Word of the Day is ‘hunch-weather’ (19th century): weather so cold it makes you hunch your shoulders when you walk outside.

A UK university strike now risks being futile and counterproductive Avoiding layoffs is the issue of the hour. The UCU would do better to prioritise negotiations on pay-related issues such as workload, says Jak Peake

Though a few things have moved on in #UCU terms since I wrote this, much of it still holds up. I'm considering writing a part II in the New Year. www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/uk-univ...

It's a good (& telling) point @sawherry.bsky.social. If a #UCU HEC member voted for an industrial action ballot, you'd expect some clear justification to be given wouldn't you. Personally, I would like all HEC votes to be transparent. Please vote for #CUCUD and #Commons members in the NEC elections.

Jimmy Carter, former US president and tireless rights advocate, dies aged 100 – latest updates Former president, who spent decades after time in office campaigning for better global health and human rights, has passed away

Jimmy Carter dies at 100. Martin Luther King III, Martin Luther King Jr's son, and Arndrea Waters King remember him: “While history may have been hard on President Carter at times, today, he is remembered as a global human rights leader". www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th... #USPresident #news

This letter from John Steinbeck to Marilyn Monroe is pretty well known, I guess, though I just read it for the first time a couple minutes ago. I would be more surprised by how funny it is, if I hadn't read Steinbeck's Paris Review interview. In person, apparently, he was a hoot.

What's the best Christmas movie of all time? Santa Claus: The Movie (with Dudley Moore)? Elf? The Muppet Christmas Carol? Home Alone? Die Hard? Trading Places? Miracle on 34th Street? Kiss Kiss Bang Bang? The Grinch? The Nightmare Before Christmas? It's a Wonderful Life? You tell me #filmsky

Interesting stats on wealth inequality in the U.S. Do you think this was top of mind for U.S. voters in the recent U.S. election @rbreich.bsky.social? And, if not, how could it be made so for the next U.S. election in 2028?

This new book Picturing Black History: Photographs and Stories That Changed the World, by Daniela Edmeier, Damarius Johnson, Nicholas B Breyfogle and Steven Conn offers US students (& readers generally) a visual way of learning about Black history in the United States. Looks like a much needed book.

Cheers Piotr @piotr-michael.bsky.social. How's it going? Ready for Xmas. Been meaning to email you... Let's catch up soon.

Jane McAlevey's No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power

Reading Jane McAlevey's No Shortcuts feels prescient. "Trump attained power by decrying the elite, and turning the working class... against one another...Yet we’ve found no better system... than democracy and no better mechanism for ensuring decent lives for its working-class citizens than unions".

Can't agree with you more @dyfrigjones.bsky.social: if you want UCU to not simply embark on annual ineffective industrial action, then you need to vote in UCU's NEC elections for Campaign & Commons candidates. Dyfrig's been great on NEC. That's why I'll be voting for him as VP this January.

I need to log off and get on with revisions but I also submitted a motion for Thursday's Special HEC (below). The hostility I received in response can only lead me to conclude that people in the meeting did not want any version of the motion to pass. Why oppose researching member disengagement?

This is such a crying shame. We need people who reflect what the majority of members want on NEC: please vote for Campaign for UCU Democracy and Commons folk in the upcoming NEC elections. UCU Left & the so-called independent left/Rank and File Network have snubbed members & damaged negotiations.

Excellent blog from @dyfrigjones.bsky.social which summarizes his, Campaign for UCU Democracy's and Commons' arguments on UCU's HEC: that UCU should have progressed on pay-related issues (as 86% wanted), given branches headroom to ballot locally on redundancies & not launched a national pay ballot.

Enjoying reading Percival Everett's Erasure - only 23 years after its publication. Makes me appreciate what a great adaptation American Fiction is. Will have to read James, next, his retelling of Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, from Jim's POV. #fiction #authors #ListenToBlackVoices

A few firsts this week for me. I've joined Bluesky! I've been meaning to transition from X/Twitter. Elon Musk's ascendancy into politics, not to mention his unholy alliance with a certain Convict Elect & unhealthy interest in UK politics/Reform UK - has been the kicker #hellobluesky #firstpost