I hope Melvin Bragg's retirement will not end In Our Times. He has a lovely voice and manner but it's the people he invites that hold the show. I'll take this chance to post a thread of some of the more memorable episodes for me. Starting with Schaffer, Worrall, and @michelamassimi.bsky.social

That is the point of a university you fucker.

'It’s hard to notice absence, but once you do, you cannot unsee it. We studied a procession of male writers, kings and generals, with only an occasional female to give any sign that women had been there too.' 1/2

Got my popcorn out today for Logic Lane (1972). A 6-part documentary on Oxford philosophy. Intro episode followed by extended conversations between: Isaiah Berlin & Stuart Hampshire; A. J. Ayer & Bernard Williams; Irish Murdoch & David Pears; P. F. Evans & Gareth Evans; Gilbert Ryle & J. O. Urmson.

Private Eye

Royal Society's governing council will meet on 1 October to consider expelling Elon Musk. Adrian Smith, its president, taking a new stance in light of Musk address to far-right rally in London last week. @francesjones.bsky.social with the latest. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...

Trey Reed. Corey Zukatis.

I 💜 this so much. Clemens J. Setz is such a fascinating thinker: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

My next book, Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley, comes out in one month from Bloomsbury. It's about the rise of the tech right, crypto corruption, the 2024 election, and Silicon Valley complicity in MAGA authoritarianism. linktr.ee/gildedrage

Please consider signing this petition. Although it seems unlikely that our government will ban him (sadly), it shows the strength of feeling in the UK against Elon and his vile opinions and actions. startafire.co/scramnews/ba...

this is superb, as is everything i've ever read by DC

"drastic plans to halve the intake of humanities students at one of China’s most prestigious institutions, Fudan University, divided opinions among scholars." Has anyone seen more on this?

Have been vacationing from Bluesky but I'm back to remind you all that Peter Mandelson has *always* been a wrong 'un and that he should never have been made ambassador to the US in the first place

Nothing to see here, just Boris Johnson praising the values of a far-right misogynist and racist. He could have just said murder is wrong & expressed sympathy for his family, but he’s gone out of his way to praise the character & principles of an open, avowed bigot & to apportion blame. Shocking.

I'm in the funniest situation ever, which is that a 17 years old math genius got obsessed with Barthes and wants to learn everything about structuralism. Help me make a list of the best works of structuralism, excluding ones that will embarrass us in front of the mathematicians?

UK should stop investing in carbon capture for power, government adviser says. #CCS “a gift to the oil and gas industry, and carry on the fiction that somehow enormous amounts of public money should enable them to keep doing it”. www.ft.com/content/5595...

Strapped some headphones on, paired them to my mobile phone, put on special ‘running clothes’ & followed instructions from the ‘Couch To 5K’ app. I do hate taking physical exercise. Running round Cambridge, I felt like some late-nineteenth-century utilitarian don. Henry Sidgwick, or J. G. Frazer.

And so it begins. Silent, elderly protestors now being arrested by Police. Whilst western leaders sponsor a genocide, those opposing it are labelled terrorist supporters. A dark page in the UK history books. (🎥 Just Briohny)

Fantastic article by Oliver Kim about how to think about GDP measures across long stretches of history (it's hard!) asteriskmag.com/issues/11/gd...

The courage of this woman is moving.

Melvyn Bragg has been one of the last standard-bearers for a really important, and unfashionable, idea: that good conversation, between people who really know their stuff, on complex or difficult subjects, can be fantastic radio - and that the national broadcaster should do this. I hope it endures.

If the witch hunts restarted tomorrow, Keir Starmer would say people have legitimate concerns about women who can float on water

Designed in California. Assembled in Vietnam. Prompted here. Generated there. The stack inscribed in aluminium.

Anyone a Typepad user / interested in working on a migration tool to Leaflet? They're shutting down on short notice; detail in thread. Not familiar with their cms & not sure how much time we'll have to explore this but would love to hear from interested folks & see how we can support!

“A time to recognize the literary translators whose intense, sustained work has led to the publication of these and other brilliant works of literature, which otherwise would remain unknown to a wider, international audience.” (@ilzeduarte.bsky.social)

Literally tilting at windmills

Devastating photos by journalists Mariam Dagga and Hussam Al-Masri of the suffering and destruction in Gaza, shortly before Israeli forces killed them too

The Wikimedia Hackathon 2025 brought 200+ coders, builders, and dreamers from 30+ countries to Istanbul. From tools flagging gendered language to Wikidata-scale projects, 45 showcases proved one thing: when Wikimedia’s tech community meets, innovation sparks. Read more ➡️ w.wiki/EtXA

what are the candidates for “novel of the summer” this year?

A great read on UChicago, arguing we’re seeing the result of decades of mismanagement: “The university’s trustees and leaders view it preeminently as a tax-free technology incubator, and its debt load is so great that it is abandoning ideals it once held dear in order to sustain that goal.”

A thoughtful post in @politicalquarterly.bsky.social on Diane Abbott, antisemitism and the complex ways in which race is imagined and understood. By three scholars of antisemitism: @brendanmcgeever.bsky.social, @bengidley.bsky.social and David Feldman. politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/diane-a...

Wikidata's data powers amazing apps. I showcased a few of them at #Wikimania last week. Dive into what @wikidatacommunity.bsky.social makes possible in the slides here: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wi... #Wikidata

One like, one opinion on intellectual history.

Bertie would definitely be into LLMs and Jeeves would *definitely* intervene to steer him away from them

“There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.” ― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

I know this is an annoying thing to do (and no one will see it)but….any recommendations for histories of desire? Not so much driven by object choice (sex, consumerism, choice, etc) but histories of desire itself? Not theory (of which I have more than enough)

Residents of Dean have erected placards protesting against the arrival of American vice-president J.D. Vance in the tiny West Oxfordshire village. They say that they are “extremely angry”, but that the police presence which has sealed off the village has made a “proper protest” impossible.

Just utterly out of words to describe what we’re seeing. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Wikipedia’s processes encourage human responsibility. By contrast, Big Tech platforms hide responsibility behind opaque algorithms. The Online Safety Act, by running them together, is jeopardising digital public goods, the commons, and digital public infrastructure.

Breaking: the court ruling in Wikipedia's legal challenge to the Online Safety Act categorisation regime has just been handed down. The court dismissed Wikipedia's challenge. This is bad. This is very bad. wikimediafoundation.org/news/2025/08...

We may be about to find out that Wikipedia is actually important: "Category 1 demands would undermine the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer contributors, expose the encyclopedia to manipulation and vandalism, and divert essential resources from protecting people and improving Wikipedia"

#Wikimania2025 keynote: Joyce Nakatumba-Nabende, Vukasi Marivate, Selena Deckelmann and Job Meaura keynote panel on #AI: how should Wikimedia projects adapt, respond to and shape the AI landscape?

🚀 At #Wikimania2025 today? Don’t miss the #Wikidata sessions: 📅 Full schedule: wikimedia.eventyay.com/talk/... 🔍 At 10:30 - 10:55 (Room Nairobi & online), @Nightrose tackles a key question: “We want our data to be reused. But do we really?” Session info: wikimedia.eventyay.com/talk/...

Lydia talking about challenges in #Wikidata #Wikimania #Wikimania2025

Talk to me about @MWStake or @smw at #wikimania2025 #wikimania

Wikimania starts today 🎉 #Wikimania2025 is bringing the free knowledge movement together online and in Nairobi, Kenya. Wikimedians are gathering to celebrate, connect, and collaborate. Join us ➡️ wikimania.org

At Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi! A fantastic welter of conference activity here. Listening to Ruby D. brown and Nwonwu Uchechukwu Pascaline present their research on barriers to African women contributing to Wikipedia #AfricanWikiWomen

So which wikibrarians are heading to Nairobi for Wikimania.? There's a preconference workshop "Strategies and challenges to start Wikimedia Projects conversations in libraries" on Tuesday 5 August 2025 9 am - 1 pm at the conference venue. Please join in!

This by ‪@moiraweigel.bsky.social is utterly fascinating