Peter Christian

Melania wearing a hat, not smiling

"I don't think I've EVER seen you smile. They should be ASHAMED of you.” DJT

John Prescott would have loved this

Frog, dog and Mandy

The frog, the dog and Mandy

Incredible

Why are UK universities failing? - Impact of Social Sciences The HE sector in the UK faces the prospect of a university going into administration. How have universities fallen so low and is change possible?

The UK university sector has gone beyond the red line and is now in a stage of rapid decomposition. Only a fundamental reset could save whole chunks of it. Probably too late for large parts.
blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

The first time we've seen Donny win since 2013. It's taken us 21 games. RTID

WEEKEND READING: What if, in trying to ‘fix’ universities, we are quietly unmaking them? - HEPI Join HEPI and Advance HE for a webinar onTuesday, 13 January 2026, from 11am to 12pm, exploring what higher education can learn from leadership approaches in other sectors. Sign up here to hear this a...

Good reading.

'How the financial problem is described is not neutral. It reflects and reinforces a particular way of understanding what a university is....If the financial situation is framed as a classic demand-and-cost problem....the obvious actions are to emphasise tight cost controls'. 1/4

A positive story for a change

All hope and optimism for 2026 lost after just 2 days

The first sunrise of 2026, two palm trees in silhouette

The first sunrise of 2026 in Roquebrune Cap-Martin, hope it's a good year.

and Prefab Sprout

Scritti Politti still sounds so good

American idiot, an image of a hand and heart shaped, bloody hand grenade

Current soundtrack

So here it is Merry Christnas

Saddo

Cheap, rain soaked flags

This is England! Cheap rain soaked nylon flags from China held with cable ties at half mast on lamposts in Kettering.

E1027, Roquebrune Cap-Martin, Eileen Gray @thefence.bsky.social

White horse and rider in Camargue with bulls

Trump free zone, OoO in Camargue

It's hard to believe this silly old fool is the leader of the USA.

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

Thank you

This is London. Green and blue in Battersea

Arrests

Today

Excruciating and humiliating

2000 years ago: the Romans would let an aqueduct destroy the Gardon Valley. We need clean water, but at what cost?

Back on Twitter tonight

Holiday reading, doubt everything.

Watching Dr No, some things never change

There may be trouble ahead.

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/o...