iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

NPC in a computer game criticising the name that I have given to the protagonist.

NPC Libal in computer game: "Muckman? That's an... interesting name."

레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Extremely sad that my favourite Saudi Arabian academic Andrew Timming has dropped plans for his third book "Woke Nonsense", which was the one thing I was really looking forward to. Now his third book "examines the history and meaning of body art across time", which isn't my cup of tea to be honest.

Screenshot from Andrew Timming website, June 2026. "I'm currently writing my third book, Woke Nonsense, and have also made a start on my fourth, The Tattoo Book"

Screenshot from Andrew Timming website, August 2026: "I am currently writing my third book, The Tattoo Book, which examines the history and meaning of body art across time".

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Attempted to formulate a history of science joke about how global academia needs to disprove "racial science", geocentrism, phrenology, mesmerism, the Piltdown Man, and Mary Toft giving birth to 17 rabbits again. But somebody has already done it (the joke, not the disproving).

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

To people still publishing their hot takes about the poor man who died:

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Fantastic to see the Tory grifter Nick Hillman from HEPI, architect of the current HE system and quoted in this BBC News article, identifying a problem that I (and countless academics) already highlighted SIX YEARS AGO. medium.com/ussbriefs/st...

medium.com

Stockpiling students? Covid-19, caps, and growth inequalities in UK HE from 2014–5 to 2018–9

Number 94: #USSbriefs94

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

As a Hong Konger, I think it's perfectly valid to wish somebody a violent death. In Hong Kong, you can even pay a granny to do this on your behalf, in a practice called 'da siu yan' (villain hitting, lit. 'striking little people'). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villain...

en.wikipedia.org

Villain hitting - Wikipedia

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Agree with Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor of University of Bristol, that cuts to humanities are tragic. If the humanities were thriving, it would mean a university vice-chancellor like Evelyn Welch would be able to say that fascism is bad, which she refused to do. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

theguardian.com

Florence Welch’s mother says cuts to arts and humanities ‘absolutely tragic’

Exclusive: Prof Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor of Bristol University, believes her daughter’s success shows value of arts education

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Great that people are paying attention to NOUS consultancy now -- years ago (2018!) I started taking the piss out of them on Twitter (their 'principal' Zac Ashkanasy used the cringe adage 'Culture eats strategy for breakfast' to describe what they intend to do to universities) and I got blocked lol

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

The tiny domino here is renaming the University of Bolton to the University of Greater Manchester. Hopefully the bigger domino here is becoming the first university vice-chancellor to go to prison.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Bonnie Tyler died. Therefore I'm posting a video that De Montfort University spent £22,000 to make in 2012, in which their former vice-chancellor Dominic Shellard lip-synced to 'I Need A Hero'. youtu.be/LzndSqMxaXs?...

youtu.be

Dominic Shellard Vice-Chancellor of De Montfort University I Need a Hero full video 7 November 2012

YouTube video by UUK spin

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Forskerforbundet, Norway's equivalent of UK's University and College Union (UCU), has a density of 80% in public higher education institutions. Overall union density in Norway is 50%. In the UK overall union density is 22% as of 2025. www.forskerforbundet.no/en/become-a-...

forskerforbundet.no

Working in Norway

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

A researcher at University of Bergen shows what happens when you upload PDFs containing minutes of a university departmental meeting into an AI podcast generator. They also experimented with uploading **empty** PDFs. Results are horrifying and hilarious. Journal paper below: doi.org/10.1177/0163...

doi.org

AI-generated podcasts: Synthetic intimacy and cultural mistranslation in audio overviews from Google’s NotebookLM - Jill Walker Rettberg, 2026

This paper analyses AI-generated podcasts produced by Google’s NotebookLM, which generates audio podcasts where two chatty AI hosts discuss whichever documents ...

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Peter Fleming just died. A while ago we discussed his book "Dark Academia" at Kingston. He was brutally honest about academics' role in the death of UK universities: too many of us "went along" with the disastrous system (out of self-interest, fear or "we can navigate this") until it was too late.

Cover of Peter Fleming's 2021 book "Dark Academia: How Universities Die"

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

You can always count on Nick Hillman, the architect of the current HE funding system and a man permanently wearing a giant hotdog suit, to **defend** job cuts and redundancies (in this case University of Exeter).

Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “While it is always a tragedy, with real human impact, when courses close, it would be irresponsible of managers and governors to ignore changes in demand for different courses.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

It seems odd to me that Panini has never made a sticker album of panini, therefore I have remedied this.

A World Cup 2026 Panini sticker of a Panino (sandwich). Born 25 June 2026 (freshly made today), height around 30cm, weight around 0.35kg. The panino plays for the Italian club Sconosciuto.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Unpopular opinion: I actually support wholeheartedly a social media ban, not for under-16s, but for over-60s. Boomer online radicalisation is the real danger to society, especially to young people and children.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Office for Students and Advance HE (CEO Alistair Jarvis, remember him?) using the Slop Machine to generate images for press releases? #aesthetic Source: www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-an...

I am only human and I am sorry I do not know how to describe a slop image for alt-text purposes.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

A reminder that Nick Hillman of HEPI was a failed Conservative Party parliamentary candidate. Listen to his mediocre pitch back then, and everything he has done since for UK higher education makes perfect sense. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLV8...

youtube.com

Introducing Nick Hillman

YouTube video by Ellee Seymour

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

I made a Panini World Cup 2026 sticker for Adam Tickles, the world-famous vice-chancellor at the University of Birmingham.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

HEPI (CEO Nick Hillman) released a report lamenting the failures of the UK HE system (e.g. 'predatory recruitment' at Russell Group universities when students number controls were lifted), which Nick and his friends actively created and championed. I decided the report needs a better front cover.

Sausage suit man: "We're all trying to find the guy who did this!"
Yes, we wonder who did this, Bahram Bekhradnia and Nick Hillman of HEPI.

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Reposted by 레온 로차

Dr Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

This HEPI report is also a devastating, if unintentional, indictment of a sea of "HE-related" commentariat and consultancy types, who have latched on to a clearly ailing education sector, gotten paid at its expense, and then refused to decouple. Now that the host is dying, they finally speak.

hepi.ac.uk

Demographic decline and predatory recruitment: The twin threats to English higher education into the 2040s - HEPI

A combination of demographic decline and predatory recruitment practices puts the entire English higher education sector at risk. This new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), Dem...

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Today I had an acid flashback of that time the disgraced former vice-chancellor of De Montfort University, Dominic Shellard, danced and lip-synced to Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero". If you have never seen this, you are in for a treat. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lznd...

youtube.com

Dominic Shellard Vice-Chancellor of De Montfort University I Need a Hero full video 7 November 2012

YouTube video by UUK spin

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

The logic of ultra-factionalists: "When I attack someone, it's not factional. But when people defend themselves, it's factional." It's the same as SWP logic: "When others mention Comrade Delta, it's factional. When I defend Comrade Delta, it's not factional."

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

🚨 IMPORTANT PUBLIC ANNOUCEMENT🚨 I am becoming chief executive of Universities UK and look forward to the next chapter of my career. Please see below for my statement.

"Look I can't do worse than the current fucking clowns in charge, can I?"

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Higher education 'commentariat' like WonkHE loves to talk about AI and higher education. But the more interesting discussion is actually AI and higher education commentary: WonkHE can be easily replaced by the ChatGPT prompt 'write about topic x while licking maximum vice-chancellor arse'.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

In the same way that people like Peter Mandelson must be removed from all public life because of Epstein, SWP must be removed from all social movements because of Comrade Delta.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

200,000 Norwegians eat Grandiosa pizza on Christmas Eve. Sad.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

I don't advertise. I rely strictly on word-of-mouth.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Just learned that Simone Buitendijk left her vice-chancellor role at the University of Leeds (receiving a £288k payoff in the process), and then became a deputy vice-chancellor and provost at the University of Salford (seems like a 'demotion'?) Wonder what happened there.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Shelved UCU graphic/prop designs: UCU Panini sticker album. Some samples below.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Kjære, hva skal vi lage til middag? Matbutikken:

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

A Norwegian detective fiction idea: a character called Børre Hyggelig, a policeman who always prioritises his own comfort instead of solving any case, but is able to carry on in his job with moderate success because the crimes always accidentally solve themselves and he can just claim credit.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

What the fuck is Microsoft Copilot and why is it shit

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Bloody Beaker folk. Coming over here, rowing up the Tagus Estuary in improvised rafts. My name is Keir Starmer of the UKIPs and I want the finest of Beaker folks to stay where they are, instead of coming here and teaching us how to drink water out of cups! youtu.be/1cgeXd5kRDg?...

youtu.be

Stewart Lee - Damned Immigrants

YouTube video by Jimmy Lee

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Just randomly found one of my old creations on the computer. Good times 😅

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Random things found in the kitchen: Alan Partridge edible wafer paper cupcake toppers. Back of the net!

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

This morning, my Chinese mother has taken the time to remind me, via text message, that "only two things could happen to middle-aged men". They could either "become bloated like a melon or become shrivelled like a raisin". What happens next to me is "dependent on my diet". Thanks mum.

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

I saw this story and all I could think of was Alan Partridge, Norfolk's angriest man, shouting "Austria", "Stop getting Bond wrong!" and "Glang, glang ah lang ah lang ah lang ah lang" www.theguardian.com/film/2025/fe...

theguardian.com

James Bond won’t die on my watch, says Austrian who wants ownership of 007

Exclusive: Property developer making trademark challenge claims the spy franchise is in mortal danger

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레온 로차 @acupunctureuss.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

I think about this plaque from a statue of Ming Dynasty general Yuan Chonghuan (1584-1630) at least three times a day.

"Fuck his mom! Hit the hard!" [sic] (掉哪媽! 頂硬上!) plaque on a statue

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