Most of the world is already below replacement. Meaning we don't make enough babies. Global population shrinkage is a guaranteed event at this point. You can like this, you can dislike this but be assured that we haven't invented the economic model yet to make this new reality work.

To the publishing houses creating the languages textbooks, please take note.

BBC News gave unelected bureaucrat Zia Yusuf an 8 minute interview this morning in which Charlie Stayt said, "You haven't got a track record, you've got nothing to defend" Other than Nigel Farage's wild promises over Brexit? 🤷‍♂️

Last night we celebrated the project Researching Forgotten Stories of Latin American Sport. Led by @drpetewatson.bsky.social two students have recorded a podcast and 2 posters about their research. You can listen to it on: open.spotify.com/episode/11P6...

Girl, look out for a baby! Dutch booklet printed in 1945 when a lot of very dashing lovely allied soldiers were turning the Dutch girl's heads! Some interesting advice, let's read it.🧵

'Rooks' by Jackie Morris, contemporary artist, author and illustrator based in a little cottage near the sea in Wales #Womensart

i think capybara's got this playing... www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHT2...

I need to thank NCELP for making me chortle every time one of my students translates "los idiomas son importantes" as my idiot son is important. Luckily, it has been only three in two years.

When I talk about a two-tiered economy with different set of rules and standards for the super-rich, this is what I mean. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/24/technology/elon-musk-spacex-loans.html

I don't post this around but people still come to read it everyday on my site: christianmooreanderson.com/evidence-bas...

No necesitas más actividades. Necesitas menos… pero mejores. 👉 Muchas “actividades distintas” son la misma estructura con otro contenido. 👉 Cada novedad exige explicación. 👉 Y la atención es limitada. Menos variedad superficial. Más estructuras de alto valor. open.substack.com/pub/investig...

😷

AI learns language from skewed sources. That could change how we humans speak – and think

I am a fan of Zelda and Metal Gear, rich games with complex worlds. Anybody who argues Metal Gear is realistic tends to also argue that Resident Evil is realistic. Violence and death in videogames are mostly cartoonish and unrealistic, regardless of the visuals. www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

'Scaredy Cat' by Cornish artist Kirsty Elson who trawls the beaches of her home collecting driftwood as the raw materials for her artworks #WomensArt

The myth of languages being badly taught in secondary casts a long shadow. Today I was told that phonics was not taught before NCELP... so next week my Y8 will listen to recordings of people saying "ejersisio" and centro and they'll decide if the speaker is from parts of Spain or from America.

Amazon warehouse workers have been trying to unionize for years, largely in response to the corporation's well-documented unsafe working conditions. But Amazon continues to squash organizing. Every worker deserves to be safe on the job.

Strawberries, 1696. A little miracle of simplicity, for Adriaen Coorte's day.

I think another reason many Americans Feel Bad About the Economy: There is a constant barrage of information indicating to the casual observer that people who run scams and lie and refuse to play by the rules aren't just going unpunished, they're *making way more money than you are* as a result.

Elevating monstrous assholes to power not only emboldens every other piece of shit out there to emulate them, but *also* makes it incredibly difficult to convince kids that morality is a worthwhile thing.

🖊️NEW POST🖊️: Adaptive teaching in MFL - reflection on chapter 4 of our recently published book: Succeeding as an MFL teacher. #mflsky #edusky www.fraubastowmfl.co.uk/post/adaptiv...

Sunday Sunday

The first bluebells, by Liza Adamczewski (aka the Accidental Ecologist), artist who creates work inspired by and celebrating local wildlife #WomensArt

This

Just wanted to remind folks, especially the GOP and the FDD, that Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal didn’t give Iran control of the Strait of Hormuz or allow it to keep 60% enriched uranium. It sent $1.7 billion to Iran versus the tens of billions Iran will now make from tolls. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Today’s artist without a (known) birthday: Tomás Yepes. Painter of wonderful things during the age of Philip IV. Here, 2 bowls of fruit, 1642.

Experienced teachers leaving the profession means that we are recycling failed ideas that CILT had proven not evidence based 20+ years ago, like the central role of declarative grammar in language learning.

The narrative of "failure" is very useful for people with a project to push: whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/2022/05/fail...

imagine if i happened to be a trillionaire and bought twitter and 80% of the stuff on the site was just about big pants. you couldn't escape it. just an endless deluge of big pants propaganda

3/3 One more shelly face from Jan van Kessel. A bit of trepidation, wouldn't you say?

2/2 I'm seeing confusion, surprise, & anger. Shelly faces, so expressive! Jan van Kessel, what a painter! Today is his day.

Festoon of shells, 1656. Proving for all time that still-life painting can be hilarious. By Jan van Kessel of Antwerp, born OTD 1626.

Morning Wren and Night Owl hanging in my studio. Wishing you a peaceful and contemplative weekend, wherever you are, whatever you do or don’t believe in, and whomever you love.

changing-phase.blogspot.com/2026/03/bein... Being creative in Languages Where I examine the four kinds of creativity at play in the languages classroom

On Passover, some Sephardic Jews revisit not only the story of their ancestors, but also their Ladino language

There was space in the "knowledge is king" to teach languages better. “How you learn something influences what you can do with the resulting knowledge.” If you practice grammar and vocabulary exercises, you will learn how to do those exercises, but not much else. www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...

I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking this. They have rarely been as blatant regarding how they feel about the rest of us and what they intend to do to us, and yet they're still walking around on unbroken legs for some reason.

An explosion, a firework, of flowers. By Juan van der Hamen y León, who died (alas!) on this day in 1631.

Each individual item in this perfectly balanced arrangement is exquisite, but the green glass vessel is sublime. Painted in 1627 by Juan van der Hamen y León of Madrid, whose day is today.

146 workers died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on this day in 1911. The bosses responsible were never held accountable for the awful working conditions that sparked the blaze. Remember this today as politicians and their corporate backers attack workplace safety.

Does this 200 billion dollars mean trump didn’t win the war last week?

Reform Cancels Christmas

It is *fascinating* to me how quickly some people have gone completely from “we all must work in the office! human collaboration is vital and only happens in person!” to “I can replace all these pesky people with chatbots!” Definitely some commentary there about our society and who gets to choose.

Doubt Is Their Product (2008) by David Michaels shows how the tobacco, fossil fuel, and gun industry created a playbook for creating doubt or confusion around science proving harmfulness of their products. Your thread provides helpful information on what to do, how to ID tactics, and what to do.

After working with the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal died in the country he spent years of his life helping. The cruelty is endless.

Born on this day in 1611, in Antwerp, Jan Fyt. Painter of animals, dead and alive. Here, his amazing study of a dog (v. alive) from the 1640s.