'French is omnipresent': Residents highlight tensions around French in multilingual Luxembourg Residents in Luxembourg say French remains the dominant everyday language, but their views highlight both its role as a gateway for newcomers and the tensions it can create in a multilingual society.

French is omnipresent'
Residents highlight tensions around French in #multilingual #Luxembourg
today.rtl.lu/news/luxembo...
#langsky

Correct. My mother talked of 'plumping up' cushions, and by extension, I suppose, pillows. I'm a plumper by heredity.

London’s Last Wilderness review – mudflats meets Mad Max towers on eccentric estuary voyage Through the eyes of an unseen explorer, Pablo Behrens’s experimental documentary takes us on an engaging but indulgent journey along the Thames estuary

www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ap... I know this landscape well. It is eerie, challenging and to me, utterly bewitching. In places it's dangerous, but it's always fascinating. Huge skies, trecherous silver sea and marshlands where fish, eels and snakes hide.

The paperback edition of The Devil in Dorsoduro is now up for preorder. Out May 7

The Devil in Dorsoduro: An atmospheric Venetian murder mystery amzn.eu/d/03Xf9jki

Myanmar military regime widens sanitary towel ban, claiming rebels use them for first aid Activists say clamp down on period products to target insurgents is gender-based violence and violates rights

Still so proud of my university’s ongoing franchise deal with a Myanmar/Burma college.

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

15 minutes; no questions; government got the blame; my department to have 60% of us sacked. Apparently sacking us will lead to a ‘new, improved’ curriculum. No voluntary scheme, straight to selection and legal minimum redundancy payment.

Ian Campbell P&O 6 July 2022 YouTube video by I C VC

If anyone wants to see the previous time colleagues were sacked by scripted P&O style video message, it's here in all its glory, featuring the VC who fired more people than he met in his brief reign of terror:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrsW...

Yay, @wikipedia.org!

mRNA vaccines continue to show major promise.

In a small Phase 1 trial led by Dr. Balachandran, some patients with pancreatic cancer (one of the deadliest cancers) reached 6-year survival.

This is why sustained investment in science & research matters.

tinyurl.com/f4n4anhk

Met more than a few of those during my time at an 'elite' university those many years ago. 'Brittle' says it all.

Art Sonnet Chain, 5: Tishani Doshi after Bharti Kher’s Ancestor Heart and eye braided in ampersandthe way descendant and ancestor link handsacross waves of mitochondrial inheritance.Here is an abdomen, a thorax; herdof stampeding bu…

The 2nd quartet of our #ArtSonnetChain opens with this fine poem by #TishaniDoshi (who also contributed to our #EcoSonnetChain).

As you might expect at this point, it shifts parameters to focus on one of #BhartiKher’s ‘Intermediary’ figures:

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/04/18/a...

I must check them out. Never knew.

If you've never seen Danger : Diabolik, you owe it to yourself to put that right! This looks like a good place to start....

The very best. Not quite out here yet.

My Favorite sign of all time at a No Kings Protest.

So F--king True!

Linguists collecting regional swear words to map UK dialects Dr Chris Montgomery says the team is

"We're really interested in anything that's rude, that's a bit naughty, that might be counted as a swear word or a phrase"

Can you help build the UK Swear Map?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Whimbrels today 2/2 #birds

Eyal Weizman · All they will find is sand: Gaza’s Yellow Line Most of the Gaza Strip – cities, refugee camps, schools, universities, mosques, the health infrastructure, agriculture...

‘With its full control of checkpoints and terminals and every truck of cement and building material crossing into Gaza, Israel can ensure that reconstruction remains a perpetual “project”.’

Eyal Weizman on the destruction of Gaza.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

This smart dog knows about politics, he literally gives a shit.😆😆

Albert King #bluesmusic 🎶'I'll Play The Blues For You'

Basket of picked green beans in the middle of the field for workers are harvesting

"Adan" shared this photo from the Coachella CA where hes picking green beans. "I get paid 40 cents per pound. The work is exhausting - especially due to the excessive heat in the area. But this is how I support my family." #WeFeedYou

The real heroes of the Epstein story The four women who were the first to go public

The real heroes of the Epstein story

The DOJ is now 5 month in breach of releasing the Epstein files.

Holding these criminals accountable should be the Nuremberg of our time.

Uni managers gain 'headroom' by fucking everything up. University bosses claim legitimacy from the work others do. And then they make it impossible for them to do it.

Hours of my one precious life spent watching university bosses at a parliamentary inquiry. Please read to make my time worthwhile 😏

open.substack.com/pub/hannahfo...

GCSE languages sees rise in Wales after new approach After a long decline, the number of pupils taking language GCSEs in Wales rises for two years.

Languages and culture go together so well!: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Martha Stewart quoted a nice proverb about gardening, but it isn't Dutch... so where did it come from? - English and the Dutch As someone who writes professionally about the Dutch language in English, I’m pretty versed in Dutch proverbs. So when I see someone quoting a “Dutch proverb” that isn’t actually a Dutch proverb, I’m ...

Perhaps someone with knowledge of Chinese can weigh in here: there's a proverb that goes (more or less):

If you want to be happy for a day, get drunk;
for a year, get married;
for the rest of your life, start a garden.

It's being attributed as Dutch, but I think it is Chinese. Am I right?

Today's flowers are the first Spring blossom on the May Tree with the Autumn berries still hanging on.

DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES

Try again?