So someone who used to work for Google, an AI company founder and someone from the Tony Blair Institute. Could you not have found space for a Lib Dem or a Green MP? Or even, shock horror a commentator on Welsh or Scottish politics? (Remembers why I gave up on QT years ago, such a stale format)

A livestream of a volcano in the Philippines captured a meteor crashing to Earth today. What are the odds? Mayon Volcano, Location: Albay, Luzon, Philippines

holyrood park is on fire here in #edinburgh ☀️🔥 @secretedinburgh.bsky.social @edinburghminute.com @threadinburgh.scot

Saw a fabulous hand knitted hat yesterday, fair isle, flat top and round on the head and quite sturdy. I think it is a type of beret but not a floppy French style. Would like to search for a pattern, so I could try to knit it, but I don't know what the hat style name. Anyone ideas?

Tartan, whisky and haggis! Don't know whether to laugh or cry. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 😆😢😣 "It concludes in a celebratory officiating moment, where guests receive a certificate naming them an official Scot for the day..." www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2026/05/23/e...

As the Klingons are so fond of saying - today is a good day to dry

Jessica Corner to step down as Research England head. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

UKRI are recruiting for a new Exec Chair for Research England (£160k-£170k). It is a crucial role including QR funding and the REF. I hope they get a great field. But I worry a bit. It's hard to find on their website (see link below) fa-evzn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Euston, we have a problem.

TIMELINE CLEANSE (sound up)

Do I know anyone who’s F L U E N T in Scottish Gaelic? I have a phonetics question regarding a beguiling water spirit character name that I’ve created and I want it to sound authentic. #ScottishGaelic

Well, none of the Eurovision songs are grabbing me. All rather bland and not quite mad enough for a proper Eurovision winner.

I've moaned about jobs being advertised before without salary before, but just found one with no proper job description, essential criteria or hint of salary scale at all. Is mind reading another skill that they are looking for in potential candidates? Or should people guess from the job title?

I interpret this list to be "100 books I want to think people I read and enjoyed" www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

Here's a #HigherEducationPostcard of @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social I'm not sure which lecture theatre this was - it looks slightly medical, but who knows! If you like this image, I’d really appreciate a repost - remember, BlueSky has #NoAlgorithm

A 7! Oh that's harsh #SHOTY (I've watched the Welsh version and they are way tougher with their scoring. A 7 would be pretty good on that)

As an act of mayoral solidarity, perhaps Sadiq could post one of these to Andy.

If I were Charlotte Nichols, I'd sit back for a bit, let the boys have their fight and then announce they were standing for leader. It must be exhausting being expected to step aside so some bloke can get promoted.

After a morning wrangling the budget, I realise that would never make it as an accountant due to my inability to remember 21 digit long budget codes. More seriously, why do we make our university budgeting systems so complicated? Does anyone have a system that doesn't sent them into a howling rage?

I am trying so hard to be polite, lots of 'just copying in the previous email I sent' and 'think you may have missed my previous correspondence' when what I really want to scream is 'READ YOUR SODDINGS EMAILS AND DO YOUR ACTUAL SODDING JOB' (external people, not internal before anyone panics

Why, were the Guardian thinking Wes was planning a sit in and refusing to leave?

UKRI urged to be ‘transparent’ after adopting grant lotteries. Funder’s quiet introduction of randomisation option across opportunities prompts questions, plus support for “innovative” action. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

I've just been stopped by a copper. He gave me the verdigris.

That number of 'at risk' staff is just horrible and that's after various VS rounds. My heartfelt sympathy to everyone at Nottingham. Beyond grim.

I'm just saying that whoever designed the new Duolingo app with the inspiration phrases clearly didn't test it with my name in mind. Letting you know that Anna! does not look like the encouraging statement you hoped for with that fancy, smancy font. 😂

Is it too much to ask that Labour thinks about a woman as leader? Just once?

I need to wear some tartan for an upcoming choir concert and now I'm having an existential crisis about what constitutes tartan. Where does tartan start and checks stop? I have a very Big Country 80s style checked shirt but is tartan?

A little #MondayMorningMystery! 🔎 We've been contacted by someone hoping for help to identify the church in this happy wedding picture. Produced by early 20thC Edinburgh photographers the Thomson Bros, the brick-built church is most likely in Edinburgh or the Lothians. Does anyone recognise it?

Oh my word! There's an Andrew Davies night on Wednesday 20th May on BBC4. He adapted novels into classic television like Pride & Prejudice, House Of Cards & Mother Love. But the best thing he ever did was his own creation. A Very Peculiar Practice. And it's getting a repeat! 🥳

Here's a #HigherEducationPostcard of what is now @unilancashire.bsky.social, but was originally - in 1828 - The Institution For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge If you like this image, I’d really appreciate a repost - remember, BlueSky has #NoAlgorithm

ITS NOT STAYCATION IF YOU LEAVE YOUR SODDING HOUSE AND STAY SOMEWHERE ELSE! ITS A HOLIDAY

Anyone else remember the section from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy about shoe shops taking over the world? How the world moves in. I need to go shoe shopping, (shoes, not trainers or sandals) but wish me luck trying to find a decent mid-priced shoe shop.

What percentage of the media leadership chat is a mechanism to deflect from chronic national problems that a change of leader wouldn’t touch? Must be north of 50. #r4today

Today a departing colleague described me as 'one of the nice ones, who made work a better place' and quite frankly, if that is what I'm remembered for, I'll take that with pride.

I was doing so well on the Scottish Elections and then the list votes have started to come in. Is it one extra seat per area?

For all the talk of revival the Conservatives are today more or less where UKIP were 12 years ago. Largely a regional party of the south east.

I love how it doesn’t matter what the Lib Dem’s do in any elections any more, nobody in the commentariat can see them. They could turn the whole country yellow and the headlines would be about Absolutely Anybody Else. “Shock for Count Binface in Medway…”

I mean an olive wood pen with the papal arms strikes me as slightly pointed bath salts, but a crystal American football embossed with the arms of the State Department, just why?

Any pro translators out there that can translate into any of the following languages? Might have some gig work / small but paid project for you… Dutch Danish Spanish (Spain) Italian Polish Swiss German Austrian German

Last week was tough going and next week is looking rough, but gorgeous Bank holiday weather and found this on my walk. A bank of bluebells to remind me quite what fabulous place I live. Possibly saw a buzzard, (definitely a bird of prey, just not good at telling them apart!)

Like I was saying, the circus is just one of my careers. The real money comes from frosted flakes

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced

NINE DAYS and bluesky cannot help? I do not believe this. I believe there's an expert around here for every single thing.

Was that thunder I heard?

I'm having a go at knitting a jumper in the round and also starting at the top first. Absolutely fine, but there's a repeating pattern and you have to add in extra stitches under the arm and keep the pattern going. It's making my head hurt trying to work out how. I may be some time...

My 'it looks like a nice evening, let's go for a stroll' plan turned out to be a soggier walk than expected. Thanks to the downpour I wasn't expecting, I'm a tad damp.

This is Cooper. He tried to politely decline the blowout, but apparently it's a nonnegotiable part of his spa package. 13/10 (IG: biscuitsandbathnyc)

Fritz Lang making himself a drink at his copper bar. Berlin-Dahlem, 1932. 🍸 🎥

Perhaps a good time to look at bringing the research and teaching/student oversight and support of institutions back together? Would also mean long term sustainability would be looked at holistically (well more holistically than it is now)