Ric Crossman
@riccrossman.bsky.social
Statistician. Educator. Union man. Occasional pop culture critic for ATB Publishing (and himself). Just wants everyone to be happy, a fact that has made a number of people EXTREMELY angry. He/him/Comrade.
Pinned
Ric Crossman
@riccrossman.bsky.social
· Apr 1
Infinite Diversity, Finite Combinations Volume 1.1 (paperback+1st class postage) | Infinite Diversity,
The first volume of IDFC in weighty paperback form! Contains essays on every episode of Season 1 of The Original Series (including "The Cage"), along with pieces on The Motion Picture, James Blish's S...
www.idfc.co.uk
Plus, the first Infinite Diversity, Finite Combinations book is out in paperback, if that's the sort of thing you think you might be into (and you live in the UK).
www.idfc.co.uk/product-page...
www.idfc.co.uk/product-page...
Reposted by Ric Crossman
Posters have appeared around the building. They suggest that geography, geology, & environment staff might be a bit angry at proposed redundancies, reorganisations & closures. Rightly so.
November 24, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Posters have appeared around the building. They suggest that geography, geology, & environment staff might be a bit angry at proposed redundancies, reorganisations & closures. Rightly so.
Reposted by Ric Crossman
Please sign and share: www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/no...
November 24, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Please sign and share: www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/no...
Reposted by Ric Crossman
Australia: Victoria Becomes First State To Offer Free Birth Certificate Updates For Trans People
www.starobserver.com...
#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA
www.starobserver.com...
#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA
Victoria Becomes First State To Offer Free Birth Certificate Updates For Trans People - Star Observer
Victoria is the first state in Australia to make it free for the trans community to update their gender on their birth certificate.
www.starobserver.com.au
November 23, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Australia: Victoria Becomes First State To Offer Free Birth Certificate Updates For Trans People
www.starobserver.com...
#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA
www.starobserver.com...
#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA
I realise it's almost always foolish for a non-lawyer to start pontificating about legal matters, but if the EHRCs own leaked guidance says there is no form of documentation that can be used to "prove" someone's sex, then *how is anyone to "prove" they are or are not a woman*?
November 22, 2025 at 1:02 PM
I realise it's almost always foolish for a non-lawyer to start pontificating about legal matters, but if the EHRCs own leaked guidance says there is no form of documentation that can be used to "prove" someone's sex, then *how is anyone to "prove" they are or are not a woman*?
Reposted by Ric Crossman
Would be great to spread this far and wide so we make as much money as possible in COLCHESTER tomorrow
This SUNDAY - COLCHESTER!!
A solo show for @samaritans.bsky.social
Tickets here
www.redlionbooks.co.uk/product/poet...
Tell your friends
A solo show for @samaritans.bsky.social
Tickets here
www.redlionbooks.co.uk/product/poet...
Tell your friends
November 22, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Would be great to spread this far and wide so we make as much money as possible in COLCHESTER tomorrow
Reposted by Ric Crossman
We know how (more) bleak things have been since the EHRC interim guidance (now taken down). One uni building even went so far to write a statement assuring colleagues they could continue to use the toilets matching their gender identity. They were told they couldn't publish it.
November 20, 2025 at 9:39 AM
We know how (more) bleak things have been since the EHRC interim guidance (now taken down). One uni building even went so far to write a statement assuring colleagues they could continue to use the toilets matching their gender identity. They were told they couldn't publish it.
Reposted by Ric Crossman
Trans Day of Remembrance feels like a good day to post this picture, taken by St Aiden's college last week. There are so many of us in Durham who stand in solidarity with the trans, non-binary, and intersex communities, even if we don't always feel able to say so.
November 20, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Trans Day of Remembrance feels like a good day to post this picture, taken by St Aiden's college last week. There are so many of us in Durham who stand in solidarity with the trans, non-binary, and intersex communities, even if we don't always feel able to say so.
Reposted by Ric Crossman
Today is Trans Day Of Remembrance
#TransLivesMatter #TDoR #TDoR2025 #TransDayOfRemembrance #TransAwarenessWeek #SayTheirNames
*** Trigger warning for the following thread: Violence against trans people (especially TWOC) * * *
#TransLivesMatter #TDoR #TDoR2025 #TransDayOfRemembrance #TransAwarenessWeek #SayTheirNames
*** Trigger warning for the following thread: Violence against trans people (especially TWOC) * * *
November 20, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Today is Trans Day Of Remembrance
#TransLivesMatter #TDoR #TDoR2025 #TransDayOfRemembrance #TransAwarenessWeek #SayTheirNames
*** Trigger warning for the following thread: Violence against trans people (especially TWOC) * * *
#TransLivesMatter #TDoR #TDoR2025 #TransDayOfRemembrance #TransAwarenessWeek #SayTheirNames
*** Trigger warning for the following thread: Violence against trans people (especially TWOC) * * *
Reposted by Ric Crossman
Sexual harassment is a scourge to academia and should have no place in our field. That it still does is, in part, because institutions still value academic prestige over the untold harms done to often early career scholars.
November 19, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Sexual harassment is a scourge to academia and should have no place in our field. That it still does is, in part, because institutions still value academic prestige over the untold harms done to often early career scholars.
Reposted by Ric Crossman
Pleased to see @ucu.org.uk continue to oppose the horrendous anti-immigration rhetoric and policy of the UK government.
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1379...
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1379...
UCU statement on Prime Minister's anti-immigration turn
UCU statement following Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer's anti-immigration turn.
www.ucu.org.uk
November 18, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Pleased to see @ucu.org.uk continue to oppose the horrendous anti-immigration rhetoric and policy of the UK government.
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1379...
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1379...
Reposted by Ric Crossman
FURTHER EDUCATION COMRADES!!!! This is such an amazing achievement. We're excited about supporting you all the way.
90% voted YES.
32 colleges over the line.
17 colleges already won pay awards.
This is a huge organising win for our FE members.
College bosses must work with us, staff deserve a fair deal, especially when many are paid £7k–£9k less than in sixth forms.
Next steps announced next week.
32 colleges over the line.
17 colleges already won pay awards.
This is a huge organising win for our FE members.
College bosses must work with us, staff deserve a fair deal, especially when many are paid £7k–£9k less than in sixth forms.
Next steps announced next week.
November 18, 2025 at 7:28 PM
FURTHER EDUCATION COMRADES!!!! This is such an amazing achievement. We're excited about supporting you all the way.
This is exactly and obviously correct, and it's absolutely maddening how many academics deliberately misinterpret it as wanting to relax (or abandon!) academic standards.
Universities should contain both difficulty and ease.
Learning should be difficult. The process of learning is, by its very nature, difficult, and that is no bad thing.
For everything else, for every other element of the student experience, there should be ease. Applying should be easy. 1/
Learning should be difficult. The process of learning is, by its very nature, difficult, and that is no bad thing.
For everything else, for every other element of the student experience, there should be ease. Applying should be easy. 1/
November 18, 2025 at 8:39 AM
This is exactly and obviously correct, and it's absolutely maddening how many academics deliberately misinterpret it as wanting to relax (or abandon!) academic standards.
Reposted by Ric Crossman
Sexual harassment is a productivity tax on women in STEM
Imagine the things we could do with our time if we didn’t have to do this bsky.app/profile/chan...
I did my job. And then I did a job that never should have been my responsibility afterwards, sending emails and having meetings about how this was allowed to happen in the first place. Other women scholars had to spend their time explaining to Aspen leadership why this was not ok.
November 16, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Sexual harassment is a productivity tax on women in STEM
I'm old enough to remember David Duke agreeing with Corbyn that billionaires are bad, and it being immediately seized upon as proof that Corbyn was a Grand Wizard with a jam fetish.
November 16, 2025 at 5:36 PM
I'm old enough to remember David Duke agreeing with Corbyn that billionaires are bad, and it being immediately seized upon as proof that Corbyn was a Grand Wizard with a jam fetish.
Gonna need a moratorium on professors telling me them going on strike won't achieve anything, for the next, ooh, let's say infinity years?
There is power in a union.
Especially for ‘invisible’ workers like this.
Especially for ‘invisible’ workers like this.
Hundreds of low-paid NHS hospital staff win improved terms after strike threat
November 16, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Gonna need a moratorium on professors telling me them going on strike won't achieve anything, for the next, ooh, let's say infinity years?
Reposted by Ric Crossman
The fabulous team @ducu.bsky.social outline in this blog 26 good reasons for voting YES in the ballot: durhamucu.org.uk/26-reasons-y...
Let's get staff a seat at the table again, because it's clearly not working without us...
Let's get staff a seat at the table again, because it's clearly not working without us...
We need a mandate, because managers and their consultants have pivoted the purpose of our institutions from research & education to prioritising financial gain over everything.
Enough.
Staff and students need to be central in the decision-making processes and priorities again.
#SaveHE #WeAreTheUni
Enough.
Staff and students need to be central in the decision-making processes and priorities again.
#SaveHE #WeAreTheUni
November 14, 2025 at 4:32 PM
The fabulous team @ducu.bsky.social outline in this blog 26 good reasons for voting YES in the ballot: durhamucu.org.uk/26-reasons-y...
Let's get staff a seat at the table again, because it's clearly not working without us...
Let's get staff a seat at the table again, because it's clearly not working without us...
Reposted by Ric Crossman
We're hearing of a lot of members not receiving their ballot. If that's you, please request your replacement ballot TODAY.
Deadline to request replacement ballots is 23 NOVEMBER yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/wearetheu...
#WeAreTheUniversity #SaveHE #UKHE #UCU
Deadline to request replacement ballots is 23 NOVEMBER yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/wearetheu...
#WeAreTheUniversity #SaveHE #UKHE #UCU
November 13, 2025 at 9:13 PM
We're hearing of a lot of members not receiving their ballot. If that's you, please request your replacement ballot TODAY.
Deadline to request replacement ballots is 23 NOVEMBER yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/wearetheu...
#WeAreTheUniversity #SaveHE #UKHE #UCU
Deadline to request replacement ballots is 23 NOVEMBER yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/wearetheu...
#WeAreTheUniversity #SaveHE #UKHE #UCU
I keep toying with writing a schlock horror novel about them not bothering to wait for us to be gone before they take over. As soon as they decide they hate us more than they hate each other, we're stuffed.
November 13, 2025 at 10:48 PM
I keep toying with writing a schlock horror novel about them not bothering to wait for us to be gone before they take over. As soon as they decide they hate us more than they hate each other, we're stuffed.
Counterpoint: it very obviously wasn't, and things don't become bad at the time you notice them.
A decade ago, the Telegraph was a respectable paper.
Now it’s a low-quality treasonous tabloid.
Now it’s a low-quality treasonous tabloid.
November 12, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Counterpoint: it very obviously wasn't, and things don't become bad at the time you notice them.
It's like, how much more seen could I be? And the answer is: none.
polyamory schmolyamory, the critical test for any academic's capacity to feel joy for others is whether you can be happy for other people's books
November 11, 2025 at 11:55 PM
It's like, how much more seen could I be? And the answer is: none.
Reposted by Ric Crossman
This is what I try to always tell people: food banks can do way more with your money than you can, due to bulk buying deals. And they can do way, way more with your money than with the canned goods you didn’t want to eat
spoke with the executive director of my local food bank today and got this really incredible line: "if you donate 1 can of green beans, we can give away 1 can of green beans. but if you donate a dollar, we can give away 6 cans of green beans"
November 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
This is what I try to always tell people: food banks can do way more with your money than you can, due to bulk buying deals. And they can do way, way more with your money than with the canned goods you didn’t want to eat
It's also precisely how people want to surrender frame their surrender. They're never abandoning the fight, and all the people who relied on them fighting; they've just suddenly realised NOT fighting is the tactical option and those disagreeing are the people REALLY helping the enemy, honest.
This is what bullies want you to think, and it's why they get stronger
November 11, 2025 at 8:36 PM
It's also precisely how people want to surrender frame their surrender. They're never abandoning the fight, and all the people who relied on them fighting; they've just suddenly realised NOT fighting is the tactical option and those disagreeing are the people REALLY helping the enemy, honest.
Reposted by Ric Crossman
Makes me miss the better quality cissexists of my youth, before social media caused this exponential growth trend of transphobia-identified adults that showed no symptoms pre-puberty.
I know it's far from the top of the list, but one of the most wearying aspects of fighting transphobia is that the people pushing it are often just so, SO ignorant.
World's worst gotcha from Trevor Phillips: "If trans women are women why don't we just say 'women'... who needs 'pregnant people?'" 🤔
November 9, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Makes me miss the better quality cissexists of my youth, before social media caused this exponential growth trend of transphobia-identified adults that showed no symptoms pre-puberty.
I know it's far from the top of the list, but one of the most wearying aspects of fighting transphobia is that the people pushing it are often just so, SO ignorant.
World's worst gotcha from Trevor Phillips: "If trans women are women why don't we just say 'women'... who needs 'pregnant people?'" 🤔
Great to see @zackpolanski.bsky.social on @skynewsrss.bsky.social this morning standing up for trans people.
It’s clear that Trevor Phillips was trying to trap Zack by not giving him all the facts! Martine Croxall not only eye rolled, she changed a direct quote - unethical for a journalist!
It’s clear that Trevor Phillips was trying to trap Zack by not giving him all the facts! Martine Croxall not only eye rolled, she changed a direct quote - unethical for a journalist!
November 9, 2025 at 1:08 PM
I know it's far from the top of the list, but one of the most wearying aspects of fighting transphobia is that the people pushing it are often just so, SO ignorant.
I can only speak to my personal experiences, but I've been saying for years now, along with many colleagues, that we're letting students down on this issue. The only university-wide change I'm aware of has been a lowering of the required level of English for our programmes.
It's so horribly unfair to these students, who travel half the world to study on courses they learn too late simply don't cater for them. It's also unfair to those teaching on those courses, who desperately *want* to cater to those students, but have no resources or training to meaningfully do so.
November 9, 2025 at 12:58 PM
I can only speak to my personal experiences, but I've been saying for years now, along with many colleagues, that we're letting students down on this issue. The only university-wide change I'm aware of has been a lowering of the required level of English for our programmes.