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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drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
Hard but elegant. Took some letters and got it once I was given letter one.

Minute Cryptic - 28 November, 2025
"Log location if returning by sub" (9)
🟡🟡🟡🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
🏆 3 hints – 1 under the community par (20,935 solvers so far).
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Minute Cryptic
Solve a clue with a hidden meaning
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November 28, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
chriso1.bsky.social
“The restaurateurs have complained that the police response has been sluggish.”
Ronnie Barker, reading the news
November 27, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
drbeaubeaumont.bsky.social
Escarcome, escargot.
November 27, 2025 at 9:52 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
Please hit turbulence. Please hit turbulence. 🙏🙏🙏
nick-pettigrew.bsky.social Nick Pettigrew @nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 17h
A traditional Thanksgiving dinner where nobody has a plate in front of them, one person doesn't even have a seat, somebody starts the meal with a slice of pie they appear to have brought with them & somebody is demolishing a massive dish of stuffing presumably flavoured with roadkill. On a plane.
The deeply weird Trump crew posing for a deeply weird Thanksgiving photo on a plane for some inexplicable reason.
November 27, 2025 at 8:24 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
Friday's TGT ends the week with some history and Magellan's first circumnavigation of the Earth and discovery of the navigable route through South America via the Straits of Magellan.
bit.ly/TutorGroupThink
Friday 28th November In 1519 the Magellan expedition set out from Spain to become the first ship to sail around the world. Ferdinand Magellan led the expedition of five ships, including Victoria (pictured restored in Chile). The expedition was the first to successfully circumnavigate the globe, though Magellan was killed en route in 1521. On 28th November 1520 Magellan became the first European to navigate, the Strait of Magellan. Sailing the Drake Passage (the path further south between South America and Antarctica) is much more dangerous due to frequent gale-force winds and icebergs, and is further to sail, so the discovery of the navigable route (named the strait of Magellan) through the South American landmass was an important discovery. The Strait was a major shipping route for the next 400 years until the man-made Panama Canal through Central America was finished in 1914. What is the longest you have spent on a boat? Would you ever want to sail around the world? Can you imagine being on this voyage and discovering this passage? Would you rather live in this age of discovery, or the modern day of complete maps and GPS? Friday 28th November In 1519 the Magellan expedition set out from Seville, Spain to become the first ship to sail around the world. On this day 1520 they found a navigable route through Chile which was called the strait of Magellan. The expedition successfully circumnavigated the globe in 3 years, but Ferdinand Magellan was killed en route in 1521. Would you rather live in this age of discovery, or the modern day of complete maps?
November 27, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
allymcgovern.bsky.social
Having watch child poverty rise like a slow-motion car crash since the two-child limit was introduced, sat in meetings up and down the country, in foodbanks, in schools, to work out how to get child poverty down, the idea that this undoing this policy is 'PLP management' is a joke.
samfr.bsky.social Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 1d
It's such a bizarre framing. Labour MPs think taking 450k kids out of poverty is putting the country first! That's why they wanted it to happen! It's not because they personally benefit.
robertsaunders.bsky.social Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 1d
Headline on The World at One just now:

"Sir Keir Starmer has denied putting the Labour Party before the country by ending the two-child benefit cap".

Can we please go back to reporting the actual news, not someone's partisan take on it?
November 27, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
ottoenglish.bsky.social
Slightly obsessed with Reform UK's teeny tiny photoshopped breakfast.
We have launched a major ad campaign across 6 national newspapers today, Our message is simple: Reform UK stands ready to fix Broken Britain
November 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Bill Wilkinson
iandunt.bsky.social
'This isn't an opinion. This is counting.'
lbc.co.uk LBC @lbc.co.uk · 1d
- A 100,000 drop in net migration costs us £7bn
- Scrapping the two-child benefit cap costs us £3bn

What gets more attention?

James O’Brien says 'we have become a ludicrous country'.
November 27, 2025 at 11:29 AM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
The immigrants are good for the economy? Who knew. Oh. Everyone.
November 27, 2025 at 1:46 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
Knew what to do. Took me ages to do it.
Minute Cryptic - 27 November, 2025
"Praise for animating Kate Winslet in "Flushed Away"" (5,4)
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🏆 0 hints – 3 under the community par (42,225 solvers so far).
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Solve a clue with a hidden meaning
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November 27, 2025 at 11:37 AM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
I created a Minute Cryptic for you to solve:

Party escort Sim to become Simone (4, 3)

www.minutecryptic.com/custom/67cf4...
Minute Cryptic
Solve a clue with a hidden meaning
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November 26, 2025 at 8:24 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
My To Do list today went meta.

1. Monday’s to do list.
2. Tuesday’s to do list.
3. Everything the comes up on Wednesday.

#SENDCoLife
November 26, 2025 at 6:19 PM
drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
Regular followers of this project will probably have guessed that Chris & I are both huge fans of big public art projects. Tomorrow's TGT looks at The Kelpies which were finished 12 years ago. Ask your students what they think of them tomorrow.
bit.ly/TutorGroupThink
Thursday 27th November On this day 12 years ago the topping out ceremony for the sculpture ‘The Kelpies’ took place. The giant sculptures are located next to the Forth and Clyde Canal and the M9 motorway, acting as “proud equine guardians”. Each head is 30 metres high and weighs 300 tonnes. They are named for a mythological beast, said to possess the strength and stamina of ten horses. The sculptor, Andy Scott, said “The original concept given to me was of mythical water horses, but it shifted towards a more realistic socio-historical monument to celebrate the horse’s role in industry and agriculture” He created three metre versions in his studio, which were then 3D scanned and scaled up by steel fabricators. One million people visited in the first year alone. Are they art? How do they make you feel? Do you have any large sculptures near to you? Would you like to have sculptures like this near you, or is it a waste of public money? On this day 12 years ago the topping out ceremony for the sculpture ‘The Kelpies’ took place. The giant sculptures are located next to the Forth and Clyde Canal and the M9 motorway, acting as “proud equine guardians”. Each head is 30 metres high and weighs 300 tonnes. Are they art? How do they make you feel? Do you have any large sculptures near to you? Would you like to, or is it a waste of public money?
November 26, 2025 at 5:08 PM
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)
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🏆 0 hints – 3 under the community par (22,065 solvers so far).
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Minute Cryptic
Solve a clue with a hidden meaning
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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 · 3d
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 · 4d
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 · 5d
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 · 3d
“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