friend asked me for advice on returning to university and aiming for an academic career. it’s so hard to realistically portray for someone how unrealistic that is in 2026 without sounding incredibly bitter and pessimistic. but honestly who would advise someone that this a good career path?
I’ve always liked this one (spotted near Blandford)
Well when you put it like that... I think when I started my doctorate the situation was dire, but still, many times that number of jobs. Just enough that many of us believed we might be the lucky ones.
Gorgeous! Where did you see them? I thought it was still too early.
Great example of how fake history is made in our AI world.
Also my old supervisor! He hasn’t been around this year.
I’m very excited about this group of speakers. It really is just coincidental that it’s so heavy on the Franco-Italians for what is probably my last term.
The problem being that many things we call (wrongly) gargoyles are from the gothic era, before ‘grottesca’ became a thing in the 16C. So what are those called?
Just received word from a friend that one of their students cited an article of mine in an undergrad essay. Surreal.
And if I refuse? Can I make up for it with liberal use of ‘discourse’ and ‘liminal’?
Lets hope jd vance campaigns for Reform in Britain
One of my favourite books ever. Hilarious, incisive, and somehow timeless. But almost got me kicked out of my book club.
Impossible to disagree with a single word that Ben Rhodes (Obama era NSC official) is saying here:
Mainly just the auras, with nausea and irritability before, and fatigue after. Not much of the classic splitting headache.
Probably going to have to flesh out the traditional dismissal of Great Man Theory in first-year historiography lectures now it turns out that two to three deranged geriatrics actually can slingshot the entire planet into the sun
Easter is a great time to teach your kids about science for example I won a huge chocolate bunny in a first grade Easter egg hunt and the next day the ears were gone and my dad taught me about evaporation
They might have gone the wrong way with Jamie Laing.
Watching the Women's Boat Race. A tiny man, screaming at eight exhausted women to work harder. Classic patriarchy.
Worth mentioning that when I was there (reluctantly) last week, there were still no free seats in the library. Out of term. The cafes were also not open, because research students, here year round, and whose numbers have doubled in recent years, aren’t front of mind for those running these spaces.
Co-sign 100%. Our faculties have been downgraded in size, access, and amenities. Rather than celebrating the importance of the Humanities, we have been lumped together in the periphery, hidden behind other faculties, in a building which prioritises rare public events over its students.
a photo of the earth taken from the Artemis mission in space. you can see the traceries of clouds along with the auroras on both poles. the continent of Africa is visible along with the atlantic ocean
look at that you son of a bitch
thats all we have. thats it. that's all there is, this impossibly delicate little egg in the endless black nothing. this water droplet. its our home, its where we all live and hating each other just makes no sense when its this precarious
This is my favorite climate change chart. Japanese monks, aristocrats, and emperors kept meticulous records of cherry blossom festivals for 1,200 years and accidentally built the world's longest climate dataset.
Glad to see they are already recording series 23.
I just hope they don’t waste it like we did with the Schwarzman donation. The headline says social sciences, but the fine print says new building.
Oxford skyline (Liv Cashman at unsplash)
Oxford University’s Proctors have raised concerns about insufficient expenditure on buildings and staff. They also described the introduction of OpenAI as “startling” and “problematic” and questioned whether it would undermine the integrity of online admissions.
gazette.web.ox.ac.uk/sites/defaul...
Yeah, it’s not really what they are doing that I mind, it’s the why, and how they are doing it.
And in 1990 the worst effects of global warming were not 100% certain either. Which was his point. If it was worth preparing for one possibility (I don’t think he was arguing one way or another re: Cold War) then it should be worth it for the other.
I’m not sure that is what he said? He was pointing out that if it was worth $10T to avoid the Russian invasion, it should be worth the investment in preventing or mitigating global warming, even at the same odds.
Can you explain what the advantage is of watching the shows on HBO Max vs NOW? Is it just picture quality? Or does it affect the quantity of content as well?
