We undertake lots of serious historical research, but this may be the most important of all: what in the *blue hell* was the “Hobbledeegobbledeecastle” in the Crystal Palace North Tower Gardens? Even this 1910 programme doesn’t know (The one from 1908 simply calls it “The funniest thing on earth”)

#Poetry and #Science united ⬇️⬇️🌟

Gen AI has been trained and developed in ways that no university research ethics committee would approve. And yet as academics we supposedly need training in how to use it ‘ethically’…

A short thing about music. Please indulge me. My son and his girlfriend did a pub gig this afternoon. Here they are. Voice and keyboard. Jazz standards. They were good, but that’s not the point. (1/n)

Did some mandatory gen AI training. Unfortunately, I was given an opportunity to provide feedback.

Just a reminder before the “big announcement” today. Autism was discovered in 1911 and the modern definition of Autism came in 1943. Tylenol wasn’t widely used until the 1950s. Anyone trying to tell you that Tylenol causes Autism isn’t someone that should be taken seriously.

Folks, has anyone written anything on bisexuality and modernism and/or the First World War? I can't immediately see things, but maybe they're hiding in work without that in the title.

It would signal the the de facto end of nearly all immigration to this country, from those coming to work to those who come for love. It would crater our economy, tear up relationships, remove status from millions of European, result in endless legal battles and leave us as an international pariah.

Reform will apparently pledge today that they'd abolish indefinite leave to remain - including retrospectively, to people already granted it. Obviously this is a moral abomination but it is also a practical and legal impossibility.

I see they've found another way to break the Good Friday Agreement.

Kirk’s ‘memorial’ getting a live coverage on The Guardian is a great example of how the right gets automatically framed as the default political movement to be ‘understood’ while the victims of that same movement never will never get the same amount of coverage

Reform are now coming after people with permanent residency. It'll be citizens next. No one is safe from authoritarian governments.

Thinking of using #ChatGPT for 'help' with assessments? Think again. #university #AI www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan accepted a [NOTHING TO SEE HERE] from an undercover [NOTHING HERE EITHER] last year in a since-closed U.S. Justice Department [LOOK AWAY NOW]

Volume IV of the OUP edition of William Godwin’s letters, now at press, includes an extensive description of his 1816 visit to Abbotsford, together with four letters to Sir Walter Scott (d. OTD 1832), all written in 1824, the same year that Edwin Landseer painted this portrait of Scott at home.

The annoying thing here is that the Lib Dems talk policy quite a lot and get ignored by the media, which is what Davey's stunts were a response to in the first place. I don't think he's addicted to stunts. I'm sure he'd love it if his policies got covered www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

In October I’ll be running some writing workshops based on the John Atkinson Grimshaw exhibition at Scarborough art gallery. Come join me? www.ticketsource.com/whats-on/nor...

Proud to contribute frontline testimony to tonight's enraging @itvx.com documentary "The Covid Contracts: Follow the Money". Boris Johnson's govt squandered £8.7 billion on unusable PPE, while grifters like Michelle Mone made millions. Tonight, 10.15pm, ITV1. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

It was a huge pleasure and privilege to visit Howard Hodgkin’s former studio today, and to hear his his partner Antony Peattie and his assistant Andy Barker talk about him, the studio, and his working practices. I hope the studio can be preserved. #OpenHouseFestival

As I told @newrepublic.com, "Once last week, twice today, ICE has picked me up and thrown me on the ground. Honestly, it doesn’t compare to what our neighbors who are trapped inside the Broadview processing facility are going through. They’re committing crimes against humanity there."

Greetings from Kyiv. Ukraine was under a large-scale attack (yes, again). Air defence reports about 579 russian drones and 40 missiles. Their target? People sleeping in their homes.

This year’s Keats-Shelley Memorial Prizes are now open. Themes are dystopia / utopia I’m glad to be judging the poetry prize again with Will Kemp. Closing date 2nd February and more info here keats-shelley.org/prizes/keats...

It's reassuring to know they've got the brightest and best all over this.

Goodbye, Disney+!

Oxford people - tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 11.30 there is a gathering at the Holiday Inn Express near the Kassam Stadium to counter anti-refugee protesters.

#OTD 19 September 1991, walkers in the high Ötztal alps on the Italian border, found a body melting out of the ice. It turned out to be the remains of a c.5200 year old man preserved with all his kit. Of course, it was essential to replicate him in Playmobil. 1🧵 #PlaymobilÖtzi #PlaymobilInfestation

The capacity of the tabloids to report what they wish had happened ("Keir Starmer was humiliated...") rather than what actually happened never ceases to amaze me. I often wonder: when these journalists were starting out, did they think "I'll lie for a living" or did they once have higher ambitions?

Then and Now The Little Street Delft c.1658, painted by Johannes Vermeer; now identified by archival research as 40-42 Vlamingstraat, Delft, photographed (right) in 2017. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Very much enjoying the culture of trust and respect implicit in the installation of room usage monitoring devices on academics' office doors today. Imagine my shock on discovering that managers' doors remain unsullied…

The Education Select Committee have released their report into the SEND crisis. It correctly highlights the funding issues facing councils and the lack of adequate provision which is having a devasting impact on families. Now is the time to act. committees.parliament.uk/publications...

do you work in a university/faculty/school in the UK that abolished “departments”? willing to share experiences (by DM if preferred)? RTs also appreciated

'And that underlying rhythm probably sounds quite familiar: it’s like a heartbeat. Shakespeare loved iambic pentameter because it sounds very close to natural, heart-felt speech': argh, this kind of thing (from Shakespeare's Globe website) drives me mad: someflowerssoon.substack.com/p/10-reasons...

the research questions they say mustn't be asked are probably the ones that need looking into

Hey teachers! We know school's just finished for summer, but do you want to get a head start on next year's planning? We have the thing for you. The Davy Notebooks Project has been working alongside @stemlearning.bsky.social to create some awesome FREE resources available at the link in our bio!

Post-feudalism 🤝 neo-feudalism

Did Melania hang herself with invisible twine?

Mini-scoop: After resisting pressure to strip Elon Musk of his fellowship for months, the Royal Society is meeting on 1 October to discuss his removal – following his decision to address Tommy Robinson's far-right rally on Saturday. www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-r...

This would be about Donald Trump's right not to be upset or offended by the truth. That is not the intent or purpose of the malicious communications act. I am struggling to get the police to bother with actually unlawful racist harassment though.

Listening to an early Jameson lecture audio recording was so refreshing bec it was a fluid and multilayered discourse without the aural divisions determined by the visuality of PowerPoint slides and bullet points

CfP: BSLS Annual Conference 2026 The twenty-first annual conference of the British Society for Literature and Science will take place at the University of Strathclyde, on 9th-11th April 2026 (in person). Details including CfP here: bsls.ac.uk/conference20...

What to see where Trump's administration is destroying the science base? There's an app for that.

The destruction of the Gaza city mosque is a devastating loss to humanity as a whole. A part of our global medieval heritage destroyed in furtherance to a genocide. I despair.

Simply astonishing. Maybe Lecturer A should not have to mark over 100 essays in a two-week window in the first place? Invest in qualified staff and reduce impossible workloads FFS www.kcl.ac.uk/about/strate...

Four people were arrested for an “unauthorised projection”. This is apparently what counts as a crime now www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

"The university will stop sharing the data required to be included in the ranking as of 2026. As a result, Sorbonne University will no longer feature in future rankings produced by THE, which include the World University Rankings, the Rankings by Subject or the Impact Rankings." Excellent!

Calling peoples' employers in a rage because their tributes to Robert Redford weren't horny enough

Re: last RT. See also: Frank O’Hara