Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 12h

Scott, exasperated: Exactly how much time do you think you are going to spend naked in this game????

Me: Well I have every intention of romancing Astarion, so it's best to be prepared! 2/2

a close up of a man 's face with a beard wearing a denim jacket .

ALT: a close up of a man 's face with a beard wearing a denim jacket .

media.tenor.com

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 12h

I am finally caving and going to start playing BG3 with Scott. Tonight we were making my PC and they have soooooo many options to customize your character, including eight options for genitalia (three vulvas, five penises). 1/2

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 21h

We just digitized the copy of Sidney's letter to Queen Elizabeth, identified as the hand of the Feathery Scribe.

The coppye off a letter wrytten by Sr. Phillipp Sidnye to Queene Elizabeth, touchinge hir marryage, w[i]th Mounsieur : manuscript copy

Letter written approximately November-December 1579 advising the Queen against marriage to the Duc d'Anjou and Alençon for political, religious, and personal reasons. Copy, entirely in the secretary ...

digital.library.illinois.edu

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Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>

Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 1d

I wrote about Latvia’s state-sanctioned endorsement of a modern pagan religion - and what that may mean for Europe’s religious future drfrancisyoung.com/2025/10/10/p...

Pagan dawn: Europe’s first pagan state religion in 638 years?

Members of the Dievturi religion at the Latvian Saeima, 9 October 2025 © Dievturi Sadraudze On Thursday the Latvian Saeima (parliament) passed a rather unusual law that, predictably, has escaped no…

drfrancisyoung.com

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 2d

A v annoying morning, but two kids outside RBML saw the sign for the Sappho exhibit and said "Oh we have to see this" and then went inside, so now I have warm fuzzies!!

a man in a green jacket smiles while standing next to a car

ALT: a man in a green jacket smiles while standing next to a car

media.tenor.com

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 2d

Yeaaaaaaah, you're easy! :)

I'm still pondering weirdest. There's funniest, there's most entitled, but weirdest I'm struggling with...

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 2d

Trust me, not the weirdest request ever. (The hardest part will be if they have a good scale handy.)

::ponders what IS weirdest reference query ever::

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Suzanne Karr Schmidt @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social · 2d

Come get your fix at #NewberryLibrary!

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 3d

doomscroll break

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 2d

[incomplete thoughts about fear of books and power]

White Rose Resistance @whiteroseresistance.org · 3d

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 2d

I feel like we're so close to legislation on "is this a sandwich?" and they are being cowards about it. "Oat drink." Bah.

www.reuters.com

Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 3d

Bwahahaha!! New books!!

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Tolkien Society @tolkiensociety.org · 3d

New Tolkien Society publication!

Releasing on 25 November, "Númenor, the Mighty and Frail" includes 10 articles relating to Númenor, and its legacy. Edited by @willsherwood.bsky.social and published by @lunapress.bsky.social, it's now available to pre-order. www.tolkiensociety.org/2025/10/new-...

New Tolkien Society publication – <em>Númenor, The Mighty and Frail</em>

The Tolkien Society is pleased to announce that Númenor, the Mighty and Frail: Proceedings of The Tolkien Society Seminar 2023, the twenty-fifth book in the Peter Roe series, is now available to pre-o...

www.tolkiensociety.org

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Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>

Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 3d

We're settling in for @aelang.bsky.social's @scholarslab.bsky.social talk connecting literary studies w/explorations in 3D making to visualize, explore, inspire new approaches to interpreting & appreciating poetry. Lovely to see colleagues from the west coast & UK time zones! Livetweeting 🧵: +

aelang @aelang.bsky.social · 4d

For people wanting a distraction from the end of the world who are into critical making/literary DH/info viz/Dickinson, I'm giving a talk on 7 Oct (12pm EST/5pm GMT) at @scholarslab.bsky.social on plotspaces, a thing I invented to think about spatial imaginaries cal.lib.virginia.edu/event/15242444

a clear resin cube with text on one face and a curved design extending from another face in front of a window

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Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 4d

I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections

After Dinner Conversation® @afterdinnerconversation.com · 4d

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 5d

I laughed so hard.

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 5d

😭

IG newberlinlibrary

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 5d

Ah googling shows the editor wants to retire. Well okay, no one else wanted the job?

Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 5d

It's always weird when series end. (NB no reason is given why the series is being retired.)

What Was Best About the ‘Best American Poetry’?

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>

Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 6d

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”

Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 6d

Achievement unlocked: Covid vax!

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Dr Andrew Higgins @ashiggins.bsky.social · 7d

Good interview with @RichardOvenden on the upcoming release of the NEW #Tolkien book The Bovadium Fragments youtube.com/watch?v=IGuQ... @harpercollins.bsky.social

Richard Ovenden OBE talks Tolkien and The Bovadium Fragments

YouTube video by TolkienGuide

youtube.com

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 7d

Also my Big Bro Bestie was the one that told me the new Taytay album has a song about Kelce's dick, which means he had to 1) read at least one review in order to find something to razz me about and 2) the thing he picked was dick. 🤷‍♀️🎶

Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 7d

Great pics of the writing tablets at the article!!!!!!!!!

Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 7d

At Roman Isarnodurum in France, they discovered a # of wooden writing tablets and some really cute wooden shoes at a newly identified woodworking (lots of boxwood) workshop. The area is already known for comb-making and this is just a great Roman economic find. www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2025/10/r...

The two maple wood soles, belonging to shoes of the sculponae type (shoes with a wooden sole to which a piece of leather is nailed). Credit: Flore Giraud / Inrap

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👻madeline boOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 8d

piss off the racists, make the English kofte kebab from 1660

Danielle Clarke @rhetorician.bsky.social · 8d

Would anyone like to take a guess at the word before “kebob”? Which predates OED - ms is 1660

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 8d

“We are witnessing an unprecedented situation – really as far as I can tell in history – where a global leader of education and research is voluntarily dismantling that which gave it an advantage.”

Global academic freedom group warns Trump is dismantling US higher education

Report from Scholars at Risk counts some 40 attacks against academic freedom in the US in the first half of 2025

www.theguardian.com

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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 8d

My advisor's comment on one of my diss chapters: "What were you thinking here?"

Me, rereading: "What WAS I thinking here?????????"

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