Mark McCormack

You'd think there would be more interest from the US media that Trump is simply delusional - at best being fed complete fabrications by his team, at worst in serious cognitive decline and unable to recognise reality.

This is where I differ from a lot of academics. After I get to 5-6, my view is "if it's important, I'll remember it", and then close the browser.

Everyone needs educating in the fight over university degrees Political confusion over the purpose of these institutions means the obvious fixes are being neglected

Something grimly predictable about the way that the conversation about 'ripoff degrees' in the UK is always about degrees that aren't rip-offs, but are instead fairly obvious 'this student has chosen something unlikely to pay off economically' rather than the short tail of crap business degrees:

UK Tory Party Conference: Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch declares war on English degrees.
#literature #language #English #HigherEd #University

Am wondering if all of those suddenly deciding they’re against communities living “parallel lives” might reconsider their support of religious schools? Or indeed private ones?

So to summarise, this is a white politician blaming a black journalist for the racism he is now actively helping to promote, after receiving the full endorsement of his own party leader

Wow. Robert Jenrick doubles down by branding a black journalist's questions "ridiculous" and saying that the problem is not his comments, but "journalists like you who pop up and try to knock me down", adding that "this is the reason why terrorist attacks happen". ~AA

It's what I've felt with the debates about authorship and AI. Rather suggests the presence of an author - and we don't credit computers in writing with high-level stats etc etc.

Hard agree - there are very vivid examples of why the disappearance of a functioning centre right option in a system which props up the two largest parties every single day, when the news reports on the Trump administration.

This is why they want all human rights restraints removed. #ECHR

Faster than I expected, the first data breach where personal information used to verify age has been leaked.

Age Verification proponents: "this is the one thing we didn't want to happen"

so today we've had @hignfy.bsky.social casually repeating a false conspiracy theory about Euan Blair's company and ID cards, and the Independent posting some absolute garbage from Facebook claiming it was something Patricia Routledge wrote and honestly, I'm ashamed of journalism today.

Sick and tired of people wanting to defend “western civilisation” especially when they are also attacking arts and humanities in the universities.

i looked at the methodology for this and it is
a. sex addiction counseling group in texas did a surveymonkey and extrapolated the results to the entire us population which is the sort of research design that earns you an ff on an intro methods class (the extra f is for extra effort), and
b. p-hacked

Plans to outlaw buying sex would cost at least five times more than... Plans to outlaw buying sex would cost at least five times more than initial estimates, leaving Police Scotland needing a government bailout to enforce the legislation, senior officers have...

Loathed to link to the Daily Mail, but this article confirms Police Scotland are seeking more money to enforce sex purchase law they are backing. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

I’ve been lucky to work with great colleagues, co-authors and advocates, but its also a challenge we need to recognize as a reality of being a sociologist writing about sex and sexuality. I’m excited and hopeful this special issue is an important component of addressing these issues.

I was also taken by @aminghaziani.bsky.social's argument about how sexuality research is still stigmatized and dismissed in the academy in "patterned ways, from homophobia thinly veiled as a critique of the work to passive aggressive portrayals of it...rather than serious and scholarly.”

Delighted to be part of this special issue. My thanks to @aminghaziani.bsky.social for all his work in making it happen, and his considered and insightful editorial comments and advice. Not only is queer nightlife “having a moment”, it is “an intellectual movement that is impossible to ignore”.

Its always "too soon" to judge effectiveness right until its too embedded to change.

'Kids racially abused me and the adults' reaction broke me' Sophia Choudry says she is "shaken" and "heartbroken" after being racially abused on the Elizabeth line.

More and more such incidents happening daily
www.bbc.com/news/article...

"They're eating the carp. They're eating the swans."

Nigel Farage doubles down on his bet that immigrants were eating cats and dogs in America.

He now suggests there's a 'similar story' in Britain.

For an English audience. This is paracetemol.

Totally and completely nuts.

There's a wrong way and a right way to report this

Will Oxford disclose how much it paid (or did not pay) for this?

Surely a sweetheart deal (has research money thrown in!) so OpenAI can plaster Oxford over its marketing and raid other unis’ fees, library budgets to throw into the sector’s massive inference funding chasm.

Reform are now coming after people with permanent residency. It'll be citizens next. No one is safe from authoritarian governments.

Chris van Tulleken: Vaccine worry isn’t stupid — we have to listen The doctor, author and children’s TV star says a pandemic is more likely than it was before Covid but that vilifying people won’t get us anywhere

I've been sitting on this for a while, but I was lucky enough to be a part of this documentary, Disease X, coming out tomorrow, 9 pm on BBC2. We talk about the next pandemic and I have my say on risk and health inequalities. Read more here and watch tomorrow! www.thetimes.com/article/e944...

'In terms of choosing which areas to prioritise, [Kieron] Flanagan said this would be inherently political, as there is “no conclusive data and evidence…that will answer that question”.'

It's striking that almost no one is asking what evidence the "too many things" argument rests on. Start asking.

Shot, chaser

Young men more likely to vote Green than Reform. Young men second most progressive group of any demographic. Combined right-wing vote barely bigger than Green vote alone for young men

There's been a shift towards support to the far right here and it's horrible to see. But this remains a vastly less racist/homophobic/anti-semitic country than it has been in the past.

Which makes it all the odder that our politicians today seem more scared to make the argument.