Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Cormac Culkeen @cormacculkeen.bsky.social · 18h

Tired but buzzing. I won second prize in the Frances Browne Poetry Competition 2025 for my poem, Meteor. I'm a happy chappie!

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 2d

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

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Ian Duhig @ianduhig.bsky.social · 5d

What's clever about the old Irish carved turnip heads is they capture perfectly the makers' disgust at the commercialisation of Halloween.

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Cormac Culkeen @cormacculkeen.bsky.social · 11d

Very, very sad to learn of Brian Patten's death today. Gargling With Jelly changed my life when I was 11, and his poems always got to me at various points in life. Thank you.

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Cormac Culkeen @cormacculkeen.bsky.social · 12d

This joint press conference makes me want to take a baseball bat to the television. Absolutely sickening.

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Stone Circle Review @stonecirclereview.bsky.social · 17d

“Poets are the ones who can describe the guts of life. We have to use the language so demandingly, just to minimally preserve what makes us human. And you have to practice.”

-- C.D. Wright

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Patton Oswalt @pattonoswalt.bsky.social · Sep 12

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Ali Messer @freereed59.net · Sep 7

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I thought I was growing up in a racially tolerant Britain. I now realise I was wrong | Rohan Sathyamoorthy

I’ve experienced more racism in the past year than the rest of my life put together – the only answer is for young people to stand up to the far right, says writer Rohan Sathyamoorthy

www.theguardian.com

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Stone Circle Review @stonecirclereview.bsky.social · Sep 2

Obscurity is not profundity.

-- Mona Van Duyn

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Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · Sep 1

Sickening footage from Nuneaton tonight, where a Sky News interview with a local businessman was disrupted by racists hurling abuse.

Another local said, "Warwickshire Council Council has gone to Reform... It's given certain people a licence to be aggressive and racist."

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · Aug 28

Why, you might ask, do the BBC and Sky News, casting their editorial guidelines to the wind, keep giving massive airtime to the far right, while shutting out leftwing voices? Don't their bosses understand the likely consequences?
Only one explanation now remains.
They do.
And it is what they want.

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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · Aug 27

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Vintage Obscura Radio @vintageobscura.net · Aug 27

Chris & Cosey -- The Gates Of Ancient Cities [Ambient/Synth] (1982)
https://redd.it/7xduq0
https://youtu.be/l6p_0TfQMgg

Chris & Cosey -- The Gates Of Ancient Cities [Ambient/Synth] (1982)

youtu.be

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Aug 25

‘Are we, as Richard Seymour suggests, “in the early days of a new fascism”? In 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮, Seymour argues that in trying to understand the new far right, we have been looking in the wrong places.’

@trillingual.bsky.social on far-right populism:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Daniel Trilling · Is this fascism?

Are we, as Richard Seymour suggests, ‘in the early days of a new fascism’? In Disaster Nationalism, Seymour...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · Aug 25

Here's the problem - the right make up a story and the media plaster it everywhere.

The left tell a true story and the media ignore it.

The right hasn't actually 'hijacked' anything. The right have been given an open door while the left - the majority - are barricaded away.

Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · Aug 25

Spot on @johnharris1969.bsky.social. The Right are hijacking Englishness with narratives of exclusion, exceptionalism & imperial nostalgia,& progressives haven’t even got onto the bloody pitch. We urgently need to tell more compelling stories of who we are #AnotherEngland👇

Flags as symbols of prejudice, not pride – and a distinct air of menace. Welcome to England 2025 | John Harris

The rapid spread of these banners is unsettling – and shows how the hard right is reaching people and places the left cannot, says Guardian columnist John Harris

www.theguardian.com

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Hex Anderson @dexanderson.com · Aug 24

Someone needs to adopt this 16yo named Hope from the golden valley animal humane.

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Cormac Culkeen @cormacculkeen.bsky.social · Aug 22

And it's off to the Drumshanbo Written Word Festival we go. My first poetry workshop. Wish me luck...

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LindaAnn LoSchiavo @ghostlyverse.bsky.social · Aug 20

#PoetryCommunity
📢 CALL TO SUBMIT from Poetry Ireland Review
🌐 International subs welcome!
✒️ Poetry
⏰ Send after 9-1-2025 ⏰
💲$50 - $100/piece

@hwany.org @sfpoetry.bsky.social
@emteepoetry.bsky.social
@csecooney.bsky.social
@kimwhysallhammond.bsky.social
www.poetryireland.ie/writers/subm...

Submissions to Poetry Ireland Review | Poetry Ireland

Find out how to submit your work to Poetry Ireland Review.

www.poetryireland.ie

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Cormac Culkeen @cormacculkeen.bsky.social · Aug 20

TV news people. It's 'nuclear.' Noo cleer. Not 'nucular.'

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Cormac Culkeen @cormacculkeen.bsky.social · Aug 20

As a Bryan Ferry devotee I find this all rather terrifying and pointless.

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Cormac Culkeen @cormacculkeen.bsky.social · Aug 20

"The mere idea of genetic or locational virtue has been, outside of religion, the main source of mayhem and death since the world began."

Jim Harrison

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Lisa Diedrich @lisadiedrich.bsky.social · Aug 16

Sally Rooney: “I would happily publish this statement in a UK newspaper–but that would now be illegal. The present UK Gov has willingly stripped its own citizens of basic rights & freedoms, including the right to express & read dissenting opinions, in order to protect its relationship with Israel.”

The Irish Times @irishtimes.com · Aug 16

Sally Rooney: I support Palestine Action. If this makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it

I would happily publish this statement in a UK newspaper – but that would now be illegal

www.irishtimes.com

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Cormac Culkeen @cormacculkeen.bsky.social · Aug 11

If it looks like a coup, and sounds like a coup, well.....

NoSacredCowFla @nosacredcowfla.bsky.social · Aug 11

This sociopathic paranoid narcissist is going to declare himself Emperor of DC. I just know it. It won't be long til he's wandering around the White House roof wearing a gold bathrobe and sneakers holding a gold painted toilet plunger scepter...

'Jump' can be heard
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...