We’re obsessed with this 4800yr old piece of pottery made by Ancestral Muskogean potters on the Georgia coast! #archaeology #history 🏺

Met the American actress who played Becky Slater in TV show ‘The Wonder Years’ at a random party at university. Left her to chat with @carolinepennock.bsky.social whilst I hunted for booze.

Make it stop.

Sharing this as I know it will be of great help. Please like and share to get coverage at what can be a difficult time. Don't worry if you've not heard of them, @hleehurley.com knows and vouches for them. Thank you @causewaypride.bsky.social 🏳️‍⚧️🎄

A “secure location on campus”? What was she expecting, an underground bunker? She gave her talk. People protested. That’s the essence of free speech.

FINALLY.

Merry gentlefolk, it is time. Today is the day. Today is comma-mas. Today is the day where we contemplate the correct placing of the comma in 'God rest you merry, gentlemen'. And if we are lucky, we can have a row about it. >

Aging is: trying to get to the hospital early for a shoulder x-ray and being delayed by a random bulge which has appeared on the outside of your foot.

Not so much a dog whistle as a foghorn.

Thanks so much for reminding me, Kudos. #AcademicInsecurities

quick question, if I have a tennis ball and I throw it overarm into the woods as hard as I can, have I ‘lost’ that tennis ball

Incredible skies in Sheffield this morning.

Reform really are THE WORST. (And yes, obviously, I think this in an ideological sense, but in this case I also simply mean that they’re utterly useless, devoid of experience and skills, and lacking practical understanding of government, education and economics.)

Bloody finally.

I've made a complaint to the BBC about its bald misstatement of the truth about what the Supreme Court decided in the For (Some) Women Scotland decision.

Merry Catmas!

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE GOBBETS MARKED. (Now to write a lecture for tomorrow.)

I don’t believe in demonic possession, but if I did…

Around this date, 1531 👇 🗃️

Having never watched a whole Rocky film in my entire life, I’ve just been reduced to helpless giggles by how ridiculous the boxing in the second one is. That’s the reaction they were going for, right?

Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252: Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email. Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

This is INCREDIBLE. In both senses.

Nothing sets you up for a long day of teaching and marking like being awake since 4.30am.

Incredible archaeology and Indigenous art from Huichol territories, showing that the Pecos murals were painted continuously over 4,000 years. "The canyons are like an “ancient library containing hundreds of books authored by 175 generations of painters". www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/r... 🏺 🗃️

I translated a couple of texts from 16th-C. Spanish for this anthology on “Slavery in Early Modern Philosophy 1500-1765,“ edited by my colleague in the Philosophy Department, Julia Jorati. The entire book looks terrific. Take a look: academic.oup.com/book/61633

MAKE AMERICA GARAMOND AGAIN.

Adds ‘Calibri font’ to my Unlikely Woke list along with builders eating healthy breakfasts, National Trust scones, brown elves, fancy sandwiches, and the Enola Gay.

This is the stupidest strategy imaginable. “Quick! Curb people’s human rights, or those people who want to curb human rights will get into power!” *headdesk*

This is WILD.

Speaking as a woman who did breastfeed and was lucky to find it easy and painless (sleep deprivation aside)… they should fire this guy into the sun.

I genuinely think that #BBCCivilisations will be a great resource for history 🗃️ teachers in particular. Hence making some tips for them! 😊 bsky.app/profile/caro...

No, 'tantalising evidence' of smallpox is NOT embedded in the turquoise mask. No expert on the programme says so. It is absolute bollocks (unlike the rest of the programme which, whatever you may make of the artistic choices, largely holds up as history, albeit selective as any single hour must be).

I'd just like to point out that, certain comments notwithstanding, Moctezuma meeting Cortés is nothing like meeting a 'man from Mars'. Not least because (a) he's a man & (b) Spaniards had been around the coast for years before this, and Moctezuma was well aware of them from scouts. #BBCCivilisations

Sooo... I'm on BBC Civilisations at 9pm this evening talking about Aztecs, and I've been persuaded to overcome my dislike of LinkedIn and use it to share what I'm reliably informed is a 'carousel' of information and tips for teachers using it in the classroom.

The Aztecs episode of Civilisations: Rise and Fall has been on iPlayer for weeks now, but tonight @carolinepennock.bsky.social & I are on telly! BBC 2 at 9pm.

If you think it's important to exclude trans girls - trans CHILDREN - from the Girl Guides, ask yourself... why is it not a problem in all these other countries? And why is it still okay to have cis adult male volunteers in the UK? What is it you're actually trying to achieve?

it's gutting to see access and widening participation initiatives being binned across the university sector. ELCE here at Bristol, Essex Pathways here. nothing pushes my personal, visceral buttons like the idea of denying academic study to someone whose life it could change

I realise this isn’t the worst of it., but this article’s characterisation of anti-trans groups as ‘women’s rights campaigners’ makes me want to scream.

Bought some nail stuff online and am now irrationally angry because they've just sent me a quite-blatantly-AI 'personal video' thanking me, in which the 'founder' glitches and doesn't even get my name right. 'She' says they'd love to hear from me. I am sorely tempted to take her up on the offer...

I have just finished writing a lecture for Monday. For reasons, it has been looming over me since LAST OCTOBER. And it is finally DONE.

Bloody hell.

“I question the energy that is being dedicated to harming vulnerable people and children rather than tackling the much bigger and very real risks facing women and girls.” 100% this.

Ah, it’s like the good old days, when the England cricket team spent most of their time making terrible, incomprehensible decisions. (I’m looking at you, Harry Brook.)

can personally attest that a good number of Christian churches are going into this Advent season absolutely out of fucks ours might reroute the annual Las Posadas procession to go past the ICE building

If your choice is between an existential risk to your organisation, vs being a fascist collaborator, and you make the difficult choice to be a collaborator... ...then you are still a collaborator.

Being a Brownie and then a Guide were important experiences for me. It's heartbreaking to know that girls are being excluded from this community

Having been a Brownie, Guide and young leader, and then had a Brownie daughter, I’ve always been proud of Girlguiding’s inclusivity. So I’m devastated to hear that they’ve decided to exclude trans girls from the organisation. Sign here to protest (and appeal directly if you have contact with them).

we could do with a few more vice-chancellors making this case in the UK

Having been a Brownie, Guide and young leader, and then had a Brownie daughter, I’ve always been proud of Girlguiding’s inclusivity. So I’m devastated to hear that they’ve decided to exclude trans girls from the organisation. Sign here to protest (and appeal directly if you have contact with them).

Great to see that @sheffielduni.bsky.social's response to the EHRC nonsense has been to increase universal toilet provision across campus. Really shows there are inclusive ways to response to the anti-trans climate. Bravo.