Another PhD applicant who sent me a characterless proposal written by an LLM. So bored with this now.

New article on Sapience just out. Very philosophical. Pause, ponder, enjoy. Leaton Gray, S., & Scott, D. (2025). Sapience and the future of educational judgement. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1–15. doi.org/10.1080/0013...

The Trump administration pulled legal immigrants at the last minute before their naturalization ceremony. Immigrants lined up to become U.S. citizens in Boston on Dec. 4 were pulled out of line by USCIS officials moments before taking the oath.

I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

Branding and logo for Great British Railways unveiled. Please can we have the refreshment trolley back, name an engine Trainey McTrainface and have a competition to launch an ironic Great British Rail signature sandwich?

Moving article: Philip Lawrence was my headmaster. I’m still thankful 30 years on www.thetimes.com/article/196a...

Hebrews 13:2

www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/... The problem is that, as a country, if you entertain the option of sending young men off to war as potential drone and missile fodder, then you let yourself off the hook as a country in terms of the quality and urgency of diplomacy you are prepared to engage in.

Well done! A Massachusetts church displayed an “ICE was here” sign in its Nativity scene.

In a departure from his party’s line, the deputy prime minister said rejoining the EU customs union would boost economic growth

I can relate to this. A speeding driver killed my grandfather, and from what I can tell from the coroner’s report, the police didn’t even investigate it properly. A speeding driver killed my parents - there needs to be a cultural change www.bbc.com/news/article...

sandraleatongray.wordpress.com/book-sample-1/ I wrote this scenario 20+ years ago and looking back over it, I’m surprised quite how much came true, or anticipated later events. What strikes you most about it now? Interested to hear your comments.

Just rewatched Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes and things feel unresolved. We need a final series to deal properly with the Gene Hunt issue. Repost if you agree.

Meet Pancho, the AI bot fighting food waste at the hotel buffet www.thetimes.com/article/408e...

Ok palate cleanse time. In case you missed it, here's my most popular post ever

Had to explain to two Americans this week that no, the British don’t do Thanksgiving, and the only thing we do in November is Bonfire Night where we celebrate catching and executing Catholic terrorists, one of whom is a direct ancestor of mine. They are like 😮🤨🤯

This seems like a serious safety issue www.stuff.co.nz/business/360...

Oops. Cryptographers cancel election results after losing decryption key. arstechnica.com/security/202...

Great that I have a new book on decolonisation out today with Routledge. Not great that they demoted me in the biography despite us asking for a correction *twice*. They didn’t demote my male co-author, of course. I’m furious.

Also tbh the idea that the average layperson can become expert enough in any field to have a nuanced and meaningful take on policy is frankly 98% of why we are in any given mess. No, a weekend of reading is not gonna make you an expert on anything and some they’all don’t even do that much.

💪

Well, something unprecedented just happened. After years of emotionally exhausting reviews, I got one that said the submitted paper was great and nothing really needed changing. 😮😄

Uber and Bolt warn of 15% fare increase from ‘taxi tax’ plan. I think people are absolutely right to object as the unintended consequences, particularly outside metropolitan zones with generous public transport, will be vast. www.thetimes.com/article/ac20...

www.economist.com/business/202... TL:DR to profile people this way replicates the biometric racism that Galton and Bertillon were so fascinated by, and which ultimately contributed significantly to the holocaust.

The 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report was meant to “build a world-class curriculum for all.” In reality, it signals something quite different: the closure of curriculum reform in England. 🧵

A big shout out to the Cambridgeshire Cycling Proficiency teachers out and about in Sawston this week with cohorts of primary schoolchildren, chanting in unison ‘Turning right!’ ‘Turning left!’ ‘Looking for traffic!’ as they rode along. Cuteness itself and a perfect pedagogy for safety drill.

The 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report was meant to “build a world-class curriculum for all.” In reality, it signals something quite different: the closure of curriculum reform in England. 🧵

Don't pay for iCloud, people. A glitch at the Apple end meant that it has permanently wiped a third of my entire iCloud files by accident (n=300), across every single device, and it took me 5 days, 3 online chats and 3 phone calls to learn they are not going to do anything about it. All gone.

I wrote a blog post on AI and the need for sapience. Pause. Enjoy.

I wrote a blog post on AI and the need for sapience. Pause. Enjoy.

the pièce de résistance in all this, for me, was learning how the alleged heisters allegedly got the ladder: they requested a demonstration from the Paris-based owner, then stole it during the demonstration

The interview with the CEO letting slip one of the other ideas they had but ditched, metro.co.uk/video/german...

The German company that makes the mechanical ladder used in the Louvre heist has used the image to advertise, with the text 'When you need to move fast' 10/10 response, no notes

There is no one more fun to read than Caity Weaver www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

So come join with me in a journey of discovery regarding a painting I inherited from my grandparents. It’s of little financial value but great interest.

Parents look for £180,000 tutor to prepare baby for Eton or Harrow. Extraordinary. www.thetimes.com/article/152b...

‘The Georgian-inspired desk costs £11,500 and has satinwood legs … I bought it once I got the advance from my new book, Clodagh’s Happy Cooking.’ (Times). In contrast I spent entire annual royalties for six academic books on a pre-loved John Lewis desk off eBay last year. Questioning life choices.

My text to a colleague this morning!

Have finally persuaded my parents to adopt my old smartphone. They are not untechnological but just didn’t see the point before. The defining moment was probably the window cleaner wanting pictures of the windows in order to quote.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great my husband survived Covid round three and all that, but having him downstairs again of an evening has definitely compromised my binge watching of The White Queen.

We don’t just have an attendance problem, we have an engagement problem – but we can learn a lot from the way Chicago has turned around its school system, says @vianclark.bsky.social

At the other end of the spectrum, when my dad was ~17 he did well in an event for young chemists and the prize was a trip to an asbestos factory.

My lad’s house sale has fallen through after the survey revealed extensive asbestos problems. It leaves them £4K down on multiple fees and surveys, after two failed attempts to buy a home fell through.

Most academic thing ever

What could possibly go wrong?!

The debate over higher education reform keeps circling back to debt, course quality and the balance between degrees and apprenticeships. The deeper issue is that the system remains fragmented. A thread.

Well, the pigeons are back. Sparrowhawk obviously couldn’t deal with that many at once. They are quieter though.

DRAMATIC PIGEON UPDATE! Apparently a sparrowhawk has been spotted on a neighbour’s back garden birdcam and has taken out loads of pigeons today! Nature at work!

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.