I'd have omitted point 5 meself, but I'm delighted to see institution-level comms people using plain English and grasping that outfits such as the Telegraph are not august papers of record, but high-volume falsehood cannons that target the university sector as an enemy.

People are being very weird about this, it genuinely sucks that you now need to sign up for a loyalty scheme at every supermarket you visit in order to get realistic prices, and that you need a bespoke phone app to do it

This excellent piece by Katie Rosseinsky covers the social impacts of the mess that Euston is in... This isn't just the fault of the current government's cancellation of Crossrail 2 and (most of) HS2 - bold action NOW is required to make the station work.
independent.co.uk/life-style/eus…

🚨🚨🚨 University of York Vice-Chancellor says half of all universities are cutting jobs and courses. What that means is that the prospectus you or your kids sign up for may be nothing like what you get. Are you happy with that? 🚨🚨🚨

Now the University of York sounds the alarm. The situation in our universities is critical: only a tenth of them have the resources to weather the storm. We cannot wait for Labour to take power in November. Act now.

Plug-in hybrids are a massive 3.5x dirtier than claimed, meaning they barely cut CO2 vs pure petrol/diesel

Meanwhile, petrol cars are nearly 25% dirtier & less fuel efficient than claimed

– Real-world data published by European Commission

climate.ec.europa.eu/news-your-voic…

Something I thought interesting on the U-Bahn when in Berlin in the last week, were these single-question surveys on ticket machines.

The results would have to be treated cautiously, but it strikes me as a potentially good way to generate data about user experience.

Are you a member of academic teaching staff at a university where arts/culture courses are being cut? Would like to hear from you. Drop me an email summarising what's being cut, impact & a contact number & will try to get back to you. Drop me a line at: [email protected]
thx

Something I thought interesting on the U-Bahn when in Berlin in the last week, were these single-question surveys on ticket machines.

The results would have to be treated cautiously, but it strikes me as a potentially good way to generate data about user experience.

It's the small things that just lift the experience of train travel, especially when travelling with kids.

When on Deutsche Bahn Personenverkehr's ICE trains in the last week, I saw that they provide toy trains on board (der-kleine-ice.de).

There are nine to collect - this is Robbi Regio.

During the summer we (a) do the research that gets measured in REF (b) supervise masters and PhD students (c) catch up with teaching prep (d) attend conferences. We aren’t spending three months on a beach and THE knows what culture war it’s stoking by doing this.

It's the small things that just lift the experience of train travel, especially when travelling with kids.

When on Deutsche Bahn Personenverkehr's ICE trains in the last week, I saw that they provide toy trains on board (der-kleine-ice.de).

There are nine to collect - this is Robbi Regio.

Thread on the 'amazing chart' Neil O'Brien is pushing.

Two things are true: (1) you shouldn't reduce jobs in the arts to their economic value; (2) if you insist on doing so, you don't get anything remotely like that chart, which doesn't measure that.

Had the great pleasure last week of visiting Pilsen in Czechia and doing the Pilsner Urquell tour. The highlight was tasting the unfiltered product, kept in barrels in the cellars.

Hope Valley upgrade work started long before the prime minister’s rash decision to cancel northern half of HS2 last October. Looks like the rail minister is trying to rewrite history.

One of many problems exposed by the existential crisis in universities is they were expected to act individually to provide collective goods. But most unis just cannot bear that burden: that's why the social democratic state stepped in during the 1960s.
qmucu.org/qmul-transform…

The number of UK universities announcing redundancies has now reached 49 and will climb much further. You were warned and warned and warned.
qmucu.org/qmul-transform…

The closest I came to considering leaving academia (well, aside from the present) was when I felt pressured during a Leverhulme bid to include a wholly unnecessary lengthy trip to the US even though I didn’t want to be away from my kids for an extended period.

even in salaried academic jobs where you’re applying for extra funding, this is still deeply problematic, because yeah, I have childcare to do my job, but not… in America for a month.

Activity play wall on a train in Germany. Get these on all trains and station waiting rooms!