Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Children are masters of physical comedy, well farce: 5YR OLD: “I will be super quiet and careful…” PAUSE. Knocks cup of juice off the table and screams in disappointment. 000
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 02/10/2026‘Class action’ type lawyers must be salivating given how far they got with manifestly weaker Covid claims. 010
Reposted by Jon ReadesDan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Luxury retailers want taxpayers to fund a 20% tax break for foreign tourists. They paid consultancy Cebr to claim this will raise £2.6bn for the UK. That convinced Sadiq Khan and Kemi Badenoch. But it's false: a free lunch. Four basic errors mask a £600m loss. Thread: 6496226
Reposted by Jon ReadesAmy Diehl, Ph.D. @amydiehl.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Danish study finds after male managers had their first daughter, their hiring rate of women increased by 2.9% and promotions shifted in favor of women. The first-daughter effect also led to a relative earnings increase of 4.4% for their women employees. www.fastcompany.com/91613424/gir...fastcompany.comGirl dads make better bosses, study suggestsWhen male managers have daughters, women are hired more, promoted more, and earn more. 13219
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 25/09/2026I can understand the temptation (though surely a better approach is a brutal outline stage so you don’t need AI reviews to winnow down full proposals) but you can’t pretend it is robust just because you used *different* LLMs. Even in that world you need people to validate independently. 120
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Or the government will later *add* a requirement for multi-region benefits that leads to those Frankenstein-bids which span nine universities and everyone gets a post-doc for six months but you’d be hard pressed to know what it achieved. 000
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Nice thing about libraries: all the (falling) books are free. 010
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Doesn’t quite work for the marketing copy if the self-driving car gives the illusion of being unsafe but is actually quite good. 001
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Was written by the bus lobby? Sure, let’s talk about the ‘problem’ of widening pavement and creating space for bikes *before* we get to the contribution of uncoordinated roadworks, rising deliveries, Uber and such, and lack of bus-only lanes www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-i...theguardian.comLondon buses in decline? Why public transport in global cities is slowing to a crawl – visualisedAs experts fear for future of UK capital’s bus network, some commuters are giving up entirely. London is not alone – with worrying implications for poorest in society 022
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 22/09/2026The saying “it’s not rocket science” doing a lot of heavy lifting there. 000
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 22/09/2026The saying “it’s not rocket science” doing a lot of heavy lifting there. 010
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Doh! Thank you for that! I had clicked on the chart tweet and so couldn't see the link above any more. 🤦♂️ 100
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Googling this only gave me Business Insider articles with strong slop/clickbait vibes — would love to include this in my teaching but can’t seem to track it down. 110
Reposted by Jon ReadesAndrew Bell @andrewjdbell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Want to work with me and others on a MAIHDA-related project? www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSZ206/r... We are advertising for two 3-month RA secondment positions, to do something related to the MAIHDA method. That might be:jobs.ac.ukResearch Associate at University of SheffieldAn academic position as a Research Associate is being advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Click now to find more details and explore additional academic job opportunities. 101
Reposted by Jon ReadesHistory and Heritage Yorkshire @handhyorkshire.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Following on from my last post this may be of interest from 2022. www.uea.ac.uk/about/news/a...uea.ac.ukResearch project tracks 420 years of English protest songsA research project from the University of East Anglia (UEA) has found that English protest songs have been a vital form of political communication for more than 400 years. 15419
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I think it’s fair to say that my version would have been considered ‘challenging’ for any palette, refined or otherwise: it used vin cuit. I still have no idea why anyone was keeping it in tequila bottles. 🤷♂️ Of course, they did order a tequila sunrise in a traditional French restaurant so… on them! 130
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Made a tequila sunrise (I was wait staff) using something that was in a tequila bottle but was, er, not. Had I known anything about liquor I’d have known this immediately. But I served an undrinkable cocktail to a guest in a Michelin starred restaurant and they said nothing. I still cringe. 170
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I am probably failing to appreciate the details but this is the only way that hasn’t done my head in. So it’s not about an actual amount, it’s about the ‘contract’ written into the budgeting process. Resetting it requires the university to realise ‘losses’ it hadn’t counted on. 100
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I *think* this is how seemingly afforable programmes are ending up on the chopping block — they look like they are now costing the university money even though they still cover their own costs (but not, perhaps, the *revenue* the university had planned/banked on). 100
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Notice that there’s nothing in here about margins. It is the absolute number that matters, ratcheted up each year to deal with inflation, NIs, etc. As soon as you say you can’t meet that, you’re in deficit. It doesn’t matter if your margin is still 40-50%, you need to cut costs. 100
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Academic finances are… weird. The only way I can get my head around it, TBH, is to think of student income as a contract: you will deliver x in revenue next year, x * 1.05 the following year, etc. So if you fail to deliver ‘x’ then you are in ‘breach’ of contract and will have to make savings. 100
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 18/09/2026LLMs are clearly doing a lot of bad things to student learning, but I will say that one area where it has helped me as a teacher is in talking about pedagogy: no one is going to be willing to spend as much time talking with me about my module and assessment design as an LLM. 000
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Yikes! I took a Greyhound bus from Toronto to New York for one of mine before email even… but then my parents weren’t clearly insanely helicoptering my life. 010
Reposted by Jon ReadesCentre for Economic Performance @cep-lse.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Anna Valero (CEP, GSOS) discusses how innovation targeted at reaching net zero represents a real strategy to boost productivity and reduce regional inequality in the UK. blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...blogs.lse.ac.uk 002
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Wonder how Labour leadership feeling about a cap on donations now? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...theguardian.comChristopher Harborne matches £36m Reform donation of Ben DeloParty leader, Nigel Farage, says he is humbled by the contributions from cryptocurrency billionaires 000
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 11/09/2026It was dark all day. The air reeked. Fighter planes circled around and around. We couldn't reach friends. I still feel it in my body when someone says "9/11". And I wish we called it September 11th; it just feels right to me. There's no moral to these memories, just good and bad all mixed up. 3/3 000
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Then I walked to the hospital (now Langone?). Another database nerd and I spent the next 6 hours taking down people's names and skills in Excel (EMTs and construction ideally) so they could be reached by emergency services. People kept coming in waves just to see if they could do anything. 2/3 110
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 11/09/202625 years ago today I was WFH in Brooklyn. I thought the bang I heard was a flatbed truck going over the potholes outside my building. I kept working. Then mum rang my mobile. From my roof I could see through the North Tower and watched them both collapse. 1/3 200
Reposted by Jon ReadesMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 11/09/2026'“Such awards tend to favour more established researchers and those at research institutes who are not required to take on the additional and vital task of teaching undergraduates,” said Stephen Curry, director of strategy at the Research on Research Institute.' 7349123
Reposted by Jon ReadesProfessor Peter Matthews @urbaneprofessor.bsky.social · 06/09/2026They make a product that must be doomed to obsolescence if we're serious about climate change. They aren't innovating in the EV market in the way Chinese companies are and deserve to suffer the consequences. Yet higher education is directly related to the government's desire to create a 1313
Reposted by Jon ReadesMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 06/09/2026'The number of students taking A-level music is at a record low: under 5,000, a drop of nearly half from 15 years ago....Music GCSE entries have also fallen. It has the widest attainment gap for disadvantaged students of any subject.'theguardian.comThe Guardian view on music and drama education: reversing elitism starts at school | EditorialEditorial: The number of students taking creative subjects at A-level and GCSE is at a record low. The arts must not become the preserve of the most privileged 68144
Reposted by Jon ReadesMet Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 01/09/2026Summer 2026 is provisionally the UK’s warmest summer on record with the season’s mean temperature made around 130 times more likely due to human-induced climate change. Here, we delve into the numbers 🧵 5262168
Reposted by Jon ReadesBrent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 01/09/2026“When mayors in other cities ask me how #Copenhagen afforded to invest in its cycling networks, I ask them how on earth they have been able to afford highway projects. We invested in bike lanes because that was the cheapest option.” What the world can learn from Copenhagen’s cycling revolution.theprogressplaybook.comCopenhagen Cycling Revolution: Lessons for CitiesClose to two-thirds of the city’s residents commute by bike to school or work every day. 16801293
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Probably not the book for a true beginner, but I found this #APA book by Thomas Sanchez on #AI for #UrbanPlanning a good, accessible intro for linking up types of deep learning with planning application areas. 010
Reposted by Jon ReadesStrangers in a Tangled Wilderness @tangledwilderness.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Guess what? 1) You can 3D print a crow and squirrel feeder that looks like a Flock camera 2) Crows are extremely good at pattern recognition 3) People are fucking hilarious and creative and I hope every Flock camera gets its own personal murder (of crows) www.printables.com/model/180491...printables.comFlock Camera with chamber; squirrel and bird feeder V2 by David | Download free STL model | Printables.comDesigned to look like a Flock camera, hollow with chambers and a removeable hatch for putting treats for your friends | Download free 3D printable STL models 171073519
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Much easier to be told on the GitHub issue tracker that you’re a bit of an idiot for asking the question when it’s obvious in the Lua source code but they’ll go ahead and update the documentation. 000
Reposted by Jon ReadesProf Katherine Brickell FBA @kbrickell.bsky.social · 28/08/2026The love letter in house buying - fascinating paper which I suspect is also used in some parts of the UK housing market 011
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 28/08/2026And that long list of “things I will definitely fix before next year” which is about to have a brutal encounter with reality. But in the meantime… 110
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Really enjoying a talk on software dev and decision making in an AI-age that has gone in a very different direction from what I’d expected (all about human communication and voice and being heard). #BITES20206 in Termoli 000
Reposted by Jon ReadesGuy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Rewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images show. Excellent work by the National Trust at Holnicote. #MakeBritainWetAgain www.theguardian.com/environment/...theguardian.comRewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images showNational Trust’s Holnicote estate says restored wetlands and rivers offer proof of resilience to drought, wildfires and flooding 12522172
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Summer is always a good time to #VisitScotland ❤️🏴 (for for scale) 000
Reposted by Jon ReadesJonathan Hopkin @jonathanhopkin.eurosky.social · 17/08/2026Typically thought-provoking from Branko: what if excessive profits in the West are the reason China outcompetes us? 1135
Reposted by Jon ReadesMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 17/08/2026'We’ve built a system where publicly backed finance is available on demand while private recruitment companies and financially stretched universities decide between them where volume expands, according to the economics of student acquisition rather than anything resembling national need.' 1/2wonkhe.comThe low-income parents funding the franchised recruitment marketFraud headlines, franchise growth and a court defeat are dots that rarely get joined up. Jim Dickinson pulls together the data on the weekend delivery cohort - who was funded, by whom, and on whose te... 155
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 16/08/2026But, good lord, people need to learn a thing or two about parking in Glencoe. And don’t block the bus stop. 000
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 16/08/2026Scotland delivering on the little pleasures of variable weather after months of frankly terrifying sun in London. 100
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 10/08/2026I agree but still useful to have another piece of evidence to keep the issue ‘live’ for how much worse every subsequent government decision has made things for students (and staff). Government needs reminding the hasn’t even stayed in the same region as the settlement they promised. 110
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 10/08/2026This maps on to my experience so far — well, for intelligence substitute experience: open.substack.com/pub/arpitrag...open.substack.com7. AI: A Normal Technology?AI in the Workplace 000
Jon Reades @jreades.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Maths, physics, French and history. Had to be segregated so I could do physics after history since they were timetabled together (because why would anyone…?). That was in early 90s. Sad to think that’s *still* an ‘odd choice’ but at least my school then had the resources to support me. 020
Reposted by Jon ReadesCarsten Timmermann @ctimmermann.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Fair enough; I’m all for it. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...theguardian.comThe Guardian view on the two cultures: bridge the divide, starting with A-levels | EditorialEditorial: Seventy years after CP Snow warned of estrangement between the sciences and arts, breadth in education should be encouraged 2104