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MikeCrang

@crangma.bsky.social
156 followers 138 following 95 posts

Geographer, mostly posting about work. @geogdurham.bsky.social

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Iain Soutar @isoutar.bsky.social · 11h
Summer in UK academia. A play in two acts.
A bbc article with the headline "University campus scraps geography admissions"A guardian article "UK universities rankedby subject area: earth and marine sciences". Exeter places third.
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Iain Soutar @isoutar.bsky.social · 10h
Since the announcement of redundancies at the start of summer, we lost 10 staff from 20 from our Centre for Geography and Environmental Science. Let's hope things improve at Exeter...
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Geography at Durham @geogdurham.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
We’re excited to be part of @beinghumanfest.bsky.social this year with @teessideuni.bsky.social and @nationaltrust.org.uk. Read about our hub programme, now live at: www.beinghumanfestival.org/being-human-.... Being Human is the UK’s national festival of the humanities.
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Measuringe the value of educacioun by returne on ynvestment onlye ys lyke measuringe the value of a garden by the weight of the floweres
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Tim Daw @timdaw.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Historic England vanishing archive - details of why it is broken : www.sarsen.org/2026/09/hist...
sarsen.org
Historic England’s Vanishing Archive
Not just the aerials. The lot. Historic England still holds the negatives, the prints and the scans. What the public lost, in early Sept...
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MikeCrang @crangma.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
👀👀👀
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MikeCrang @crangma.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
We are pleased to share that our Green Corridors North East hub programme, part of Being Human Festival (5-14 November 2026), is now live! www.beinghumanfestival.org/being-human-...
beinghumanfestival.org
Being Human: Green Corridors North East
Led by Teesside University, Durham University and the National Trust
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Sixth Tone @sixthtone.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
After once leaving rural China behind, two filmmakers returned to document the farmers and workers whose stories are fading from view as the countryside changes. ow.ly/Tcjl50ZPoYa
ow.ly
Two Filmmakers, 1,100 Villages, and a Race to Record Rural China
After once leaving rural China behind, two filmmakers returned to document the farmers and workers whose stories are fading from view as the countryside changes.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Here's a chart from the post.... quite a change in a single generation.
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eliko thalia @museinrevolt.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
just learned this today
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MikeCrang @crangma.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...
wonkhe.com
Students feel free to speak – unless they’re training to be doctors
Elsewhere on the site today I’ve been picking through the Office for Students’ (OfS) consultation on its two new free speech conditions of registration.
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Side @sidegallery.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
🎬 Starting tomorrow and running all weekend: “Voices From Here” brings six decades of Amber Films to Durham Folk Festival. 📍 Redhills Durham Miners Hall 📅 18 to 20 Sept 🕐 1 to 4pm daily 🎟️ Free More info: sidegallery.co.uk/whats-on/...
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Enough Of That Now @andygilder.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Trump becomes the first orange man to support a united Ireland
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Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I'm glad folks keep noting the egregiously stark contrast in legal regard for GenAI companies vs Aaron Swartz
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A Demon Named Sam Kurd @samkurd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Meanwhile, this was an arrest for planning to stop traffic in protest: www.theguardian.com/environment/... When the fash spread their propaganda about a two-tier justice system, the ironic thing is that they're right, it's just not set up in the way they say it is.
theguardian.com
Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25
Campaigners receive longest ever sentences for non-violent protest after being convicted of conspiracy to cause public nuisance
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Chris Addison @mrchrisaddison.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Somewhere in England, a tired man turns off Channel 4 news and wearily puts on a bin.
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Daniel Moser @dmoser.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Pollution levels in London after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.
Map showing Lower Pollution levels in London after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.
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Durham University @durham.ac.uk · 02/09/2026
@geogdurham.bsky.social researchers have used freely available satellite radar images to track emperor penguins in polar winter – giving a year-round view of their movements that could support conservation efforts 🐧 Discover more about this amazing work 👉 tinyurl.com/2zv9zdj9
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Stars and Stripes @starsandstripes.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
A civilian geography professor was fired from West Point for pushing back after department officials barred faculty from teaching that humans contribute to climate change.
stripes.com
West Point professor fired after pushing back on limitations to teaching climate change, lawsuit says
Adam Kalkstein pushed back after department officials barred faculty from teaching that humans contribute to climate change, the lawsuit says.
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Alex Prichard @profalexp.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
A thread on the dispute at Exeter Uni. #ucu #defendexeteruni @ucu.org.uk On 15 June HR called Exeter UCU into a confidential meeting and informed us they would be putting over 500 colleagues at risk of redundancy and expected to loose around 200 staff. The number of c.150 you’ll have seen is FTE.
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Oliver Morton, Eater of Sun @eaterofsun.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
According to official statistics, If you include the emissions associated with everything consumed in the UK, no matter where it is made, the total in 2023 (most recent year for which figures are available) is 699 Mt CO2e. That is a 24% reduction since 1990. www.ons.gov.uk/economy/envi...
ons.gov.uk
Measuring UK greenhouse gas emissions - Office for National Statistics
Outline of the three measures of UK greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: territorial, residence and footprint, used for policies, including domestic and international targets.
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Polly Pallister-Wilkins @pollypw.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
"Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria; You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane, All they will call you will be "deportees" Goodbye Dolly. I hope you and Woody are having a jam session right now. youtu.be/CEPUxpR64YE?...
youtu.be
Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)
YouTube video by Dolly Parton - Topic
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Sixth Tone @sixthtone.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Thomas Sauvin’s archive of discarded family negatives captures an era when 36 photos could document years of birthdays, travel, and everyday life. www.sixthtone.com/news/1018921
sixthtone.com
China Before the Infinite Camera Roll
Thomas Sauvin’s archive of discarded family negatives captures an era when 36 photos could document years of birthdays, travel, and everyday life.
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Tony - Pod Guy - Groves @tonygroves.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
BBC invited Palestinian writer, researcher and analyst Muhammad Shehada on to talk about Israel’s decision to investigate the killing of Hind Rajab. Below is Muhammad’s account of what happened next. Full disclosure: I know him years and he’s a regular on the pod. So naturally I believe him 100%.
@muhammadshehad2
Disappointed the BBC cancelled my interview on
Israel's killing of Hind Rajab
2 producers eagerly reached out. They confirmed the time & one called to prepare a brief for the anchor
She asked me whether Israel's announcement is positive, I explained in detail it was a cover up.
The IDF is blaming the killing of Hind, her uncle, aunt & 4 cousins on the family itself for trying to flee by car & on the ambulance sent to rescue her for "failures in the co-ordination of the movement."
None of this is remotely true! The Red Cross immediately informed the IDF about 5-year-old Hind who was hiding in that motionless car, & they requested permission from Israel to allow an ambulance to rescue them.
After multiple long hours, Israel granted greenlight to the ambulance & provided them with a designated route on a GPS to drive on.soon as the ambulance reached Hind's car, the IDF ambushed & bombed them immediately with an American made anti-tank missile then opened fire on Hind's car. The car was hit with 355 bullets.
Israel then kept that area under lockdown for 12 days, & prevented anyone from approaching.
Hind's mom went daily to the Ahli baptist hospital hoping to find her daughter, until her lifeless body was brought in along with the charred remains of the ambulance men.
Israel then claimed after an "initial investigation" that its troops were NEVER in that area to begin with. They maintained that claim for 2 years despite ample recordings & satellite images debunking this lie.
The only reason Israel is now making this new announcement of a deeper investigation is to shield its soldiers & generals from the International Criminal Court by invoking the principle of "complementarity;" that the ICC cannot investigate a state that is already investigating itself in good faith.I told the BBC producer Israel today also quietly shut down the investigation into the triple tap killing of American, Canadian, British, Australian & Polish citizens in the WCK massacre. Israel blamed the massacre on the aid workers themselves for "deviating from the predesignated route" & for hiring an armed security guard "without informing the IDF" (both claims where debunked by WCK themselves, who had coordinates their every step with the IDF).
I told the producer the Israeli commander responsible for this massacre, Nochi Mendel, is a fanatical settler who had signed a petition calling for starving Gaza & that he was celebrated by settler leaders & supported by Israeli government leaders after what he did.
Mendel even received a box of chocolate from the settler council's leader & a letter of support for what he did.
Mendel was initially dismissed by the IDF & blamed for the massacre, but was quickly & quietly reinstated & promoted in the Defence Ministry as the head of the settlements and notionol infroctrunturo unitIt's abundantly clear Israel is NOT serious about prosecuting any of the atrocities committed in Gaza. Since the genocide began, only two soldiers were punished by the IDF; one for microwaving a living frog & another for cooking sausages in the army kitchen on Shabbat.
The producer asked me: What about the 150 cases the IDF said are pending review?
I answered: it's just a number designed to give the appearance of seriousness, but it's essentially meaningless.
If it took the IDF two whole years to admit the simplest of facts that the entire world had already known, which is that their troops were the ones who fired on Hind Rajab's car, how do you expect them to do with the remaining cases that are not as high profile?
Five minutes after the call, the producer wrote me that they decided to cancel the interview & will not even host anyone else to comment on the issue, & instead they'll play archival footage!
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Robin Bisson @robinbisson.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
£6.3bn really is a huge gap for unis to fill on research each year It's sometimes said that's what QR is for, but QR is part of the calculation: without it the gap would be close to £9bn The biggest way that gap is filled is international student fees (yellow bar), but we all know how that's going
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Saganism @sagan.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
41 years ago, Carl Sagan gave a clear and elegant explanation of the science behind global warming.
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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.social · 12/08/2026
"FT has found evidence of controlled detonations and demolitions by Israeli forces and civilian contractors in dozens of border communities." Most of the destruction happened *after* the April ceasefire when territory was already under Israeli control (dark red dots). www.ft.com/content/25bc...
FT Visual investigation
How Israel is making southern Lebanon ‘unliveable’
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed homes, roads, farmland and forests despite ceasefire with Hizbollah
Patterns of destruction before and after the first ceasefire
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Internet Archive @archive.org · 03/08/2026
Libraries pay millions to rent ebooks they never own. So maybe it's no surprise Penguin Random House is sponsoring arguments against stronger library ebook rights. www.libraryjournal.com/story/news/m...
libraryjournal.com
Moving Beyond the Publisher Playbook: Why State-Level Contract Law is Essential to the Future of Digital Library Rights
The era of mere “firefighting” and polite, incremental negotiation is over. The library sector is asking for relief from ebook pricing schemes that consume tremendous amounts of public dollars while p...
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Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
"In 2022, Wiley removed over 1,300 ebooks from academic library collections; [they said] perpetual access is not an option for subscribed content. In 2025, Clarivate,... announced they would stop offering libraries perpetual access licenses for ebooks and primary-source digital collections."
arl.org
Consumers Are Worried About the Loss of Physical Media Ownership. Libraries Are Leading the Conversation. — Association of Research Libraries
Sally Sax is head, Collection Strategy and Partnerships, MacOdrum Library, Carleton University. In a recent Atlantic Monthly article about Sony’s plan to end physical sales of PlayStation console game...
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Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies @durhamchina.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Everyday Elegance: Daily Lives of Women in Late Qing China This exhibition at Durham University's Oriental Museum explores the daily lives of women who lived in urban communities in Late Qing China—what they wore, what they ate, what they did for work and for fun. www.durham.ac.uk/things-to-do...
Poster for Durham University's Oriental Museum exhibition, Everyday Elegance: Daily Lives of Women in Late Qing China (16 May–20 September 2026). The poster features four decorative objects on a dark wooden background: a gold pendant necklace, a round embroidered yellow pouch, a blue floral hairpin, and a purple embroidered fabric band with colorful flowers. The title appears in English and Chinese on the left.
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Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
4/4 That's why I've signed @rachaelmaskell.bsky.social parliamentary motion, calling on the Office for Students to investigate institutions accused of undermining pension rights, and on the Government to take action to prevent pension cuts and a race to the bottom across higher education.
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Geography at Durham @geogdurham.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Durham Geography is devastated by the sad news of the death of our dear friend and enormously respected and much-loved colleague, Sarah Knuth, after an incredibly brave battle with cancer. Our thoughts go out to her family and close friends. We will miss her immensely.
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Patrick Bigger @pmbigger.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
The world is a little dimmer today. Writing this for my friend and colleague Sarah Knuth was agonizing and we miss her so much, but we also celebrate Sarah's memory and push forward on the struggles that she cared about so deeply. climateandcommunity.org/bio/sarah-kn...
climateandcommunity.org
Sarah Knuth (In Memoriam) - Climate and Community Institute
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Gingerspiced @gingerspiced.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Pete Hegseth: "We need our warriors to embrace the Spartan mindset" U.S. Military: *suffers crushing defeat to the Persians*
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James Bowes @jamesbowes01.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Just exempting care workers would be ridiculous. Basically it would be a case of designing a policy to kick out care workers, panicking when you realise how stupid an idea that is, and then kicking out a load of engineers, scientists etc out of sheer stubbornness.
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
A very good point as usual from @jamesbowes01.bsky.social The main objective of Mahmood's proposals was always to kick out care workers (as she has more or less said). That was always an economically, politically and morally bankrupt policy. Without it, the whole package falls apart.
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Davenant 📸 @marcdavenant.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
If you want to watch the Commonwealth Games for free (it isn’t on the BBC) you can stream it from CBC in Canada with a VPN. You will need to register and to have a random Canadian post code to hand which is easy. gem.cbc.ca/section/comm...
gem.cbc.ca
Commonwealth Games Glasgow 2026 | Stream July 23 to August 2 | CBC Gem
Your destination for live coverage of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. Follow all the action live and on repeat, from July 23 to August 2.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 22/07/2026
One billion plastic pellets spilled into River Tyne after two ships collide
theguardian.com
One billion plastic pellets spilled into River Tyne after two ships collide
Up to 25 tonnes of nurdles, the raw material for plastic manufacturing, have spread further than initially feared Approximately a billion tiny plastic nurdles have entered the River Tyne after a “devastating spill”, with the pellets thought to have spread much further than first thought. Nurdles, which are usually 1mm-5mm in size, act as the raw material to manufacture most plastic products. Continue reading...
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Josh Gabbatiss @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
As Ed Miliband leaves his post as energy and net-zero secretary, a final tally: There have been an incredible 251 newspaper editorials attacking him and his approach to net-zero since the start of 2024 That amounts to two editorials a week, mainly in the Sun, Daily Mail, Times and Daily Telegraph.
cumulative line chart showing that UK newspapers have published 251 editorials criticising Ed Miliband since the start of 2024
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Adam McKay @ghostpanther.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
No biggie. Just another slow, predictable mega catastrophe coming right at humanity that mainstream news and elected officials have decided to downplay/ignore. www.cbc.ca/news/science...
cbc.ca
El Niño is here, and it’s already looking like it could be 'mind-blowing' | CBC News
Temperatures in the El Niño region in the Pacific Ocean are the warmest they've been on record at this time of year. And the peak is still months away.
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Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Local plumbers two steps ahead of every university administrator in america 👏
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The Onion @theonion.com · 17/07/2026
Bat-Wielding Christopher Nolan Confronts Man Using Bathroom During ‘The Odyssey’ theonion.com/bat-wielding-christoph…
Bat-Wielding Christopher Nolan Confronts Man Using Bathroom During ‘The Odyssey’
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Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) @rgs.org · 17/07/2026
That’s a wrap on Summit Photo day one! We’ve had a brilliant first day hearing talks, panel discussions and roundtables from such talented speakers . We’ll be back tomorrow, and there’s still time to be part of the weekend. Tickets are available on the door or can be booked online.
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A London Inheritance @alondoninheritance.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
A plaque on the wall of a bombed building reveals the story of Gray’s Inn Place, Sun Yat-sen and a London Kidnapping, discovered in my post at alondoninheritance.com/london-chara...
alondoninheritance.com
Gray's Inn Place, Sun Yat-sen And A London Kidnapping - A London Inheritance
Gray's Inn Place, Sun Yat-sen and a London Kidnapping are tied together through a plaque on a post war bombed house in Gray's Inn, Holborn
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Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
I’m old enough to remember when a BJ paralyzed the country for nearly a year.
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Made in China Journal @madeinchinajournal.com · 15/07/2026
In 'Easting the West', @chenchenzhang.net stares into the abyss of digital reactionary discourse in China, showing how the Chinese right appropriates the language of postcoloniality to reproduce racial and civilisational hierarchies and justify exclusion. A conversation with @clydewang.bsky.social.
madeinchinajournal.com
Easting the West: A Conversation with Chenchen Zhang | Made in China Journal
At a time when right-wing populism appears to be rampaging through global politics, studies about its discourses and strategies remain thin and even marginal in the field of international relations. T...
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The Onion @theonion.com · 14/07/2026
Geologist Reunited With Beloved Rock He Studied 20 Years Ago theonion.com/geologist-reunited-wit…
Geologist Reunited With Beloved Rock He Studied 20 Years Ago
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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
On my way, Clacton.
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The Times of Central Asia @timesca.com · 08/07/2026
Kazakhstan’s Aral Geopark could become the country’s first UNESCO Global Geopark, bringing new attention to a landscape shaped by the Aral Sea’s collapse ow.ly/xrNp50ZlzKB #AralSea #Kazakhstan #UNESCO #Geopark #Environment
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Kazakhstan's Aral Geopark Under Review for UNESCO Global Status - The Times Of Central Asia
Kazakhstan's Aral Geopark is undergoing an international assessment that could make it the country's first UNESCO Global Geopark, giving new visibility to a
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