoplingThePast #CulturalHeritage #ArchaeologyLovers

A HE job ad with “agile working culture” as if it’s novel nowadays. We’re so agile at concrete towers we’re on roller skates

"X warned it could face shutdown in Poland after Grok’s antisemitic outburst. “Freedom of speech belongs to humans, not artificial intelligence,” said Polish Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski on Wednesday morning." www.euractiv.com/section/tech...