Is cricket the only sport where the participants stop for scheduled meal breaks? (I don't count hydration breaks, the casual drinking that used to happen in darts and snooker, or snacking on a banana or energy bar.)

Ah yes. I remember one of my first papers being turned down in the 1980s partly because it did not discuss two books by the same author, published by an obscure US press, of which there were no copies in any library in the UK.

It must be really annoying to be incredibly successful with the first thing you do. People treat you as a guru when actually you’re just the flotsam of random statistics that will take the rest of your life to show you’re nothing special.

Iris Marion Young was right! (Very niche post.)

Is Trump toast? More like a sugary white American loaf that has finally outlived its remarkable preservative and is now turning green and soggy.

False compliance, as James C Scott called it. Maybe the best example I’ve ever seen.

This is why cities need trees. Hard surfaces and parked cars can reach extreme temperatures, while shaded grass and tree-covered areas stay dramatically cooler. This is the urban heat island effect in one image: hard surfaces absorb and radiate heat, while vegetation and shade reduce it.

For myself, I’m not going to blame anyone for not being fully prepared for the hottest weather we have ever had. But there will come a time when…

Two years ago I was asked to give a political philosopher’s account of what Keir Starmer should do. Roughly: identify the worst forms of oppression and injustice and try to mitigate them without humiliating people or adding extra strain to their lives. Simple to say, of course.

Remember those Philosophy papers from the 1950s and 60s, where people just said what they had been thinking hard about, with few references or footnotes? If AI takes over literature-based research then maybe humans need to go back to the old ways. I, for one, would much welcome that.

The ‘Just Say No’ message is finally sinking in. Unfortunately with Reform voters. And it’s all they’ve got.

I love the way ‘science’ is reported. It’s as if there’s an association of all scientists, who know each other, all agree with each other, and occasionally make a centrally approved proclamation about what science has now discovered.

Any university should say: We are a knowledge-based organisation, prizing rigorous research and testing, and refusing to take anything for granted: especially claims from vested interests. We will conduct our own studies of the usefulness of AI in different contexts before making recommendations.

State of that!

“You need to know where your buttons are before you start.” Life advice from Apple.

Remind me. What did people mean when they used to call East European countries ‘police states’?

I wrote a monthly column on Higher Education for the Guardian for about 12 years. Every month I’d send it off and think ‘I have nothing left to say.’ But then the government or university sector would do something annoying enough to stir me back into action. Every month. Just like now.

Feeling sorry for Americans. In charge of this year of celebration they have a self-obsessed, tasteless, oaf, who doesn’t know how to get a party started.

How’s the Eugenics going? Nicely nicely, thank you very much, nicely nicely.

Trump: Happy 250th USA!! USA: Don’t remind me! I mean it.

Going to be difficult when one party is certain they have God on their side, while the other party can’t resist a bit of futures trading on the side.

Harry Kane for the goal Before we splutter out

Thousand dollars a ticket for this, eh?

I wrote a monthly column on Higher Education for the Guardian for about 12 years. Every month I’d send it off and think ‘I have nothing left to say.’ But then the government or university sector would do something annoying enough to stir me back into action. Every month. Just like now.

Any university should say: We are a knowledge-based organisation, prizing rigorous research and testing, and refusing to take anything for granted: especially claims from vested interests. We will conduct our own studies of the usefulness of AI in different contexts before making recommendations.

This is what you can do if Trump had few non-legal avenues to punish you. He can’t threaten to take away the BBC’s licence. Could he ban it from the USA? Block it like China blocks Google? He could try I suppose. No idea how effective it would be these days.

I love the way ‘science’ is reported. It’s as if there’s an association of all scientists, who know each other, all agree with each other, and occasionally make a centrally approved proclamation about what science has now discovered.

I know I should have got over it by now, but bananas are SO CHEAP. I think this every single time I buy them.

British politics sometimes feels less like rearranging deckchairs on The Titanic and more like rearranging deckchairs on the Woolwich Ferry.

If it’s alright with everyone I think I’ll stick with my Small Language Model for now, thanks.

250 years old? I’ve got plumbing older than that.

Remind me. What did people mean when they used to call East European countries ‘police states’?

Yeah, people don’t follow me for advice about the weather. Maybe for laments about it.

The BBC has requested that Donald Trump hand over his phone records from Jan. 6 as part of his defamation lawsuit against the broadcaster.

New York City residents are celebrating the reopening of public pools — including Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who jumped into the water while wearing a suit at an East Harlem pool on Saturday. Outdoor public pools will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day through Sept. 13.

The passages about ambergris in Moby Dick remind us that countless brave men risked their lives in the attempt to slaughter enormous, majestic sea mammals, to harvest one of the ingredients necessary for special perfumes for aristocratic women. Raises so many philosophical questions.

“Eastbourne: Bergs v Humbert in men's final - play suspended due to rain” What?????

This is fantastic! And it might help me work out whether I’m a stoical Epicurean, or an Epicurean stoic.

So now insult all women … good going.

Reflect on this!

Just noticed that this paper has reached 100 citations. Rejected by three journals, and left in a drawer for years, until Kim and Adam published it. ‘Disability Among Equals’, in Disability and Disadvantage ed K. Brownlee and A. Cureton, OUP 2009, pp 114-137. sas-space.sas.ac.uk/661/1/J_Wolf...

Overheard in street. “Fill up the water bottle with gin, like you said.” One way of dealing with the heat, I suppose.

In the first piece I ever wrote for the Guardian I quoted a CEO of a pharmaceutical company who said that 99% of the research they fund is ‘wasted’ but without that they wouldn’t get the 1% as you can’t pick winners in advance. This is true everywhere: art, music, literature, academic research.

There’s no such thing as a free launch.

Mechanical Turk revisited.

As Britain swelters through another heatwave, few people will have heard that ministers have quietly dropped plans for solar carports. Cars cooler in summer. Shelter from the rain in winter. Clean electricity all year round. A missed opportunity? @eastangliabylines.co.uk

I know I should have got over it by now, but bananas are SO CHEAP. I think this every single time I buy them.

There’s no such thing as a free launch.

British politics sometimes feels less like rearranging deckchairs on The Titanic and more like rearranging deckchairs on the Woolwich Ferry.

In the first piece I ever wrote for the Guardian I quoted a CEO of a pharmaceutical company who said that 99% of the research they fund is ‘wasted’ but without that they wouldn’t get the 1% as you can’t pick winners in advance. This is true everywhere: art, music, literature, academic research.