Prof. Liz Laycock

Thoughts for the families of the Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza.

In London yesterday,Police arrested 480 people including a retired Army Colonel, son of Holocaust survivors, a blind & disabled man,a 90 year old woman with Parkinsons Disease, consultant surgeons, & other medical professionals, & a huge swath of OAP's

All accused of terrorism🙄

The law is an ass

Thought for the day: if ignorance is ubiquitously weaponised is the war worth winning?

The most unifying thing I see in people with PhDs is that attitude that when faced with a problem goes "Okay FINE, I guess I'll learn that too.". That bloody minded desire to solve problems no matter the twisty-ness of the route needed to do it.

Screenshot of an email: Hi Rachel, Thank you for contacting us about the article you’ve seen. We want our stores to be inclusive and welcoming places for our colleagues and customers. We have written to this customer and explained that our colleagues typically work across all departments in our stores and customers can always ask to speak to the colleague they feel most comfortable with. We also explained that our colleague was asking a customer if they needed help; they were not working on bra fit or offering this. Thank you again for getting in touch.

I wrote to M&S about the stupid lingerie department story - confirms nobody offered a bra fitting to a teenage girl. The Telegraph and JK can (always) do one.

Thought for the day: is making the lives of a few trans people really awful the only joy you can find in your life?
Follow up: what does that say about you?

Tons of people have "PhD-level" intelligence. The fun secret is that you don't have to be all that smart to earn a PhD. You just have to be willing to work yourself into the ground for years on end.

Also...PhD's often seem extra smart 'cause you generally encounter them on their chosen terrain.

Tuition fees are rising again and nobody is happy – it’s time to actually fix our broken university sector | Zoe Williams The figures simply don’t add up for higher education in England and Wales. Yet delusional politicians from all parties seem intent on avoiding the issue, says Guardian columnist Zoe Williams

"The figures simply don’t add up."

Tuition fees are rising, staff are underpaid, and universities are in crisis but politicians still won’t face the truth.

Thanks to Zoe Williams for highlighting the crisis in The Guardian today.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

When we create something & lose track of time doing so, the levels of 3 brain biochemicals shift significantly,alleviating anxiety,lifting mood & conferring a natural high.
I filmed myself painting these before the pandemic👇🏼. Haven’t painted in years due to mental illness but my brain needs this…

Thought for the day: maybe it's not the small boats making everything shite...

I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts.

The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.

Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

A model of Sandal Castle on a table in front of bookshelves.

We are pleased that the model of Sandal Castle, which was kindly donated to Wakefield Libraries by Mr Michael Faulkner has safely arrived in its new home in Wakefield Library!

Please call-in during library opening hours to have a look and see how the model of Sandal Castle may have looked in 1485!

Thame WWII hero awarded blue plaque to mark legacy John Henry Smythe is being remembered as a heroic WWII resident after being given a blue plaque.

Blue plaque unveiled for John Henry Smythe who left Sierra Leone to join the RAF in 1941 then become one of the first black barristers before moving to Thame, Oxfordshire. 👇
BBC News - Thame WWII hero awarded blue plaque to mark legacy - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If you need help, we can try to be there

A bit of street art at Infirmary road, Sheffield

Building #Lime Forum Bangor #conference sept 2025 tickets are now live! #BLF

The UK is also destroying its HE sector for no apparent reason, so we'll still be ahead on ruins 😎

There's a man dressed as a warlock walking down Tottenham Court Road, with a German Shepherd and a three-foot speaker blasting out heavy metal. It's a busy lunchtime and everyone is completely ignoring him. I honestly don't know how Reform can claim that London is anything other than just fine.

My painting NORTHERN ENGLAND

The view over Sheffield Amphitheatre at South Street Park during a beautiful sunset. In the background is Sheffield railway station with the city centre behind it.

Tourism brought a huge £1.85 billion boost to our economy in 2024!

More people than ever are visiting the city, with 17.4 million visitors last year. That means more jobs, and more spending in local shops, restaurants and hotels.

Find out more here: www.sheffield.gov.uk/news/2025/to...

Not in our name: women in support of the trans+ community 27,619 verified signatures

The Not In Our Name petition of cis women opposed to Starmer’s state transphobia is now less than 2,500 signatures away from hitting 40,000!

www.change.org/p/not-in-our...

Basic guide on principles and morality

When we say good vs evil, this is what we mean.

Among other things, I'm just so pissed that a country that once made winning WWII its whole personality is now building concentration camps

A fossil tree used as a monument on the grave of Alfred Russel Wallace in Poole

The fossil tree stump in Stanhope churchyard.

An update to my gazetteer of displaced fossil trees in the UK. I'm going to be talking about this project at the Workshop on #HeritageStone in Dublin in a couple of weeks, so have a look and let me know of any additions or if you have a photo to add ruthsiddall.co.uk/Walks/Britai... #urbangeology

Meme. Black and white photograph of an eel historian wearing headphones and looking away from the camera. He's wearing a dark t-shirt, a silver necklace, and a sport coat. His glasses make him look like his vision isn't what it once was. His hair looks silver grey, and it is. The is the most recent photograph of the eel historian.

Some fun personal news: this morning I received an award from The Sustainable Eel Group, recognizing my public outreach and work in making people care about eels.

Follow your dreams, kids! If you make enough bad eel puns, for long enough, then somebody will slip up and give you an award.

Watercolor and ink sketch of a cliff done from the perspective of a geologist. The cliff is slanted at the bottom and curves into a bluff at the tip; there are several layers, dipping to the right (south) consisting of thinly bedded siltstone, separated by massively bedded tan sandstone bearing large, 1-2 meter wide concretions. There are many joints and fractures expanded into seacaves.

Another new #watercolor geological sketch - also the Upper Cretaceous Point Loma Formation, this time near La Jolla Cove, where it consists of thick sandstone beds interbedded w/ thinly bedded siltstone; extensive fractures have been opened up by erosion into caves. #geology #sciart #sandiego

Whenever a labour supporter tries to soften Starmer's image by refering to his human rights work it makes everything worse. Because it highlights he and his team don't see the disabled, or trans people, or Palestinians, or whoever else is getting a shoeing from them this week as human.

Miniature scene or an archeologist's store room with crates, artefacts, scrolls, books and tools.

I make miniatures. My first was a museum of artefacts supposedly excavated from a fairy burial mound. My second was a medieval apothecary and this is an archeologist's store room. It's 1/8th scale because I can't make real things much smaller than that. #miniatureart #dollshouses #artforweirdos

I was at Parliament today lobbying my MP.

THIS is what the ladies toilets look like by Westminster Hall… Notice the full floor to ceiling individual cubicle doors… Note how everyone has ‘dignity and privacy’ without the need to ban trans women!

#UniteForTransRights