Bill Wilkinson
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drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
Bill Wilkinson
@drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
2.3K followers 1.7K following 3.9K posts
Science (former academic) | Teaching (>10years now) | Passionate about Cultural Capital (TGT author) | Springboard Science Author | new SENDCo | NPQSENDCo | Watford Bath City Arsenal | Politics | Rotund Running | Occasional Cats | 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Ally
Noli Mentula Esse
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Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
Wednesday's TGT celebrates a stunning piece of Georgian Industrial Heritage. The Pontcysyllte aqueduct is the tallest canal aqueduct in the world and the longest in the UK.
bit.ly/TutorGroupThink
Wednesday 26th November On this day in 1805 the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was officially opened in northeast Wales, on the Ellesmere Canal which links the ironworks and coal mines of Wrexham with Chester. It took ten years to build and was one of the first major feats of civil engineering by Thomas Telford. It is still the longest aqueduct in Great Britain and the highest canal aqueduct in the world. It is made of a cast iron trough (a new technique at the time) held 39 metres above the river with iron ribs above 18 hollow brick pillars. Every five years the aqueduct is closed and a plug is pulled out to drain the water into the river below so that the trough can be cleaned and maintained. It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in June 2009. Have you ever been on a canal boat? Do you want to go over this aqueduct? How do you feel about the height and the view down? Do you think our industrial heritage should be preserved and celebrated, or should we return this landscape to nature? Wednesday 26th November On this day in 1805 the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was officially opened in northeast Wales. It is the longest aqueduct in Great Britain, and the highest canal aqueduct in the world (39 metres above the river below) and took ten years to build and was designed by Thomas Telford. Every 5 years a plug is pulled to drain it and clean it. Do you think our industrial heritage should be preserved and celebrated, or should we return this landscape to nature?
November 25, 2025 at 6:14 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
Got it from a definition guess and available fodder. Didn’t understand why. Too clever for me.
Minute Cryptic - 26 November, 2025
"Run-down backpacker loses backpack" (5)
🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
🏆 0 hints – 3 under the community par (22,065 solvers so far).
www.minutecryptic.com?utm_source=s...
Minute Cryptic
Solve a clue with a hidden meaning
www.minutecryptic.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
itsjoels.bsky.social
Here’s my CHRISTMAS GIFT TIP. You can buy all Michael Palin’s books and DVDs and suchlike off his website, and he signs and dedicates the item for no extra charge. Don’t say I don’t give you nowt. (I did this for my dad, and he didn’t notice the autograph on his Ripping Yarns.) themichaelpalin.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
rutgerbregman.com
The BBC's has responded in The Guardian that this was a routine editorial decision, but also that it was made on legal advice. Those two explanations don’t fit together. /1
rutgerbregman.com Rutger Bregman @rutgerbregman.com · 1d
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
lbc.co.uk
‘The chill wind from the White House is already rippling through New Broadcasting House.’

@lewisgoodall.com reacts after the BBC edited out an anti-Trump line from a historian’s lecture.
November 25, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
kate-wilkinson.bsky.social
Fond memories of travelling over the Pontcysyllte aqueduct on our canal boat holiday this summer. Looking down from the boat is not for the faint hearted!
A man at the tiller of a canal boat going over an aqueduct Smiling at the tiller with the valley reaching off in the distance below
November 25, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
advanced-ict.info
My wife wouldn't come on it, which is why we're so tiny in the photo!
November 25, 2025 at 6:35 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
Wednesday's TGT celebrates a stunning piece of Georgian Industrial Heritage. The Pontcysyllte aqueduct is the tallest canal aqueduct in the world and the longest in the UK.
bit.ly/TutorGroupThink
Wednesday 26th November On this day in 1805 the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was officially opened in northeast Wales, on the Ellesmere Canal which links the ironworks and coal mines of Wrexham with Chester. It took ten years to build and was one of the first major feats of civil engineering by Thomas Telford. It is still the longest aqueduct in Great Britain and the highest canal aqueduct in the world. It is made of a cast iron trough (a new technique at the time) held 39 metres above the river with iron ribs above 18 hollow brick pillars. Every five years the aqueduct is closed and a plug is pulled out to drain the water into the river below so that the trough can be cleaned and maintained. It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in June 2009. Have you ever been on a canal boat? Do you want to go over this aqueduct? How do you feel about the height and the view down? Do you think our industrial heritage should be preserved and celebrated, or should we return this landscape to nature? Wednesday 26th November On this day in 1805 the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was officially opened in northeast Wales. It is the longest aqueduct in Great Britain, and the highest canal aqueduct in the world (39 metres above the river below) and took ten years to build and was designed by Thomas Telford. Every 5 years a plug is pulled to drain it and clean it. Do you think our industrial heritage should be preserved and celebrated, or should we return this landscape to nature?
November 25, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
ladyhistorian.bsky.social
I'm so tired of people telling me to have students critique LLM outputs. I'm just going to print this on little cards and hand them out
sonjadrimmer.bsky.social Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 1d
I will add the following: our students lack the research skills required to audit an LLM essay for errors. They don’t arrive on campus with these skills; we teach it to them over four long years. So throwing freshmen in the deep end and saying “swim your way to a shore of rectitude” is folly.
November 24, 2025 at 2:36 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
Science teachers say WTF?!
Spelling Bee says Brownian is not a word.
November 24, 2025 at 8:34 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
👇
thenerve.news THE NERVE @thenerve.news · 2d
NEW There's no overstating how significant the Nathan Gill case is. On Friday, the close associate of Nigel Farage was jailed for over 10 years for taking bribes ultimately from a friend of Putin. It's a complex, detail-heavy story that raises questions about Farage’s claim Gill was ‘one bad apple’🧵
Picture of Nathan Gill arriving at court. Headline: Reform UK and Russian Bribes. A Nathan Gill Timeline.
November 24, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
hleehurley.com
So someone asked him for an example of racism that isn't hurtful or insulting, right?
pippacrerar.bsky.social Pippa Crerar @pippacrerar.bsky.social · 1d
“I would never ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way”

Nigel Farage responds to allegations of racist behaviour from when he was a teenager at school

@itvnewspolitics.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 6:25 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
The fun jovial group antisemitism, not the hurtful individual kind. Hope that clears things up.
pippacrerar.bsky.social Pippa Crerar @pippacrerar.bsky.social · 1d
“I would never ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way”

Nigel Farage responds to allegations of racist behaviour from when he was a teenager at school

@itvnewspolitics.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 6:31 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
On TGT tomorrow, discuss artworks and statues in the context of the Monuments exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
bit.ly/TutorGroupThink
Tuesday 25th November Recently an exhibition opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles to much debate. It consists of 10 Confederate (the losing side in the US Civil War) monuments, which have been graffitied or modified and removed from their original locations. Confederate statues were removed over the past decades, with the continued presence of some of them causing riots, including one of General Robert E Lee which was in Charlottesville, but is now a pile of bronze bricks (see top right). President Trump has has ordered some monuments to Confederate generals to be reinstalled, feeling they are American heroes who fought for each State’s right to govern. The curator of this exhibition Hamza Walker has been working for eight years to acquire these monuments and move tons of bronze and granite. He sees no controversy “They believed in white supremacy. Period. The reason for the Civil War was slavery, and celebrating them perpetuates the idea that the South was a ‘noble victim’.” How do you feel about this exhibition? Should these statues be on display in their changed state? Should these statues have been removed or kept in place? What should we do with statues of people we no longer agree with? Tuesday 25th November ‘Monuments’ is an exhibition at MOCA in Los Angeles and it has caused some debate. The exhibits are removed statues of Confederates (losing side in the US Civil War on slavery) which have been graffitied or modified and removed from their original locations. Should these statues have been removed or kept in place? What should we do with statues of people we no longer agree with?
November 24, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
News coverage of DOGE’s creation earlier this year was practically wall-to-wall — for weeks. “$2 trillion in savings, $5000 dividend checks, an entirely new model of government.” And now that it’s gone, it’s like eh.

@techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com/2025/11/24/d...
DOGE days are over as Trump disbands Elon Musk's team of federal cost-cutters | TechCrunch
DOGE members are reportedly worried that they could face prosecution for some of their activities conducted while under the leadership of Elon Musk.
techcrunch.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
That James & Ollie are too good.
Genius.

Minute Cryptic - 24 November, 2025
"Unlocking kindness, insight and humility, starts with reflection!?" (5)
🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
🏆 0 hints – 1 under the community par (14,480 solvers so far).
www.minutecryptic.com?utm_source=s...
Minute Cryptic
Solve a clue with a hidden meaning
www.minutecryptic.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:38 AM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
It’s not set there, but it was filmed at my school.
Exterior school got from The History Boys
November 23, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
adamboxereducation.bsky.social
NEW EPISODE

This week, we are joined by leadership maestro @mrarobbins.bsky.social, looking at the tensions and difficulties in leading schools and driving change. Not to be missed!

Tune in and share if you can 🙏🙏

open.spotify.com/episode/0320...
What's the key to unlocking teacher development? With Adam Robbins
open.spotify.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
rincewind.run
Discworld QOTD, from Men at Arms
Retrophrenology: It works like this. Phrenology, as everyone knows, is a way of reading someone's character, aptitude and abilities by examining the bumps and hollows on their head. Therefore - according to the kind of logical thinking that characterizes the Ankh-Morpork mind - it should be possible to mould someone's character by giving them carefully graded bumps in all the right places. You can go into a shop and order an artistic temperament with a tendency to introspection and a side order of hysteria. What you actually get is hit on the head with a selection of different size mallets, but it creates employment and keeps the money in circulation, and that's the main thing.
November 17, 2025 at 7:28 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
Socials reminded me it’s 15 years since the day I bumped into Phil Jupitus in Spillers record store in Cardiff and did a record swap. Buying each other a recommended album.
Billy Wilkinson 23 Nov 2010 • Good day. Lecture done. Left early for a record shopping treat. Met Phil Jupitus with whom I did a recommended album swap. Fun!
November 23, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
mseeley.net
A Cessna Citation II jet (reg N511AB) silhouetted against the Sunday morning Sun over the Space Coast of Florida.

The privately owned jet was flying from Cleveland Regional Jetport (QNZ) to Miami (TMB) at 29,800ft & 408kts.

(📷: me, flight data: @flightradar24.com)
November 23, 2025 at 5:53 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
It's classic literature on TGT on Monday as we remember Emily Brontë on the anniversary of the publication of Wuthering Heights, her first and only novel in 1847 under the pen name Ellis Bell.
bit.ly/TutorGroupThink
Monday 24th November Emily Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire in 1818. She and her sisters grew up in a remote village on the moors. Their mother died when she was young and they were raised by their strict father and a deeply religious aunt. They were isolated and found escape in reading and writing. The Brontë sisters created imaginary worlds and wrote stories and poems throughout their lives. Emily in particular had a vivid imagination and loved nature. On 24th November 1847 she published Wuthering Heights, her first and only novel under the pen name Ellis Bell, because female authors were often judged unfairly. The novel is set on the wild Yorkshire moors and tells the story of Catherine and Heathcliff and their powerful but destructive relationship that leaves lasting scars on everyone around them. Critics at the time found the novel shocking with it’s theme of obsessive love and revenge. Though misunderstood during her lifetime, Wuthering Heights is now celebrated for its originality, emotional depth, and poetic language. Its haunting atmosphere and powerful examination of love and human nature have made it a classic of English literature. Emily died of a tuberculosis like illness just 13 months after it was published aged just 30. Have you ever read Wuthering Heights or seen an adaptation? What does the title suggest to you about the story’s mood? Why would a woman like Emily Brontë need to publish under a man’s name in 1847? What makes a book about flawed, angry, or obsessive characters still meaningful to readers today? Monday 24th November Emily Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire in 1818. She and her sisters grew up in a remote village on the moors. On 24th November 1847 she published Wuthering Heights, her first and only novel under the name Ellis Bell. The novel is set on the Yorkshire moors and tells the story of Catherine and Heathcliff and their but destructive relationship. It is considered a classic of English literature. Emily died of a tuberculosis like illness just 13 months after it was published aged just 30. Why would a woman like Emily Brontë need to publish under a man’s name?
November 23, 2025 at 5:11 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
Whilst I love all the new solo stuff it makes me so happy to see the old Remainiacs team in one place. 😍
pimlicat.bsky.social Naomi Smith @pimlicat.bsky.social · 2d
Got the band back together at mine and Paul’s surprise wedding reception. I love these people so much 🥰

@sturdyalex.bsky.social @rostaylor.bsky.social @dorianlynskey.bsky.social @iandunt.bsky.social and Ingrid Oliver
November 23, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
shoshana.bsky.social
Boston's Mayor Wu playing with Yo-Yo Ma at Symphony Hall
November 23, 2025 at 5:11 AM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
john-self.bsky.social
Who’d have thunk that once everyone who wants an iPhone has one, sales might slow down a bit?
Paragraph from FT news story: Apple is seeking new ways to boost iPhone sales, which have flattened in recent years but accounted for $209bn in revenue in the year to September, roughly half of the group's total sales.
November 22, 2025 at 8:54 PM