Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · 2d

Bloody hell this is incredible!

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · 9d

I mean, I am not sure I could have kept quiet about it. Not least because it means Kat is now only one degree of separation from the last pope!

1

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · 9d

And if you know Kat, you will be aware that that is no mean feat. Anyway, thanks very much for book Tricia, and I'm glad to hear that the grindup.com is still going strong!

5

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · 9d

When Kat got home was v.excited and extremely keen to tell the story and give me the book right away, but I'm v.hardcore about not getting presents early, so I refused both the present and the telling of its acquisition. Which has meant she's managed to keep it bottle up for nearly two weeks.

2 7

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · 9d

Who explained that the book wasn't out for another two days. But, presumably on seeing Kat's disappointment, she then went on to pull out her own copy from her bag, and *gave it to Kat*!

2 6

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · 9d

This was partially because there were a couple of folks having a conversation in front of the shelf where it could have been. Kat politely asked if she could take a look, only for one of them to turn round and actually *be* Tricia herself.

1 2

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · 9d

I feel like Kat is underselling her encounter with @tricialockwood.bsky.social here. You might think this was taken at a signing event or similar. Not so! Kat had gone to the bookshop to buy Tricia's book for my birthday, and was having trouble finding it.

John Information @katstevens.bsky.social · 9d

@tricialockwood.bsky.social I've finally given Rick his copy of Will There Ever Be Another You (from your secret corner of the LRB bookshop)! Thank you again 💙

Me randomly bumping into Patricia Lockwood the other week

Patricia points to the her books in the LRB bookshop

1 2 36

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · 13d

Any night out where you get to wang on abt Bell inequalities while having it large is a good one IMO

1 3

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · 25d

These are awesome! They make me v.nostalgic for the horrors that ppl came up with on SwiftKey hack days. Some got released as working April fools' (e.g. Tilt and Flow Hard) but my all time fave was the one that enabled you to type in morse code by plugging and unplugging the headphone jack.

5

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · 28d

And also I have definitely aged much more noticeably in those last ten years - I blame the Tunnicliffe neck genes

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · 28d

FWIW ten years ago I had folks I worked with being staggered I was in my late thirties as well. I think a combo of cleaner air in cities, wearing sunscreen, and either not having kids, or having them later all make a difference as well.

1

Reposted by RickyT

doop @doop.bsky.social · Sep 5

Me whenever someone says “what do you mean, oh look another one of the RCP crew?”

The Pepe Silvia meme: a crazed-looking man explaining a conspiracy theory while standing in front of a corkboard covered in pieces of paper and red string

1 5

Reposted by RickyT

Hazel Southwell @hazelsouthwell.bsky.social · Aug 27

Urgent: me and him and the cats need somewhere to live within the next two weeks, I've just been (I think very unfairly) fired and need to move somewhere ASAP

53 78 80

Reposted by RickyT

neotl @ctrlcreep.bsky.social · Aug 25

The garden care manual for gardens is about reconciling adversarial internal systems. It begins with exercises for identifying sub-personalities, and follows those with integration meditation. It's considered a psychohazard

1 6 26

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · Aug 19

I am extremely excited about this!

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · Aug 12

Is it leaking, or just dripping? Asking cos fixing the latter might be doable yrself...

1

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · Aug 12

Can we turn this government off and on again, it seems to have got into an inconsistent state?

michael veale @michae.lv · Aug 12

In a new digital twist to environmental individualisation of responsibility, the UK government is now advising people to “[d]elete old emails and pictures” in data centres to help with the current drought. www.gov.uk/government/n...

HOW TO SAVE WATER AT HOME
Install a rain butt to collect rainwater to use in the garden.

Fix a leaking toilet – leaky loos can waste 200-400 litres a day.

Use water from the kitchen to water your plants.

Avoid watering your lawn – brown grass will grow back healthy.

Turn off the taps when brushing teeth or shaving.

Take shorter showers.

Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems.

1 1 2

Reposted by RickyT

Jamie McKelvie @mckelvie.bsky.social · Aug 8

This is an attempt to remove trans people from public life and no other spin on it should be accepted.

Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ @leftiestats.bsky.social · Aug 7

🚨 BREAKING | Labour is set to impose a sweeping ban on trans people using any "single-sex space".

In EHRC guidance that Labour is set to approve, trans people will be barred from accessing toilets, gyms and changing rooms that match their gender.

(Source: @TheTimes)

2 160 320

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · Aug 3

FWIW, I wish there was something less problematic out there than LLMs-as-they-currently-exist and I don't use them for writing. But as a mediocre writer who often struggles with expressing himself as smoothly as he'd like to, I have a lot of sympathy for unconfident writers who are tempted by them.

1 1

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · Aug 3

...let alone composing a eulogy, which is a very particular style of speech that I'd almost certainly struggle with!

1

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · Aug 3

Some of the posts reacting to it were saying things about automatically looking down on anyone who would use a tool to help them in these situations and I dunno, it just seemed to display a lack of empathy or understanding that some folks find even relatively simple writing tasks daunting...

1

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · Aug 3

Well, this post was in the context of the reaction to AI assisted eulogies, where it's likely a case of a grieving person wanting to write the words, but not feeling confident enough to make the words do their subject justice.

2

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · Aug 3

...and it's like a door back to a world and time that you thought was long gone, except it's also simultaneously fresh and new and wonderful. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uHs...

Hydra

YouTube video by Movietone - Topic

www.youtube.com

2

RickyT @boyofbadgers.bsky.social · Aug 3

One of the best presents your past self can give you is for them to have ignored an album by a previously loved artist because someone said it wasn't worth bothering shelling out for. And now thanks to the magic of the internet your current self can finally get around to listening to it...

1 2

Reposted by RickyT

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · Aug 3

There is a really ugly bit of this website that rears its head whenever anything might be made easier for people who don’t enjoy reading and writing, let alone actively struggle with it.

1 13