was Pam Bondi trying to un-hibernate Auto-Tune the News?

This whole Demis Roussos thread is incredible.

@andreapitzer.bsky.social "concentration camp regimes in their early stages often make use of large open infrastructure to convert into detention spaces. Dachau was converted from a shuttered factory into a concentration camp in 1933" degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/building-t...

Excellent piece. Get your kids vaccinated, people.

Astonishing podcast, discussing in great detail and with great clarity the ways in which Epstein created, maintained and managed his predatory network of rich and powerful arseholes. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

@ljsteg.bsky.social I just noticed that we have something in common.

#Women&GirlsinScienceDay Academic & particle physicist Anne Kernan was a huge advocate for women in science, on one occasion funding a trip to CERN for an undergrad she had never met, meeting her at the airport and paying for her accommodation until funding came through. www.dib.ie/biography/ke...

What kinds of philosophers attract cults of the personality and why? Is it some kinda personality disposition of people who go into the humanities? Does being like this about Wittgenstein or Marx or Heidegger make you more like this for political leaders, is it related to authoritarian personality?

That's the spirit!

WTF?! You tell me if there are any cars in these shitty grainy thumb print images.

Disregarding all the shit going on (gesticulates wildly), is it just me or is there a lot of really quite funny stuff being circulated on this site today.

taking this as my sign to log off of social media for the day

Nadhim Zahawi thinks London is now unsafe, because the other day a tired-looking man walked past him during the morning rush hour.

It's cool, the Dow is over 50,000

"Makes queer history visible, accessible, and insistently ordinary [...] to recognise how much of queer history survives in the margins." The Mancunion reviews 'A queer scrapbook', out next month: mancunion.com/2026/02/10/a... Pre-order with 30% off on our website. #LGBTQIA #booksky

This illustration is *chef kiss*

I published a paper in 2007 on eugenic anxieties and UK reproductive technologies legislation, and I only focused on the subtle and more sophisticated end (liberal choice/beneficience arguments) because it was unfathamable that people would advocate mainline eugenics again. Yet sadly here we are.

What i'm wearing to the Bluesky Valentines Day Ball

As a historian of biology, until a decade ago or so, I had been under the impression that we have to be sophisticated to spot the remnants of eugenics and 19th century scientific racism (e.g. Troy Duster’s idea of “backdoor eugenics”). But this kind of stuff takes us straight back to the 1920s-30s.

I can’t say I’m keen on hearing these creepy authoritarians telling women to ‘Breed for Britain’ because of their racist white replacement theory. Actually shuddered reading this, it’s viscerally revolting.

!! … ah

'UK universities have experienced their worst January for international student recruitment in at least four years, new visa figures indicate.' Figure is 31% down from a tear ago. 1/2

Funny in theory, but man, I’m glad I’ve never bumped into him in the pub or on the road.

Howgh! (which is how Native Americans greet each other in Karl May’s Winnetou novels)

#FallFriday The wit and wisdom of Mark E Smith

Also a very strong argument in support of letting that awkward email inquiry that makes you feel uncomfortable sit in your inbox and ultimately forget about it. Effective no-platforming starts in your inbox. No attention is better than negative attention.

If you want to know what Reform would be like in power, look at how it threatened Bangor University | Gaby Hinsliff

My own picture book, "How to Find a Rainbow" is very much about love, especially the love between siblings. alomshaha.com/portfolio/ho...

artist unidentified

Our colleague Dr Amelia Bonea will be part of a discussion panel at Manchester Museum on 10 March 2026, on Women in Research, hosted by Professor Rachel Cowen. Further details and registration at the link below. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mdpi-women...

When you next complain about the gloomy weather where you are, keep in mind that it could be worse. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

My column in this week's @newstatesman1913.bsky.social, on bad data used in bad faith. FOI-ing the stats myself, I didn't find a great deal of difference in sex offending rates: 5 per 10,000 Afghan men, 7 per 10,000 UK men:

Terrific piece this. Something that Yvette Cooper said the government would do that seems to have fallen by the wayside is to release this data *themselves*, but instead they've seemingly quit the field leaving it only to bad actors (and now, thankfully, Anoosh)

Since September 2025, Geoffrey Andama has headed the Max Planck-Humboldt Research Unit at the Muni University in #Uganda. The new unit is dedicated to developing #astrophysics and astronomy across #Africa.

Just to be consistent and provide a little evidence, here is the first page of the address making the claim.

Jacob Viner’s presidential address to the American Economic Association observed that what matters in policy or politics is the conclusion, but what matters in academe is how you got to the conclusion: the intellectual process, its rigor.

Always dress smartly before settling down to write. Getty Ms. 114; Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing; c.1530 CE; Flanders, Belgium; f.10r @gettymuseum.bsky.social

I certainly don't dismiss all of this. Especially for some jobs. And even given that its message is "Buy our products". But: "If you’ve always wanted to write a book but couldn’t find the time or struggled with the writing, you can work with AI to get it done." So... fortune.com/2026/02/11/s...

Hear hear! Writing books (and other texts) is about the process, not the product. It's about the rewarding experience of understanding a complex issue by thinking it through and translating this process into string of prose to share it with others.

Meanwhile the police is spending time and resources on arresting pensioners holding up signs of solidarity with Palestine Action. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Great. Thanks to this Firefox clickbait tile the song is going to be lodged in my head for the rest of the day. Thanks Clare!

The usual lack of self awareness from the economic migrant Jim Ratcliffe. Nothing surprising, just what we have come to expect from people who think of themselves as “expats”.

A bit long but here’s Marx from the 1844 manuscripts providing an exposition of Goethe and Shakespeare on the power of money that all happens to sum up exactly where we are right now. (Reminded of this passage by Epstein’s capture of prominent academics.)

On a related note, I think the current crisis in Linguistics and Language stems in part from how the subject is having to be taught in schools, having heard horror stories from my friends who are parents. Defend Linguistics.

Can‘t we just get ChatGTP to summarise the Books?

To celebrate #DarwinDay on Feb. 12, I'm going to begin rereading the 1st vol. of Janet's Browne's excellent biography, Voyaging, then the 2nd vol., The Power of Place, in anticipation of her releasing an updated, condensed single volume in June. #histsci #HPS @princetonupress.bsky.social

"Sharma said that he now hoped to pursue a poetry degree." www.thetimes.com/article/5062...

„Absolutes Konfettiverbot“ 🎊 #Weiberfastnacht #schmotzigerdonnerstag

📢FESTIVAL OF SOCIAL HISTORY📢 ❓Celebration of 50 years of the Social History Society 📅 Fri 24 April 📍 Senate House, London 🫰£30 (£10 non members) Join us for panel discussion, stalls & tours, plus keynote from Prof. Naomi Tadmor. 🗃️ #EarlyModern socialhistory.org.uk/events/festi...

"History is women following behind with the bucket." So Morgan McSweeney has been replaced by Jill Cuthbertson and Vidhya Alakeson. Antonia Romeo is about to take over from Chris Wormald. Steph Driver may return to fill Tim Allan's vacancy. Sense that now there's a mess to mop up, get the women in