ICYMI: Carolyn Pedwell, 'Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan, Code: From Information Theory to French Theory' - reviews an outstanding book offering a new history of cybernetics and digital media with far-reaching epistemological and ethical implications. (Open Access) journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Around 10,000 university workers being made redundant this year. Labour policies are definitely cutting through in higher education …

Human Geography at Leicester is facing closure. Staff contracts are to end in June 2026; students are to be relocated to other universities, or taught out by a maximum of two (!) teaching-only staff. Other departments and subjects are facing closure, too. Please join the demo!

Hats off to our Toronto Blue Jays. 🧢⚾To go from last place in 2024 to coming within (less than) an inch of winning the World Series in 2025 is pretty spectacular. And Game 7 was CRAZY. They had a damn good run. 🇨🇦 👏

Worst hitter in the series hits a HR in the top of the 9th AND THEN Vlad just barely misses to the deepest part of the park AND THEN force out at home by a split second AND THEN leaping catch with outfielder collision on the warning track I mean, come ON

As part of @technologyreview.com's big new package on conspiracy theories, I went long on weather modification — what's possible, what's not, what's happening and where, and why people will probably always find ways to blame weather disasters on shady forces:

🥂✌🏾

…!

"To the 18th inning we go. It matches a World Series record for the longest game. | Top 18th Blue Jays 5, Dodgers 5." www.nytimes.com/athletic/liv...

It's worth adding that while the hack of 2+ years ago has been dreadful for British Library users, it is also been awful for BL staff, who cannot fulfil readers' requests and are then confronted by their consequent frustration. With no end in sight.

Vintage receivers, outliving their signals 📻 📡🎙️ #Vienna

Given the awful state of university finances in the UK, it’s a terrible own goal from @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social to impose a levy on the fees of international students. International students fees’ cross-subsidise the costs of teaching home students. This levy will do significant damage.

Do you have bad habits? We have bad habits for you on 21 October 2025, from James Kneale (University College London), speaking on 'Intemperate habits: British life assurance and ordinary temperance, 1840–1918.' In person at the IHR (Wolfson NB01) and online via Zoom.

This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings

We now have 115,000 members (translation: a sh*t load). And we're not stopping there. Thousands of people are joining every week to be part of a different, hopeful politics. Join the Green Party today ⤵️

👉 join.greenparty.org.uk

Happy #NationalPoetryDay! You can still snap up tickets to our Poetry Double Bill on Saturday 18th October with Yvonne Reddick and Liam Bates! geni.us/LFAWPDB And, of course, you can grab a whole host of poetry delights from the Litfest Bookshop! litfest.org/shop/

X is quite literally funding the defence of the domestic extremists the government is prosecuting but they still won't stop using it

It’s Canadian Thanksgiving and although I know the Sweet Potato Macaroni Cheese that’s #RecipeOfTheDay doesn’t exactly fit the bill, it’s such a favourite, and I thought it could just possibly find a place at the table! www.nigella.com/recipes/swee...

This is what not-denying looks like It is vital as those perpetrating try to ‘move on’ Evidence must co tinir to be collected of the vast universe of crimes committed, which have erased the conditions for life of a people in Gaza.

New article from the Algorithmic Societies group at Durham where theorize prompting as "a mutation in the exercise of political power, beyond the direct command and even the more indirect ‘action at a distance’ characteristic of liberal governmentality...." www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

'Whatever the cause, deregulated competition has created a tragedy of the commons, whereby individual universities pursue short-term gains while the sector as a whole bears the cost when international confidence is shaken.'

Join us @sociowarwick.bsky.social for the 2025 Annual Social Theory Centre Lecture with Dr. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury (who is one of the most important contemporary sociologists, if you ask me) When: October 13, 4-6 pm Where: A0.23 Social Sciences Tell you friends in the Midlands!

“Computation has now been reconfigured by machine learning…” Looks awesome: events.humanitix.com/1000platform...

The 4th episode of tactics&practice #AYASU? [podcast] is out! 🎧🚶https://aksioma.org/ayasu-ep4 What if real #change begins not with rupture, but with the quiet force of #collective habits and subtle shifts? w/ Carolyn Pedwell and Neja Berger

Zohran Mamdani calling it a genocide on The View and getting applause.

Vance's most monumental achievement to date has been being told off by two popes in one year.

John Searle, influential philosopher in the history of Analytic philosophy with works in philosophy of mind and language, has passed away. R.I.P. (1932-2025)

This is the very best of qualitative methods textbooks, short 3k word chapters, all case study examples of critical & creative methods. Beautiful images in every chapter www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-p...

Newcastle says no to fascism. The far right brought a hundred or so with them, bussed from far and wide. This city turned out 1000s, from local communities, estates and streets. Geordies of all backgrounds coming together and outnumbering the purveyors of hate by some distance. Newcastle united.

Interview – Are You A Software Update? - Speculative Machines and Us speculativemachines.co.uk/news-item/19...

It was enlivening to have a conversation with Neja Berger as part of Aksioma Institute for Contemporary Art (Ljubljana)'s 'Are you a Software Update' podcast series: aksioma.org/ayasu-ep4

Congratulations @carolynpedwell.bsky.social! Such a fantastic project & site

Don't think I've ever felt this embarrassed to be an American. There's shame and anger too. But mostly embarrassment. We're the laughingstock of the developed world. And we should be.

A super resource!

Lots of information, publications, resources, news and teaching materials emerging from my British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship project, 'Speculative Machines', featured here:

this charlie kirk deification is some of the weirdest shit i have ever seen

I think Obama very clearly wants to be a party elder on Mount Olympus, keeping his powder dry so when he hurls down a thunderbolt it has the most impact/salience but not exactly surprised to see that strategy crumble if other party leaders aren't pulling their weight

Trump just designated “Antifa” as a terrorist organization, on par with ISIS and Al Qaeda. As a reminder, “antifa” is short for “antifascist”. They will use this lie to surveil, imprison, and kill Americans on the left. This may be our Reichstag Fire moment. Wake up. www.cnn.com/2025/09/17/p...

In London, hate will never win.

Report: You To Be Fired For Reading This Headline About Charlie Kirk

Coates just doesn't miss. He doesn't. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/c...

I'm really excited that a collection of fascinating work on fandom, fans and AI that @suzannerblack.bsky.social and I co-edited is out today in the new volume of @journal.transformativeworks.org - and as the journal's first 'New Currents' section! Read our editorial here doi.org/10.3983/twc....

Good thread with some interesting suggestions for improving the peer review process... I notice there's a track at DRS this year about innovation in publishing of design research, would be nice to see such things considered.

“(T)he way someone makes the argument – how nice they look, how erudite they sound, how polite they seem – has long taken precedent over the actual argument itself… as long as the tone is cheerful, there's no need to examine the ugliness of the words.” campaign-trails.ghost.io/the-white-ci...

wrote on charlie kirk for the newsletter this weekend

With the new season of Jeopardy! about to begin amid public grappling with AI, a look back at the 2011 showdown between the question-answering computer system Watson and two human opponents reveals "a prime-time preview of the anxious, angry moment we’re in now." slate.com/culture/2025...

This. The absolute temerity of slamming ‘low quality research’ while squandering millions on garbage reports based on 20th century management ‘theory’. Such irony.

I'm devastated by Conor Gearty's passing. His seminars were electrifying, his research courageous and inspirational, and as a doctoral supervisor he was never less than kind, diligent, and wise. It is such a huge loss. In this beautiful article, he left us some of his wisdom, humour, and humility.