1. My NILE colleague Rose Aylett was Anne Fox’s guest on the 306^th edition of the Absolutely Intercultural podcast recently, Power in language, Critical pedagogy, Spectactors (sic), Taboo topics https://www.absolutely-intercultural.com/?p=5378

We’ll be talking about how you can use language to project (or not) power. We’ll also hear about how art forms, such as theatre, can be used to help people recognise the many ways that a conversation could go. Rose talks about Augusto Boal and his “theatre of the oppressed”. And then we’ll ask the question about whether there are any topics that we should not discuss in the classroom.

2. No fewer than 15 free five-week (or less) courses on climate issues from the various climate teams at Edinburgh University https://shortcourses.ed.ac.uk/courses?subject=Environment+and+Sustainability

I think I’ll start with the basics, Climate Change: Carbon Capture and Storage https://shortcourses.ed.ac.uk/course/climate-change-carbon-capture-and-storage

3. Katja Hoyer’s latest post on her Zeitgeist blog, What’s left of World War II? Is as interesting as ever https://www.katjahoyer.uk/p/whats-left-of-world-war-ii

‘This cake is delicious,’ I shouted at the old lady behind the counter. ‘What’s that, darling?’ she shouted back. I held up my paper plate, which contained a generous slice of Victoria Sponge. Whoever had made it had gone to great lengths. The icing on top was carefully crafted in the red, white and blue of the Union Jack that had covered the whole thing. There was just the right proportion of jam and cream between the fluffy sponge. ‘Goood!’ I shouted as I pointed at the cake with my fork. ‘Excellent,’ the lady bellowed back, ‘I’ll pass that on to June!’

4. From The Democracy Collaborative, Enabling Conditions for Community Wealth Building https://www.democracycollaborative.org/whatwethink/enabling-conditions

We’re facing a systemic crisis. Climate danger. Inequality. Racial injustice. Collapsing faith in democracy. It all adds up to a crisis of our system. And systemic problems require systemic solutions. The Democracy Collaborative is an action-oriented think-do tank seeking to build a democratic economy through political-economic system change from the bottom up.

PDF here https://roycross.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/dcfa8-enablingconditionsfinalpdf.pdf

and below, and more about The Democracy Collaborative here https://www.democracycollaborative.org/

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5. And, finally, A brief history of the numeric keypad for the DOC website by Francesco Bertelli & Manoel do Amaral https://www.doc.cc/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-numeric-keypad

DOC describes itself as “an editorial platform that explores meaning in the world of design and invites digital product designers to expand their references beyond the UX bubble. We publish stories worth publishing and we keep ideas worth keeping. Everything else is noise. We pause. We breathe. We assimilate. We seek meaning. We document the world of design through the lens of curiosity and awe”.

Thanks due, as so often, to Stephen Downes, the indefatigable producer of OLDaily for that one!