Petra Boynton

Tron gives an inaccurate impression of how many guys live in your computer. It makes it seem like thousands of guys are in there. In reality only about 10 guys live in your computer and less than half of them ride motorcycles

Many aspects of academia normalise abusive practices.

Like putting people through stressful situations, encouraging pile ons and put downs, all to be mitigated by alcohol.

When we ask 'who does this bring in? who does it leave out? who might it help? who might it harm?' so much becomes clear.

On the First World Postpartum Haemorrhage Day, IRC Announces Partnership with Rt. Hon. Dame Jacinda Ardern to Prevent Maternal Deaths in Crisis Settings | The IRC Ahead of the first-ever World Postpartum Haemorrhage (PPH) Day, marked on October 5, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is proud to announce the launch of a new global initiative—Safer Births in...

Ahead of the first-ever World Postpartum Haemorrhage (PPH) Day, we're proud to announce the launch of a new global initiative to address the preventable causes of maternal and newborn deaths in crisis-affected settings.

Learn more: www.rescue.org/press-releas...

Walter Ralegh's headless monsters and annotation as thinking On writing and picturing as forms of thinking and knowledge-making, with examples of Renaissance mapmakers and publishers demonstrating exactly this in the...

A @sciam.bsky.social story on the cognitive benefits of hand-annotating books inspired my latest newsletter on maps, monsters, and making sense of Sir Walter Ralegh's "Brief and True History of Guiana" (1596).

🗃 #earlymodern #histsci #manuscript #maps #cartography

buttondown.com/surekhadavie...

A scientist is saving Ukraine's hamsters—in the middle of war Mikhail Rusin is perhaps the world's greatest hamster champion.

“This is where I find my inner peace.” The man trying to save Ukraine's hamsters.

A reminder that small actions may be highly significant in the long term and can be vital when everything else going on is too big and too scary to fix by yourself.

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

There seem to be so many prejudices, phobias and harms. But especially sexism, racism, ableism and classism. However it manifests it's horrible. I also experienced this from senior women, although all were privately educated and independently wealthy so I wasn't sure if that played a part.

Nobel Conference Since 1965, the Nobel Conference has been bringing leading researchers and thinkers to Gustavus, to explore revolutionary, transformative and pressing scientific issues and the ethical questions that ...

This isn’t my field. I’m not working on anything even remotely related. I don’t generally read this area.

However, this is the most exciting sounding conference and I would attend in a heartbeat if I could.

Sugar: Bringing Sweetness to Light

gustavus.edu/about/nobel-...

Twiggy later recalled the experience with Allen shown in the clip above as humiliating. Her unintentionally brilliant reaction was from fear and trying not to cry in front of a studio audience.

When academics act this way the results are similar.

You never forget if it's been done to you.

Worth noting HE is blighted by redundancies while schools struggle to recruit and retain staff.

There are many reasons for these stark differences, but the overall impact on staff welfare remains significant.

Those who able to stay in post may avoid acknowledging what colleagues are going through.

So many HE colleagues at risk of redundancy are struggling with limited support and understanding.

Universities may believe they are putting packages in place but the realities of so much risk, change and threat are way more significant than is currently appreciated.

My guess is these exchanges originated from male-dominated boarding schools and private clubs. Cock fighting exchanges to hide vulnerability and trauma.

But they serve to further harm and alienate those who're clearly unwanted and unwelcome and for all these reasons are unforgivable in academia.

So much of this old advice to academics about fighting and aggressive posturing allows for those sparring to aim at winning rather than considering their impact on others, their own reputation, or what the point is of the whole spectacle.

It's so tiresome to think of your work as something to defend or fight over, or that has to show you as better or cleverer than other people.

Shared ideas, time to explore them, thinking about if they work or not and how to do things well that work for all they should be doesn't suit a battle.

YouTube video by Beyond the Endzone Woody Allen interviewing supermodel Twiggy in the 60’s and trying to belittle her #shorts #subscribe

Also, for those who feel this is character building or advances learning, none of that's true.

For those who're less experienced or easily influenced it may appear the person being pompous or mean is smart and superior.

But most of us can tell what they really are....

youtube.com/shorts/hmoWz...

We are moving away from this nonsense, but there's still a sizeable cohort of academics who believe discussion and even debate must be competitive, aggressive and unkind.

You can be rigorous, robust and interested without making people look stupid for what they don't know or can't explain.

I don't like bullies and I loathe the smarmy politeness of academia that's weaponised to humiliate.

It's especially pernicious when aimed at those who're younger, less experienced, or 'don't belong' to whatever nasty club's established with these values.

Many aspects of academia normalise abusive practices.

Like putting people through stressful situations, encouraging pile ons and put downs, all to be mitigated by alcohol.

When we ask 'who does this bring in? who does it leave out? who might it help? who might it harm?' so much becomes clear.

Thoughtful piece on the distinction between freedom of speech and academic freedom, and how the former is being mobilised to erode the latter:

"Under freedom of speech, the distinction between true and false is irrelevant. Academic freedom is about seeking truth or producing better knowledge"

Feline fans on the prowl in Brighton cat tour Twenty-five cat owners volunteered their homes as pitstops as 200 visitors took part.

A couple of local news stories to brighten your Monday, because we all need a bit of comfort and cheer.

Dad and son's gaming history bus www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Brighton's first ever cat tour
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Both proof that small actions bring happy results for communities.

Five UK universities tell staff they can’t afford pay rises Negotiations over whether to honour 1.4 per cent increase ongoing at several other institutions amid financial crunch

'Staff at some institutions will not get even get the small rise due to them because of a clause in the negotiations that allows for a delay for up to 11 months if a university is facing financial difficulties.' So far, Dundee, Kent, Brunel, Coventry, Swansea.

Miscarriage Association's Memory Walk 2025 Help Petra Boynton raise money to support The Miscarriage Association

I promise not to ask too often, but if you could help Small Son and I raise funds for The Miscarriage Association we'd really appreciate it.

We are going to be doing a sponsored walk on the 12 October and all donations are very welcome via our fundraising page.

www.justgiving.com/page/p-boynt...

It's key we encourage new scholars to appreciate those who've gone before, whether in or outside universities, and that it's the people behind the research who are just as interesting as the research itself.

That was one of the ways I started to warm towards research/methods. When it felt human.

I notice many students are currently of the opinion that, when searching the literature, only the most recent publications in (high ranking) peer reviewed journals are of value.

This can close off work from the past, by minoritised scholars or communities, perhaps not even found in published form

Scholarly erasure of minoritised people's work is a major issue that happens in many ways. Including work not being valued as it should and/or then being forgotten.

But contemporary scholars can also perpetuate problems by failing to search back to predecessors, perhaps assuming they never existed.

For those who like to teach survey design, here's a good example of where a poll just shares basic frequencies and doesn't include analysis by age will miss key insights and produce skewed findings.

Swifties of all ages can help explain why.

Nearly 100 years after her death, Oxford’s first female Indigenous scholar honoured Mākereti Papakura died weeks before handing in her thesis at Oxford university documenting the life and customs of her tribe, work that is still used by Māori today

Nearly 100 years after her death, Oxford’s first female Indigenous scholar honoured www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

And Papakura's thesis, published as 'The Old-Time Māori'
is digitally archived, available via this link www.royalsociety.org.nz/150th-annive...

I know of many students who choose to not apply to Oxbridge because they don't feel comfortable with the ethos that these institutions represent. Perhaps it's time to distribute funding and attention more equally across the HE sector.

And, sadly, many more who won't consider university at all because they believe it's 'not for them'.

I agree, a fairer distribution of funding and training to support diverse students and give them equal opportunities is long overdue.

League tables and rankings do nothing to help widen access.

Look after each other.

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

Here's the assignment folks. Write op-eds for your local papers and campus newspapers too. Just. Say. No. This is a classic authoritarian move and risks the future of higher education and science and innovation in the US. Speak out today. No time to lose. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...