Ah no, easy mistake to make, I was actually talking about Clavichordular, the baroquemaxxer who just got brutally temperament-mogged by Quarter-comma

This is excellent, and reminds me indirectly of a curious incident that occurred in UK academia more than 20 years ago 🧵

@depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social this is from the article on Anglepoise lamps

Those were the days

Not just if you're trans. This is an easy and consequenceless thing for cis allies to do as well.

1/ My AI powered routine as an Innovative Thought Leader in the Digitally Empowered Transformation Frontier Space. 4:38am: I wake up at the time Gemini has determined best aligns my internal biorythms with the current position of Neptune in the firmament. It cited a paper on this I've yet to read.

Do speak a greeting to our short amigos

What's a pithy memorable one-skeet (or shorter) expression of the difference between 'fiscal' and 'monetary'?

I'd somehow missed the passing of John Foreman, from whom I once bought a broadside of a Ewan MacColl song

Fun fact: this time tomorrow I expect to be off my tits on fentanyl and other substances

RIP Ike Willis, saw him on FZ's 88 tour, great singer

Completely agree. Furthermore, because that basic education was developed under changing conditions, the job of refining it, improving it and keeping it relevant to new developments is a skilled and creative endeavour that is sadly undervalued in our HE system

when you utter “cereal” in a hard-surfaced room

The NHS preferring Palantir over Open Source is rather like Corporal Baldrick scratching his name on a bullet so that he'd know where the one with his name on it was

During the past two decades, the science of acoustics has altered out of all recognition of its former self. Like other branches of science, it had reached a saturation point beyond which progress was barred through want of a suitable tool. The thermionic valve is the required tool N McLachlan 1936

Boooo!

The NHS preferring Palantir over Open Source is rather like Corporal Baldrick scratching his name on a bullet so that he'd know where the one with his name on it was

The Guardian's rather terse obituary for JH Prynne leads me to this one for this one for his extraordinary colleague Joseph Needham, who achieved so much that his founding of the Morris Ring doesn't even get a mention

Any experts out there on the Irish Society for Intellectual Freedom? There is no Wikipedia page for it. See catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls0... I seek a photo of member Victor Meally.

Well maybe we’ll now get a health AND SOCIAL CARE secretary

Yesterday, 35 years into my career, I had a meeting at which I put forward an idea and the other two participants agreed that it was a good one and started discussing how to implement it without needing too much input from me. It is possible!

Here's what I'm going to be doing next week

"If you are female, drink one shot immediately. Underrepresented minority: one shot. Both: three shots, because intersectionality. Each shot will help you lower your expectations for fairness before you read through the comments." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/rev...

Slightly increase a band Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch

Ted Heath on a skateboard. You're welcome.

oh is Starmer banging on about steel again

Ironically, I was once marooned on a tiny island with Occam, yet it took him ten years to work out that I was the one stealing his shaving kit.

Still on the fence about Prynne's poetry, but as a source of eccentric-academic anecdotes he gave excellent value

Nice one @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Tell you what, colleagues, I'll learn to use AI once you've learned to use LaTeX. And Julia. And Python, which we supposedly switched to using exclusively for education over a decade ago.

OK, but her body striking the bell wouldn't make that sound - is it a weighted belt? Or does she swing the clapper as she moves?

A maths prof I used to know was approached by the local tv company to say they had a teen prodigy who could do this, and could he come on their programme to say how amazing it was. They didn't like his answer

One of the longest-running debates in criminology concerns the effects of sentencing. You start by asking whether sentences of type X (e.g. prison) have a greater deterrent effect – are more likely to stop people reoffending – than type Y (e.g. community service). 1/ @davidallengreen.bsky.social

You can't fight fascism if you can't stop the money. You can't stop the money if you can't control offshore finance. So, the place to start is to impose proper controls on offshore finance. It's a stupid idea anyway.

Commiserations to Sir David Attenborough on his 100th birthday, as he is now too old to be allowed to play with LEGO.

So 30,000 tomorrow - iykyk

The pergola's up

So depressing that HE has forgotten about BA in Transferable Skills, and is only interested in BSc in Soon To Be Obsolete Technology.

Meryl Streep a refusé d'aller au MET gala (pile après la sortie de son film sur la MODE) parce que Jeff Bezos est impliqué et sa femme est là. Je l'aime tellement. Comme a dit Cam dans Modern Family : Meryl Streep could play batman and be the right choice. She's perfection.

You can't even do Star Wars anagrams these days because of ewok.

Shaft!

This week I got to witness a demo of acoustic fire suppression in Concord, CA. Experts I spoke with still have a lot of questions. Read my latest for @arstechnica.com : arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026...

Being outraged that it's getting quite expensive to buy endangered species on the high street is certainly one take

There are weird guitars and then there's this

This is pish, as I've been pointing out for years: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Heat-pump at rest

I suggested the lounge of our old sraff club should be renamed "Tooth and Claw" because as well as the day's papers they provided a copy of the latest Nature to read there

As an actual whore, I take umbrage with this. Never would a whore house display images of frumpy men in gilded frames. Never!! Those spaces are historically reserved for our own majestic portraits and tediously rendered fan art of our ornately adorned bosoms and juicy regal asses.

Here's a second, geared mechanism that transforms between cube and octahedron forms. Full video at youtu.be/T9BNMLFHXUw

Disabled people in the U.K. are facing harassment from the public for using a Blue Badge. Many said they have been verbally abused for “faking”, with some being filmed on phones, physically intimidated, or having their mobility aid pulled away. My exclusive: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...