Sameen

Here’s the truth about Britain’s immigration hysteria: Starmer and co have whipped it up to get cheap votes | Nesrine Malik He is part of a political establishment that is fuelling a crisis way beyond the point that they can ever be seen to solve it. It’s a cynical, idiotic doom loop, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

‘Keir Starmer’s “island of strangers” speech, which referred to an era of rising migration as a “squalid chapter” in the country’s history, was the rhetorical opening salvo in an anti-immigration campaign..’ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Swarm of jellyfish forces shutdown at French nuclear power plant Warmer waters in the North Sea due to climate change have created conditions allowing jellyfish to thrive and reproduce.

Warmer waters in the North Sea due to climate change have created conditions allowing jellyfish to thrive and reproduce.

Congratulations British law makers! You have saved children from that most pernicious threat; a free online encyclopedia staffed by volunteers.

This is an area where the UK's legislation around GDPR *should* have a restraining influence but I fear that most GDPR training hasn't quite got to incorporating the 'don't shove personal data into an LLM' module yet.

How RFK Jr is systematically undermining vaccines around the world Vaccines saved 154 million lives. But as fear of disease fades, so does protection – raising the chilling prospect of a return to the pre-vaccine era.

@sheencr.bsky.social and I wrote about how Kennedy is systematically undermining vaccines in a coordinated and very effective way in the US for @uk.theconversation.com

full article here:
theconversation.com/how-rfk-jr-i...

RFK Jr. doesn’t like that a study of every child born in Denmark from 1997-2018 showed no link between aluminum in vaccines and 50 adverse health outcomes. This study included more than a million kids.

RFK Jr. wants the study retracted.

The journal, which is a very prestigious one, refused.

Philomena Cunk against a collection of classical statues. "Antigone's death is even more tragic than it actually is, which makes her a tragic hero"

Philomena Cunk looking thoughtful. "Goya continued to paint tapestries until 1792 when serious illness left him dead for life"

Philomena Cunk looking thoughtfully into the distance. "Society is slowly becoming more contemporary now"

Philomena Cunk looking into camera on a beach. "Diderot's Tahiti represents a typical male fantasy in which attractive young women are eager to engage in sexual activity with the French"

@gralefrit.bsky.social You have to see these! A friend of mine has been collating a series of images entitled "Things my students have written turned into Philomena Cunk quotes" and they're just glorious.

This is the first time I have seen the Justice Department argue in court that "One year ago, the United States was a dead country."

This paper illustrates why it matters much more if Robert Jenrick says something intolerant than if Nigel Farage says the same thing - centre right politicians have much more influence on social norms policing tolerant behaviour than radical right politicians

What strange times, when the commander of RAF Greenham Common is coming out as a liberal supporter of the right to protest

Tooth-in-eye surgery gives B.C. woman back her independence | CBC News A B.C. woman who was blind for a decade is now able to go for walks without a guide after having her own tooth and a special lens implanted into her eye socket.

Tooth-in-eye surgery is incredible. You get one of your canine teeth inserted into your cheek, and in a few months the tooth and newly formed cheek tissue are removed. A tiny plastic telescope is then drilled into the tooth, and the tooth is implanted in your cornea, restoring some sight.

Israel murders five Al Jazeera staff in Gaza, including Anas al-Sharif Al-Sharif was killed along with Mohammed Qreiqeh two cameramen and an assistant in an Israeli attack on Gaza City.

Israel has murdered five @aljazeera.com journalists in Gaza by bombing their tents - another heinous war crime just hours after Bibi Netanyahu placated his allies by lying/claiming he would let some foreign media into Gaza
www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

This might as well be a cautionary tale about how the Irish Green Party in government could not achieve its headline climate goals merely with policy tweaks and without challenging the fundamentals of the underlying economic and ideological model

She was the last: Penguin starvation crisis sparks call for emergency fishing ban The fate of the hoiho - among the world’s rarest penguin species - rests with two ministers.

Pulled lifeless from a commercial fishing net off the Otago coast, the adult female yellow-eyed penguin had drowned in a silent, unseen death.

She was the last known breeding-age female Hoiho from the Sandfly Bay colony.

#NZOverFishing

Israeli army spokesperson Avichai Adraee recently re-shared a video falsely accusing al-Sharif of being a member of Hamas’s military wing. They continue to murder journalists for telling the truth.

this is the standard for convictions under terrorism legislation. you'll never pass a DBS check. that's a life bar in jobs in teaching, healthcare, social services, civil service etc. it's an international travel bar. there's also upcoming legislation for bans to social housing and access to finance

JOB: Assistant Professor in South/Southeast Asian Religions (w/ focus on Hindu Traditions, defined BROADLY) in my department at the University of San Diego (PLEASE SHARE WIDELY).

Apply here: jobs.sandiego.edu/cw/en-us/job...

"With this in mind I hope you will be able to avoid any responsibility for running a university." LOL.

And yup about management accounting models being central. Would be nice to be allowed some clarity about those because their logic shapes the uni but even that logic is kept secret.

Arthurs Seat, Edinburgh on fire 😕

“You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”
― Octavia E. Butler

#WritingSky #AcademicSky

Looks like we’ll have to raid a lot of retirement homes after today.

I’ll close with a line from The City in History that might be Mumford’s most famous:

“The assumed right of the private motor car to go any place in the city and park anywhere is nothing less than a license to destroy the city.”

CDC employees told me the shooting at CDC was much worse than initial police reports suggested. More than 40 bullets hit buildings. “It’s a miracle more people weren’t hit,” said one staffer who was locked down in a building for hours last evening.

All of the penicillin in use worldwide comes from a strain of mold that was growing on a cantaloupe bought at a grocery store in Peoria, Illinois in 1942.

Since we can’t rely on the HHS, CDC, or FDA to say it, I will:

MAKE SURE YOU ARE VACCINATED AGAINST MEASLES. GET YOUR MMR.

Measles cases have reached their HIGHEST point since the disease WAS ELIMINATED from the United States in 2000. We ARE at the tipping point for the return of ENDEMIC measles.

‘Gross abuse of state power’: defiance grows over UK ban on Palestine protest group More than 200 have been arrested for alleged support of Palestine Action – and hundreds more are expected to protest on Saturday

‘Gross abuse of state power’: defiance grows over UK ban on Palestine protest group. More than 200 have been arrested for alleged support of Palestine Action – and hundreds more are expected to protest on Saturday. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

The end of an era that we all assumed ended decades ago.

AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified Copyright class actions could financially ruin AI industry, trade groups say.

The crux of their argument is that if they're found liable, then the consequences of their own actions that no one forced them to take could ruin them and the rest of their industry that undertakes similar practices.

To which I say motherfucker did you never hear about Napster

BBC among media misreportimg/exaggerating scale of asylum protests

Median protest is a few dozen, below 100.

"Usually Several hundred at a time" is false.
- should say *occasionally*
< 1/10 protests have 200 people

"Sometimes thousands"
I dont think a single 2025 protest had > 2000 people yet

Trump says he will meet with Putin in Alaska a week from today.