Cutting courses is the easy choice. The difficult choice is saying “we don’t have the money right now, but the future is important. Somehow, we’ll find a way to prioritise a long term vision of governing a country (and its people) over the short term expediency of running an economy.”

Back in Birmingham.

A daye wythout anachronism ys lyke Emily Dickinson wythout her lightsaber

one day, gravity batteries will be small enough to power household objects like grandfather clocks

Big ask: does anyone have plans to be in Paris or Florence? I’m keen to see any notary marks in Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Palatino latino 69 and/or Paris, BnF NAF 6591…

Removing Florida was not necessary, but it was satisfying.

OK, this is an unlikely ask: is anyone in S London willing/able to lend an MTB/gravel bike for next weekend, suitable for someone about 5ft 9in? Reasons/justification/location in next post. In return: a cleaned bike/eternal gratitude/nice bottle of wine/even some cold, hard ££ if preferred.

Fantastic day out at the Ecurie Bertelli 50th birthday party today; now feet up to watch Grand Prix highlights having prepped picnic for tomorrow’s day out at Henley.

THAT WOULD BE AN ECUMENICAL MATTER.

As someone who grew up in the North* I endorse this message. *of Surrey

Thought this one had been put to bed just after this pic, but was cajoled into picking up R18 & best mate from Prom in it. Glad I caved; best mate LOVED IT. There is something special about country lanes in a pre-war car by moonlight.

Apparently it’s 11 years today since I discovered that adding googly eyes to the tap on a wine box makes it look like Shaun the Sheep.

Spent years building up a big following on Twitter, essential for publicising my aviation blog, which I live from. Desperate to leave it & publicise on nicer platforms, but I have too few follows. If you want to help me escape, do give this a share. Much obliged. My blog here: hushkit.substack.com

Spent years building up a big following on Twitter, essential for publicising my aviation blog, which I live from. Desperate to leave it & publicise on nicer platforms, but I have too few follows. If you want to help me escape, do give this a share. Much obliged. My blog here: hushkit.substack.com

Do you want to shape the future of archive services in Buckinghamshire? We're recruiting for a County and Diocesan Archivist to lead our service! For more information and to apply, head to the link below. jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/job_detail/3...

At MK theatre for I’m Sorry, Prime Minister & C16 has just discovered there’s a whole genre of theatre that takes place without a band, and no singing or dancing. Could be an interesting evening…

Looking to speak to someone who is struggling to sell their flat. Please get in touch - you don’t need to give your full name. [email protected]

Corporations are facing major "buyers' remorse" after replacing experienced workers w/AI. Surveys reveal 55% of employers who restructured their workforce for AI regret the decision due to drops in quality/lost institutional knowledge/declining customer satisfaction. www.forbes.com/councils/for...

To judge from shares and responses this morning's post sharing the THE's article about cuts to the Humanities at Exeter seems to have really hit home. If you are involved in HE Archaeology or History, if your post or department is threatened and you want your say please contact me in confidence.

Are you studying, researching or teaching a history topic and not sure where to start? Try a search using the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) buff.ly/yD11954 @brepols.net

Oh dear, what did he do!?

Mornings are a stupid concept, and we'd be better off without them. Just make days one big afternoon.

Introducing the teen offspring to Yes Minister/PM Should we start at episode 1, or jump on with a “taster” and go back?

C16 made 'Chocolate Lava Cakes' (fondants) from a recipe yesterday and they were Good. Today, we have run out of chocolate so she's just improvised a version with Nutella instead and... they're awesome; restaurant quality, both flavour & texture. Shame she's off to boarding school in September

Today is the Feast of St Peter, the saint to whom @exetercathedral.bsky.social is dedicated. These depictions (1618-1854) of the Cathedral Church of St Peter are from historic maps of Exeter in our collections. 📷 Digitised by @dhlabexeter.bsky.social #MapMonday #MondayMaps #MappingOurExeter

He published it as a LinkedIn article. And any staff member and manager in #UKHE should read it and keep bringing it up in any meeting about cutting into departments.

A lot of media coverage of the ‘AI’ reading of the Herculaneum scrolls really fails to understand what’s happened here. There’s no language processing happening, the AI/ML is not trained on a corpus of texts or language. It can detect ink to see shapes. HUMAN EXPERTS are then transcribing the text.

Long shot, but if anyone in North #Oxford has lost a tortoise with a surprising turn of speed in the heat, do get in touch..

Back when I was a Head of Sixth Form advising students on university applications I never imagined that the major challenge 10 years later would be trying to guess which university departments are likely to close and which subjects might be abolished

Pass this on. You never know who might need it and it could make a huge difference if someone is struggling for whatever reason

Be kind to TfL staff, folks. It's rough as hell down there with very little respite.

Super proud of both our girls at their last school open mic night tonight - vocals, keyboards, guitar & bass between them. Especially proud of C16 giving my old fretless bass a run out.

Blessings be upon @bedfordesquires.bsky.social for having air conditioning!

Just dropped one of the offspring at school in the luxurious splendour* of our E-Up and now seriously wondering if I should park it in the garage, windows open & aircon on full and open the connecting door into the house... *Air conditioned.

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 160: If you're feeling uninspired, try mixing things up. Move into a different space. Change the position of your desk. Use another medium. Try a different time of day. Changes can help reset your brain and boost your creativity.

From yesterday's HMRC tax simplification package. About time! This is good news for traders. Means fewer mistakes, higher industry standards and more transparency.

A brief appreciation thread for some of my colleagues in Classics at Exeter, who the University of Exeter have put at risk of redundancy @exeter.ac.uk. A few are on here, most are not, but I'm going to say nice things about them anyway.

Cathedrals. They’re the places to go in this weather. Ely has a lovely big one. Often with beautiful music. We’re still good at that

This morning I shall mostly be being grumpy that HMRC seem to have decided that the Tax Gap report, a static document, will no longer be available as a pdf meaning I can't read it without an internet connection. Or be sure that what I read tomorrow will be the same as what I've read today.

apparently the bassist for the Oregon Symphony wore a shark costume for their performance of the Jaws score, you love to see it www.reddit.com/r/Portland/c...

This is for Lancia aficionados… My neighbour urgently needs to find a buyer for a barn-find, part-restored Fulvia S2 1.3S. There’s a rolling bodyshell, spare shell (both rust-free) & loads of parts. Two snags - there’s no engine, and it’s in SE France! Please help spread the word. Any Qs, DM me.

Given the weather forecast for later, dragged myself downstairs nice & early to open everything up & fill the house with nice cool air. And as soon as it stops raining that’s what I shall do.

The midwife toads are absolutely loving this weather. Extremely vocal…

Younger teen & her mates are watching latest Minions movie & "Everybody wants to rule the world" is apparently in the soundtrack. They all know all the words; the kids are alright.

We are sweltering.

I'm amazed by the number of people with sash windows who don't know how they work to properly air a room. Tbf, I didn't either but now I do, so PSA:

One of my favourite political anecdotes is about Chequers

Another day, another stupid Excel chart.