Here a way to start the week reflecting on what you want more and less this week ❤️ From the amazing Amber Rae buff.ly/kpAOHXW #AcademicSky #ECRchat #WomeninSTEM #AcWri #Postdoc #NewPI

Effective 2025 federal tax rates paid by these corporations:

Alphabet: 8.01%
AT&T: 4.6%
Meta: 3.57%
General Motors: 3.09%
Amazon: 1.37%
Exxon Mobil: 1.31%
Disney: -1.57%
CVS Health: -3.88%

Income tax rate paid by the typical American: 14.5%

This is what a rigged system looks like.

Knowledge Is Dead. Here's What Actually Matters Now. YouTube video by Insight Jam

Here is a conversation I had with some awesome people, about what the human advantage will be (if anything) going forward.

A piece of advice I always give to folks who attend my writing workshops:

“When you’re stuck and can’t write, READ. Then write your notes of what you just read. Respond to the notes you wrote in a separate document (different to your notes). Now you have some fodder to keep the writing momentum”.

I don’t think we talk nearly enough about the fact that corporations like Amazon, don’t pay a single cent to maintain the roads they use, the transportation system they use, the courts they use, they pay nothing for the infrastructure that is absolutely critical to their business.

WE Pay for

I know it's Caturday but....

Exposing a global ‘online rape academy’ that is teaching men how to abuse women and evade detection CNN exposes an online network of men encouraging each other to drug and assault their partners, and swap tips on how to get away with it.

I think I’m going to be sick.

#NotAllMen, we hear, but too fucking many!

I don't recall any previous transformative technologies that had to be sold to the public so hard. No one in 1999 was going, "Guys. Cell phone? It's coming, whether we like it or not. I think it's important, FOR WOMEN ESPECIALLY, to learn about cell phone. So that we're not left behind!!"

Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought Scientists say finding is ‘very concerning’ as collapse would be catastrophic for Europe, Africa and the Americas

This is terrifying

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

💚

Better Connected needs to be better connected to higher education With "close to home" now the fourth most important factor in university choice, Mack Marshall and Jim Dickinson argue that DfT's failure to recognise students as a transport user group is becoming an...

This week on Wonkhe: With "close to home" now the fourth most important factor in university choice, Mack Marshall and Jim Dickinson argue that DfT's failure to recognise students as a transport user group is becoming an access and participation problem

Okay so here’s my actual Bluesky-is-dying hypothesis:

The entire web is dying. Users aren’t going from BlueSky to another site (x/insta/threada/tiktok). Users are going to chatbots.

I know traffic to news sites has cratered (like 90%). My hunch is traffic to all the social platforms is down too.

Almost Half of US Data Centers That Were Supposed to Open This Year Slated to Be Canceled or Delayed The vast majority of data centers scheduled for completion over the next few years have yet to even break ground.

It's indeed possible to beat bad things backed by big money

A cut-out of a piece of paper with the word "fascism"; the paper is burning at the edges, all against a black background.

Opinion | Why Fascists Hate Sociology

The anti-sociology politicians are on to something in grasping the field’s power. https://bit.ly/4c1s0xn

#EDUSky #HigherEd

Monologue: What's Going On At Anthropic? Podcast Episode · Better Offline · April 1 · 11m

Here’s this week’s Better Offline. I discuss Anthropic’s aggressive new rate limits, the leak of Claude Code’s source code, and the dread consequences of having software written 100% by LLMs.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
Linktr.ee/betteroffline

I'm hiring! I have 2 open positions:

🔬 Postdoc
🧪 Research associate

We study how animal multicellularity evolved by exploring the molecular logic of cell adhesion using cell biology, 'omics, and tool-building in non-model organisms.

Come join us!

Details and application links 👇

Please repost

Literary Magazine Panel with Jay Aja, Kolby Granville, Miah Jeffra, Elizabeth Coffey & Mark Wish YouTube video by Writer's Workout

After Dinner Conversation did a #litmag roundtable with Writer's Workout. Great group of panelists!

youtu.be/KUISm0-N2YA?...

Thinking about publishing with us?
Learn more about our mission as a publisher.

https://www.sup.ac.uk/mission

Collaborators on the new AI and digital literacy guide are seen in front of a Libraries Connected banner.

Our new good practice guide gives library workers tools to help communities build confidence with AI.

The guide was developed from Innovating in Trusted Spaces delivered by us @goodthingsfdn.bsky.social and @wsacommunity.bsky.social with DSIT funding.

www.librariesconnected.org.uk/news/new-gui...

Morning #UKSG2026 plenary about the Big 5 negotiations. I would love to see Jisc’s energies going into supporting collective funding and community-based publishing alternatives, alongside (preferably instead of!) inequitable negotiations with commercial behemoths.

But that’s just me. 🤷‍♀️

Universities risk slow and fragmented progress on securing open access for academic books unless a proper national strategy is developed, a new report has warned
https://ow.ly/R17h50YALpp

Headlines say: 1. DHS removes more than half a million illegal aliens from U.S. 2. Lower immigration and zero net job creation dim U.S. growth prospects 3. Global forecasting group sees U.S. inflation at 4.2% this year 4. Average U.S. gas price nears $4 per gallon because of the Iran war 5. As U.S. debt passes $39 trillion, Americans are paying $900 billion in interest 6. Median home price in the U.S. in 2025: $462,206

They told MAGA that immigrants made their lives worse.

But last year, they arrested 400k immigrants & we got:

- 0% Net Job Creation
- OECD Forecasts Inflation @ 4.2%
- Gas Prices: $4
- National Debt: Increased by 2.8 Trillion
- Home Prices: $460k

So now you know!!
You have all the same problems!!

The UK's new migration problem no one's talking about Strict new visa rules are causing fresh challenges for British society and the jobs market

"The UK's new migration problem no one's talking about"

UK to rejoin EU's Erasmus scheme The UK is rejoining the EU's Erasmus scheme from 2027, meaning British students will be able to study in Europe for up to a year, and EU students will be abl...

"UK to rejoin EU's Erasmus scheme"

An underrated addendum to the Bowling Alone story is that North America's largest bowling operator (Bowlero) is a publicly traded company whose business model involves buying mom and pop alleys, shutting down the leagues, and trying to attract casual, higher paying, one-off players.

Ministers explore triggering break clause in Palantirs NHS contract.

Ministers are reportedly exploring how to cancel dangerous spy-tech firm Palantir's contract to handle NHS data after over 150k people joined me in calling on them to break the contract.

Join us - together we can kick out Palantir out of our NHS:

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

Everyone needs to stop what they’re doing and watch this video.

“It seems like there’s a lack of diversity here today, and it’s mostly people who look like you and me, and I just…?”

This lady’s response is🔥

Palantir has student data, including immigration status, from the ed tech discussion platform Piazza.

Palantir paid Piazza $916,000 for access to this data. www.sec.gov/Archives/edg...

I blew the whistle on this in 2016 and the CEO contacted my employer.

SHUT IT DOWN: The May 1 General Strike Is On Plus, the Choctaw Nation blocks massive ICE prison, courts slam Trump’s big tech oligarchs, and the resistance escalates

Choctaw Nation just bought the warehouse ICE wanted to turn into an 8,500-bed prison — right next to their daycare. They beat the regime to it.

Same week juries slammed Meta and Google, and the resistance called for a May 1 general strike.

Momentum!