Bad Bunny has a consulting historian. news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...

Forgot to post this one

The one positive thing about Keir Starmer having no ability to manage his own parliamentary party is that it produces on-the-record quotes like this

Right that the prime minister has resigned. His successor, Keir Starmer, has a very difficult inheritance.

In a touching tribute to his mentor, Morgan McSweeney has resigned in disgrace.

So bleak that net zero, a decade old Conservative climate policy that is wholly inadequate in scope and ambition, is now too radical for parts of the Labour Party

shamefully I do still have to look up how to spell “Keir” every time, though

Was cutting up a 1960s Woman’s Realm magazine for collage material & found this unabashedly insatiable size queen penguin

My baseline for a successful campaign to be prime minister is that political journalists have taken the time to learn to spell your five-letter surname.

I will stop going on about this soon, but it is striking how so many of the McSweeney people's lines to take a) describe things that aren't, in fact, the chief of staff's *job* and b) have no relation, good or bad, to what the government is actually *doing*.

British values

the magic of the Muppets is that there are two fourth walls. they constantly break the one that reminds the audience they are performers. they NEVER break the one that reminds the audience they are puppets. this dynamic is the key to their entire comedy style

“The arc of history is not self-bending, but mittened hands with simple tools are working on the moral side.” Beautiful piece by @dessadarling.bsky.social on resistance and community.

I started googling all these words and then was like, wait, I’m an educated woman with two kids, I don’t need to know about this

People kept telling me this is exactly the old Muppet Show and they were absolutely correct. A pure joy to watch. (And I'm VERY picky about my muppet canon.)

My number one piece of writing advice is: don’t do it if you don’t actually like writing

Yes I think so. all the bad is true. And so are all the reasons that we like coming here and don’t call it a hellsite There is something so (sorry) culturally Christian I think about the assumption ”everything people like is bad for them probs”

A scammer just tried exactly this on me via WhatsApp. Glad I saw a post here recently outlining the scam - it would be very easy to fall for. The “hotel” account had an unconvincing name, but they had my name, number & reservation dates. lifehacker.com/money/hotel-...

From Peterborough to Stamford, in fact (South Lincolnshire hive rise up)

lol he’s so good at this

Possibly says something about the Labour Party’s mad approach to everything at the moment that I read “Al” (Carns) as “AI” (artificial intelligence) and didn’t even flinch

Okay, you guys wanted some fun tea on Richard Dawkins? Here you go: one reason he may have gotten super duper angry about me talking about misogyny in atheism skepchick.org/2026/02/epst...

I think, probably, I understand less about skiing than I thought.

Thrilled about this new grant we are offering for under-represented early career scholars. The first cycle is for scholars in history and area studies. Please spread the word widely. @universitypress.cambridge.org ********************************* Read more here: 🔗 cup.org/4pF5xvr

it's not great when the consultation landing page continues the labour habit of just making things up where immigration rules are concerned. SETTLEMENT IS NOT GRANTED AUTOMATICALLY. absolute joke of a government

Really nuts how many men were like "Me Too went too far, and I need to email Jeffrey Epstein about it."

I don’t know — in a way it makes it easier to say look, you might as well do this for the next 3.5 years, it’s a fun early graduate job and you should get some good bits and pieces for the CV, but it’s not going to go anywhere. All my PhD students are P/T, funded or retired: it feels more ethical.

To be fair, most buildings in London are full of mice. The block of Georgian houses where UCL history department is located used to have so many that when I was doing my PhD they used to occasionally fall from the ceiling of the graduate common room.

I always find it astonishing that many US colleges let alumni interview applicants. Imagine that happening in the UK (you can’t, and for good reason).

'Several universities in England which have scored a top rating in a national teaching assessment have large gaps in degree outcomes for black students and low representation of black academics, according to a report that says equity goals should form a larger part of quality metrics.' 1/2

This is preying on my mind a bit. Jeffrey Epstein was not primarily a British scandal! So far we've removed a Prince from the Royal family, fired our US ambassador who was one of the most important political figures of the last few decades and banned the CEO of Barclays from the financial industry..

I think another problem is that in America you are very much safer telling lies about a public figure (and being protected by the first amendment and restrictive libel laws) than telling the truth (which is probably covered by an NDA and exposes you to Gawker-like privacy damages)

so crazy to me that a woman asked trump if he has any words for epstein's victims and he said "you as a young woman should smile more." it will go nowhere bc republicans refuse to hold trump accountable, but it's still pretty crazy.

There’s A Guy Works Down The Chipshop Swears He’s Elvis by Kirsty MacColl / How Can I Love You If You Won’t Lie Down by Silver Jews

Three scholarships for PhD in Arthur Scargill Archive - quite the opportunity. Believe me when I say that I am sure that some of the stuff in here will be quite the eye-opener! (if the good stuff hasn't been already shredded or slapped with an embargo)

While I appreciate the concern may be sincere, this is an establishment manufacturing its own demise in real time and with eyes open.

18 month postdoc at the lovely IHR in London, $41,740. Deadline 7 March. 'The Fellow will play a key role within the IHR team responsible for hosting the 2027 North American Conference in British Studies (NACBS)' in London 2027. Repost to spread the word. #Skystorians

fund research on menopause you cowards

This reminds me of @jomichell.bsky.social’s letter to the FT reminding them sternly that a black hole is “an astronomical body so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping” rather than simply the difference between a target and a forecast.

these ChatGPT book promo emails have become more frequent — this is about Is Free Speech Under Threat, I’ve also had them about Imperial Island — and godddd, this cadence, this tone, this vocabulary. why did they teach AI to write like this?!

He sent an 1,170-word email to the entire department, starting with, 'Some white musicians deliberately have black musicians in their band to help them get gigs rather than thinking who is musically suitable' and ending with 'If there is systematic bias in Britain... it is against white people.'

CHOTINER: And the pizza place, what’s it called? ME: Dominos. CHOTINER: Right. And you can order from your laptop? ME: Yeah. Well, I can also use my phone. Sometimes that’s quicker. CHOTINER: And all the food in your fridge and pantry. When do you eat that? ME: Now hang on a second,

An occurance that could have been designed to drive me mad: a (positive!) review on goodreads of Imperial Island mentions “discourse on Bluesky” that critiques my book for specific issues

this paragraph make me pull a face known colloquially as the “historian’s eye roll”

Just read a reference to Keir Starmer “playing koi” which I sort of love — pretending to flap and gasp like a fish?

Am currently comfort reading Sourcery, the fifth Discworld novel, and I’m tempted to put this in the front of all my future books

My co-written book with Suzanne Nossel — Is Free Speech Under Threat? — is 99p on kindle for today only!!! 📚 💰

My co-written book with Suzanne Nossel — Is Free Speech Under Threat? — is 99p on kindle for today only!!! 📚 💰

😭

my dad didn’t go to university and he was extremely happy to pay taxes for his four children to do so; and, indeed, for the doctors who treated him at Addenbrookes to have gone to university as well.