... texture like sun

The Nobel Prize committee should announce the World Cup winner tomorrow

"A system built on specialisation, efficiency", that right there is the death knell for the current university system in the UK, if (big if) government pushes it through. They actively don't want HE to grow, they will intervene, apparently, to help it shrink. per this morning's education committee.

This mural has gone up in Kingston, ostensibly for Christmas but AI has ensured it's actually to celebrate the return of our dark lord Cthulhu

New essay out today by me and @acjsissons.bsky.social - ‘Getting Britain out of the hole: a plan for the economy’. You can read the whole thing here getting-out-of-the-hole.uk A chart mega-thread follows 🧵

Just as UK Higher Ed has gone past its red lines and the business will be in advising unis how to hold on and benefit from failures, all the work in politics looks like coming from Labour MPs who want to survive 2029 and return to office after Reform implode. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Moments before the attack. *scratch scratch* *purr purr* *scratch* *purr some more and louder* *scratch the belly some more* *purr purr … wait! That’s my belly!* **ATTACK THE HAND!** #Tibbles #BlackCatsRule #CatsOfBlueSky

This is quite marvellous 👇 www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

If only there were some clue that there was a genuine policing concern around Maccabi. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

The thousand year old sport is kicking it in front the thousand some year old monument. #londonsumo #stonehenge

The main cause of the noise is something that will, sooner or later, hit every part of the network: “rail corrugation”. You aren’t imagining it: London's Tube is getting louder.

Happy birthday to Dr. Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to travel in space, who began her communications to #NASA with "Hailing frequencies open"—and guest starred in #StarTrekTNG's "Second Chances."

Not much mention in the media coverage that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have a bit of a reputation.

I’m so hungry I could eat the harvest moon I’m so hungry I could swallow it whole I can’t remember the last time someone threw me a chip if it carries on like this I’ll have to move to Brid… @holdernessnews.bsky.social

If you want to win over younger voters, telling them they can't go to university is probably not going to help.

With classes underway, I’ve switched from essays to exams. But with the death of the student essay (RIP, slain by ChatGPT), there’s a larger human tragedy: an erosion of critical cognition and the creation of two sharply divided classes of people: those who learn how to think and those who don’t:

On the morning of Keir Starmer's conference speech here's a new post on an odd psychopathology in British politics - our main parties don't like the people who vote for them - the dreaded Professional Managerial Class. And so they are acting out like a divorced dad seeking cooler voters. 1/n

New from me: a *free* short version of my Political Quarterly piece on universities... The issue is settled now: the massified and accessible Higher Education system we have spent tens of billions building since the 1970s is coming to an end. (1/2) politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/where-n...

"Whether they like it or not, our politicians have given permission for old hatreds and prejudices to be given a 21st-century refit" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

38 years ago today: The Next Generation's first scene🖖 "Captain's log, Stardate 41153.7. Our destination is Planet Deneb IV, beyond which lies the great unexplored mass of the galaxy. My orders are to examine Farpoint, a starbase built there by the inhabitants of that world." TNG is 40 soon 🤯

I wonder if this guy is related to "Boris Johnson" who introduced "voter id" as Prime Minister in 2023 ... off the back of some crazy US conspiracy theories ... and in the process, made digital ID pretty much inevitable.

I hope there will come a day soon where it dawns on someone in Starmer’s team that their strategy of communicating “Nigel Farage is right about everything but please vote for us instead” is fuelling these disastrous figures rather than mitigating them, but today is not that day

The owner of and absolute unquestionable algorithm controller of a preferred communications channel of the UK Government calling for violence and the overthrow of the Government. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Keir Starmer should be old enough to remember that we didn't use to call them patriots, we called them football hooligans.

The reporting on Charlie Kirk’s killer in the UK & US highlights again how fundamentally ill equipped mainstream media is to report on political violence in the digital age. They do not know anything about online far right meme culture & it’s starting to do real harm. #r4today

Worth pointing out that Dundee is ranked quite highly here, but anyone who looks it up will find an institution mired in financial freefall and mismanagement.

The BBC sending news alerts to explain what a widow of a far-right troll (a troll who was, at best, a marginal figure in the UK) said in a press conference is utterly absurd and a sign of a real skew in senior editorship.

People say the BBC lack flexibility in the modern digital era, but the launch and roll out of their 24 hour Charlie Kirk News channel in a matter of hours was pretty impressive.

Up and running. #ITFC

Gabriel Gatehouse having to drag Justin Webb back into some form of impartiality on #Radio4Today. Blithering on about Bluesky and repeating Trumpian nonsense as usual. Time he left the BBC.

'Yorkshire Weekly Post’ about Bridlington one hundred and ten years ago tomorrow. "People are always to be found on the sands, in the tiers of promenades, on the Princes Parade, on the new Spa, in the streets shopping , flirting, boating, reading, sewing. knitting, reprimanding the children,

Thank you, Melvyn Bragg: defector.com/thank-you-me...

Labour, Tories and Reform are talking about trying to shrink the UK’s working age population by curtailing immigration. Here’s an excellent summary of why this approach is catastrophic even solely on economic grounds. www.bearlypolitics.co.uk/p/nans-not-b...

Thanks for the music Bob, Pete and Sarah.

The royal family should publicly call this dangerous nonsense out. If not, what's the point of them and their place in the constitution? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Radical right accommodation really does not work. New paper out with this exceptionally talented team @katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk doi.org/10.31235/osf...

After 35 years of reinventing British pop, Saint Etienne are hanging up their samples, synthesisers, feather boas and football strips for good. Jude Rogers offers 10 ways into their always surprising, genre-splicing back catalogue The Strange World Of… #SaintEtienne buff.ly/eLHPmTz

St Etienne here are giving off very strong ‘University PR team have forced the Sociology research group to have some new photos done for the website’ vibes. And, this being St Etienne, the above can be read as a compliment.

I enjoyed this. And what an infectious laugh. ❤️ "Reporter left speechless after witnessing Japan's new $70 million Maglev train in action at 310 mph"

Feels like the flag debate has been kicking around my whole life and it still boils down to: Civic institutions should fly the flag routinely. Sporting occasions and national events, sure get it out. Year round flag on your house, bit weird, trashy. Doing it to "intimidate the forrins", obvs bad

Starmer could have said: Vandalism isn't patriotism; daubing red crosses on Chinese takeaways and writing racist graffiti isn't patriotism; perfomatively sitting in front of a flag or tying one to a mosque isn't patriotism; Patriotism is about making this country safe, happy productive for all.

Speaking of reputations, perhaps someone might remind the Newcastle United Supporters Club who owns their club.

A @davewalker.bsky.social cartoon that is perfect. This should be everywhere not shitty flags.

Ooof! #ITFC social media puts in a first-minute tackle with their intro video for Marcelino Núñez. Well played. 👏 (Posting here because the club doesn't, yet)

realistic Star Trek

Column, on a grimly familiar Farage plot line and Starmer sticking to the script in the Brexit sequel. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This 👇 ChatGPT has its uses, but I still hate it – and I’ll tell you why | Imogen West-Knights www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This graph shows why so called ‘stealth taxes’ are very effective. Who would have guessed that if the higher rate limit of about £44k from 2010 had been uprated by inflation it would now be over £67k? on.ft.com/47bGkm2

ultralol