Nansen back on his radiator sofa. Radiator isn’t on. He doesn’t care.
#caturday #catsofmastodon
Remote
Luke
@wlukewindsor@c.im
mastodon 4.7.2Professor and Dean. Cyclist. Father. Partner. Lapsed musician. Not necessarily in that order. Or in any order. Also: Friendly weirdo. “Benign tyrant”.
He/Him.
Avatar is a selfie of a bearded cyclist riding along a Cheshire lane at the happier end of a failed 600km Audax. Header is an action photo of the same twit in 2026 in a forest near Gränne in Sweden.
577 Followers
620 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 07, 2022
My old and somewhat embarrassing blog:
google scholar profile:
RE: https://c.im/@wlukewindsor/116651254366085922
Evergreen reminder that the UK government has created this problem.
I see there are calls for even higher fees to offset our lack of public expenditure on higher education. The problem sits with successive governments’ offloading of tertiary education funding to ‘consumers’ rather than spreading cost across all taxpayers. The assumption that the only beneficiaries of HE are students is wrong, and has material consequences in the creation of one of the most torturous, fiscally regressive and wasteful HE funding systems in the world.
Quoting
Whilst it may be that some Universities in the UK have engineered their own problems here is a sobering quote from the OECD: “In Chile, only 47% of tertiary education expenditure comes from government sources, and in the United Kingdom, it is just 43%, the lowest across OECD and partner countries with data”.
https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/education-at-a-glance-2025_1c0d9c79-en/full-report/how-is-tertiary-education-financed_2845d742.html
(The US spends, for example, about four times as much public money relative to GDP as we do on Higher Education BTW, twice as much if you include R and D spend).
That’s a governmental choice, driving the whole show. Combined with the cap on home UG fees and an unfriendly visa regime this isn’t a sustainable model for students or providers.
#UKEducation #HigherEducation
Open quoted postThere’s a really good article on quitting in the recent edition of Arrivée (the Audax UK magazine). Not available online yet will post a link when it is.
#cycling #audax #audaxuk #biketooter #pbp2027
Nansen wanted a cuddle 🥰
#catsofmastodon
Haha repeat after me 11 speed MTB cassettes need a spacer on an 11 speed road hub. This is the second time I have failed to pay attention to this basic fact.
#cycling #BikeTooter
Nansen earlier today #caturday #CatsOfMastodon
Spoilers (mild) and discussion of murder and bicycles
Nansen hiding from the storm
Nansen is risen
Replying to
@ascentale@sfba.social @bikenite@fedigroups.social A4 I’ve flown with a full size bike in a soft bag and a semi-rigid bag (hard bottom and frame) but never a Brompton. I think most Airlines wouldn’t want something that heavy in an overhead. I would probably check it as hold luggage, they are pretty robust? I’ll ask my partner how she travelled with hers to Sweden a few years ago…
I’m taking my partly disassembled full size bike in a cardboard box in a few weeks to Sweden (it’s a long story) with plenty of bubble wrap. The box will be disposed of on arrival. It’s a bit wasteful but the logistics otherwise don’t work (I’d normally leave my bag in left luggage).
#bikenite
https://britain.votes.now/local-elections/live/may-26/manchester-election
We may now be surrounded by a depressing sea of light blue but I am delighted to say my friend @samsterby@mastodon.green was elected in neighbouring Old Moat and we have a new Green councillor here in Withington, Beth Hartness. Both with sizeable majorities and huge swings.
Only a third of the council was up for grabs which was lucky for Labour who retain overall control.
I did absolute nothing except vote, which I am a bit ashamed about.
Whilst it may be that some Universities in the UK have engineered their own problems here is a sobering quote from the OECD: “In Chile, only 47% of tertiary education expenditure comes from government sources, and in the United Kingdom, it is just 43%, the lowest across OECD and partner countries with data”.
https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/education-at-a-glance-2025_1c0d9c79-en/full-report/how-is-tertiary-education-financed_2845d742.html
(The US spends, for example, about four times as much public money relative to GDP as we do on Higher Education BTW, twice as much if you include R and D spend).
That’s a governmental choice, driving the whole show. Combined with the cap on home UG fees and an unfriendly visa regime this isn’t a sustainable model for students or providers.
#UKEducation #HigherEducation
Replying to
@pete@masto.hypertelia.com I was once passed on Mont Ventoux by a dog in a trailer and also by a dog in seatpost mounted carrier on the Camerig in Limburg. I am always slower than a dog on a bike.
Replying to
Replying to
@ascentale@sfba.social @bikenite@fedigroups.social A8 the valleys and hills of Calderfornia seen from the Rochdale canal and cobbles betwixt Littleborough and Manchester…
Too much pressure in my tyres so I am feeling it today.
#bikenite #calderfornia
My new rando bag is much longer and wider than my old one but much less high. This turns out to be good. It also enables me to do without a decaleur yet is quieter and more stable. Second hand of course, but almost new: the only thing I don’t like is the fidlock attachment plate, straps would be better (I tend not to remove my bag from the bike during rides). My rack is only just long enough to work with the attachment plate. Gilles Berthoud make both cotton and x-pac decaleur-less rando bags but they are even more expensive than their standard bags.
The key to a good rando bag is being big enough to hold everything for a 600, including clothes you may need to take off and put on again. So it needs to cope with being both full and half empty. And it needs to be openable back to front with one hand. This one does all that.
The one I bought isn’t made any more so no point me trying to big them up - the design favours a Specialized pizza rack, and those were discontinued too. Possibly those two facts are related.
Made in Yorkshire (Leeds) by Restrap, anyway, some shops still have a few if you have a from rack and fancy something different and the geometry of your bike works OK with a front load.
Replying to
@oheso@ieji.de I managed not to pack anything unacceptable but it does mean I have to open my bike box without scissors or a blade ;-)
So my spare tube was the item that made them hand check my bag this morning. The valve is hard to identify on the scan apparently, everything else was OK because I had taken it out for the visual check on the tray (including a qr skewer and Allen keys).
#cycling #BikeTootet #flyingwithbikes
Finally beginning to see the bigger changes I expected from giving up alcohol. One year in. It takes that long. Mainly physical, but also psychological.
Although I miss some aspects of drinking I can now clearly see the benefits of stopping: but I haven’t turned into an anti-drink crusader. I feel bizarrely at peace with it. I’d been drinking a long time, but like giving up tobacco it’s never too late I guess.
Replying to
@ascentale@sfba.social @bikenite@fedigroups.social Brompton was hold luggage in a cut down soft bike bag
Nansen really loves this nest of Challenge tyres. Nothing but the best for him as always.
#CatsOfMastodon
Replying to
@oheso@ieji.de @bucknam@mastodon.social @ascentale@sfba.social @bikenite@fedigroups.social I have gone from washing bikes with a bucket, dish soap and sponges to having access to a garden tap outside (and a hose) and it’s been revolutionary - but both approaches worked fine. Having to fill up a bucket inside repeatedly is a drag but I could bear it. When my kids and ex-partner were racing cyclocross I did all the bike washing without a hose or pressure washer which was major effort. Getting water to the bike is the hard bit and making that easier is a game changer however it is achieved.
Replying to
@mattpedals@mastodon.online @pete@masto.hypertelia.com the one in a seat post was a tiny handbag dog - the one on Ventoux could have been anything given my state of disarray but a brandy would have been nice 👌
Replying to
@cymplecy@fosstodon.org we are just off to Decathlon to buy some garden chairs, I both love and hate it
Watched the whole of the Deutsche Oper Berlin production of Das Rhinegold last night with @runpaintrunrun@c.im (research for her, purely pleasure for me)
Loge stole the show
Replying to
@albertcardona And it’s especially unsustainable in the case of postgraduate research, where cost recoveries hover around 50%(?!) despite high international fees and a staggeringly high proportion of international recruits.
Lots of reasons for this, but the UK has one of the lowest levels of public investment in higher education in the world and very high levels of reliance on student fee income (Source: OECD).
In the case of postgraduate research part of the problem is that UKRI will only pay a home fee for PGRs on government studentships (despite insisting we also recruit internationally) and the level they will pay institutions is much lower than even a taught home postgraduate fee (and is a de facto cap on home PGR fees). Not exactly a recipe for funding future talent. Recoveries even for UKRI-funded PGRs don’t each 80%…
Universities therefore treat PGR as an essential investment, but one which is in effect cross-subsidised by international taught postgraduate recruitment.
I am relieved to say that despite all this most of our PGRs seem relatively content with many aspects of their time with us (according to both the PRES and International Student Barometer). A lot of effort goes into that. And we don’t tend to use agents for PGR recruitment.
Replying to
@steveroyle@biologists.social @tomstafford@mastodon.online AKA Dorian Gray ;-)
I have an official picture that has no beard and is from 10 years ago.
Replying to
Replying to
@markn @ascentale @daihard @bikenite https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/ai-unpopular-in-america-new-nbc-poll/ Gen AI may be less popular than we think from our interactions with others (a lot of people I know feel they have to self-censor their negative views on AI at work and with their friends)
Replying to
@albertcardona Postgraduate Researcher (i.e., doctoral candidate, PhD student)
Postgraduate Research Experience Survey
Post kids Easter party (very quiet now).
Great piñata from @runpaintrunrun@c.im again! I have no pictures as I was holding the rope.
Ties started dying out in Universities a long time ago and I have been openly mocked for being a tie enthusiast (including by one vice-chancellor). Yesterday a number of colleagues told me they loved my tie which I wore at a careers event. I’ve been wearing one less and I think it’s a shame that I am succumbing to a bizarre belief that not wearing a tie somehow erases class or gender privilege (or that choosing to wear one signifies meritocratic ascension). A tie is part of a costume for sure, but it signifies many things, and can just be fashion…
I wore one today for an online meeting.
Is the tie dead? Fashion connoisseurs hope not as House of Lords relaxes rules https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/18/is-the-tie-dead-fashion-connoisseurs-house-of-lords-relaxes-rules?CMP=share_btn_url
Replying to
@oheso@ieji.de 😬
I actually have a spare skewer and multitool in the box box as well going for redundancy over weight 🙀
Replying to
@steveroyle@biologists.social @tomstafford@mastodon.online I keep having to change my profile pictures (and abandon my caricature) when I decide to shave off my beard. I can’t keep track of different beardless and bearded versions, never mind keep my Zwift avatar semi-realistic ;-)
People find it very confusing especially those that only see me very occasionally…
Replying to on mastodon.social
@MatthewNewell@mastodon.social @markn@mastodonapp.uk @fullywoolly@mastodon.social @Pionir@mastodon.online Some organisers still require them and most don’t (they used to be compulsory on PBP and this trickled down to Audax UK regs but that was an age ago). You can check each event in the calendar…
Very few events now require mudguards but they are still commonplace.
Welcome to the weirdness of Audax UK.
Replying to
Although Binface vs Farage is very funny, I think it is an also a sign that democracy is now truly broken in the UK and a dangerous distraction from the urgent issues facing us a nation.
We and the media are the problem here. If we can’t take the issues facing the UK seriously, why should the politicians that represent us. Satire is very powerful but not if it becomes the main event.
The correct response is not to contest the election at all (as the serious parties have concluded): Farage wins by default and is investigated as an MP without all this politics as spectacle.
Not at the beach
Replying to
@cymplecy@fosstodon.org I am amazed this is the first time you have been in a Decathlon!