And is a classicist. Good on them

I’ve actually written my 500 words! Now back to organising stuff admin and reading other people’s work

I’m currently reading Elizabeth Bear‘s Whitespace series where AI is expensive and has to pay back its own creation. Also there are definitely services that are deteriorating due to AI integration such as Google search which no longer finds more niche things.

With the change of leadership, we have a window to push for some attention to #UKHE and stabilising the sector in the first place. Please write to your MPs to get them to realise the risks of non-action. Here's a template if you like -- though do adapt to your local situation to connect with MPs.

First encounter with Cambridge South in the wild. Might actually be our closest station now?

"Too often, gender fluidity is thought of as a “new” or even “Western” phenomenon. However, the reality is that countless cultures around the world have traditions and histories beyond the gender binary." The collaborative article for our #Pride 🏳️‍🌈 Spotlight~ globalvoices.org/2026/07/01/b...

Mixture of true and false in this thread. Absolutely true that our current moral panic against trans people is the result of campaigns over the last decade and a half by the religious right. But moral panic on trans people has travelled in waves in different Euro-American societies.

Externals comments (positive) made me cry. A lot of unprocessed emotions washing around at the moment, but it’s important to remember that I have done some things well this year.

Feeling rough this morning though it is beautiful in the garden and not too hot. I guess my mind/body is probably owed some down time. But also there is still so much to do

Today I learned that volunteers on an island near Vancouver decide to just buy tons of efficient heat pumps, unlocking big bulk discounts, and help their neighbors install them. They've done 1,100 of the 3,000 homes on Gabriola Island, BC! How cool is that?! 🤯🔥👠

A lot of media coverage of the ‘AI’ reading of the Herculaneum scrolls really fails to understand what’s happened here. There’s no language processing happening, the AI/ML is not trained on a corpus of texts or language. It can detect ink to see shapes. HUMAN EXPERTS are then transcribing the text.

On the one hand visiting the dentist. On the other aircon

Evil Neville takes over. Imagine the Nevilleverse

It's all a bit muted now, because of the war on the Left under Starmer. But basically there's a faction, loosely connected to Starmer, whose guiding principles are "working people are racists and we need to accept that" and "everyone to the Left of us is a Trot and should probably be purged".

#UKHE! You know how we're told that 'students want less choice' against what we know to be reality & against pedagogical & disciplinary needs? Finally found the Nous report that supposedly backs that up, & it's based on a survey that asks about the *choice of major* nousgroup.com/assets/docs/...

Now to take stock and apologise for all the things that haven’t happened over the last two months. Limit the damage. Sorry everyone.

nobody in British politics seems to want to say it but the single biggest driver of their inability to keep a prime minister for any length of time is that Brexit was stupid and ruinous and made everyone’s lives worse

I'm attending a digital humanities event in Montreal. There was a keynote on AI and something about the talk made me wonder if it had been written by Claude. I said as much in the Q&A. As I posed the question, the speaker shifted, looking slightly uncomfortable. What he said next shocked the room +

On the train. So many opinions about the World Cup

It's been ten years since Jo Cox was killed. Her words stay with us now and always. "We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us."

"Jenny owns a crematorium. John’s propane company gives her a $20 billion investment in return for 5 percent of her operation. Jenny throws $10 billion into the incinerator, then pays John $10 billion to buy propane to burn that money to ashes..."

Don’t ban kids using YouTube. Make YouTube behave like a broadcaster. Pay creators. Reinvest in the creative industries. Pay fair tax back into creators’ economies. Follow guidelines on fair usage and copyright. Play fair. It’s bigger than TV now. Make it behave like TV.

RIP to the great Jane Yolen, whose dragon book I must have read at least a dozen times in seventh grade alone. One of those life-changing, never-leaves-you books.

A reminder as the far right tries to spread hate and division: they're not even that popular, they're just loud https://goodlawproject.org/aurelien-mondon-the-far-right-isnt-populist-theyre-not-even-popular/

Brain has decided best way to handle current situation is to get through everything As Fast As Possible. Woke up at 5 today. Done all the normal things in the day by 7.09 pm. Hmm what now?

#NBCD Quick Pick: Is Helen the face that launched a thousand ships and burnt the topless towers of Illium, or was GODZILLA who did the burning? Homer's epics gets even bigger with the introduction of kaiju!

I hate thunderstorms. It really messes with my head bist ears eyes etc and I feel sick

Early waking. Now frazzled. Can I nap?

I don't know how Keir Starmer can wake up in the morning, see that pogroms have been taking place under his watch, that they are being fuelled by literal illegal activity on social media, and not make it his entire purpose to stop it. We know you're no politician, but are you not a lawyer?

Also the Mandalorian would absolutely not approve

Brain fog and eye pain. Overdid it yesterday. Very up and down right now.

By far the biggest problem with delegating judgement to machines is the people who own the machines can tune them towards outcomes they prefer but those who don't own anything can't. It's not the technology. It's a transfer of decision making power from rational accountable systems to capital.

A great remedy for existential angst, this one

Maybe examining a PhD about grief the week after my father died was not a good idea

UK publishing generated £7.4 billion in revenue last year. Compare that to: Premier League football: £6.6 billion Home entertainment: £5.6 billion UK film industry: 2.8 billion Now tell me again why authors don't deserve fair contracts and better pay.

every time I say this, someone didn't know: you can get the NYRB, the New Yorker, the LRB, Paris Review, The Spectator (weirdly not New Statesman), The Week, both French & Italian Vogue & New Scientist among many many other magazines FREE via the Libby app from your local library?

One of the best responses I know: if someone asks you a rude question, ask them a question back highlighting their rudeness, i.e. 'What is your sex?' gets 'Oh my god - are you asking me about my genitals? Seriously? You're seriously asking me what's in my pants? What's wrong with you?' etc.

My daughter's beloved child is the one I hold here. The one that I held on my lap While we looked at the light of the sun when we were alive, And that I still hold, now that we are both dead. - inscription on this c. 400 BCE Greek grave marker, carved with a grandmother holding a swaddled baby

Concentration flagging but still got about half a PhD to go by tomorrow. Not a good time of year for a bereavement.

It’s so weird to be back home, but also lovely to see my garden (even if rainy), my bialetti (coffee tasty), my baritone (can still play!) and my monitor (work so much easier!). Cats still angry though. Meanwhile Andrew has reconditioned the old kitchen table and bought a sewing machine.

My father is gone. He was contradictory, complicated and believed in the power of a piece of string. I’m glad he’s not in pain any more and that he died in the place he lived with the sound of tractors passing the window.

Great new report from Burcu Sevde Selvi @bennettschool.cam.ac.uk on why aggregate figures alone can't explain UK's creative industries, while exploring how AI, digital technologies, access and participation are impacting the growth of the sector. www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/blog/uks-cre...

So many. Sister Rosario and her bat; Sister Kevin who couldn’t spell; Mr Mannix who kept me behind every night for a year because I wouldn’t copy out a full exercise book ‘neatly’; Fr Jenkins who wrote to all the unis I’d applied to telling them not to give me a place…

Really want to read this!

Making another roast dinner. Also now planning to head home tomorrow for a weekend of respite, before I actually turn into my mother.

Topical.

Looking after my parents: no plan to go home. This does feel a bit like my own personal lock down. At least the carers provide interaction, but there’s no local source of takeaway pizza or curry. The countryside is prettier though.

I note that my mood goes up and down directly proportional to the likelihood of escaping this situation and getting home, which makes a change from whether I’ve written any words, I guess. I have in fact written some words, so there’s that.

Dreaming about versions of the Odyssey. Extreme version: 6 hours long, in Greek, hexameters, set with archaeological accuracy in ca. 690 BCE, all material culture slightly hightened (but still kinda grotty & small) Early Iron Age stuff with Near-eastern imports and misunderstood Myc heirlooms. 1/

Frances Hugle US semiconductor & integrated circuitry engineer. Invented techniques/equipment for fabricating microscopic circuitry, integrated circuits & microprocessors still in use 1962 co-founded Siliconix early semiconductor house. d. #OTD 24 May 1968 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances...