Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I know, right? He always sends stuff anonymously. 020
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 29/09/2026My solution? You take a job above HoD, you tithe. 10% salary sacrifice, into an interest bearing account. Half goes back to you when you return to your department for three years. Half goes to a scholarship fund for disadvantaged students. Healthy side effect of clearing out middle management bloat. 020
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 29/09/2026This is often difficult for people outside the academy to grasp, since in other sectors we’re all primed to think if management as a reward for good performance. Maybe people get promoted to the level of their incompetence, but they get promoted for competence. Not so in academia. 100
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The system selects for it. Due to the governance structures we’ve allowed to develop, management is an off-ramp for the mediocre researchers and uninspiring teachers, who can get paid more to suck at something else for a change. They resent the uni’s core functions because they’re terrible at them. 100
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 23/09/2026People who are proud of the accident of their birth are generally people who have nothing else to be proud of. Which is why nationalism goes all rancid when people are systematically stripped of the opportunity to live pride-worthy lives. 020
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Hm, yes and no. The diagnosis—mid-c scifi as simplistic template—yes. But Asimov &c were thoroughly technocratic, even when they wrestled with ambiguities. The deeper problem is that the mid-century modernist lesson the tech bros imbibed badly misfits our world. Like Pierce Brosnan's Bond. 011
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 21/09/2026This is why I have a year-long event, showing me busy, labeled "if you'd like to meet with me, you'll have to email me with your big-kid words." 010
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Was this… the only photo they could have chosen? 000
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 06/09/2026(I don’t really know what corner of BlueSky this is for. I do know that we don’t follow each other.) 000
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Little known Jimmy Buffet story: Once when his tour plane was leaving the Caribbean islands, he almost crashed because a flock of migrating geese passed overhead and blinded his pilots by covering the windscreen in bird shit. It was a cloaca mistaka. 100
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 01/09/2026And yet "AMARI" has still not yet cracked the @nytimes.com Spelling Bee. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/d...nytimes.comWhat the Bartender Really Thinks About Your SpritzYou might expect the fizzy summer drinks to be a downer for the people who make them by the hundreds. But think again. 010
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 31/08/2026The giveaway being Bailyn's typo. "AD-2X" for "AD-X2," which Siegel ported over with the rest of his appropriation, which is the only reason I stumbled on it. There's probably more, but life is short. 000
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Bernard Bailyn. www.google.co.uk/books/editio...google.co.ukThe Great Republic 100
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Here, for example, is Fred Siegel, plagiarising… www.google.co.uk/books/editio...google.co.ukTroubled JourneyHill and Wang first published Troubled Journey: From Pearl Harbor to Ronald Reagan in 1984. 100
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Question: what would you do if you discovered one deceased scholar plagiarising another deceased scholar? 100
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 28/08/2026No need. Alas, the title suggestion comes too late. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...politybooks.comSpectacles of WasteSpectacles of Waste, The modern bathroom is an ingenious compilation of locked doors, smooth porcelain, 4-ply tissue and antibacterial hand soap, but despite this miracle of indoor plumbing, we still ... 000
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 28/08/2026The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. Teach with it all the time. 010
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Organising a movement is beyond me just at the moment, but if someone has a statement, I'll sign it. 000
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 28/08/2026A mission for: @emilyherring.bsky.social. Find and collaborate with this author. Just because. 000
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 28/08/2026I hate like hell that enacting this requires doing so at the expense of initiatives I very much support, and saying no to people whom I very much want to help, but I also feel strongly that we should be making this the norm: www.jdmartin.org/rate-sheetjdmartin.orgJoseph D. Martin — Refereeing Rate Sheet for For-Profit Publishers 121
Reposted by Random JetshipCoreen McGuire @coreenanne.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Great article about how, sometimes, we don't need to read against the grain - we just need to read. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/disability-h...historyworkshop.org.ukA Tale of Two SignalsLucy Jameson explores technological collaboration and disabled expertise in the General Post Office in early twentieth-century Britain. 0146
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 26/08/2026OUR GRANDPARENTS USED UP ALL THE PERIODS AND SENTENCES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN 000
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Who wants to start a book review journal the premise of which is: this book is the last remaining evidence of a lost civilisation; describe the civilisation. 010
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 25/08/2026It might well have been his vocal opposition to the SSC that sapped the communal goodwill he would have needed to elbow in on the Higgs prize. He likely also thought he deserved a share of the Josephson prize, too. 100
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 12/08/2026A straightforward consequence is that people who get lucky young don't have to do that work. Most people who got luck young, as a result, end up really fucking stupid. The market invented a system in which we valorise as geniuses those among us who never had the opportunity to get smart. 010
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 12/08/2026One of the most pernicious lies that won't die is the idea that intelligence is innate. It's pathologies are many. But consider one of them. Intelligence is acquired and maintained. You have to work for it. Fight through friction. Challenge yourself. Keep challenging yourself. 110
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Burn it all down. www.waterstones.com/book/artific...waterstones.comArtificial Intelligence for Babies by Chris Ferrie | WaterstonesBuy Artificial Intelligence for Babies by Chris Ferrie from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25. 000
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Lest you supposed that academic rivalries ended with the deaths of the competitors. #histstm 000
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 06/08/2026Oh, I'm just being arch because it reminded me of the big brouhaha when M-W, AP, and a bunch of other style guides confirmed that yes, it's okay to use 'hopefully' as a sentence adverb. 110
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Hopefully since Austen's time we've moved past pedantic squabbling about the sorts of words that we do or do not begin (or end) our sentences with. 110
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Cold take: If you use LLMs for so much as a grocery list, you are complicit in your own dehumanisation. Expect to be treated accordingly. 010
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Yes, possibly. I've found it general enough that it's easy to adapt, but it presumes US measurement conventions, etc. 100
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 29/07/2026My mom sent me away to uni with The Joy of Cooking. It's a tome. But it's comprehensive, clear, and ageless. 110
Reposted by Random JetshipBSHS @bshsnews.bsky.social · 27/07/2026🏆 Congratulations to Lucy Jameson (Durham) and Michelle Pfeffer (Oxford), winners of the 2026 BSHS Singer Prize! Read about their award-winning essays, the special commendations and the panel's comments here: bshs.org.uk/singer-prize... More on the authors coming soon! 01610
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Literhotti was RIGHT THERE. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...theguardian.comThe rise of the ‘hot literati’: how reading became sexyCelebrities are hosting literary clubs and designers are launching products emblazoned with the classics – but does reading’s trendy turn have a darker side? 010
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 18/07/2026I would like to state for the record that I am standing up to help hand out agendas, not causing a ruckus and being ordered to sit back down. 130
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 18/07/2026Sure did. Almost replied with exactly what I thought of it, but then thought better of it. 110
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 10/07/2026I'm pretty sure that the fact that Mario invariably dies immediately after getting the fire flower is a commentary on American gun culture. 000
Reposted by Random JetshipWill Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · 10/07/2026In today's AIP History Weekly Edition, we sifted through the mammoth program for the ESHS/HSS meeting in Edinburgh next week to highlight talks related to the history of the modern physical sciences. It's a lot, and there was much we didn't cover. Full program here: hssonline.org/page/Edinbur...aip.orgConference spotlight: ESHS/HSS EdinburghAIP History Weekly Edition: July 10, 2026 0119
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Escatology, n. The study of the end of the world though enshittification. 000
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 05/07/2026The most grievous insult England could direct at Mexico would be KEEP serving its insipid imitation of Mexican food. 040
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 10/06/2026Not the characteristic I would have singled out, but sure? 010
Reposted by Random JetshipWill Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · 05/06/2026In today's AIP History Weekly Edition, for Pride Month summer intern Amelie Heying excerpted an oral history with Leeds food physicist Megan Povey, discussing her science, activism, and mid-career gender transition. Joe Martin (@randomjetship.bsky.social) & Wilson Poon conducted the interview. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️aip.orgMegan Povey—Activism, Identity, and the Physics of FoodAIP History Weekly Edition: June 5, 2026 021
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 27/04/2026Surely the duck-rabbit should be in a closed box. (Which it entered alive, but which contains a contraption triggered by a quantum process that releases a toxin fatal to ducks.) 020
Reposted by Random JetshipAsif Siddiqi @historyasif.bsky.social · 21/04/2026The journal Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (HSNS) is inviting short essays (800-1K words) revisiting "classic" works in the history of the natural sciences. These will be collected in a special issue planned for 2027. If you have an idea, please contact me. (I'm an associate editor) 0105
Random Jetship @randomjetship.bsky.social · 19/04/2026Doing BJHS gave me a lot of good examples—yours among them. 010
