Pete Birkinshaw

I'm sorry to say people in academia are enthusing about "vibe coding" university services yet again, in much the same way as someone cheerfully waving a lit match in a dry, autumnal endangered forest blown by a strong wind

This is such an outrageous story. There’s still a total lack of clarity on the proscription of Palestine Action by the government (I suspect we know why) and now people may die as a result of it.

YouTube video by Netflix K-Content Cashero | Official Trailer | Netflix [ENG SUB]

Upcoming Netflix kdrama #Cashero releases official trailer.

youtu.be/cI-iJmZbBXw?...

My bugbear is I think the nepo baby discourse drowns out the useful parallel one about class & money privilege. You can’t ever design out advantages for celebrities kids. We can help those from non gilded backgrounds in the arts though

Even with infinite fuel it can’t manage more than about 10 transactions per second *globally*

The Swiss city that lets you pay for most things with bitcoin Shops, restaurants and even the local council in Lugano now accept the cryptocurrency.

Weirdly anachronistic puff piece for Bitcoin on BBC News website, as if this is 2016. We know almost nobody is actually buying everyday items with Bitcoin *because it’s too slow to use as a currency* - it doesn’t work. It‘s only practical for gambling and crime.

our Buffy

Martin Parr, absolute mensch.

From Colin Wilkinson, founder of Bluecoat Press, on FB

EU Fails to Agree on 'Veggie Burger' Ban, With Decision Pushed to 2026 The European Union has failed to reach an agreement over the highly contentious plant-based meat labelling ban, with negotiations now delayed to 2026.

A little bit of good news! EU pushes back decision on "veggie burger" label ban.

Gonzo and Rizzo stand outside Ebenezer Scrooge's house as a beam of light appears from the upstairs window

"To conduct a proper search, Scrooge was forced to light the lamps."
~
"How 'does' he do that?"

One year ago today I posted this miniature Muppets Christmas Carol photo I created. All shot practically using real lighting, figures, miniature sets, smoke and cotton wool for snow.

#photography

The UK’s ECHR record: how common are Rule 39 orders and how often is the UK found to have violated rights? - UK in a changing Europe Using the latest figures, Joelle Grogan and Alice Donald examine the UK's ECHR record and how common ‘Rule 39 orders’ are.

The reality of the EHCR. Since 2017 the Court received 660 requests for interim measures in UK cases,15 were granted 15, i.e. 2% of requests, average of 2 per year. In 2023, the Court issued only 1 Rule 39 order against the UK, for a person's expulsion to the USA
ukandeu.ac.uk/explainers/t...

The Swiss Government has rejected using Palantir saying it presents devastating security risks.

Why are we using it?

All that free speech they've got, and they can't bear the idea someone in a different country might be calling them twats

That's not even Normal For Nuneaton

I like it too (only as a visitor but I had a nice trip there last year) but used it because it is the unhealthiest town in England by the stats

The last time I checked, *Blackpool* had better life expectancy than 3/4 of US States.

More research showing the links between meat, misogyny and masculinity.

The Daily Mail should do an investigation:

“The Curse of Brexit? Did woke Meghan Markle cause 4 million Brexit voters to die?”

it was, in hindsight,* a mistake to hand over the running of our institutions of higher learning to a roving class of administrators.

*also at the time

the animal sanctuary where the ikea monkey lives now has a whole online profile about him and it's making me so happy!! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_... www.storybookmonkeys.org/old_world_mo...

happy stylish but illegal monkey day to all who celebrate!!!!! by the way his name is darwin and he lives a farm now

That controller still reminds me of Totoro on drugs

Maybe the advert is working a bit then!

It’s beyond satire really isn’t it?

Zack Polanski has done more to speak up for Sadiq Khan than Keir Starmer has

Not that this techno-cringe is new, I can remember various universities embarrassing themselves with Second Life campuses, MOOC hype, various obviously unworkable blockchain projects, etc, but at least they were aiming to feed what universities are for rather than poison the roots of education

We need a Higher Education Cringe League Table

The commitments in the SAFE Labs Handbook.

A new community-driven lab handbook for reducing conflict and creating more positive and equitable work environments gets strong support from a survey of 200 researchers.
buff.ly/K7CGFLV

GOOSEFISH

This picture has been making the rounds again, and is being misidentified again.

This is a GOOSEFISH.

This is NOT a tasselled wobbegong shark.

It’s a great pic. I get why people are very excited about it. But it’s as easy to give it the right name as the wrong one.

fullfact.org/online/tasse...

these are two slightly different things but the point is that academia runs on two things: helping others and holding grudges. often at the same time and for the same people. we cannot lose this