Jeffrey Dean

Please enjoy my cartoon for Wednesday's Toronto Star

if you watch the tech industry long enough you learn the promised benefits never materialize but the unforeseen harms continue to be perpetuated long after the companies move on to the next big thing yet governments are too worried about scaring away investment to do anything

Slightly diminish a band:

The Beatless

of all the possible apocalypses the Catholic Church vs AI is probably one of the most ostentatious and dramatic, and i don't hate it

Well, isn’t *that* interesting?

I am trying to write the Big Lecture. I wanted to speak to the moment, but the moment keeps changing. My mind keeps going back to Greenham. Never mind criminal charges, we'd be up on terrorist charges now.

On behalf of The Irish Times Chapel of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) we strongly condemn the targeted assassination by Israel of five journalists employed by the Al Jazeera news organisation. Among those killed in Sunday’s attack was broadcaster al-Sharif, Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. An assistant and two other civilians were also killed. We send our solidarity and support to the families of the murdered journalists and their colleagues. Israel has banned the international press from entering Gaza and It is only through the work of brave Palestinian journalists that the world knows the extent of the destruction that has been wrought. The deliberate killing of civilians, including journalists, constitutes a war crime and those responsible for these killings must be held accountable. Joint chairs, Irish Times NUJ Éanna Ó Caollaí, Kitty Holland and Conn Ó Midheach.

Statement in response to the killing by Israel of Al Jazeera journalists by the Irish Times chapel of the National Union of Journalists

In fact, THIS is the Golden Age of science fiction and fantasy, and it's only getting better. The contemporary generation of writers — NK Jemisin, Martha Wells, Ann Leckie, Nghi Vo, Malka Older, Yoon Ha Lee, etc. — are showing us grander worlds than any of the "golden age" men ever did.

Aliette de Bodard's Universe of Xuya series for sure. Malka Older's Mossa & Pleiti series is cozy SF. Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries is fun and thoughtful. I haven't read them yet but Martine's Teixcalaan series, Valente's Space Opera, and Yoon Ha Lee's The Machineries of Empire might work too.

Would also like to mention Post-Graduate Researchers in this. Because some universities should not be signing partnerships that promise stipends that cover just half of that. They know PGRs will have to take jobs or get (family) savings, thus having them subsidise the groundbreaking UKHE research.

Vacancy: the Society seeks to appoint a Membership and Office Administrator - RHS The Royal Historical Society seeks to appoint a Membership and Office Administrator (0.8 FTE) to join its professional Office based at University College London. The post will help support and develop...

Vacancy with the Royal Historical Society: Membership and Office Administrator bit.ly/46TgZNA

We look to appoint a Membership and Office Administrator (0.8 FTE) to join our professional Office to help us support history and historians. £31,904 pro rata. Closing date Monday 8 September #Skystorians

"As it stands, both research and the teaching of UK undergraduate students lose money."

Not strictly speaking correct. SOME teaching and MOST research 'loses money' for the uni. On the latter, estates costs get costed into bids at particular rates. My tiny office is not that expensive trust me.

Not sure how I missed this until now, but last week my collection GREAT ROBOTS OF HISTORY featured in the Financial Times as one of the ‘best SF summer books of 2025’, with this wonderful write-up!

Jesus deliberately used a Samaritan, someone from a despised ethnic group, to challenge racial and cultural biases. Loving our neighbor means breaking down barriers.

IA needs to be doing a better job of keeping the AI scrapers out of its repos, honestly, or it will lose what trust it has left from writers and artists.

Why These Trans Teens and Their Families Risked Everything to Get Gender-Affirming Care It’s as simple as love.

When I heard the mom of a trans girl say the night her daughter came out to her was the first time she'd ever seen her child happy, I knew it was a story I needed to share.

These are the stories the public isn't hearing. An honor to get to report on 3 family's journeys for @teenvogue.com.

Yes. I *come from* DC.

Given the overt attempts to erase certain histories from public spaces...well, I hope people are taking steps to preserve their local knowledge.

You can write books that are not for public consumption, that chronicle your specific family or village history.

You can keep your own archives.

Goodbye, $165,000 Tech Jobs. Student Coders Seek Work at Chipotle.

Lots of people on my timeline love that this article states recent CS grads have higher unemployment rates than art historians

But this isn't the triumphant evidence for liberal arts degrees that we want it to be.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/t...

I don't often say this so I hope I don't come across as alarmist or exaggerating but as a student of history, as a Pole, and as a person with a functioning brain, I just want to say:

This is literal Brownshirt shit. This is literally what the Sturmabteilung did to private businesses. Shot-for-shot.

AOL will end dial-up internet service in September, 34 years after it's debut — AOL Shield Browser and AOL Dialer software will be shuttered on the same day But there remain a few options to plug in your 56K (or slower) screeching modem into.

End of an era; TBH, I didn't know the modems were still live www.tomshardware.com/service-prov...

To whom it may concern: There is an open acces Anti-Autocracy Handbook (2025) calling to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism.

Download: zenodo.org/records/1569...

#academia #academicchatter #academicSky

Instrumentalist attitudes to learning as something that's ever "done" or as a finite tool to acquire, misrepresent what it means. Yet converting people from that extractivist view of things seems basically impossible, because the distinction is really a moral one about orientation to the world.

It is hilarious that this is happening at the same time as the legal claim that you cannot possibly hold Anthropic liable for its legal actions oh no just a little birthday boy

Today marks 80 years since the U.S. atomic bombing of #Nagasaki - the second-ever time a nuclear weapon was used.

We have a collective moral responsibility to ensure it was the last.

The Newport Arch - the remains of the north gateway to Roman Lincoln (Lindum Colonia). Built in around 200 AD, the arch is the only Roman gateway in the UK still used by traffic. 📸 My own. #RomanSiteSaturday #RomanBritain #Lincoln

coincidentally my historical research today led me to this, from 1970

Q: Favourite Pterosaur?

Scaphognathus. A kitten sized dragon with a round snout. And we've a good line of evidence proving it was furry 🐱

Bloody hell this is good! @bhgreeley.bsky.social

"Go back to where you've come from, we don't want you," shouted one woman towards the hotel. On the other side of the road, counter-protesters chanted that refugees were welcome. In a rare moment of unity, the far right began singing "fuck Keir Starmer" to the tune of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes and the anti-fascists joined in.

Wonderful punchline to the thoroughly depressing story about the planned protests around the country yesterday and today.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...