The road signs that teach travellers about France From abbeys and bridges to fish soup and Resistance history, France's motorway signs offer drivers a crash course in the nation rushing past their windows.

www.bbc.co.uk/travel/artic...

Another reason to love France's road network. RIP Jean.

Screen shot from Paul Embery’s X account: Respect to this police officer. Confronted by radicals demanding the arrest of a Christian preacher on the grounds that Whitechapel "is a Muslim area" she was calm and professional and gave them short shrift. Let's see more of this from the police. Has a video of a woman police officer talking to a group of Muslim men

This clip is all over the other place and has made its way onto GB News and Talk TV so I’ll do a bit of an explainer here too!

The clip doing the rounds is of a fantastic police officer telling a group of Muslim men that a Christian preacher nearby is entitled to freedom of expression.

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1/19

three panel webcomic 1st panel: one man says to another "we invented a robot that answers questions" 2nd panel: he continues "we just have to feed it 10 baby giraffes a day" 3rd panel: the other man asks "but it answers the questions correctly?" and the first man replies "oh my goodness, no. no no no no no."

It's Mandatory Monday and AI is clearly the future.
mandatoryrollercoaster.com/post/8081046...

The reforms to UKRI under Ian Chapman are only just starting, but there are already worries about what they mean for the bread and butter, applicant-led funding calls at research councils

While UKRI insists comparisons with previous years are impossible, figures from December suggest...

I'm seeing relatively little chatter or outcry about what is happening at the MRC, the UK's biomedical research funder.

Before Christmas MRC paused the acceptance of many of its grants, including the standard applicant-led research grant. There has been no public information on what is happening 🧵

Dr Kareem Carr man: i wish to publish @kareem_carr Jan 21 reviewer 2: your paper is no good man: i'll do anything to improve reviewer 2: it's simple. you must read the work of the great scientist Pagliarini man: *bursts into tears* but i am Pagliarini Andre Pagliarini @apagliar Jan 21 a first: in rejecting an article I submitted to a journal, reviewer 2 noted I failed to engage the work of one Andre Pagliarini Jan 21, 2026 • 3:47 PM UTC

I just thought everyone should see this

BUNNY CORE

RT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open 'just to do quick research'

wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

Union staff at Cambridge MRC research units consider action - Research Professional News Medical Research Council under renewed criticism for putting university in “awful position” as redundancies loom

The MRC's decision to stop funding research units is biting

Four out of five units at the University of Cambridge will run out of funding by 2027, and staff at risk of redundancty are considering action, @isaacbarbosa1.bsky.social reports

An insider said Cambridge is in "an awful position"

I wonder how much of the problem is that the masses have been groomed to be suspicious of people with intelligence rather than people with money.

Have seen a number of the ads in this campaign around London.

It's fascinating how heavily targetted it is at the people who come up to London once in December, go to Oxford Street and Winter Wonderland, then spend the rest of the year banging on about how terrible London is.

—I’ve been asked to baptise the King of Spain’s daughter
—Infanta?
—No, holy water as usual. Weird thing to ask honestly

The hidden chemical attack that forced the Northern line’s extraordinary repair Thirty years ago, an entire section of the Northern line had to be replaced because it was under attack from acid, and hardly anyone noticed that it was happening.

The hidden chemical attack that forced the Northern line’s extraordinary repair

www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/the...

Red ribbon image with the text "World AIDS Day 2025 #WorldAIDSDay"

We drive global research to improve HIV care for the next generation.

On #WorldAIDSDay, we share a thread highlighting our latest #ClinicalTrials that are transforming treatment for children and young people living with #HIV, helping them lead healthier, happier lives.

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"Years and years ago, there was a production of The Tempest, out of doors, at an Oxford college on a lawn, which was the stage, and the lawn went back towards the lake in the grounds of the college, and the play began in natural light. But as it developed, and as it became time for Ariel to say his farewell to the world of The Tempest, the evening had started to close in and there was some artificial lighting coming on. And as Ariel uttered his last speech, he turned and he ran across the grass, and he got to the edge of the lake and he just kept running across the top of the water — the producer having thoughtfully provided a kind of walkway an inch beneath the water. And you could see and you could hear the plish, plash as he ran away from you across the top of the lake, until the gloom enveloped him and he disappeared from your view. And as he did so, from the further shore, a firework rocket was ignited, and it went whoosh into the air, and high up there it burst into lots of sparks, and all the sparks went out, and he had gone. "When you look up the stage directions, it says, 'Exit Ariel.”

Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.

Max Bruch »Wiegenlied der Hirten« | Gaechinger Cantorey | Hans-Christoph Rademann YouTube video by bachakademie

1. It's been A Year, hasn't it? Maybe this time we should start with something delightful and calming. In that spirit, here's Max Bruch's lovely lullaby, 'Wiegenlied der Hirten', cradle-song of the shepherds, as sung incredibly sweetly by the Gächinger Kantorei.

youtu.be/FqFwp_NiKAs?...

For those wondering how you get on and off a penny-farthing.

*A guy walking by said to his companion, “That looks incredibly dangerous.” 😅

[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.] JANET: Ugh... LIZ: What's up? JANET: I am so bored of cooking peas! LIZ: Have you tried... AI peas? JANET: AI peas? LIZ: They're peas with AI! [Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI]. LIZ: Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas JANET: What LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines] Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas? [Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it] LIZ: Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine [Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas] LIZ: With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas! JANET: What LIZ: Shut up LIZ: Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow From opening the bag of peas to boiling the peas to eating the peas To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means. JANET: Is it really necessary to- LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]: THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET [Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan: AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas. [Ends]

Every ad now

How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't kno...

how did i go so long not knowing we were literally teaching people to read wrong. i knew something wasn't right but jesus christ www.apmreports.org/episode/2019...

We’re going to see more of this ridiculous “they’re cancelling Christmas” narrative.

It’s basically Rage-Bait LAW from the 12th November, just as soon as Poppy Rage is over.

Try not to get sucked in👍🏼

It’s not good for your blood pressure to get so angry about imaginary problems

12/15

I'm just asking questions.

‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of iss...

‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...

#Museum30
We're Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre.
We have been Amberley Chalk Pits and Amberley Working Museum.
We're in a disused chalk quarry on the South Downs.
We tell the story of the chalk pits and lime burning and host a wide selection of craft and industrial exhibitions.

Tolkien fought in the Battle of the Somme. He saw the horrors of war, and the moments of bravery and fear within it up close.

And after all that. ALL that. He wrote Lord of the Rings. He declared true bravery and masculinity to be love, friendship and humbleness.

Musk is everything he hated.

It should be called Hurricane Exxon.