iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 6h

Invitation to discuss my half-sacking (or ‘variation of contract’) with HR and the dean. I wonder what it could mean…

A game show with a slogan ‘is that good’, on a neon sign and being chanted by the crowd.

Reposted by Plashing Vole

University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 6h

Nottingham today. Everywhere tomorrow. 2,700 staff put at risk. 600+ jobs targeted. At least 48 courses facing closure. What happens here sets the template for the sector. Stand with Nottingham.

15136

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 22h

You could literally replace ‘Palantir’ with ‘Acme Child-Liquidising Ltd.’ without distorting Watson’s argument that the nature of the work doesn’t matter when calculating the benefit. There wouldn’t be an NHS without the NI contributions of those junior kiddie-macerators you know!

14911

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This week I would also have been teaching dialect history and representing dialect on the page with my esteemed linguistics colleague, but Round the Wrekin got dumped in favour of generic skills classes. Sigh.

4363

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Has any VC not used these phrases in a single speech?

220

Reposted by Plashing Vole

David Hendy @davidhendy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Today would have been the 80th birthday of the Third Programme - BBC Radio 3’s remarkable predecessor. My latest for the BBC marks the occasion with a dip into the programme archives, unearthing some forgotten gems from the Third’s early years…

bbc.co.uk

The Third at 80 – a brief history of the unexpected

Weird and wonderful highlights from the early years of BBC Radio 3’s celebrated forerunner The Third Programme

24923

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Today’s teaching is folk and fairy stories, with a side order of Propp and structuralism. It should be @kerryhp.bsky.social’s session but she was made redundant by idiots.

3312

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Great news: the School has sacked a third of its academic but we've acquired 2 new interim managers on top of the extra permanent ones. Fine work all round.

1516740

Reposted by Plashing Vole

Jonathan Healey @jonathanhealey.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

On 18 September I'll be talking at the Oxford Levellers' Day, which celebrates two lesser-known martyrs to the cause, Privates Biggs and Piggen. There will be a talk and a gathering at Rewley House, Oxford. Do come along if you can. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-levell...

eventbrite.co.uk

The Levellers: Radical Lessons from the 17th Century

Political education event with Dr Jonathan Healey (Kellog College), followed by social. All welcome, free of charge.

0167

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Best of luck to @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social members going on strike for over a month. Nobody does this willingly - it’s a last resort, unlike that enormously rich university’s slash and burn tactics.

211537

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

If you get the chance to see Juliet and Romeo, grab it. The star-crossed lovers are in their 40s, tired and out of love. They re-stage the events of Shakespeare’s play (distorted they say) to find out where it all went wrong. Starts off funny, ends up heartbreaking.

Flyer for Juliet and Romeo, a play/dance by Lost Dog theatre company

6302

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Adapted from a novel by Tory politician Douglas Hurd; shown in the run-up to a general election thus infuriating the SNP (the separatist guerrillas are funded by the USSR); never shown again. The tapes still exist apparently.

4199

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

About time MCFC was stripped of the 2010-11 FA Cup and the trophy awarded to Stoke City @stokecityfc.bsky.social

1100

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Two per region except for the Westminster area, which continues to require about 40 politicians’ old school chums to read out their WhatsApps in front of Big Ben.

23010

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

As someone named after an Irish saint who did his best to civilise the English, I suggest Irish universities should revive this mission. I’m throwing my hat in the ring for first Provost of Trinity College Dudley.

4366

Reposted by Plashing Vole

Jamie Douglass @jamesldouglass.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A CV I had to review when recruiting for a new executive to join the PR agency I was at. "Having previously worked at a publishing house, I also have two years' experience in prof reading"

3193

Reposted by Plashing Vole

Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

So many, but the one I will never forget was not a typo, but the most desperate final gambit in an essay on, I think, Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex. The student recounted the tragedy ending with, “Few, today, put out their eyes.”

8888

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

New passport has arrived. Yes the freedom of movement, human rights etc. are very nice but I don’t like the sans serif typeface one little bit. I guess that makes it a San Seriffean passport (look it up, kids).

Two Irish passports. One in a nice typeface, one in a nasty one.

11410

Reposted by Plashing Vole

University of Nottingham UCU branch @uonucu.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Our massive strike action for the fall begins on Wednesday, but we will be facing some intense financial hardship to do so. Please consider supporting our members by donating to our solidarity fund. www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...

justgiving.com

Help raise £10000 to support the Nottingham UCU hardship fund – JustGiving Crowdfunding

Iʼm raising money to support the Nottingham UCU hardship fund. Support this JustGiving Crowdfunding Page.

12726

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I’m a big fan of Glen and trespassing so this should be good. Sorry I’ll be on a train rather than there.

072

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Week 1 of Austen’s Afterlives today - the module that’s being simultaneously abolished and used as a TEF excellence case study. This is just some of the tat and fan culture we’ll look at alongside her works, adaptations, sequels and retellings. They like The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen but…

A collection of Austen ephemera: a Darcy bobblehead; Austen’s History of England, Pride and Prejudish sponge, a crochet Jane Austen, the Austen board game and card game, Austen soap and an Austen seed tray.

4509

Reposted by Plashing Vole

stevewarren209.bsky.social @stevewarren209.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"The children of some rich fucks have admittedly broken into several private homes and stolen personal information. We sent the parents a strongly-worded letter expressing our concern and disappointment." WTAF??!! Issue some arrest warrants, file some lawsuits, cancel some contracts!

199

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I would like to remind BBC Radio 3 and the musicians listed below that just because you *can* arrange a Bach piece for a saxophone quartet, you don’t *have* to do so.

1110

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Damn it. I promised that I would make a donation to @hopeprojects.bsky.social every time Shabana Mahmood did or said something awful about refugees. This counts. Feel free to join me yet again (5th time this year). cafdonate.cafonline.org/29525#!/Dona...

cafdonate.cafonline.org

Hope Projects (West Midlands) Ltd - Donate now

4124

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

OpenAI hacks the Australian Government this time. I don’t quite understand why these hacks don’t result in criminal charges every time. Hacking is illegal, and these systems are owned and run by companies with responsibility for their tools. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

theguardian.com

Australia news live: Anthony Albanese says OpenAI agent hacked Medicare

Follow the day’s news live

26600206

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Where @birminghamucu.bsky.social leads, we should - and will - all follow. Health and Safety inspections are a legal right that all poor managements should fear.

0276

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Do you think it’s good for a university when an employment lawyer giggles and says things like ‘surely they know this stuff’ and ‘it’s unbelievably obvious’ and ‘anyone could take this apart’?

1312513

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Teaching Writing for Children this afternoon, sadly without my sacked Creative Writing colleague who did all the good stuff. Appropriately given the apocalyptic mood round here another colleague is starting a module by showing Threads

static.klipy.com

Shocked Scared Woman

ALT: Shocked Scared Woman

1414

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

If anyone can find room for more books it’s a guy who ran a space agency.

3453

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I know for a fact senior management monitor my social media, so here’s one for you guys.

4984

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Good news: my semi-sacking is postponed until November 1st while they consider a 'potential material change', which I hope is their word for 'working out how we comprehensively screwed over every student and colleague and ruined 3 courses'.

3024212

Reposted by Plashing Vole

Liz Morrish @lizmorrish.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Console yourself in the knowledge that you are fulfilling precisely the ambition of the current Chair of the OfS. Apparently it calls for another kind of academic. wp.me/p67lw6-tB

wp.me

Pecking away at UK universities

Is there a problem of relevance in UK universities? Liz Morrish considers the idea that acquiring a body of knowledge is redundant in the age of AI. Maybe universities should just concentrate on te…

3117

Reposted by Plashing Vole

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

THIS FRIDAY: I'll be giving a public lecture for the @royalhistsoc.org on rights of way and the struggle for the land in post-war England and Wales... It's at Senate House in London at 6pm, and there are still a few tickets left! Also an online option: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rhs-lectur...

eventbrite.co.uk

RHS Lecture: 'In All Our Footsteps?' with Professor Glen O'Hara IN PERSON

'In All Our Footsteps? Rights of Way and the Battle for the Land after the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act' at the IHR

02519

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Day 1 of teaching. I would have been running Round the Wrekin, an introductory module exploring the cultural history of the West Midlands across centuries and multiple media, plus academic skills. It’s been replaced by a generic skills module across multiple subjects to save money on staffing.

109719

Reposted by Plashing Vole

Min Hyoung Song @minsong.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Frankenstein really is the original tech bro. Breaks everything and flees from consequences, all while casting himself as some kind of Miltonic hero, all the while everyone goes on and on about how wonder he is despite all evidence to the contrary.

2125

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The rot started when we let software coders use the word ‘engineer’. If you don’t wear overalls and wield a spanner, you’re not an engineer. You’re a self-hating typist.

7224

Reposted by Plashing Vole

Kneecap @kneecapceol.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

GRMA to The Telegraph for this weekends PR campaign. 🔥💚🤍🧡

Telegraph: "Generation Kneecap's plan to break up Britian and reshape Ireland"

1037774

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I’ve suddenly realised what actually happened in my workload meeting yesterday. My head of dept offered me hourly-paid teaching on top of the proposed 0.5 role *to cover the shortfall caused by my own half-sacking*. (I said no - it’s a proper job or nothing).

3418419

Reposted by Plashing Vole

Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Yeah. Any chance any of those students could accidentally stumble across a bit of paper explaining how notifications to the office for students work? www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications...

officeforstudents.org.uk

Office for Students notifications - Office for Students

A guide for students, student representatives and students’ unions

065

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I would charge every student the average they paid for their secondary education, then redistribute the money and subsidise according to the proportion of underprivileged students an institution took. Of course that might disadvantage private schools and certain universities but I’m OK with that.

0304

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Well, at the end of a long and awful week I’d like to say thanks to everyone who has been so kind and supportive. I’m also reminded of this magnificent Gogglebox exchange which university staff everywhere will appreciate.

413416

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

What a good actor Stephanie Cole was. Odd to think that she was 48 when she started playing Diana Trent in Waiting for God - an old lady living in a retirement home. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

theguardian.com

Stephanie Cole, Coronation Street and Open All Hours actor, dies aged 84

Cole won a British Soap award for her role in the soap, and appeared in many comedies, dramas and stage productions

6322

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Is it ok for management to phone students asking them to take modules not validated on their degree because they’ve sacked people and can’t staff the modules listed? A working day before teaching starts? Hypothetically, obviously.

2214843

Reposted by Plashing Vole

Durham UCU @ducu.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

This. This includes the tactic of being so inflexible with meeting dates that your caseworker can't attend (which we've seen reported elsewhere). Your legal rights trump their busy calendar and refusal to treat your own schedule with respect.

49022