Chris Stokes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
I don't think you are over-reacting. I do suspect this perspective of Starmer's isn't vanishingly rare, but that doesn't make it any more palatable.
December 5, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Trixie Gardner in a Lords debate on 'Women: Economic Crisis' in 2009:

'It is very appropriate, as it has never been more important for women to play their part in the economy.'

hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2009-0...
Women: Economic Crisis - Hansard - UK Parliament
Hansard record of the item : 'Women: Economic Crisis' on Thursday 12 March 2009.
hansard.parliament.uk
December 5, 2025 at 6:01 PM
I blame the spider. Knackered it is.
December 5, 2025 at 5:06 PM
A major contender but delve began to decline in March 2024 according to aclanthology.org/2025.finding...
Human-LLM Coevolution: Evidence from Academic Writing
Mingmeng Geng, Roberto Trotta. Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2025. 2025.
aclanthology.org
December 5, 2025 at 4:20 PM
And they were harmonized across research councils by UKRI a couple of years ago, which will probably surprise a lot of reviewers. For EPSRC proposals, for example, the change raised the bar for a score of 6 quite some way.
December 5, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Or ask the author, by email or via:
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
December 5, 2025 at 12:16 PM
You could almost believe that someone thinks the point of grant peer review is the reviewer scores.
December 5, 2025 at 9:55 AM
No-one expects the Spanish Inquistion.
December 5, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Reposted by Chris Stokes
Three Song Thrush singing at the same time in Highbury Park, Birmingham at 7.45am yesterday.

I haven't visited every day to check, but one of these birds has been singing from the same location for two weeks now.
December 3, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Early p.m. a mistle thrush was singing at the same place too.
December 3, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Came looking for this! I heard song thrushes singing in 2 spots 2 miles apart in Coventry on Fri a.m. & thought it odd. Today I heard 3 in full song all at once in the 2nd of those (didn't revisit the 1st). This time they didn't have the excuse of unseasonally mild weather; it was cold and foggy.
December 3, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Anyone had any luck tracking down this 'open' letter expressing 'profound concerns' said to have been signed by, ahem, Cheri Blair, Philippe Sands, Geoffrey Robertson, Robert Buckland and Dominic Grieve?
December 3, 2025 at 12:16 PM
The reason? The accent. 'It sounded as though somebody like the Queen's first cousin had decided to moonlight for pin money and was doing Hannoverian PA announcements on the side.' And it sounded like that to Germans! (Course, the RP was replaced pronto with southern standard British.) 2/2
December 2, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Mixed flocks of rooks and jackdaws approaching in their hundreds—or thousands if you're lucky—their communal roost half an hour after the sun has set on a winter's afternoon. If it's pouring with rain, that's a plus. Not too hard to find, either.
December 2, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by Chris Stokes
I’m continually disappointed by how forgotten Burgess is. He was a unique figure and deserves more recognition. (I’m desperately scrolling my timeline for the story from Martin Amis about going out drinking with him.)
December 2, 2025 at 1:25 PM
How would it have been made? Is it a compilation of daily recordings made separately first or could entries have been made day by day on a single tablet?
December 2, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Wikipedia has this Northern Ireland variant:
Ip dip sky blue
Granny sitting on the loo
Doing farts, playing darts
Out goes you!
O-U-T spells Out!
December 2, 2025 at 1:57 PM
The quote made him sound like he was pining for a time when professors were few and male and had secretaries, who weren't, to deal with the little things.
December 1, 2025 at 11:46 PM