Ben Bowman
@bennosaurus.com
I research youth studies and environmental sociology: young people, climate action & climate justice, and I am a dinosaur from the internet.
👨🏭Senior Lecturer @ Manchester Met Uni
💚Quaker | #COYS | (he/him)
🔗 www.bennosaurus.com
👨🏭Senior Lecturer @ Manchester Met Uni
💚Quaker | #COYS | (he/him)
🔗 www.bennosaurus.com
me: i'm done with social media. i can't be arsed with any of it any more
someone online: check it out we are bringing back geocities on neocities.com
me:
someone online: check it out we are bringing back geocities on neocities.com
me:
a black and white photo of a woman with a surprised look on her face
ALT: a black and white photo of a woman with a surprised look on her face
media.tenor.com
December 22, 2025 at 8:19 AM
me: i'm done with social media. i can't be arsed with any of it any more
someone online: check it out we are bringing back geocities on neocities.com
me:
someone online: check it out we are bringing back geocities on neocities.com
me:
That misogynist prison dodger hasn't been so totally destroyed since he tried tweeting Greta Thunberg
December 21, 2025 at 9:47 AM
That misogynist prison dodger hasn't been so totally destroyed since he tried tweeting Greta Thunberg
Joke: Why did Thomas Frank ask Father Christmas to visit him last thing this year, after all the presents have been delivered?
December 21, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Joke: Why did Thomas Frank ask Father Christmas to visit him last thing this year, after all the presents have been delivered?
Matt Wells better not have booked time off over Christmas
December 20, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Matt Wells better not have booked time off over Christmas
Reposted by Ben Bowman
SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE
'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.'
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
December 10, 2025 at 5:10 PM
SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE
A picket is a picket so I cancelled my spotify subscription in solidarity with the United Musicians and Allied Workers union. Been meaning to for a while. Solidarity
December 14, 2025 at 11:20 AM
A picket is a picket so I cancelled my spotify subscription in solidarity with the United Musicians and Allied Workers union. Been meaning to for a while. Solidarity
Publication day!
Thanks to co-authors, young people, teachers and other adult supporters who played a part in this research.
Out now, on young people's everyday lives and planetary citizenship: imagining climate justice in education.
@ me if you can't access it 💚
brill.com/view/journal...
Thanks to co-authors, young people, teachers and other adult supporters who played a part in this research.
Out now, on young people's everyday lives and planetary citizenship: imagining climate justice in education.
@ me if you can't access it 💚
brill.com/view/journal...
December 12, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Publication day!
Thanks to co-authors, young people, teachers and other adult supporters who played a part in this research.
Out now, on young people's everyday lives and planetary citizenship: imagining climate justice in education.
@ me if you can't access it 💚
brill.com/view/journal...
Thanks to co-authors, young people, teachers and other adult supporters who played a part in this research.
Out now, on young people's everyday lives and planetary citizenship: imagining climate justice in education.
@ me if you can't access it 💚
brill.com/view/journal...
That crawler search engines have been the thing to use since the days you had to apply to Yahoo to get your website added, and now they are quickly failing, is a thing we aren't planning for properly
The problem isn't so much the search engine output (though Google gave better results than other engines), it was that the webpages themselves were full of LLM bullshit.
December 6, 2025 at 6:19 AM
That crawler search engines have been the thing to use since the days you had to apply to Yahoo to get your website added, and now they are quickly failing, is a thing we aren't planning for properly
climate change is real and bad. green tech or whatever to call it is affordable, effective and (yikes) profitable.
therefore 1st problem: people who profit from climate change will fight viciously against it
2nd: contrariwise they will also fight for best position to capture the tech & profit
therefore 1st problem: people who profit from climate change will fight viciously against it
2nd: contrariwise they will also fight for best position to capture the tech & profit
December 5, 2025 at 1:14 PM
climate change is real and bad. green tech or whatever to call it is affordable, effective and (yikes) profitable.
therefore 1st problem: people who profit from climate change will fight viciously against it
2nd: contrariwise they will also fight for best position to capture the tech & profit
therefore 1st problem: people who profit from climate change will fight viciously against it
2nd: contrariwise they will also fight for best position to capture the tech & profit
Ignoring the topic on this one - free speech is presented by plenty of people as a vital duty until it doesn't suit them - but just looking at the billboard www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... who could that be on the left of the visible bit of the display? Clarence Thomas? Louis Farrakhan? I'm mystified
School apology after photo of Reform UK MP Lee Anderson placed near fascists - BBC News
The Reform UK MP's photo was placed close to well-known fascists in a political wall display.
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org
December 5, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Ignoring the topic on this one - free speech is presented by plenty of people as a vital duty until it doesn't suit them - but just looking at the billboard www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... who could that be on the left of the visible bit of the display? Clarence Thomas? Louis Farrakhan? I'm mystified
New season of Stranger Things apparently decided to have lots of things but less strange
December 3, 2025 at 4:56 PM
New season of Stranger Things apparently decided to have lots of things but less strange
Reposted by Ben Bowman
Rather than report biased junk as many do, assuming the reason is whatever policy you don’t like, a reporter from the i Newspaper had the radical idea to actually ask those leaving why they're leaving.
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
What did they say? 👇2/9
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
What did they say? 👇2/9
I've interviewed expats all over the world - this is why people are leaving the UK
Living in Lisbon, my body is no longer in fight-or-flight mode. Other expats who have left London for warmer, safer climates feel the same
inews.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Rather than report biased junk as many do, assuming the reason is whatever policy you don’t like, a reporter from the i Newspaper had the radical idea to actually ask those leaving why they're leaving.
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
What did they say? 👇2/9
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
What did they say? 👇2/9
Reposted by Ben Bowman
Unlike the debunked “millionaire exodus”, Britain’s young workers really are leaving in droves— 174,000+ since March 2024.
The motor of our economy walking away is a crisis that really should worry us.
🧵So, why are they leaving and how can we stop it? 1/9
The motor of our economy walking away is a crisis that really should worry us.
🧵So, why are they leaving and how can we stop it? 1/9
December 3, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Unlike the debunked “millionaire exodus”, Britain’s young workers really are leaving in droves— 174,000+ since March 2024.
The motor of our economy walking away is a crisis that really should worry us.
🧵So, why are they leaving and how can we stop it? 1/9
The motor of our economy walking away is a crisis that really should worry us.
🧵So, why are they leaving and how can we stop it? 1/9
Reposted by Ben Bowman
It's Black Friday. Boo. There are no discounts on our wonky football shop. We have however not raised our prices in 6 years, which feels like a long time when [gestures at everything]
So yeah, ignore Amazon and buy something weird from somewhere small. Like us! Or someone else!
🛒 noscoredraws.com
So yeah, ignore Amazon and buy something weird from somewhere small. Like us! Or someone else!
🛒 noscoredraws.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:26 AM
It's Black Friday. Boo. There are no discounts on our wonky football shop. We have however not raised our prices in 6 years, which feels like a long time when [gestures at everything]
So yeah, ignore Amazon and buy something weird from somewhere small. Like us! Or someone else!
🛒 noscoredraws.com
So yeah, ignore Amazon and buy something weird from somewhere small. Like us! Or someone else!
🛒 noscoredraws.com
The place I'm working played "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy, took a break to investigate the speech at the start and found the obituary of Thomas N. Todd, civil rights leader chicago.suntimes.com/obituaries/2... literally got taught about this song in school (in NY) but not the man at the start
Thomas 'TNT' Todd, trailblazing attorney, civil rights activist and co-founder of Operation PUSH, dies at 85
Mr. Todd's focus on promoting civil rights ran throughout his groundbreaking law career. 'I don’t care what technology you use, what app you have. You still can’t download freedom.'
chicago.suntimes.com
December 3, 2025 at 1:46 PM
The place I'm working played "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy, took a break to investigate the speech at the start and found the obituary of Thomas N. Todd, civil rights leader chicago.suntimes.com/obituaries/2... literally got taught about this song in school (in NY) but not the man at the start
Reposted by Ben Bowman
All of the AI chatbots are learning which in most cases lead to eventual correction and debunking of Russian propaganda yet it goes without saying that Russia will keep investing in these capacities.
For more details read this Riddle Russia
ridl.io/taming-the-m...
For more details read this Riddle Russia
ridl.io/taming-the-m...
Taming the Machines: How Russian Propaganda is Training AI Language Models – Riddle Russia
Anna Andreyeva on how Kremlin-aligned disinformation is seeping from obscure websites into the responses of popular chatbots
ridl.io
November 28, 2025 at 8:17 AM
All of the AI chatbots are learning which in most cases lead to eventual correction and debunking of Russian propaganda yet it goes without saying that Russia will keep investing in these capacities.
For more details read this Riddle Russia
ridl.io/taming-the-m...
For more details read this Riddle Russia
ridl.io/taming-the-m...
Reposted by Ben Bowman
Today is my first day in my new job at the Uni of Manchester, and I have a new article to share!
‘Operation Hurricane’: Narrating Climate Change as Imperial Mess.
This article is something a bit different, playing with format to explore why climate storytelling matters.
doi.org/10.1002/geo2...
‘Operation Hurricane’: Narrating Climate Change as Imperial Mess.
This article is something a bit different, playing with format to explore why climate storytelling matters.
doi.org/10.1002/geo2...
December 1, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Today is my first day in my new job at the Uni of Manchester, and I have a new article to share!
‘Operation Hurricane’: Narrating Climate Change as Imperial Mess.
This article is something a bit different, playing with format to explore why climate storytelling matters.
doi.org/10.1002/geo2...
‘Operation Hurricane’: Narrating Climate Change as Imperial Mess.
This article is something a bit different, playing with format to explore why climate storytelling matters.
doi.org/10.1002/geo2...
Excellent AI slop article about a woman in England who discovers she's created a snake jungle in her garden, under her trampoline, on the path and, inexplicably, on her café terrace. As if that wasn't good enough, it slips a bit of French in, here and there, like a robot Morticia Addams. 10/10
December 1, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Excellent AI slop article about a woman in England who discovers she's created a snake jungle in her garden, under her trampoline, on the path and, inexplicably, on her café terrace. As if that wasn't good enough, it slips a bit of French in, here and there, like a robot Morticia Addams. 10/10
Reposted by Ben Bowman
Word. Bourdieu said youth is a category created by struggle for power between adults and young people. The point of defining adulthood ever is to define the relative distribution of power between one person and another. Hand power to 9 year olds and you've got my attention
Maybe the term 'adulthood' is, in fact, not incredibly useful if we keep redefining it to mean a shorter & shorter section of our lifespans (without even getting into the problems with assuming changes in the brain map onto social roles...) www.theguardian.com/science/2025... #histchild #skystorians
Brain has five ‘eras’, scientists say – with adult mode not starting until early 30s
Study suggests brain development has four pivotal ‘turning points’ at around the ages of nine, 32, 66 and 83
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Word. Bourdieu said youth is a category created by struggle for power between adults and young people. The point of defining adulthood ever is to define the relative distribution of power between one person and another. Hand power to 9 year olds and you've got my attention
stealing back some of the 100% workload from my workload model to do the work i've been told is the most important work of my career (but clearly meant to do free i guess, because not workloaded) and being helped a lot by Mollie Collins on Kool (with a K) youtu.be/Ra7YSgl1LMw?...
November 25, 2025 at 11:21 AM
stealing back some of the 100% workload from my workload model to do the work i've been told is the most important work of my career (but clearly meant to do free i guess, because not workloaded) and being helped a lot by Mollie Collins on Kool (with a K) youtu.be/Ra7YSgl1LMw?...
Has anyone read "Strangers in Time" and would it be suitable for younger readers? What's the content like?
November 25, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Has anyone read "Strangers in Time" and would it be suitable for younger readers? What's the content like?
Thomas Frank frantically trying to get ChatGPT to suggest something other than long balls to Harry Kane
November 23, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Thomas Frank frantically trying to get ChatGPT to suggest something other than long balls to Harry Kane
Q: Next!
Liko: [Wow, now that James Bond is dead, if I'm going to be the new 007 I better make a super good first impression!]
Liko: [Wow, now that James Bond is dead, if I'm going to be the new 007 I better make a super good first impression!]
November 17, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Q: Next!
Liko: [Wow, now that James Bond is dead, if I'm going to be the new 007 I better make a super good first impression!]
Liko: [Wow, now that James Bond is dead, if I'm going to be the new 007 I better make a super good first impression!]