Alan Webster

Educator, previously Researcher: Shale gas, democracy and the environment. Born at 324 ppm CO2

[Torsten Bell @TorstenBell]

Learning about pensions is a bit like going to the gym: you know you should do it, you feel guilty for not doing it, but you're just not sure where to begin.

Here are two big facts about the UK system that everyone needs to know.
https://t.co/MSQnuZ4L0I

[Paul Lewis @paullewismoney]

Worst instant access accounts from major UK Banks. While they earn 3.75% on their reserves account at the Bank of England they pay some customers 1% or less on their money. Source: Moneyfacts 17/9/2026

[Black Journals @blackJournals01]

American military police tried to impose a colour bar on an English village in 1943.

The village's three pubs responded by putting up signs reading: BLACK TROOPS ONLY. Bamber Bridge, Lancashire.

Black American soldiers were stationed there and the locals liked them. When the US Army asked the village to segregate its pubs, the publicans complied in the most English way available — by barring the white Americans instead.

On the night of 24 June 1943, white American MPs came to arrest a Black soldier at Ye Olde Hob Inn for a uniform infraction. British civilians and British soldiers in the pub intervened and told them to leave him alone.

It escalated into a night of shooting between Black GIs and American MPs. One Black soldier, William Crossland, was killed.

Dozens were court-martialed. British witnesses testified about the MPs' conduct, and sentences were reduced. The US Army quietly reorganised how MPs were deployed in the area.

An English village looked at American segregation, understood it immediately, and refused to host it.
The pub is still there. The sign is part of local legend.

[Museum of Care @museumofcare]

It's beautiful how in fewer than two minutes David Graeber can clearly explain what most pundits fail to do tldr talks/papers.

[The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) @brainpickings]

Still the finest thing I've ever read about the art of growing older https://t.co/EVDWWNRuru

[Jim Stewartson, Decelerationist 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇺🇸 @jimstewartson]

At the Bernie-Bannon AI hysteria conference, they allowed a heretical voice on stage—who happens to be one of the smartest & most accomplished technologists on Earth.

Jaron Lanier explained the origins of the problem—Minsky et al. anthropomorphizing AI because it sold well.

The problem begins with calling it artificial *intelligence* far before you could plausibly argue that it was.

Jaron calmly explains how the industry is now essentially a religion focused on building a machine god instead of tools for humans.

For example, he says “agents” used to mean agents of humans—but now the industry switched it to “agentic AI” which makes loops of prompts sound like they have motivation or sentience.

This is really worth watching. Jaron is a legitimate genius.

[Andy Hargreaves @HargreavesBC]

There is a dubious collective folly emerging that high @OECDEduSkills PISA scores are due to explicit teaching, aligned curriculum, and firm behaviour strategies – as in, the, er, recently Conservative England of @NickGibbUK & @michaelgove, for example.

But outside of the Asian high performers that require a separate post, there are some inconvenient patterns for this argument.

In reading, Ireland is top. It has none of the proclaimed super-strict strategies of England, but it does have a phenomenal record on other metrics of wellbeing. Canada and the US are just 4 points behind at joint 6th. – yet Canada has different autonomous strategies and different political control for each of its 10 provinces. In the US that applies to all 50 states. Go figure!

Canada is only 3 points behind the UK in mathematics, and just one point behind in science. This is statistically negligible. Yet Canada, with its tiny private system, and in all but one case, avoidance of educational markets, is as unlike England as you can imagine.

As usual, people in different systems are leaping to conclusions to justify their own hobby horses. What we should be more concerned about is two bigger trends.

First, the initial PISA promise that testing will raise achievement has failed spectacularly - as evidenced in a relentless decline in results over two decades.

Second, global declines affecting almost all countries raise questions not about what is happening in this or that educational system, or with one policy or another. What should be grabbing our attention is what is happening to our young people and their families in a world with mounting inequalities, increased conflict and displacement, rampant technological addiction (among the parents as well as their kids), and the lingering traumas of the biggest pandemic in a century (PISA students were 10 years old when the pandemic hit them!) @JonHaidt

The Western world is in a massive state of disrepair. Let’s get a grip on these bigger issues, together, and stop rearranging the nationalistic deckchairs on the global Titanic - and yes, I do have a book coming out about this at the end of the year!

@pasi_sahlberg @Miss_Snuffy @teacherhead @LesWalton500 @steve_munby @dizdarm @LucyMPowell @jon_severs @BeatrizPont @VanDammeEDU @schoolsweek

[Nicholas Fabiano, MD @NTFabiano]

The cortisol spike from exercise suppresses the next cortisol response from a stressor.

Exercise before stressful things.

[Alf Dubs @AlfDubs]

I understand exactly what's happening - I've seen it before

[The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) @brainpickings]

I keep coming back to this: The most important thing to remember about your mother https://t.co/eHP8GiFbPs

[Canada Goose 🇨🇦 @CanadaGoose911]

Everybody follow Lake Ontario

[Dave Throup @DaveThroup]

It appears to have rained.

[Dr Mark D'Arcy @markoftheD]

My free exam generator for GCSE, A-Level and IB STEM topics. Please share to any students or parents of students who might find this useful for exam prep 🙂

[Isobel Campbell @Isobel_Campbell]

On this week in 2010, Mark Lanegan and I released our third collaborative album ‘Hawk’.

Later this year, I’m pleased to say that this record returns to Vinyl & CD.

[Maria Popova @themarginalian]

For an act of resistance to the tyranny of algorithms, try the Marginalian newsletter — undistracted notes on the search for meaning through art, science, philosophy, poetry, and various other tendrils of wonder. For 20 years, it has remained a one-woman labor of love — free, ad-free, AI-free, and fully human: https://t.co/kJdb2Rs2sV

[Adrian Thomas @AdrianThomas90]

'9 to 5’ is one of the most Marxist films to hit Hollywood since the second Red Scare. In it, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda kidnap their boss and run the office without him for a month, during which time they institute free childcare, paid vacation, and flexible hours.

[Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600]

The Weather Replay app allows you to see what the weather was like anywhere in the world since the 1940s. I was born in southern Germany in May 1983 when the sky was clear and night temperature hovered around 5 degree. Surprisingly addictive tool. Great for historians and biographers too! Source: https://t.co/i9IxLcnZqX

[Maria Popova @themarginalian]

How to help someone change – the samurai guide to giving feedback https://t.co/ZWgK2HhqTo

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

A simple way to develop aerobic fitness:

Lots of easy runs.
1 day/week = short and fast but under control. (i.e. 8x1min on/off, or 12x 30sec/1 off at 5k to 1mile effort)
1 day/wk = longer, controlled & uptempo (4x5min, 2x10min, or 6x3min at half marathon to 10k effort )

Repeat.

[Paul Novosad @paulnovosad]

Every college syllabus should include these graphs.

Use AI for homework, you will get it done faster and get a higher grade, and then get crushed on the exam.