1. Narnia v Skaro 2. Cuckooland v Wakanda 3. Vulcan v Tazbekistan 4. Sealand v Babar’s Kingdom 5. Glubbdubdrib v The Land of Oz 6. Sodor v Kambezi 7. Telos v Freedonia

I’m old enough to remember that “I was just following orders” was no defense. Nor is it now.

You know there’s been that strange social media chat about The Rapture and the pure being lifted up to heaven, past few days? Turns out it’s true. But only for puffins.

No, that's Cronos. Crocus is a medium-sized bird, part of the Corvid family, with black plumage and a distinctive psychedelic beak.

Wordle accepts ‘DALEK’ as a valid guess but not ‘LATIN’, thereby demonstrating the superiority of the Dalek Empire over those puny Romans.

What she said.

Trump is aggressively ignorant. He does not learn, actively resists it, and has surrounded himself with people who enable his stupidity.

I try to moderate my language online: but, seriously. Fuck this guy.

Just reposted this from January 2025 as something odd going on with my original Substack post ...

"history is also going to remember the cowards who definitely knew better but still let things happen—whether it was for money, convenience, or just comfort. Use ... the only phrase that can genuinely make a weak bully go away: F**k you. Make me.”" www.pajiba.com/news/john-ol...

No, no...I think you misheard: The RAPTOR is coming this week. Still a cause for concern, I suppose. You could stay inside, but she can open doors. Clever girl.

For any interested ECRs. samuelbeckettsociety.org/2025/09/21/s...

Erm... right. OK. It's Batman Day, apparently, and I was supposed to get the costumes sorted but I misheard and, er, got this cause I thought they said Bantam but hey it's all black and cool and stuff and I bet this chicken could take the Joker easy

Well this is an exceptionally good history job. Wonders never cease. www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/list...

Does nobody in America have access to a traffic cone? Scotland would have sorted this by now...

Well, OK: as some of my work has undoubtedly made its way into ChatGPT's databases, I'm sure Oxford will see its way clear to paying me. A small remuneration; nothing excessive. £50,000 per annum should be sufficient. And a bottle of claret. The good stuff.

This 'skill' will be obsolete by 2027. This is like going to school to learn cheat codes for Elder Scrolls IV. Might as well teach how to fax. The demand is going to be for people with critical thinking skills, ethics, who can research.

“She said that every child should have access to the arts throughout the country, wherever you’re from, whatever your background. These basic principles are worth looking at again.” Jennie Lee, Britain’s pioneering first Arts Minister, gets a mention. Read about her legacy, 60 years on👇

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’ Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

Oh, d’you think?

⚠️This is the Jimmy Kimmel monologue that got his show pulled. Not hate. Not celebration of death. Just the truth: Republicans rushed to blame the left before any facts about the shooter or motive were known. Keep sharing it. Spread the truth.

This is entirely stupid. If you don’t jump through our arbitrary hoops, we’ll make sure you can’t afford to improve.

Yeah so what I heard was you watch this haunted youtube clip then a week later you get a text message and then it comes for you

Privately educated people (7%) still dominate the UK's most influential roles. #edchat #HigherEd #school

Melania Trump impersonates standard lamp in desperate bid to escape husband

No, it won’t.

Upgraded my iPhone to the new operating system, and very amused by the icons' behaviour. They used just to be there; now, they all rush, flustered, into position as though I'd nearly caught them doing something iffy in another room.

Dear me. Reform are really getting the brightest and the best, aren't they?

Is there anyone more easily distractable than someone doing the reference list for an 80,000 word manuscript?

Some big news: the University of Birmingham is launching a new MA in Gender & Sexuality. It's interdisciplinary, with a focus on combining theory & practice. It's going to be amazing. I'm convening it: message or email with questions. www.birmingham.ac.uk/study/postgr... @unibirmingham.bsky.social

"To a supremacist society, most of us are acceptable losses. Charlie Kirk is not. To a supremacist society, guns are allowed to kill most of us, and the pundits can debate later how sad our deaths were. But guns were not supposed to kill Charlie Kirk." www.the-reframe.com/acceptable-l...

Civilisation threatened, says threat to civilisation. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

*watching proust stare at a madeline* you going to eat that or what

PSA for HE-employed people whose household contains a copy of today's Guardian. Do not look at the mind-mangling supplement. Do not touch the mind-mangling supplement with your bare hands. Remove the mind-mangling supplement with a pair of curseproof tongs and dispose of it beneath an Elder Sign.

Pleased to see that whoever has planned Donald Trump's state visit have laid on the most boring possible way to spend a week in Britain.

"Consider the implications if ChatGPT started saying “I don’t know” to even 30% of queries ... Users accustomed to receiving confident answers to virtually any question would likely abandon such systems rapidly."

How do you say I'm not up to this without saying I'm not up to this?

This is really worth a listen, if you like J-Horror (or just horror).

This should probably read, 'Universities UK president says institutions will be in reality unable to define what is meant by the phrase "unfunded hobbyist research".'

The last REF found that 98% of UK research was either "internationally recognised", "internationally excellent", or "world-leading". If you think low-quality research is the noteworthy challenge in UK higher ed right now, you are wilfully looking in the wrong direction

Was looking for some good news today.

I know it's all too easy to point out hypocrisy but are we seeing a great outbreak of Republican 'thoughts and prayers'? Are they urging people not to rush to politicise this? Are they insisting that the shooter was mentally ill rather than ideological?

Gun violence is out of control. The victims of gun violence are Republicans, Democrats, independents, and kids, who have no political affiliation whatsoever. We need to tone down the incendiary political rhetoric, for sure, but we also need to do something about guns. The guns!

So much of life is just waiting for Peter Mandelson to resign

- you clean up that banksy? - sure did, your honour, leaving a perfect, permanent outline, imbuing the work with real fuckin gravitas while making its point better than the artist did himself just like you asked

one for sorrow two for joy three for a girl four for a boy five for silver six for actually that's a lot of magpies seven for oh no they are massing eight for oh my god they're going to attack nine for run, run away now ten for magpies Magpies MAGPIES