Roy Cross's Blog

1. Here’s a free-to-read piece from the Journal of English as a Lingua Franca (JELF) https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/jelf/html, Linguistic justice in English-medium instruction contexts: a theoretical argument by Josep Soler from Stockholm University  https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jelf-2024-2003/html PDF below.

In the final keynote panel at the 2022 ICLHE conference, Philippe Van Parijs pondered how EMI teachers might be seen: either as killers, traitors, sellers, saviours, upgraders, or liberators. After providing characterisations for each of these labels, Van Parijs suggested that EMI teachers should be better conceived of as civilisers, not in a missionary sense of civilising the barbarian, but in the Aristotelian meaning of civic virtue, of citizens being part of public life, actively involved in discussion of public affairs. This seems to imply a specific view of English, one that almost naturally equates the language to democratic progress and consensus. In the article, I challenge this assumption …

Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education (ICLHE) home page here https://www.iclhe.org/

2. Navigating the New Frontier of AI in Education was the title of Helen Crompton’s (short and to-the-point) keynote talk for the William & Mary College 2024 Teaching & Learning Symposium https://youtu.be/P8y2fu2S1UU

Helen’s abstract: The emergence of generative AI models such as ChatGPT is reshaping educational environments. This presentation highlights the ways in which ChatGPT and comparable tools can enrich student engagement, deepen comprehension, and tailor learning experiences within university contexts. Furthermore, we will review the limitations and the challenges these technologies can present, including issues of academic integrity and the imperative to nurture critical thinking abilities alongside AI support. By participating in this session, attendees will gain insights into optimizing the utility of these tools while recognizing and proactively managing the limitations and potential abuses in education.

William & Mary STLI (Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation) YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/@wmstudioforteachinglearnin1642/videos

3. Great stuff about the olive harvest in Greece, ‘Swish! Swish! Swish!’ by Patrick Leigh Fermor, read by Dominic West https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/swish!-swish!-swish! First published sixty-three years after it was written in 1958: not sure why!

4. Carl Edward Rasmussen, the Professor of Machine Learning at Cambridge University, writes a very accessible blog, What should we, humanity, do about Climate Change? https://mlg.eng.cam.ac.uk/carl/climate/

My focus (says Carl) is on the grand human challenge of turning our scientific knowledge about climate change into concrete action to avoid its most severe consequences. This isn’t a particularly popular topic, probably because it reaches across conventional subject boundaries, and may be difficult to monetise.

Why is this a hard problem? There are 4 main reasons, in no particular order:

Horizon: the characteristic time scale for climate effects are much longer than typical legislative terms. The inconvenience and price of decarbonising society will be immediate, but the rewards come later, continuing for generations. If we don’t value future generation’s conditions, then climate change isn’t much of a problem. If we do, then that means that we’re willing to accept some inconveniences to promote their well-being. But the long time horizon makes it difficult to be sure our efforts are paying off.

Reluctance to give up privileges: the use of atmospheric resources, such as releasing CO2 has been very uneven globally. A subset of predominantly wealthy nations have overexploited these common resources. Now, they’ve gotten used to this behaviour and are reluctant either to stop or to pay a fair price. Beside general reluctance to engage, this sometimes manifests as systematic misinformation and various forms of climate change denial.

Inexperience with global cooperation: humans are generally extremely good at cooperative behaviour, e.g. in families or local communities. But we have little practical experience with cooperation at a global scale. Successful implementation will require thoughtful design based on universal principles which are applicable across culturally and economically diverse communities.

Insight: the majority of people agree we have an ethical obligation towards future generations to ensure good living conditions. But naturally, we will only endure the inconveniences necessary if we are confident about the outcomes. This means that we need to inform policy makers, politicians and our populations about the causes and consequences of climate change.

In order to make real progress on this hard problem, we need to acknowledge and address all of these difficulties. This page links to various short notes, discussing these problems, and what their solutions might look like.

5. And, finally and magically, from Cuba in the 1920s, https://youtu.be/A91jnug9Bmw

Plus, something a little more recent and commercial https://youtu.be/tGbRZ73NvlY

1. What role does English play in our multilingual world? is the latest (ninth) episode of the British Council’s Our World, Connected podcast https://www.britishcouncil.org/research-insight/our-world-connected-podcast/english-multilingual-world Harry Kuchah (in the studio in London) and Eric Mpozenzi (at home in Rwanda) join Christine Wilson for a lively discussion.

So, what does it mean to speak English in a world with over 7,000 languages? How does its popularity affect the quality of education, the learning of other languages, and the evolution of the English language itself? And how can teachers ensure inclusivity for all students, regardless of their English proficiency?

2. Elif Shafak’s latest post on her blog Unmapped Storylands, Upon The Ashes of Books, reflects on the recent disturbances in the UK https://elifshafak.substack.com/p/upon-the-ashes-of-books

We cannot be a country where people are targeted and attacked and discriminated against on the basis of the colour of their skin or their faith or their cultural and ethnic heritage. We cannot be a country where libraries are burned down so that ignorance and hatred can grow upon the ashes of books.

3. A free illustrated book from Geoff Stead and colleagues, Engines of Engagement, a curious book about Generative AI by Julian Stodd, Sae Schatz & Geoff Stead. Sign up for your copy here https://seasaltlearning.com/engines-of-engagement-generative-ai-book/

In this illustrated book, Julian Stodd, Sae Schatz, and Geoff Stead explore central questions that Generative AI raises within our organisations, from structures and systems to identity, trust, and the nature of truth. ‘Engines of Engagement’ traverses a broad landscape of change, with deep consideration of how these powerful systems will impact our familiar mechanisms of creativity and productivity, artistry and education at individual, organisational, and societal levels.

4. There’s a new (fourth) poster in the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) ‘Things You Might Not Know About The World of Languages’ series https://cdn.ecml.at/EDL/posters/EDL-infographic-languages-2024-EN.pdf PDF below.

Have you ever been responsible for an untranslatable culaccino? If not, never mind, you’ve almost certainly been guilty of niksen, equally untranslatable. Although I wonder whether David Cameron might translate it as chillax?

Plus, ‘Where am I?’ – a game played with twenty random photos which include minimal but sufficient linguistic clues to help you identify the country in each photo https://edl.ecml.at/Games/WhereamI/tabid/3263/Default.aspx

5. And, finally, Gay sheep and gaslighting: 10 of the funniest jokes from the Edinburgh fringe 2024 https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/aug/12/10-funniest-jokes-edinburgh-fringe-2024

Olaf Falafel – whose joke I didn’t get unaided, alas – also runs a successful YouTube channel (not just) for kids, Art Club https://www.youtube.com/@OlafFalafelArtClub Try Henri Matisse for Kids  https://youtu.be/5h6VlosEVXA or Joan Miró for Kids https://youtu.be/xXKquODMN5g

1. Ipsos have just published their 2024 Global Leadership Survey, for which they interviewed a total of 23,800 adults in 31 countries around the world https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/russia-iran-israel-and-china-rank-worst-global-influence-while-eu-seen-preferred-model-over-britain

Here’s the survey results https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2024-06/ipsos-kings-global-leadership-survey-2024.pdf? PDF below.

No surprises who the bad guys are, then – not from a ‘Western’ perspective, at least.

2. Here’s the Cornell (University) Center for Teaching Innovation YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@cornellcenterforteachingin2018 Lots to explore!

3. Here’s a very (surprisingly, refreshingly) plain-speaking recent policy paper from Oxfam, Water War Crimes: How Israel has weaponised water in its military campaign in Gaza https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/water-war-crimes-how-israel-has-weaponised-water-in-its-military-campaign-in-ga-621609/ PDF below.

4. The Cambridge University Centre for Science & Policy (CSaP) held its annual conference, UK science and technology for innovation, growth and society, at The Royal Society in London in June. There are recordings and reports on the whole programme here https://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/events/2024-csap-annual-conference/

If the first parallel seminar, Envisaging a quantum future,is maybe a bit much to start with, try How will AI transform the education experience? with Jenny Gibson, Russell Martin and Anna Vignoles https://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/news/article-how-will-ai-transform-education-experience/ or Nature recovery – making it happen with Fiona Reynolds, Matthew Gould, Jo Lucas  and Silviu Petrovan https://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/news/article-nature-recovery-making-it-happen/

5. And, finally, I think we need this doing for other countries as well as the USA, The Loneliest Road in Every State in America https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/least-traffic-roads-usa

1. It was the centenary of the American novelist James Baldwin’s birth last Friday. Here’s three pieces celebrating his life and work:

a) a New York Times piece, From Harlem to Selma to Paris, James Baldwin’s Life in Pictures https://tinyurl.com/2p9vcvst

b) this week’s episode of the Radio 4 series, Words & Music, celebrating Baldwin https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021jtz

c) Free-to-read for this week only, The Paris Review’s ‘Art of Fiction’ interview with Baldwin from 1984 https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2994/the-art-of-fiction-no-78-james-baldwin

2. English-medium education and gender equality is a new report by the UK Open University for the British Council which investigates the impact of English-medium education (EME) on gender equality at secondary school https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/publications/case-studies-insights-and-research/english-medium-education-and-gender-equality

Girls’ education is a global development priority and part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The EMEGen project explored the impact of the rapid rise of English as a Medium of Education on gender equality in low- and middle-income countries. The research found that girls, particularly those from poorer families and minority communities, are significantly underrepresented in English-medium education at secondary level compared to boys. English-medium polices thus create gender- and class-based educational inequalities. While English-medium education is not inherently superior to local-medium education, girls’ comparatively lesser access to it can limit their opportunities and restrict their onwards educational and professional options, many of which require English.

“While English-medium education is not inherently superior to local-medium education” seems to put things very gently, it seems to me!

PDFs of the report itself, the usefully brief (!) policy brief, and the accompanying set of Open Educational Resources below. There’s also a good short video on the project here https://youtu.be/UAKRR9G3oaE

You can find the OU project website here https://wels.open.ac.uk/research/projects/emegen

3. I mentioned the Silent Way about a month ago. Here’s a short video interview with expert Silent Way practitioner Luisa Piemontese https://youtu.be/YWSLtlwZ5X8

4. Here’s (at least) everything you need to know about this year’s Booker Prize longlist https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/13-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-booker-prize-2024-longlist Links to each of the individual books at the top of the page, plus lots of other links to lead you astray throughout the piece. Plus, an extract from each book on the longlist here https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/read-extracts-from-the-booker-prize-2024-longlist

5. And, finally, from the Cocoa Runners blog, Wake up and smell the cocoa! https://cocoarunners.com/site-news/wake-up-and-smell-the-cocoa/

1. TeachingEnglish have just published a report by Gary Motteram, Improving teacher development through the effective use of social media groups https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/publications/case-studies-insights-and-research/improving-teacher-development-through-effective-use

Here’s the beginning of the abstract: The trend for using social media for teacher development started before the Covid-19 pandemic but has now become a far more common and established practice. This report explains why the use of social media is an important tool for teacher development and looks at how online learning theories may be applied to this kind of teacher education. We include case studies from various countries to show what works best in social media teacher groups. We also conducted a questionnaire to gather insights from teachers worldwide. The questionnaire asked about the use of social media for teacher education, the activities teachers do online, and how useful they find these tools. The results highlight how these tools can help make education more fair and accessible. (My emphasis)

PDF of the report below.

In addition, next Thursday, 8^th August, at 12:00 UK time Gary is giving a webinar on the topic with Nicky Hockly https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-and-events/webinars/webinars-teacher-educator/supporting-teacher-development-through-effective

If you’re keen, scroll down the page a bit to the pre-webinar task and the pre-webinar reading!

2. From the Cambridge Partnership for Education, a blog post by Helen Cunningham on The future of schooling https://www.cambridge.org/partnership/future-of-schooling

In 2006, Sir Ken Robinson delivered the most watched TED talk of all time. Asking, ‘Do schools kill creativity?’ he concluded that “We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we’re educating our children.” The expectation that learning in the future will need to cover different things, happen in different places, at different times and via different media has only proliferated since. As we approach the UN’s first ever ‘Summit of the Future’, there is international momentum for ‘a fundamental rethink’ of our systems. Schools are at the heart of those systems, and their role in shaping our societies cannot be underestimated. ‘Schooling’, education received at school, is the anchor for learning that happens across a person’s life and experiences.

I’m not sure that very much has changed in most education systems since 2006 – certainly not in the principles underpinning them – despite the popularity of the Robinson video. Using new technology for the same old same old?

3. Jim McKinley pointed out that The University of Sydney TESOL Research YouTube channel is well worth a look https://www.youtube.com/@USydTESOLResearch There’s some good short videos with Jack Richards and Ken Cruickshank: try this one of Jack’s on The Role of Textbooks in Language Teaching https://youtu.be/NPw61jKCrqI

4. A new publication from the British Council, Soft Power at a Turning Point – a comparative analysis https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/soft_power_at_a_turning_point.pdf

From the (slightly disheartening) executive summary: Our headline finding is that in 2024, countries are increasingly prioritising national interests over multilateralism and the global order. There is more alignment of soft power activities with foreign and economic policy goals, and less emphasis on shared global challenges. Domestic considerations are also more prominent, with a focus on demonstrating benefits to higher education and creative sectors. PDF below.

5. And, finally, two really good short videos from a Michelin-starred chef, Andrew Wong:

* ‘velveting’ meat for tenderness (which I’m proud to say I do but didn’t know was called velveting) https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/behind-the-pass/andrew-wong-2

* how to ‘laminate’ dim sum pastry (which I don’t do!)  https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/behind-the-pass/andrew-wong

I need to start saving up so I can afford to go to his restaurant!

1. Over two years now since I gave FACTWorld a plug! In their own words, it “is a forum set up to support the teaching of subjects through the medium of a foreign language, bilingual education, immersion education, content and language integrated learning (CLIL). The site contains links to country reports, useful sites and contact details of key people in participating countries. The site is run entirely by volunteer teachers for other teachers. If you have something to share, send it to us, and we’ll post it here” https://www.factworld.info/

The thirty-sixth issue of their journal, with a focus on young learners this time and a seven-year-old co-editor, has just come out https://www.factworld.info/en/Bulgaria-FACT-Journals-Issue-36 PDF below.

2. From BOLD, who focus on ‘big ideas for growing minds’, Why children can benefit from using their fingers for math by Venera Gashaj & Korbinian Moeller from Loughborough University https://bold.expert/why-children-can-benefit-from-using-their-fingers-for-math/

Do you, too, remember sitting on your hands during math classes to avoid being caught counting on your fingers? When we were children, our teachers discouraged us from using our fingers, believing that doing so would hinder the development of an abstract understanding of numbers. Nevertheless, we would still glance at or move our fingers while counting or performing simple calculations. Even today, we occasionally use our fingers to count the days to know how many nights to book at a hotel from Wednesday to Sunday. Does this sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. Thinking about our shared experience, we wondered why using our fingers to count and calculate feels so natural and helpful, and yet is often discouraged in early math education.

Plus, an interview with Moeller, How do young children learn mathematics? https://bold.expert/how-do-young-children-learn-mathematics/

From an evolutionary point of view, numbers are a relatively recent invention as they have only been around for about 3,000 years. This is too recent for our brains to have developed a dedicated number area. Instead, we most likely process numbers using parts of the brain that process visual information including perceptual features like density.

Numbers are a relatively recent invention, eh?

3. New York Times Readers got their own back and picked their own 100 Best Books of the 21st Century https://tinyurl.com/4f2pnkjf There’s not a huge amount of overlap with the NYT’s own list: 39 books out of 100.

4. This is probably one for the weekend, and you need to be a bit file-nerdy-needy like me: The National Archives releases Cabinet Office files online https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/the-national-archives-releases-cabinet-office-files-online/

Try this one about the access ex-prime ministers should and did enjoy to their personal papers when writing their autobiographies (or more usually having them written for them) as an exercise in civil service ineffability and the old boys’ network, with frequent appearances by a formidable Miss P M Matthews from the Historical and Records Section. https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/release-2024-07/cab103-827.pdf

Or this one about European Union Enlargement, which includes the first draft of a 2002 paper entitled ‘Something for Turkey’ (as in something – anything – is better than nothing) and includes the following judgement de haut en bas in a report on ‘Focus Groups on EU Enlargement’ on page 87: It would be very hard to underestimate the ability of ordinary people to understand the arguments for and against enlargement. It may be that the pamphlet was written with a different, more enlightened audience in mind.

The whole report on the focus groups – with all its painfully grating condescension – anticipates (unintentionally) the background to Brexit and is well worth a read if you have time (pages 72-96 of the file) https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/release-2024-07/prem49-2505.pdf

PDFs of both below.

5. And, finally and delightfully, all fifty-three of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic from 1958 through to 1972 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU0HyYmOgH8Xn06fDThwLDh95igfZpurQ

Plus, all his handwritten scripts (and typed up versions) https://leonardbernstein.com/lectures/television-scripts/young-peoples-concerts

1. Inclusive Classrooms is a free TeachingEnglish course that promises to “make your classes inclusive learning spaces by identifying barriers that can affect learning and (suggesting) practical strategies to overcome them”. Totally free; enrol before 21^st September!

More info and registration here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/training/teachingenglish-inclusive-classrooms

2. This one’s from The PIE, An ELT phenomenon – who is Dong Yuhui? https://thepienews.com/an-elt-phenomenon-who-is-dong-yuhui/

Talk about clouds having silver linings and necessity being the mother of invention!

3. Who else feels guilty about not finishing a book they’ve started? Here’s Calum Bains on the topic in The Guardian, I couldn’t put a boring book down. Now I take pleasure in saying enough is enough https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/15/why-i-quit-having-to-finish-reading-books-games

Thanks to Maja Mandekic for that one!

4. I’ve just discovered the EF Teach Online Library https://www.youtube.com/@efteachonline thanks to a LinkedIn post from Ian McMaster – who many years ago commissioned an article on ‘English Cheese’ from me for the magazine he was then editing, Anglo-American Spotlight – about a talk he gave for the 3^rd EF Online English Teacher Conference this summer.

Ian’s talk, ‘Language, communication, behaviour and culture: What are we trying to affect?’ is in the ‘Videos’ section https://youtu.be/O-ou92daxZA?feature=shared

5. And, finally, a Spanish proverb that I stumbled across the other day which I hope someone from Spain can vouch for: “An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest.“

1. You need to register for a free account to read this New Statesman piece by Geoff Dyer, but it’s well worth that minimal effort if you haven’t got one already. The shot seen round the world – the photograph of a bloodied Trump has turned him into a hero and captured the carnage of American politics https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2024/07/shot-seen-round-the-world-donald-trump-photo-geoff-dyer

2. There’s often interesting stuff in The Knowledge, including good summaries of articles that are behind a newspaper paywall. Here’s a recent edition, which includes a summary of Peter Hitchens’s Daily Mail piece, Is Lucy Letby really guilty? https://www.theknowledge.com/p/lucy-letby-really-guilty I realise that we see what we know and want to see, but I can’t help drawing parallels with medieval witch trials.

Sign up yourself to The Knowledge daily newsletter here https://www.theknowledge.com/

3. Thanks to Jason Skeet for this one, an interesting new(ish) take on classroom observation, Unseen observations by Matt O’Leary https://www.ucet.ac.uk/downloads/12424-Unseen-Observations_MattOLeary_Nov2020.pdf PDF below.

Hosted on the Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) website, which I’d not come across before https://www.ucet.ac.uk/ Not something that university teachers in my time got much of, teacher education!

4. Here’s a very accessible way in – courtesy of Katja Hoyer’s podcast, Zeitgeist – to a very well-reviewed book by Andrea Wulf about a remarkable accumulation of genius in a small town in Germany, Jena, at the end of the eighteenth century, Magnificent Rebels https://www.katjahoyer.uk/p/magnificent-rebels-with-andrea-wulf  Along the way, Katja and Andrea share a number of interesting thoughts on the differences between writing in German and writing in English.

Here’s the beginning of Adam Sisman’s review of Magnificent Rebels for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/11/magnificent-rebels-the-first-romantics-and-the-invention-of-the-self-by-andrea-wulf-review-big-ideas-from-a-small-town

A philosophy student attending a concert in the heart of Germany in the spring of 1797 could scarcely believe the evidence of his eyes. Seated in one row were Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the greatest writer of the age; Johann Gottlieb Fichte, the philosopher of the moment, whose packed lectures attracted students from across Europe; Alexander von Humboldt, just setting out on a career that would transform our understanding of the natural world; and August Wilhelm Schlegel, then making a name for himself as a writer, critic and translator. It seemed extraordinary to see so many famous men lined up together.

Except that it wasn’t, not then in Jena, a quiet university town at the heart of Germany of only 800 houses and fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. For a brief period, as the 18th century gave way to the 19th, Jena had a claim to be the intellectual capital of Europe. The nation’s finest minds were gathered there.

5. And, finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous, Fenton! https://youtu.be/3GRSbr0EYYU

Apologies if – unlike me, but like millions of other people – you’ve seen the video before, and thanks to Jamie Keddie for bringing it to my attention!

1. Khawla Badwan from Manchester Metropolitan University has been writing A Poem for Palestine each day since the early days of the current conflict, usually published on LinkedIn. You’ll find the first nine poems for July in the PDF below, and here’s Khawla’s poem for 9^th July,

The privilege

Beware the other

They are inconveniently here

They don’t count in your sphere

Turn around

Look away

Beware the other

Don’t mention their dead

Don’t care about their end

Turn around

Look away

Beware the other

If challenged, call it neutrality

Don’t worry about morality

Turn around

Look away

Beware the other

Let’s stand firmly together

Protecting our privilege forever

Turn around

Look away

2. This coming Saturday, 20^th July, at 13:00 UK time you can join this Mentoring Teacher-Research Network (MENTRNET) webinar,  ‘EAR-Thailand #2024 project – Successful practices in a teacher-research mentoring programme’. More details and registration here https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEqd-usqjMsGtEshpnZNewySHLHZEGItXan#/registration

More information on future MENTRNET events and recordings of past events here https://mentoring-tr.weebly.com/festival-2024-25.html

3. Founded in 1954, the purpose of the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) https://culturalfoundation.eu/ is “to grow a European sentiment of solidarity among the peoples of Europe”. Common Ground is the ECF’s annual publication https://culturalfoundation.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Common-Ground-2024_web.pdf

Try one of the following:

Brussels’ Eastern Enigma by Katja Hoyer;

Europe in Barbieland by Pawel Zerka;

Fragile Memory, Friso Wiersum’s interview with Mariia Ponomarova & Olexii Kuchanskyi about their documentary film of the Odesa Film Studio.

PDF below as well.

4. Emanuel Schegloff, who died on May 23^rd  at his home in Santa Monica, California was the last surviving co-founder of the field of conversation analysis (CA), the study of naturally occurring conduct in human interaction, which introduced notions now familiar to us all, such as turn-taking. Here’s the graceful obituary that John Heritage wrote for him https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/08351813.2024.2368389 PDF below.

5. And, finally, Poetry, prose and plumbing: some first reflections on how Labour will govern from Geoff Mulgan https://tinyurl.com/a9whrvmu

Here I share thoughts about the new administration which has got off to a very good start and is a dramatic improvement on what went before. How government works matters just as much as what it does (even though this is of almost zero interest to the commentariat) and I’m now a professor in an engineering department, a field which cares a lot about practicality and implementation and has a low tolerance for the hot air that is all too common in and around politics.

1. Now that Lucy Letby has been found guilty of another murder, the UK press are free to report the doubts over her conviction first raised by The New Yorker which were censored by the UK government when first published https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/09/lucy-letby-evidence-experts-question

Radio 4’s Today programme interviewed Dewi Evans, the lead scientific witness for the prosecution the other morning. I’ve written to them to ask if they shouldn’t also interview his counterpart for the defence, Mike Hall, whose evidence the judge chose not to hear, in the interests of balance.

2. Here’s a short notice reminder of this TeachingEnglish mini-event from 09:00 to 12:30 UK time this Thursday, 18^th July, Valuing multilingualism. Three sessions; five speakers. More info and registration here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-and-events/webinars/webinars-teachers/valuing-multilingualism-mini-event

3. Here’s a ‘gift article’ from The New York Times, 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, that’s worth this month’s subscription on its own https://tinyurl.com/5662uz2s The NYT’s choices will raise at least as many issues as they resolve, of course!

4. Five common English words we don’t know the origins of – including ‘boy’ and ‘dog’ from The Conversation by Francesco Perono Cacciafoco of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University https://theconversation.com/five-common-english-words-we-dont-know-the-origins-of-including-boy-and-dog-232299

5. Three pieces with historical perspective from Engelsberg Ideas:

i) The Habsburg world we have lost by Luka Ivan Jukic https://engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-habsburg-world-we-have-lost/

The Habsburg monarchy’s political culture persisted in odd and varied ways, following the disintegration of the Austria-Hungarian state. The failures and mendacity of the succeeding generation of Central European politicians offers a warning from history.

ii) Inside Iran’s election circus by Ali Ansari https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/inside-irans-election-circus/

Rather than presaging a reformist revival, the Iranian presidential election revealed the vast chasm between the state and society-at-large.

iii) The true sources of Soviet conduct by Rodric Braithwaite https://engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-true-sources-of-soviet-conduct/

The Soviet Union believed that it was manifestly destined to lead the world to a higher future but that ambition masked profound insecurities about its economic, political and military status as a great power.

My own insecurities were unmasked when I was chairing Rodric Braithwaite’s presentation of what was then his latest book, Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89, a few years back at the Edinburgh Book Festival. I looked out at the audience and saw at least five onetime UK ambassadors to the Soviet Union or Russia, plus two former permanent undersecretaries to the UK Foreign Office. My own experience of Afghanistan was – and remains – a five-day sojourn on the way to India in 1974.

6. And, finally and scarily, from Wicked Leeks, Intensive farming, superbugs + antimicrobial resistance https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/news/intensive-farming-superbugs-antimicrobial-resistance/

According to the Soil Association https://www.soilassociation.org/ farm animals consume about 30% of all antibiotics in the UK and about 65% of antibiotics worldwide.