73 aint a bad innings for the C18th. Must be a Daily Mail health and lifestyle article in this.

Shows just how partisan US politics is. Starmer is at something like 18% and he hasn't ordered the army into Bristol, or said he'll annexe Iceland, yet. Just please tell me we don't have to elect Farage twice for people to find out what they really think of him.

With Wonyong Park and the ASE, we are running a survey on science teachers' use of research to inform teaching. If you are a science teacher, please consider taking 10-15 minutes to complete the survey. Participants may opt into a prize draw. southampton.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

For Friday's 500th edition of TGT tell your students about Andre Michelin, who produced a free guidebook and restaurant rating system as a way to encourage people to drive further to eat and wear the tyres on their cars out more quickly. Genius. bit.ly/TutorGroupThink

Holy hell, what an obituary

Looking forward to more extensive coverage of the civil war about to break out in our hellhole cities.

Well worth a read from @daisychristo.bsky.social substack.nomoremarking.com/p/maybe-llm-...

One of so many contradictions in what people want - they want lively town centres full of shops but also want to buy everything online for the lowest possible price.

everything needs more money but no one wants to pay more money part 5647

Hard agree with this.

Tuesday's TGT remembers the anniversary of Alfred Wegener's public proposal of continental drift in 1912. Discuss geology and timescales involved, how this exemplifies the scientific method, or discuss whether Wegner is famous enough given the scale of his idea. bit.ly/TutorGroupThink

Should the Dept of Education put schoolchildren on a site where this is now the norm/culture, not a surprise or exception? Now surrounded by porn, bots & racists too. The Public Sector Equality Duty says no. For reasons of inertia, fame/£ & political class groupthink, different rules for Elon Musk

I can just about understand that some people don't get embarrassed for the misguided, terrible auditions for, like, the X Factor, and just find it funny and laugh at them. But I'm not sure how you can watch this and not be in one or other of those camps.

Ocean Heat Content Sets Another Record in 2025 'Global ocean warming continued unabated in 2025 in response to increased greenhouse gas concentrations and recent reductions in sulfate aerosols' I'm hoping this preliminary @mercatorocean.bsky.social estimate for 2025 is wrong...🫣

I miss the days when political leaders only lied occasionally, feeling a bit guilty as they did so, and pretty much never just made 💩 up.

Nicely nuanced post by @hannahritchie.bsky.social on the effect on US life expectancy of the grim death rate for young Americans. But even accounting for that, the US spends a very high amount on healthcare given the below par outcomes for older people. hannahritchie.substack.com/p/life-expec...

Just learned, via @timleunig.bsky.social excellent substack, that USS owns a very large stake in Thames Water, bought after Macquarie Asset Management had loaded it up with debt.

The idea of the "Green Desert of Wales" is quite controversial, but significant in relation to questions about UK biodiversity and the impact of house building and development.

Just another little bit of evidence rather than anything definitive, but it does show an infant screen-time / adolescent anxiety correlation, with a suggested mechanism. www.thelancet.com/journals/ebi...

Ah, yes, "a new book..." Duckworth is an extraordinary person (see cv) and it's not entirely her fault that so many people jumped on the Grit bandwagon without asking if it was a personality trait that responded to well-meaning interventions, but my impression is she's leaned into that pretty hard.

The list of innovations in neonatal medicine this one man was responsible for is so impressive. Not the least the famous kangaroo care (he run an RCT showing its effectiveness). He was our alumnus @kingscollege.bsky.social! Rest in peace, Professor Whitelaw and thank you for everything

🤣🤣🤣https://foddy.net/Athletics.html

I'm appalled at discovering this is what happens to Snakes and Ladders across the pond.

Cracks me up when I'm trying to sign into Outlook on my phone and I have to get the 2FA number from... my phone. 'ping'

We've already passed the earliest sunset of the year and have started the long, slow drag back towards light evenings. However, no sign of it today. 💨🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️💨

Had to do the Sun, Moon, and stars first?

Saw a child go from daily ear defenders to never using them. The panels made such a difference to her stress levels.

I have a question for other #ITeachPhysics people. I have several masses in my collection that are labeled "500 G." They are most certainly *not* 500 g. All of them are around 146g. One even says "500 G Actual 146.7g" Any idea what I'm looking at? This has bothered me for years.

Is this the same public that understands the state pension will have to go?

Should have binned the 'exceptional hardship' get out clause years ago. Here is another death that could have been prevented. www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/2567499...

What on Earth is Amanda Spielman trying to say here? The first paragraph here strikes me as obtuse, although the question itself is certainly worthy of consideration. However, the "but" in the second paragraph is either terrible editing or an utterly bizarre non-sequitur.

@iop.org online information webinar about starting a career in teaching physics Tues 16th Dec at 1230. events.teams.microsoft.com/event/fd1d1b... Do pass on to anyone you know who might be interested. #iTeachPhysics

Report on international recruitment to Initial Teacher Education from @associationscied.bsky.social All sorts of issues. Lots of potential. DfE need to put some proper effort into this, not just bursaries! www.ase.org.uk/news/ase-pub...

@tomforth.co.uk spot on as usual 👇

Dealing with a death, struggling to produce enough ID with both name and address on it. The days of hard copy utility bills and bank statements are long gone. Just get Digital ID done. It's the C21st for goodness sake!

Can the world's 6th largest economy please stop pissing around and just make basic, and relatively inexpensive, things work.

Already hearing people complain about MATs in exactly the same way they complained about LEA. Most recently: “I wish they wouldn’t put on CPD for us. I’d rather have the money and we can pick what we want.” Ah the smell of 2006 all over again!

I think these are key questions. Same for MH issues.

Also worth noting that the current conception of autism is similar to that of Sukhareva in the 1920s.

The common cormorant (or shag), Lays eggs inside a paper bag...

Academia really can't make any claims on sustainability until we stop running conferences where most attendees will run up a carbon footprint equivalent to the per capita annual emissions of a middle-income country.

@bphillipsonmp.bsky.social talking about the difference teachers made to her life - including Mr Hurst, who told her he expected her to go to uni, and inspired her to go. Teachers are amazing 👏 @TeachingAwards

This is not my experience, despite being an AI Officer. Many students don't read enough. In anonymous feedback, setting one pre-reading a week (of ~4-20 pp), some students said it was too much. But, Just finished marking a full set of Y1 first assignments. Virtually no sign of non-human writing...

In education research, I'd say "doing fewer things, better" is the right strategy. My impression is it's all very piecemeal, chasing around after funding pots. Not in any way a criticism of research colleagues, but "doing fewer things, properly" might be nearer to it.

This is pretty massive. There is scant detail so far but they say "solar radiation" has caused problems for some aircraft. This *could* be related to single-event upsets, where cosmic rays trigger computer errors. I've asked Airbus if they can share more detail. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cv...

I'm wondering how this gets counted in the productivity stats. Probably twice!

Interesting wee film about landscape woodland regeneration in Scotland. Applies to upland areas of Wales and England as well, of course. Another issue where land tax with variable rates could be an effective policy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuTV...

Being intelligent is primarily a matter of genetics and luck. There's no doubt good thinking habits make a difference to how you handle information but only within those contraints.

Now this👇IS rocket science. I don't have a useful answer, do you?

Remarkable, the way some on the left are leaning into this as an opportunity to destroy the BBC. Excellent perspective from @iandunt.bsky.social I genuinely think if the BBC is lost, we're all lost. Just have to look west to see that.