Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Auntie Syzygy

@auntiesyzygy.bsky.social

1.2K followers 920 following 4.5K posts

Hermit pensioner & forager. Former indexer. Scottish Statehood, Greek & Greece, Bee Orchids & the Bronze Age. Nobody should own land as if it was a thing.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · Nov 1

It occurs to me that, being newly here, I should maybe explain my name. It comes from Caledonian Antisyzygy - a perceived characteristic of Scots literature (and presbyterian theology) to see the bad in the good. I think we Scots tend to second-guess ourselves, and our lack of confidence hampers us.

4 7 61

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · 2h

I think folk who knit find that with knitting. They can somehow absorb conversation better. Same with radio or podcasts if you're walking or whatever. I wonder why that's not true of TV?

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · 2h

The way some of us have the radio on at home all the time or by default, and just dip into it or occupy a strand of your mind while you're doing something else. Yes. (I just mean they are radio, or increasingly TV, not anything new, as the three of us talking just now is new, and shatteringly magic)

1 1

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · 3h

pps and sorry to ramble on, meant to say at the start - so in the linked article I personally don't favour podcasts as being new in the terms that interest me. They're broadcast. It's just that listeners and viewers of online things have more choice what they listen and view, and maybe more input.

1 2

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · 3h

ps I was involved in making learning materials for UHI before it started - academics enthused about the way the tech let them lecture to students in Orkney and Lewis at the same time. I said it also lets someone in Orkney discuss with someone in Lewis, they may not want to listen to you any more
3/3

1 2

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · 3h

Once the net let anyone talk to anyone, it should have put us in touch with each other. And I think it could have done that, and still could. What stops it is that each new tech is colonised by the same people or class and also gets marketised, and that's why they become the same.
2 of 3

1 2

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · 3h

I studied TV a bit in the 1970s and the late (and I think, great) Brian Winston said the main difference between TV and real life is you can play TV back. The other big difference, TV is one-way, like lectures and radio. Even with audience participation or vox pops.
1/2

1 1

Reposted by Auntie Syzygy

Gordon Guthrie @foundationsofthedigitalstate.com · 6h

www.derekthompson.org/p/why-everyt...

Everything Is Television

A theory of culture and attention

www.derekthompson.org

1 3 2

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · 4h

The second, I fear. We can always hope, tho. 🤞

Reposted by Auntie Syzygy

🦇🧛‍♂️Bram Stoker’s GuitarMoogula🧛‍♂️🦇 @guitarmoog.bsky.social · 17h

A step closer to requiring exit visas, or a no-fly list for opponents of the regime (which is effectively the same thing).

David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING:

"Just landed."

Mark Bray confirms to me this morning that he and his family did, on the second attempt, make it out of the US and to Spain

www.wired.com/story/mark-b...

He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US

Rutgers historian Mark Bray is trying to flee to Spain after after an online campaign from far-right influencers was followed by death threats. He was turned back at the airport on his first attempt.

www.wired.com

3 9

Reposted by Auntie Syzygy

Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 5h

Yes, totally agree, the garden/gut biome paradigm feels very significant. I’m not entirely no dig but my gardening practice has definitely shifted towards mulch feeding, though more recently than you.

1 3

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · 5h

Good crop. Sad about the skin. I'm told they are good bakers, tho never grew them. Ate the last of my tatties, and having the last of my plot-grown greens for tea tonight, so I just have the two tubs of frozen blueberries and then I'll be cast back into the land of shop-bought fruit and veg.

Reposted by Auntie Syzygy

🌱 Tony's Allotment Tales 🌱🏴 Israel doesn't do ceasefires @tonyjw.bsky.social · 19h

I finally got round to harvesting my Caledonian Rose maincrop potatoes today, it's a good yield from a 3 sq m bed but they're well scabby due to the drought, so jacket potatoes are unlikely to be on the menu.
#allotmentlife 🌱

A crate full of red potatoes in my shed, it looks like quite a lot, maybe 25kg which is good considering how dry it was, I only watered them a few times in August.

4 2 61

Reposted by Auntie Syzygy

His Royal Huwness @litterygeniarse.bsky.social · 6h

This is never discussed by our broadcast news organisations.
Privatisation will inevitably take out PROFIT.
If nobofy will talk about it then we're being bilked.

2 6 6

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · 5h

Good effect on the liver, I find. The grounds are said to be ungood tho. But the philhellene in me likes it muddy 😋

(side thing, I noticed that we seem to have only recently discovered the importance of both soil bacteria and gut bacteria. Changed my eating and gardening ideas ~20yrs ago)

1 1

Reposted by Auntie Syzygy

Josep Goded (New Main Account) @josepgoded2.bsky.social · 6h

During the night, Israeli occupation warplanes launched intense airstrikes on the Al-Musaylih area in southern Lebanon.

2 22 20

Reposted by Auntie Syzygy

The Delicious Legacy Podcast @deliciouslegacy.bsky.social · 2d

Read this article (and Julian's book!) and listen to the podcast about Balkan cuisine here coz we are more beauty and food and culture rather than war!

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

1 4 13

Reposted by Auntie Syzygy

Jennifer Molidor @jennifermolidor.bsky.social · 1d

Hanging onto every bit of good news

The river has come alive in the Klamath with wild Chinook salmon. The wider ecosystem is healing.

This most powerful story of Indigenous-led #rewilding after the largest dam removal in US history keeps getting better.

lostcoastoutpost.com/2025/oct/9/o...

One Year After Klamath Dam Removal, 'There's Just Fish Jumping All Over the Place': Scientists Describe Improvements to Water Quality and Wildlife

lostcoastoutpost.com

6 260 660

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · 5h

The allotment site where I had my plot (sadly, just had to give it up, old age etc) gets huge amounts of coffee grounds from cafes in town and our serious composters (none as serious as you!) spoke well of it. I think most of my coffee grounds end up inside me, where the effect is less beneficial.

1 1

Reposted by Auntie Syzygy

Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 3d

If university marketing had any guts they’d use this as a recruitment tool and watch their applications soar.

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 3d

Studying the language and literature that has helped to define our nation at home and around the world for centuries is a "rip-off" apparently

1 2 5

Reposted by Auntie Syzygy

Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 1d

Critics say the move to axe Bill Clinton’s "roadless rule" that protected key old-growth forests will be devastating to the environment.

Outcry as Trump plots more roads and logging in US forests: ‘You can almost hear the chainsaws’

www.theguardian.com

6 56 74

Reposted by Auntie Syzygy

Boze the Library Owl @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social · 16h

I find it bleak that ChatGPT now has more users than Wikipedia. Many people would rather be spoon-fed information by a machine than read and research for themselves. Tech isn't just making us dumber. Worse than that: it's killing curiosity itself and the desire to learn.

39 210 1K

Reposted by Auntie Syzygy

Andy Marshall @fotofacade.bsky.social · 1d

✨When I first stood with camera and tripod at St Michael’s, Upton Cressett, I lost the urge to press the shutter — spending a divine half hour simply watching light drift over the arc of the chancel arch. Here's the view of what I saw...

Sunlight pours through a narrow lancet window at St Michael’s Church, Upton Cressett, illuminating the simple altar and patterned floor beneath a dramatic Norman chancel arch.

4 12 84

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · 5h

Beautiful.

Auntie Syzygy @auntiesyzygy.bsky.social · 5h

And a hidden mechanism in that, the way the NHS uses agency or private providers to deal with overload tasks, and that costs so much it uses up a disproportionate amount of the dept's £ and they have to cut staff, which leads to more outside providers. Cataract surgery being privatised this way atm.

1 1