I've been a university lecturer for nearly 20 years. Regularly I've been asked to run a module on very short notice. Three things I can talk about for 3 hours without prep: 1 Creative Writing 2 Novels 3 The Media 4 Art 5 Not following rules

Even back in the 70s and 80s when I could be hassled by the police for walking while trans, no one ever tried to stop me pissing in the Ladies or tried to make me change into my swimsuit among men. There is no dignity or respect involved in taking away rights I have exercised freely for forty years

Bet it’s Daniel Day-Lewis

The International Day of Sign Languages celebrates the linguistic identities of the Deaf community and all who use sign language. John Bulwer was the first person in Britain to advocate for the education of deaf people. His 1644 book explores the communicative and rhetorical power of hand gestures.

Ruin a book with a car: To Kill a Thunderbird

100% facts here. It's hard!

And this is the health care model (insurance based cover, instead of by taxation and NI payments) that Fartage and Reform want for the UK.

Are they also eating bread and cheese or having punch-ups? This way we'll know if they're French chimpanzees or English chimpanzees.

So anyway, turns out plasma in menstrual blood can completely heal wounds in 24 hours. hudson.org.au/news/womb-to...

This is the real threat to free speech.

The richest man on earth owns X. The second richest man on earth is about to be a major owner of TikTok. The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post. See the problem here?

I feel like I've got nothing done at all today. My inbox remains full of over 2000 emails. The writing I'd planned to do remains undone. I have alphabeticalised some of the books on my shelves - I've been in this office for over two years and it's only now I've felt the need to do it! #AcademicSky

Forget about it being nonsense financially, it's MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE!

So far today I have attempted to clear my email inbox. I have been unable to work out how the hell to archive all the old emails from last year, despite doing it last year, and the year before. Now someone's car alarm has gone off right below my office window. #AcademicSky

Do I risk hanging this framed print on that hook? It's stuck on - a 3M Command hook that should take 1.3kg. Am I feeling lucky?

YES SCIENCE (and these scientists in particular)

During WW1 there was a rumour that aspirin caused the Spanish Flu. As I was writing about that last year I often shook my head in disbelief at the stupidity of our near ancestors. Seems a lot of people are still dumb enough to believe nonsense.

'Even when women were mentioned, the report found they were more often victims than protagonists, with the women murdered by Jack the Ripper more likely to be taught in lessons than the female code breakers at Bletchley Park during the second world war 1/2

This academic year I'd very much like to make a permanent block in my diary each week for having a coffee and chat with a colleague. I think we no longer have the time to simply talk to one another and it's a loss for us all, and the university. #AcademicSky

'In a preprint posted on medRxiv on 12 September1, researchers identified more than 400 such papers published in 112 journals over the past 4.5 years'. Link to preprint: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Any news on those who were raptured then?

Reinventing conferences: Organisers agree to produce a programme to show to your home institution for money but when you get there it’s all just coffee breaks, lunches, and wine receptions and there’s a room where you can do your paper if you really want to.

Dear old Roland is on the money again here. The action of handwriting with a good pen on smooth paper is sublime. Cy Twombly's blackboard paintings always make me think of a conversation from another room - I can almost hear but can't understand.

One of my favorite poems since childhood, and a poem I share every #autumnequinox. By the 12thc warrior poet Xin Qiji 辛棄疾, sidelined during peacetime, demoted, drifting through a decade of minor posts in remote lands. Poetry, then, is that which is left unsaid. “My, what a cool and lovely autumn.”

Here's a #HigherEducationPostcard of University College Buckland, which operated briefly in the 1960s and 1970s, offering courses leading to University of London degrees If you like this image, please retweet it - remember, BlueSky has #NoAlgorithm

don't hold back buying multiple copies for all your many loved ones 🥹🥰 discount code for the print version TLOM25 😅

Our politics and media have become viciously obsessed with immigration. Farage has made sure of it. And in that obsession, they’ve all lost sight of the people they target. Fellow human beings trying to live and belong somewhere. Shame on everyone responsible for this daily inhumanity (Letter,Times)

I watched episode 1 of Only Murders in the Building, season 4. I really enjoy the cameos from all the famous actors. I imagine Steve Martin and Martin Short probably know everyone in Hollywood & just ask their mates to do an episode or two. Selena Gomez looks like she's having the best time.

Right. I'm off home. I'm taking NO WORK with me. I shall have to return to the office tomorrow. And so begins the academic year. Nearly. #AcademicSky

Left some of my clothes on the floor next to the elevator so my very Christian neighbors see it and think they didn’t get chosen. That’ll teach them for playing the TV at high volume late into the night.

Hear, hear! A good lecture is an amazing thing.

For those that would like to know why autism, ADHD, AuADHD & other forms of neurodivergence aren't an illness, a perfect example below. Did y'all know the chances are extremely high your MD or other clinician is more than likely neurodivergent. Yes, this includes me 😊 Study link in my mentions.

This is just one of the many things wrong with UK Higher Education. We expect people to build careers on short term contracts of one - three years when so much of the job (like the REF) actually demands we develop projects over a longer period.

We're all going to look pretty silly when we're raptured in the next few hours and we've made plans for next week or tomorrow. Are we all going? Can I get excused?

They miss the point that you have the right to say what you like, but it’s not consequence free if it incites violence or causes harm to others.

There is a LOT of traffic this morning… when are these people gonna get raptured so I can drive

It is possible to cherish the BBC as an institution while also saying that BBC News is failing very badly, day after day, in its duty to inform and that it always fails in a right-wing direction. It desperately needs to recover its integrity

Whether they're blaming vaccines and Tylenol, or selling dubious "remedies," what they're really doing is promoting the perception that families (and especially mothers) can prevent and treat Autism. And thus also the perception that people with Autism and their families don't need social support.

Anyone been raptured yet?

I'm sorry WHAT is this? Is Farage actually being held to account? By FOUR front pages of UK newspapers? re his paper-thin populism and solutionless policy? Fuck me gently. Forgot what this actually looks like. Maybe Sun & Telegraph will find their balls tomorrow?

ACOG reaffirms that acetaminophen is safe for managing pain and fever during pregnancy. No reputable studies support suggestions like those in HHS’s recent announcement linking acetaminophen use in pregnancy to autism; in fact, high-quality studies show no such risk. https://bit.ly/47Wxc59

Such an interesting find - via Ebay of all places! www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

The government ought to be holding a fucking press conference to confirm this, every news channel and website leading with the story, boiling it down to three salient points: 1. Paracetamol doesn’t cause autism 2. Autistic people are great 3. Trump is a senile, racist, shit-eating old cunt

Today is my first day back after a lovely week away on annual leave. Not surprisingly I have mixed feelings. I'm looking forward to the new academic year beginning and seeing my students and colleagues. I'm also full of trepidation about the fresh hell this year might bring.... #AcademicSky

This keeps happening. How many people in the Uk could have told you who Charlie Kirk or Jimmy Kimmel were 3 weeks ago? Trump is a Mr Beast-style content production genius, that editors feel powerless in the face of

Why is @ucu.org.uk engaging in the very behaviour that we/it publicly call out when members’ employers employ such tactics? It is shameful. It undermines every branch of #UCU It’s utterly destructive to staff morale and our branches’ leverage Not in our name. Solidarity @uniteucu.bsky.social

AN #EARLYMODERN POST!! They still exist! And a lovely one at that, for five years and with the brilliant people at KCL who have turned that place in quite the hub of exciting early modern research. Run, don’t walk.

I think this sums it up…….

Wow.

my partner has been watching Death Comes to Pemberley on Amazon prime and says their subtitles must be AI now