Blog version: https://roycross.blog/

1. The Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University are offering a free online event with Tony McEnery at 14:00 UK time on Tuesday 19^th August, Navigating Challenges in the use of AI and GenAI in Applied Linguistics. More info and (obligatory) registration here https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=Ec2bnHqXnE6poLxzQJAWSkcynVpuhjVFlqIkhN5_0JpUODY3UjQ1RUI1UExIMkVUWEFCNjNHRFBaMC4u&route=shorturl

2. The LRB blog is open access, I think – shout if that’s not the case, please. Here’s three good, very diverse recent posts (the first of which taught me something I’d never have guessed about filter cigarettes):

i) Compensatory Puffing by Nicholas Hopkinson

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/august/compensatory-puffing

In any case, cigarette filters are a fraudulent product, providing no protection to people who smoke, while giving the false impression that they are doing something to reduce the risk. International survey data suggests that around three-quarters of smokers believe erroneously that filters make smoking safer. Tobacco industry documents make clear that they knew filters didn’t work in the 1950s, when they introduced them along with ‘low tar’ brands to give false reassurance to smokers who were anxious in the face of growing evidence that smoking causes lung cancer.

ii) Trumpists against Trump by Judith Butler

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/august/trumpists-against-trump

Trump insists that the whole Epstein affair is a ‘hoax’ and that his own followers are ‘stupid’ and ‘weaklings’. Their reaction has been intense and swift, since Trump now sounds like the elitists who disparage them – elitists like Hillary Clinton, who called them ‘a basket of deplorables’. Trump scoffs at their complaints, noting that his supporters have nowhere else to go. They feel not only deceived by their hero but demeaned, insulted and outraged, the way they felt when Democrats were in power.

iii) The World’s Largest Deforestation Project by Douglas Gerrard

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/august/the-world-s-largest-deforestation-project

In the West Papuan regency of Merauke, close to the border with Papua New Guinea, Indonesia is rapidly clearing land in the world’s largest ever deforestation project: three million hectares for sugarcane and rice production. Within three years, Indonesia plans to convert an expanse of forest roughly the size of Belgium into profitable monoculture.

3. Here’s a recent UNESCO publication, Languages matter: global guidance on multilingual education https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000392477 PDF below as well.

UNESCO champions all learners’ right to a quality education in languages they understand. The linguistic landscape has significantly changed in recent years. This evolution has been shaped by migration, technological developments, and growing recognition of multilingualism’s cognitive, social and economic benefits. This guide presents up-to-date principles for language-in-education policies that recognize multilingualism as both a fundamental human characteristic and an essential educational approach. It supports Ministries of Education and their partners in integrating multilingual education into policy and practice, with the goal of improving learning outcomes, promoting inclusion, and safeguarding linguistic and cultural identities, knowledge, and practices.

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4. This one in the Applied Linguistics Review by Jim McKinley, Mariusz Baranowski & Piotr Cichocki is possibly a bit recherché, Do open access plain-language summaries increase engagement with research? https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/applirev-2024-0269/html but it allows me to make the clever dick remark that surely plain language summaries – and articles! – should be our default position? I’d attach a PDF but I’d get into trouble with Jim ….

5. And, finally, what difference does the colour of your football team’s shirt make? https://theconversation.com/premier-league-from-red-success-to-grey-failure-how-kit-colours-appear-to-impact-performance-263062