Seb Schmoller

@schmoller

Wrote/ran TUC courses for union reps. Led Sheffield College's ed tech. Led ALT. Did techish consulting. Chaired Sheffield College's Board. Now finishing a maths degree, walking a Border Collie, and facing up to heart surgery. Politics, outdoors, Sheffield.

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Bluesky

¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y schmoller.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· 18d

We FE teachers tried to tell Sheffield City Council this in 1987 during a very protracted dispute that included a half day strike by well over 1000 people, a mass meeting in Sheffield City Hall, and a brief occupation of the Town Hall. (I kept the badge.)

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· 19d

Global Response needed to Elon Musk @newrepublic.com piece by Bill McKibben/Toby Buckle. 'When one far-right British politician called for the prosecution of officials who “placed dangerous third world savages in our communities,” Musk replied: “This is the way.”' newrepublic.com/article/2119...

As the bedlam raged in Belfast after the stabbing—resulting in far-right rioters torching cars, buses, and even the homes of immigrants—Musk egged it on. Using X—the platform he acquired precisely for moments like these—he posted locations for groups of rioters to congregate. He elevated vile, overtly fascist and white-supremacist exhortations. When one far-right British politician called for the prosecution of officials who “placed dangerous third world savages in our communities,” Musk replied: “This is the way.”

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· 21d

Location below. Nearly an hour long call (20 minute wait, then 30 minute conversation) to get Yorkshire Water person to commit to some kind of warning signs and fencing pending removal of the sewage. I'll believe it when I see it.

Ordnance survey map of part of the Gleadless Valley.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· 21d

What looks like sh*t flowing into a gulley feeding the Meers Brook just below Abney Drive and Callow Flats in Sheffield's Gleadless Valley, a couple of metres from a public path. (Presence of straw bales indicates the Yorkshire Water might be "attending to the problem". But warning signs? Nope.)

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· 22d

White-tailed bumblebee on knapweed below Newfield and Talbot Schools in Sheffield's Gleadless Valley today.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· 23d

The SW flank of Chrome Hill (425m) in the Peak District, just S of Buxton yesterday. A really satisfying ridge walk.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· 26d

Interesting and thoughtful review by George Constantinides of @sarahoconnorft.ft.com's "We Are Not Machines: The Fight for the Future of Work": constantinides.net/2026/07/16/w...

Perhaps the book’s most compelling case study is the Dutch home-care organisation Buurtzorg. Its model relies on small, self-managing teams of nurses who take holistic responsibility for the entire care process. A highly trained nurse might administer complex medication, dress a wound, and then make the patient a sandwich. Viewed through a strictly Taylorist lens, making a sandwich is a gross misallocation of expensive skill and ought to be delegated to cheaper labour. Viewed as part of human care, however, it becomes an opportunity to observe how that person is living and assess their broader needs. The simple task is inseparable from the skilled one.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· 27d

(Having a sort-out.)The Cunard White Star label on Tanya Kent's portable Underwood typewriter on the journey from Uruguay to Britain via Halifax in Novia Scotia in November 1945.

Label from a portable typewriter, which traveled from Halifax to Southampton in November 1945.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· 29d

Here's the Norwegian weather service's representation of this week's weather at Chester Zoo: www.yr.no/en/forecast/... (yr.no is more or less the only weather forecasting system I use)

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jul 11

...... nine years earlier (www.ft.com/content/9c12...):

While other university vice-chancellors have run for cover after a summer assault on their high pay and perks, George Holmes has revved up his Bentley and gone into battle.
Professor Holmes, who is vice-chancellor of the University of Bolton and drives a Bentley Continental, also has a 30ft yacht moored on Windermere and believes academics should not hide their wealth.
“I have had a very successful career. I hope students use their education to get a good job and then they can have a Bentley. Do you want to be taught by someone who is successful or a failure?” he said.
Prof Holmes’ taste for luxury is partly funded through an inheritance from his father, a property developer, but he also earned £222,120 in 2016, up from £202,500 the year before.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jul 5

Hogweed on the middle level of the capped municipal tip in Sheffield's Gleadless Valley:

Hogweed: middle level of capped refuse tip in Sheffield's Gleadless Valley.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jul 5

From the archive. 8" 32kB double density floppy disk.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jul 4

Common spotted orchid in an unimproved meadow between Barlow and the Dronfield bypass.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jul 2

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and her government department leave X.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 30

A couple of months later, a different part of the same meadow is stuffed with betony flowers:

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 30

"The One Very Simple Reason A.I. Won’t Steal All Our Jobs". Not yet, anyway. But it'll do a lot else. A guest essay by @zey.bsky.social that's really worth reading: www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/o...

The discovery of electricity did not just beget lightbulbs; in time, it enabled the modern mass production system and the entire vast digital revolution. A.I.’s transformations may be even more sweeping. But generative A.I. as it currently exists cannot easily replace human beings, because it cannot manifest human intelligence. That won’t stop it, however, from destabilizing society in ways more profound than we might even imagine. The sooner we update the way we think about the current state of A.I., the sooner we can all stop freaking out about the wrong things — and start preparing ourselves for the ways it really will transform our world.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 28

I agree. These beech nuts similarly.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 27

"Killing Keir and admiring Andy". Observant piece by @davidsonofaaron.bsky.social. The point that people project things onto Burnham without much evidence is a good one. substack.com/@davidaarono...

Burnham has some good people around him. Maybe he will do what Starmer couldn’t and tell a story which will allow him to sell hard choices to the British people in exchange for their believing in future benefit. But there are as many indications that he won’t do that as there are that he will.

Well, we’ll soon find out.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 25

Beech mast (very early??) in the cool of Cat Lane Woods, below Newfield School in Sheffield's Gleadless Valley:

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 23

Oystercatcher on Piel Island off Barrow-in-Furness.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 20

Collie Bella looking North towards Derwent Water coming down from Glaramara (783m) to Seathwaite in Cumbria.

B the Collie looking N towards Derwent Water from below Glaramara in Cumbria.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 18

Looking West towards High Street from Knipe Moor near Bampton in Cumbria yesterday:

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 16

Collie Bella takes a nap in the ruins of Shap Abbey, 5km on foot SW from Bampton in Cumbria.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 13

Fell pony foal and mare, in Ravenstonedale, Cumbria today.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 11

Vivid lichen and some (happy to be corrected!) Northern Marsh Orchids above Keld at the western end of North Yorkshire. (Earlier, a pair of Short Eared Owls, close by, quartering the moorland between the Tan Hill Inn - England's highest at 530m - and Keld.)

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 10

Incredible mass of leaf-bearing shoots on this old and ideally located Alder tree above Reeth in North Yorkshire.

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 9

Yes. This @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social piece by @danhayesjourno.bsky.social made my day: www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/is-the-best-...

Is the best restaurant in Sheffield run by students?

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 4

If moulds and fungi are your thing. (On a stump on a Meers Brook feeder in Lees Hall Woods in Sheffield's Gleadless Valley.)

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 2

A longish piece by @davidsonofaaron.bsky.social, prompted by last week's essay by Tony Blair: substack.com/@davidaarono...

An AI image of a poster - "Britain out of the shit"

Seb Schmoller@schmoller· Jun 1

Predictably: