A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.

sometimes I think it's one of the reasons they keep any of us from working class backgrounds at such armslength--bc we are uniquely fit to call that both classist and factually rubbish framing.

Magnificent: they've read our counterproposal + our offer for the SLs to go part-time (rejected: too much HR effort), and decided instead to delete MORE posts than originally planned. We're going to teach out the 3 old courses, introduce 2 UG degrees + supervise 25 PhDs with 3 FTE posts.

"Ben owns a farm. He employs 100 workers. His total payroll is $10 million/year. One day, he buys a mule, which provides the worker who uses it with a modest 10% productivity gain. Ben fires 99 of his workers and purchases 99 mules, expecting a 1,000% productivity gain..."

On his passing, a chance to share this amazing photo of David Hockney. Hockney in front of his painting of Henry Geldzahler, with Geldzahler himself. Oh, and it was taken by Cecil Beaton. You could write a book about this photo alone. collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co86...

Over 100 MPs have now signed Early Day Motion 240, which calls for the EHRC's government-backed segregation charter to be "disapproved". Is your MP among them? If not, you can write to them, call them, or demand a meeting about this today!

The new BRILL book series keep coming from the brill @erikagaffney.bsky.social! "Genders and Sexualities in the Early Modern World" rensoc.org.uk/announcement... #EarlyModern

I'm sorry, what? In writing my first monograph, I spent six weeks trying to track down a citation in TWO languages I didn't know. And good thing too, because the citation was wrong. That's scholarship. That's research. You know, the thing we're trained to do?!?

Still one week to apply for this awesome Archivist post based in Wiltshire with an absolutely amazing collection. #Archives #Archivist #Wiltshire #Swindon

I was annoyed that I couldn't find a database of David Attenborough documentaries where I could search for a specific episode by topic. So I made it. attenborough-100.vercel.app

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

🚨 #medievalsky 🚨 Middle English Dictionary update via FB: "In its 100-year history, MED has enjoyed periods of support, and periods when that support was lacking. It is about to enter on one of the latter. After this year...UMich will no longer fund ongoing editorial work and maintenance." 🧵

UK friends: Yale UP is offering a 50% discount on many books, including mine 🤗 with the code MAY26. 🔗 yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

2014 REF: 2026: closing UG History

I can see the ads now: ‘FUND ICE. Because the only ones raping your daughters should be us.’

👀⬇️

"Whether you find cocaine exciting or frightening, its widespread use—including among students—means we all need to learn how to interact with it responsibly."

I hadn't seen this before. This is pretty remarkable. Earth and Moon in one NASA photo. ht @astrokatie.com

obsessed with this article

So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread:

This week over 100,000 ALCS members will receive their share of £34m. Let's celebrate the value of human creativity, something that isn't going anywhere 💡📖🌳

The inevitable next stage of academic publishers profiting from academics' work is here - scraping it for AI then charging subscriptions for access to the AI summaries, and then again for the citations. Academic content assetization as we called it in a recent paper. www.science.org/content/arti...

*Finally* able to talk about the Star Trek @sciencemuseum.org.uk team-up we are organising for the 60th anniversary! Special events, world first film season, exclusive merch, props and costumes from the Paramount archives, and more! www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/star-trek-60

I can’t believe you lefty Luddites hate tech so much that you embrace mRNA vaccines, heat pumps, electric bikes, hybrid work, renewable power (and awesome advancements in storage), space telescopes, and hot/cold running water but reject the planet destroying plagiarism enrich the worst people bots!

Today is International Day of Women and Girls in Science 👩‍🔬 To celebrate, we’re holding additional free Women in Science tours throughout the day, and special spotlight talks on the life and work of Marie Curie in Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries. Find out more: https://bit.ly/4rBbeeo

Join us today at our Future of Food Lates and treat yourself to tasteful experiences, including a screening of Soylent Green, Silent Disco, special exhibition-themed comedy and sample tastes of futuristic food. Book your free admission tickets: https://bit.ly/3Zz9F4S

“The problem is that we have accelerated into a consuming and exclusive narrative about science in the national interest.” Some day I’ll stop sharing my v personal perspective on how devastating humanities has in fact devastated science. Not today. scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/06/26/d...

Look what arrived today, or at least the ebook did. This is the first encyclopedia devoted exclusively to medieval women’s writing globally,focusing on the thousand-year period between 500-1500. Entries on about 250 women writers plus longer thematic essays. You’re welcome.

Where is the Dark Academia novel in which Dark Academics spend 80% of their time writing grant applications to the Dark Funding Council and most of the rest being harrassed by Dark ResearchFish (RIP)?

Cat's officially out of the bag #IMC2026 @imc-leeds.bsky.social #MedievalSky 🗃️

We are delighted to announce the details of our Semester two York Medieval Lecture: The Darker Side of the Middle Ages Speaker: Professor Kathy Lavezzo (The University of Iowa) 📅 Tuesday 17 February 🕛 Lecture 6:30-8:00pm 📍 SLB/118, Spring Lane building 🌐 www.york.ac.uk/medieval-stu...

It’s that time again!

Protester in Minneapolis just before disappearing in gas: "Fuck you! Stop. Damn! I'm 70 years old and I'm fuckin' angry!"

There we go. That there’s a headline.

Mendacious drivel trying to make readers think that a physical museum gallery has been replaced by a completely unrelated trail through the existing galleries. You can access the trail 'Refracted Histories: Exploring LGBTQ+ Stories in Times of Conflict' here: www.iwm.org.uk/events/refra...

He ys ridinge a horse He ys emerald and svelte He will get reallye weirde If you lie about beltes The Green Knighte Ys Cominge To Toun

Another way to restart the world’s idea machine is to restore funding and grants to universities, researchers, and artists.

we can kill them all if we just work together and ✨believe💫

We’re inviting children across the UK to join us for an online lesson hosted live by Tim Peake at the @sciencemuseum.org.uk at 11.03, the moment Tim launched into space a decade ago. Great to see Tim and my colleague Libby on @BBC Breakfast! x.com/sciencemuseu...

'AI is coming' I tell the museum stakeholders as I proudly cut the ribbon of our new Artificial Insemination exhibition

The NHS is under pressure to adopt Palantir software. Its founder openly despises the NHS. You can push back: use our tool to see if your local trust is using the software, then send an email to say no to Palantir https://goodlaw.social/658abc

I have set up a bsky for MATER! Please feel free to follow. :) 🗃️

It’s OBJECTIVELY HILARIOUS that Wes Streeting said we have to look at potential over diagnosis of Autism and ADHD through a ‘strictly clinical lens’ as though there aren’t already a million hoops to jump through to even get put forward for a clinical diagnosis on the NHS.

Please enjoy this project we've been working on with the lovely team at Google Arts and Culture: artsandculture.google.com/project/nati... Its so exciting to make so much of our collection accessible this anniversary year for the railways from models and artwork to tools and vehicles!

If you have the means I highly recommend the cause of supporting a fellow scholar

Is Santa Real? Many users feel they're getting presents from him. Scientists say it's time to consider whether they're onto something.

Recently, Blake Gutt and I had the great fortune to sit down with @eocieslik.bsky.social & record a converation for the Whiplash pod with @maxwellkuzma.bsky.social on medieval trans & genderqueer saints--and why they matter today, more than ever #MedievalSky 🗃️

Microsoft Excel also does not understand jokes Genuinely, it is such a serious problem that academics and media outlets are presenting text processing software as if it could ever "understand" anything. All this does is misinform the public and do supply free PR for tech companies

Many people have noted that the Primary / Social / Forums / Updates tabs are missing when you do this 👀. You can recreate these manually using the "Multiple Inbox" setup in settings. Basically, tell your inbox to include emails tagged "inbox" and exclude the social / forums / updates.