World food systems ‘pushed to the brink’ by extreme heat, UN warns Severe heatwaves in commonly hot regions could leave farmers unable to work outside, with livestock mortality rates expected to rise

I really like food and would prefer we do something about this:

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

congrats @robpalk.bsky.social, can't wait to read the new one

a great big bed

we all know I have no life, so:

she has to resign

this is not funny, *especially* if you are the fucking Home Secretary, with the actual fucking power to unilaterally deprive *anyone* of citizenship

That the preferences of a small group of technocrats could reorient entirely the governing architecture of Britain’s fifth largest services export sector may well be a mistake, but it was not an accident. Higher education, indeed all of post-18, has been treated as a technical problem to be solved, not an essential component of a high-functioning constitutional democracy with a broad-based economy.

I appreciated the scope of John Blake's @post-18.bsky.social position paper on the wreckage that currently engulfs UK HE; his solution is a full reset of the relationship between state, universities and students via a substantial govt review post18.co.uk/blood-debt-t...

He said: "By shifting the vast majority of university funding into the hands of the aggregate decisions of 17-year-olds, the English system of choice has become an enormous machine for finding out who has the best marketing department, with some world-leading research sprinkled in certain places."

Quite the quote from the John Blake, the former director of fair access at the Office for Students
www.thetimes.com/article/1cb6...

If anyone was wondering how e.g. the national equality body came to be ram-packed with wingnut ideologues or how various regulatory henhouses came to be guarded by industry-insider foxes: we’re getting the speedrun version here, with a charity body. I imagine Stonewall will be fully pod-personed.

The infuriating thing about the Office For Students is that it isn’t in any sense for students, it’s about punishing students for not liking Toby Young

We all know Trump lies about everything ceaselessly and with impunity, but this is especially galling since it's been so obviously false for decades and because it's so dangerous to the entire planet.
#climatechange
#climate

Migrants are making false domestic abuse allegations to stay in the UK, BBC investigation finds In the third part of an undercover investigation, the BBC reveals how rules aimed at protecting abuse victims are being exploited.

So this is genuinely the extent of the BBC’s front-page “investigation”: they spoke to one alleged crook and recorded him boasting, one victim of apparently unrelated abuse, one non-immigration lawyer who “thinks” there’s a problem, and Jess Phillips. It’d be laughable if it weren’t so serious 7/

Amazing, congrats!

In a meeting where people keep referring to 'digitising' documents on the institution website, meaning transferring content to more accessible formats. This is making me feel insane. A word document is already digital! You're not making it any more digital! Stop it!

OpenAI: We’re burning money like the Joker. A miracle needs to happen for us to turn a profit

Microsoft: Please please use our AI systems, we’re teetering on the edge here

Anthropic: I wonder what’ll kill us first: lawsuits, regulations or model collapse

Media and universities: AI is here to stay

People had very different reactions to being in The Office.

MacKenzie Crook: I will make the gentlest, most sympathetic comedies you can imagine, honestly your heart will be so damn warmed.

Ricky Gervais: I will become the cunt David Brent in every way possible, the spirit will be so mean.

Looking forward to the day that the BBC send an undercover reporter to investigate, say, tax evasion by landlords or small businesses, or other crimes that can't be framed as "committed exclusively by brown people".

Legal advisers help migrants pose as gay to get asylum, undercover BBC investigation finds The BBC exposes a shadow industry charging migrants thousands of pounds to help them cheat the asylum system.

Disgusting reporting by BBC using a tiny number of cases to suggest widespread abuse of a system which routinely denies LGBTQIA+ individuals asylum and forces them back into environments of persecution. This article massively distorts the reality of the situation. 1/
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Seems a good day to remember that, in his book An Intelligent Person's Guide To Modern Culture, Hungary's favourite right-wing thinker Roger Scruton implied that the Pet Shop Boys made a 'minimal contribution' to their own records. They successfully sued him for libel. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/enterta...

A great moment to remember why Scruton's FT column came to an abrupt end.

W/alt

A stubby little church tower

A heraldic shield on a whitewashed wall, old roof beams overhead

A stone nook with carvings

Stained glass window with a small alcove beneath

Lovely afternoon for a little run out to Hamsey church

Female octopuses throw rocks at males that bother them, documented in Octopus tetricus

This is not just a number.

This is one million people who have had to leave their homes and often their beloved pets. They’ve had to leave behind Christmas cards their toddlers made, framed family photos, food, clothing, their father’s stamp collection, safety, and their memories.

My t-shirt saying “I didn’t have any friendship with Epstein nor Maxwell” poses a lot of questions already answered by my t-shirt

a very specific energy

just earned another parenting badge doing an escape room with six 13yo boys

30% of UK adults don't drive.

The weird idea that if you don't drive your view is illegitimate really needs to die. It's their tax you'll be using to subsidise everyone else!

People like Tim Montgomerie are presented to us in public discourse like respectable normal voices, but the idea that Iran is an "existential threat" to the "decadent west" and its "civilisation" is just pure crankery, it's rabid, spittle-flecked paranoia.

British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants The British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants are available to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences. These awards, up to £10,000 in value and tenable for up to 24 mont...

May I interest you in £10k for humanities or social science research? Our small grants scheme is open. Apply by 3rd June.

We allocate through partial randomisation - awarding randomly between all applications that meet our quality threshold
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

While killing dozens of people in Lebanon (MOPH says 112, civil defense counts 250+, until now), Israel still found time to kill another one of our colleagues in Gaza.