I’m stepping back into a HOD role. I have my own experiences from the first HOD role but what would your best advice be for going into a new dept and what do you wish you’d have been doing from the start? Please share to get more voices. (And answer yourself) @themathsbazaar.bsky.social

Introduce yourself with five gigs you've been to Metallica Lawnmower Deth Motorhead James Brown Ladysmith Black Mambazo

A joke for the history buffs: Germany’s satirical newspaper @der-postillon.com titles: “Vienna Academy of the Arts offers Trump admission as a student — They don’t want to get blamed again“

"When I was younger, in the NORTH I killed someones FATHER and TOOK THEIR SWORD. I'm a different person than I was then, but I still worry about what became of that kid."

"I am the sole inheritor of a lost kingdom. I come from THE NORTH and carry my FATHER'S SWORD. I swear VENGEANCE upon those responsible for the kingdom's downfall... once I figure out who they are. Was it YOU?!" (ok, yes, this one is for @drmarcushill.bsky.social) #out

Now you can turn any game into an overpriced version of Progress Quest!

So the USA has invaded a southern neighbor and deposed their dictator. Seems like a shining example for other countries *cough*Canada*cough*

Paul Sinha with a strong early entry for 2026 pun of the year.

If you have never watched The Big Knights, drop everything and go to YouTube to correct this oversight.

OK, we've got about six hours. Any of my Manchester-adjacent friends want to go downtown and re-enact this classic scene?

No one says to legit business owners, "hey I see there's an underground market selling toxic knock-offs of your product: how will you incorporate the toxic product AND protect your customers against its harms?" But apparently it's fine to make this suggestion to educators with respect to AI.

I would share a photo of my academic origin story book, but I cannot for the life of me remember to whom I lent my copy of Gödel, Escher, Bach a few decades ago...

Wondering how I did it? I boiled water and added two tablespoons of vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice. I soaked it for 20 minutes, and after that, it looked the same, so I bought a brand new one.

My thoughts exactly.

If your business can't survive without being allowed to break the law with impunity, it doesn't deserve to survive. This applies to privatised utilities just as much as it does to Gen AI. Fine Thames Water into bankruptcy, renationalise it by paying shareholders pennies, then stare at the others.

(*One of my favourite Nirvana songs)

Is it bad and wrong that the first song I thought would be fun to use for this idea was Lawnmower Deth's "Can I Cultivate Your Groinal Garden?", the entirety of whose lyrics are the title?

*pushes glasses up nose* acshually

I have seen a lot of comments on this, and I like to think that someone at the BBC is aware of both how many people pay attention to the Reith lectures and of the Streisand effect, and has shouted to the world that Trump is corrupt in a lawsuit-proof way. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

Well, there was a film about a guy named Denis...

This is a fun game.

Someone needs to tell @herring1967.bsky.social that Hitler may well have actually been a monoballer...

Gary Lineker: "This is the mistake the BBC makes. The BBC tries to appease the people that hate the BBC, rather than worrying about the people that love the BBC."

My reaction exactly!

There is only one acceptable backstory: "I come from the North bearing my father's sword seeking vengeance after Orcs [or setting equivalent] massacred my village." I will not be taking questions at this time.

She claims to be "on the side of children" whilst saying she will battle the unions who know better than she does that testing will do nothing in itself, and teachers can monitor the impact of the real changes that are needed (which cost more than tests) www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

Does this mean we will now need to start calling him "the Andrew formerly known as Prince"? www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn...

This article fails to address the questions many of us will have: what are these documents, can we get copies, and where can we put them so they will be ingested by anyone training their LLM without explicit permission from people whose data they use? www.malwarebytes.com/blog/ai/2025...

you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am

I've noticed the opposing team's fans only cheer when the opponents score on us. To win those fans over, I recommend we score on ourselves repeatedly; that will surely make them so happy they'll start supporting us. And I'm sure all our fans will keep cheering for us—who else is there to cheer for?

Absolutely this. I am completely done with Starmer now, he's throwing away everything Labour should stand for, and for nothing. He will lose far more progressive votes than he will gain by courting the Fail readers who will never vote Labour.

Anyone who is up in the #LakeDistrict today and can tell me the weather isn't actually that bad, I would be really grateful

www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/it-tim... The best illustration of Betteridge's Law I have seen in some time.

Do it. Give the gammon an aneurysm.

Academic friends, I found a paper of mine in the database which is the basis of the lawsuit being brought against the owners of the plagiarism engines. Apparently, if all the authors seek damages, it could spell the end for gen AI. Let's make that dream a reality!

Wrote this about flags and patriotism in 2021 (in The Decade In Tory). Stand by every word now.

Possibly relevant to many of my followers.

starting to think we should give "strange women lying in ponds distributing swords" a chance as a basis for our system of government

The women's team shouldn't be paid as much as the men. The men should be paid as much as the women.

Getting my Entry Level Dungeon Master Certificate so I can run D&D in an empty shipping container with some mismatched garden furniture and a dangerously rusty paraffin lamp.

So here's a #ttrpg that I want to talk about while I wait for some drugs to kick in. OUR BRILLIANT RUIN from Studio Hermitage. It's an intriguing wee game that I'm a little surprised didn't make more of an impact. It's a horror-adjacent game that takes place in a fantasy world facing oblivion 🧵

Hold on, were they not interviewing everyone before? Everyone who starts a teacher training programme gets interviewed. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Peeking back in at X (man, I feel dirty), it looks like @mathsnot.bsky.social (who knows much more about these things than I) reached a similar conclusion. I am still puzzled by the continued claim that all is as intended - "we did the best we could when we suspected a leak" looks better than that!

I am still struggling to think why Pearson would put out two different papers, knowing what a fuss it would cause. One bit of conjecture seems reasonable. Maybe there was a suspected leak of the original P2 so close to the date they didn't have the adapted papers ready or have time to produce them.

Whilst I absolutely agree that we should have trustworthy, evidence based guidance, any implementation would need to take account of a few potential difficulties. Teaching is inherently much messier than medicine. Yes, there are some predictable aspects, but many more sources of potential variation.