Opinion: “What I think about is if I return to Afghanistan, will I have the chance to continue my teaching at university? There, I see zero per cent job security.” The UK’s visa ban is another blow for Afghanistan’s despairing intellectuals, says scholar #highered https://ow.ly/Po5r50YraxQ

@audreywatters.bsky.social Interesting - from within JISC bsky.app/profile/eica...

'The systems now being woven into education are shaped by a remarkably small group of people. Not “the internet” as the source of training material. Not “society” influencing the way we use these tools.' Fascinating that this comes from within Jisc. 1/3

Part of Trump’s mass appeal (and of why he’s so dangerous) is that he really seems to share Joe Barstool’s worldview that there are no complex problems: Everything has a simple brute solution, which previous leaders were somehow too stupid or weak to deploy.

As a cross country ski enthusiast, this really nails my thoughts on downhill. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Glad he said that. Don’t want anything coming out of his foul twisted mouth associated with England.

I get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.

Never miss a chance to tell my favourite science joke: Q: What did Crick & Watson discover? A: Rosalind Franklin’s lab book.

You can learn more about Sir Harold Gillies, Anna Coleman Ladd, and the disfigured soldiers of the First World War in my book, THE FACEMAKER - available wherever books are sold. Below is the US cover (left) and UK cover (right). /7 US: shorturl.at/AVoHh UK: shorturl.at/gt4AS

This week the Home Secretary has decided to prevent students from 4 countries obtaining study visas for UK. She has also terminated Chevening Scholarships for Afghan students. Please let Shabana Mahmoood know the UK needs talent and it needs to support Afghan women. [email protected]

ICE agents surrounded Estefany Rodríguez’s vehicle, which was marked as a press car, and took her away. newrepublic.com/post/207479/...

Audrey Watters putting it straight, there is no human-centered AI. 2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/there-is-no-...

N'oubliez jamais que si le #Brexit a eu lieu, c'est parce que ces journaux ont vendu des milliers de mensonges contre l' #UE et l' #immigration. On a la même chose en France: la sphère #Bolloré #RN #Reconquête #frexiters

'It said a voluntary redundancy process had now opened for staff in professional services and in some academic areas.' Plans to lose 200 staff do 'not include course or department closures, and could equate to savings of £11m.' Total staff count is currently 2,040.

Yep Farage 2015 : "We don't need to take foreign policy advice from the American President."

Just filled in a fee claim form for examining a PhD, UK university. I reckon it pays £4 and hour. I'd have made more on a paper round.

Maybe Starmer is channelling Churchill more than Trump knows. This quote is often attributed to Churchill: ‘You have enemies? Good. It means that you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.’ See how long he lasts.

Genuinely incredible that the U.S. will celebrate the 250th without an Archivist of the United States.

Why is it vital for the Labour Party to pander to “legitimate grievances” about refugees, when the legitimate grievances of the actual majority of the population against privatised water and power services can be cheerfully ignored?

This in a nutshell! Starmer is dangerously wrong here!

Last year I went to the outpatients dept at Addenbrooks Hospital for an appointment - as I sat there what was so striking was the patients sitting, waiting were all white & over 60 & all the hospital staff were black, brown, etc and under 40

Never forget: 8 years ago a random person on Craigslist wrote the most effective ad for the Toyota Corolla, ever.

A good society is where people have plenty of legal rights but never even have to think of going to law to enforce them. A bad society is where legal rights are fragile or contested or violated and the courts are overloaded with cases. A terrible society is where rights are not legally protected.

Emily Thornberry: It's an illegal operation. Interviewer: Is that a government view? Thornberry: Its a legal view. #r4today

War launched by Board of Peace! www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

How the private equity industry views education is really alien to how educators see it. Yet these investors probably have a bigger say in how the future of education will unfold. First, education is a *market* worth $trillions *in the future* making it a good speculative bet for investment...

Good grief. And I thought the extreme Right wanted family voting. It's part of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025.

No Rich Crook Left Behind. Adam Serwer on America's culture of impunity for the leadership class. This piece should be discussed by every civic class in the US. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

In case you were wondering, the rate at which the days are growing longer is non-linear. December 21st was the solstice. The next day was about 2 seconds longer. Now, over 2 months later, we're gaining over 2 minutes & 40 seconds daily. This maxxes out on March 21st, at 2:44 gain each day.

Every trans Kansan's license is being invalidated. Assigned projected this as a consequence of the law as written. www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

Important insight. ALSO, I have no patience (and I mean ZERO) with people who say "they won't ban birth control." They will eventually try BECAUSE WHAT THEY WANT IS TO CONTROL YOUR BODILY AUTONOMY. We need to be proactive about BODILY AUTONOMY IN GENERAL.

For women, one of the very difficult things about the Epstein emails is having all our worst professional suspicions confirmed. You wonder in darker moments if men say this kind of awful stuff about us (individually, and as a class) to each other, and here it is all confirmed in writing.

This guy gets it.

People don't want data centers polluting their cities. They don't want masked thugs terrorizing their neighbors. They don't want warehouses being turned into ICE prisons. They want a living wage. They want healthcare. They want to be able to afford a home. They want their basic needs met.

Intelligent discussion of how the Republican Party came to normalise its Nazi contingent: "their party has laid out a welcome mat for an ideology that Americans once had to defeat in combat, at the cost of millions of lives". www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Well worth reading thos review. "Lucey argues that the system has now produced a cohort of academics who never experienced truth-as-sovereign and therefore can’t recognise its absence. For them, metrics aren’t a distortion of scholarship – metrics are scholarship."

Remember, these guys fired all the people who actually know what they're doing because "DEI" and then hired the absolute dumbest people imaginable because of "meritocracy" and... then they do stuff like leaving comments enabled in their "this is how we concentration camp" PDF.

Prisoner cell block HRH.

You can write the script on this one. 'Since becoming prime minister, I’ve been impressed by her professionalism and determination to get things done.' www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Future proofing grant proposals. Someone has told them every app has to be 'innovative'.

Bloody hell. #epsteinfiles

Mmm...let's see how that works out for your critics. I remember engaging with a similar invitation.

'Gender studies is not an “ideology”, but a critical tool for examining – in the case of Trump and Epstein – the predations of toxic masculinity'. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This is the first I’ve read of the Trump administration’s order to stop commemorating the Black American soldiers in a US military cemetery in the Netherlands. My God, how sick, petty & vindictive, how all-consumed with racist hatred do you have to be to order that?

I'm not especially opposed to driverless cabs, but I'm fucked if I'm giving up my ancestral British right to cross the road anywhere if it's safe for me to do so. "Jaywalking" isn't a thing or a crime here, techbros, so your magic cars will have to learn to deal with that.

Since a handful of hate filled people protested outside RNLI HQ yesterday because they're angry that crews don't discriminate in their rescues and work to save all lives at sea you might want to show your support with a one off or regular donation. rnli.org/pages/ig/new...

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sent Google, Meta, and other media corporations subpoenas for the names on accounts that criticize ICE enforcement. The department wants to identify Americans who oppose what it’s doing. I’ll save them time.

Musk, meanwhile, is literally parroting Nazi propaganda about how multicultural, multiracial nations would be easy to beat.

Propaganda during WWI and WWII in fact

The British Museum has removed the word Palestine from displays about the ancient Middle East following “concerns” by a UK-based Israeli advocacy group. Read: www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260215-bri...