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Doc Sarah Lonsdale

@sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social

2.6K followers 1.9K following 1.6K posts

Mostly books, history & nature. Politics, 48%. Lecturer, History of journalism. My new book, Wildly Different, about women and the wild is out in the wild! A Financial Times "Best Books" for Summer 2025 "Heartfelt, uplifting" - Brigit Strawbridge

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Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · Mar 2

Who wants to read about the first woman keeper of insects at London Zoo, and how she cut her way out of a giant spider's web with her nail file? Evelyn Cheesman, the second of the five women in my book:
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2025/03...

Women's History Month - Evelyn Cheesman - Manchester University Press

To mark Women’s History Month and the publication of her new book Wildly different, we asked historian Sarah Lonsdale to profile the five pioneering women she focuses on, bringing their fascinating st...

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

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Rowan Hooper @rowhoop.bsky.social · 2h

Weapons-grade trolling by the Norwegians here

Reuters @reuters.com · 3h

'When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,' the Norwegian Nobel Committee said as it announced Maria Corina Machado as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

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Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 4h

FT: "The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela's main opposition leader, who is in hiding."

Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 6h

#otd in 2004, for the first time, a Black African woman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Wangari Maathai's award had come at a terrible price including physical abuse and imprisonment. Her crime? Planting 30 million trees and exposing corruption. 👇

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2025/03...

Women's History Month - Wangari Maathai - Manchester University Press

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

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Rob Bryher @robbryher.bsky.social · 16h

WE RAN OUT OF TIME FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

says Fiona Bruce at the end of Question Time

*Green Party bingo cards explode across the nation*

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Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 1d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 15h

He's probably going to expel Norway too tomorrow when he doesn't win the Nobel Peace Prize

Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 22h

It's easy for we writers and academics, absorbed as we get in our own projects over the summer to forget what an absolute joy and privilege it is to teach the young. We may be overworked and our vice-chancellors may give the impression they're trying to kill us with stress but gosh it's rewarding.

Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 1d

This powerful JB Pritzker response to Trump's lawless threats is another reminder of what I tried to argue this morning: Pritzker understands Stephen Miller's theory of this moment, and he's responding accordingly:

newrepublic.com/article/2014...

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Bevan Thomas @bevanthomas.bsky.social · 1d

In “Gulliver’s Travels" by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver encountered many inventors with foolish inventions on Balnibarbi Island, including a device for randomly creating sentences so that even people with no talent can write books. Thus predicting generative AI several centuries early.
#WyrdWednesday

A map of the island of Balnibarbi, from "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift.

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Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 1d

@britishmuseum.bsky.social

Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 1d

Perfect, time to get Professor Alice Roberts over!

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Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 1d

They do to my inexpert eye!

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Coraline Jortay 喬海霖 @qiaoj.bsky.social · 3d

This is Nobel Week and, like clockwork, people are speculating about Can Xue 残雪 again -- so reposting this little thread in French about a very deserving contender who remains vastly undertranslated in the Francophone world

Coraline Jortay 喬海霖 @qiaoj.bsky.social · Oct 10

Alors que l'autrice chinoise Can Xue est une fois de plus favorite pour le Prix Nobel de littérature, largement traduite et primée dans le monde anglophone et au Japon, son oeuvre reste méconnue en France : les deux seules traductions (épuisées) datent de... 1992 et 2001 !

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Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 1d

Like most optimists I often think stones and other objects I find on walks or in my garden are artefacts from ancient civilisations but am always disabused/disappointed. BUT THIS FLINT I DUG OUT OF MY GARDEN HAS DEFINITELY BEEN KNAPPED OR I'M A DUTCHMAN. British Museum is welcome to get in touch.

A triangular shaped flint, with what looks like worked edges

Under flash, a piece of flint with a regular triangle shape and what looks like worked edges

Close up of flint to show its narrow edge

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Marc Morris @marcmorris.bsky.social · 2d

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Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 2d

Why is it that any lending scheme, from the current car financing to past scandas involving mis selling mortgages and equity release, does it seem like the starting point for all banks and financers is: "How, and it what ways can we screw over the public for as much as possible?"

Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale

Rowan Hooper @rowhoop.bsky.social · 2d

Vote for us! We are up for BEST SCIENCE PODCAST at the Signal Listener's Choice awards, please vote for THE WORLD, THE UNIVERSE AND US here: vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting...

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Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale

Henry Snow @henrysnow.bsky.social · 2d

My colleague Jack Bouchard's book Terra Nova is out today! It's about early 16th-century mariners and the seasonal fishery around present-day Newfoundland, and its place within the Atlantic World. I cannot wait to read it

yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Terra Nova

A bottom-up story of the fishworkers, whalers, First Nations, merchantwomen, oceans, and animals who together made a new colonial world in the early Atlantic...

yalebooks.yale.edu

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Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 2d

Aha! Well spotted!

Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 2d

Now we're in peak apple season, an apple-based game! One pic shows a collection of real apples; the other shows early C19 wax models of apples, created in the days before colour photography, to show potential buyers what the fruit of different varieties look like. Both gorgeous but which is which!

Early C19 realistic wax models of different kinds of apples

A range of old apple varieties including Hog's Snout and Hoe

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katebeales.bsky.social @katebeales.bsky.social · 16d

So delighted to see Broken Horses out in the wild - and in such fantastic company…

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Olga Lautman 🇺🇦 @olgalautman.bsky.social · 2d

Speaker Mike Johnson’s refusal to seat Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva is more than the Epstein files, and a dangerous test of whether election results still guarantee representation. My latest

The Dangerous Precedent Behind Johnson’s Refusal to Seat Adelita Grijalva

On September 10, Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva won her Arizona special election, and nearly a month later, Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to swear her in.

olgalautman.substack.com

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Dr Rob Wray @drrobwray.bsky.social · Sep 6

In fairly short order, the far right have gone from fringe lunatics to a supermarket ideology: different aisles for different resentments, all under one roof of hate. Cheap conspiracies. Hyper-masculinity. Cultural grievance. Violence. And its rubbing off on our kids www.linkedin.com/posts/drrobw...

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Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 4d

What is the point of creating wrapping paper, however beautiful, that sellotape doesn't stick to!?

Beautiful marbled wrapping paper which is completely useless because it does not let sellotape stick to it, thus failing its primary task

Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 4d

Anyone remember Reform promising to go into their new councils with DOGE-style units to slash “waste” and stop taxes from rising? Yeah, it went exactly as you’d expect if you put people in charge who have no idea how anything works.

Reform poised to raise Kent council tax as Musk-inspired attack on costs falters
ANNA GROSS - KENT
Kent's local authority will probably raise council tax rates next year as Reform UK strugglesto find big savings under an Elon Musk-inspired cost-cutting drive.
Kent was one of 10 councils that Nigel Farage's rightwing populist party seized in a swath of local election victories in May. He vowed to save "a lot of money" by abolishing "wasteful" spending.
But Diane Morton, Reform's cabinet member for adult social care on Kent county council, told the Financial Times that services were already "down to the bare bones".
"We've got more demand than ever before and it's growing." she said, stressing she did not believe access to those services should be limited. "We just want more money." As with many local
authorities in England, the bulk of declined to say whether council tax Kent's budget went on adult and chil-
would be raised but other Reform coun-
dren's social care, as well as on children cillors said they wanted to avoid hitting
with special educational needs, which the full 5 percent.
together accounted for about 50 per
Reform's experience highlights some
cent of its £2.5bn annual expenditure.
of the obstacles it may face in national
All councils have a legal duty to bal-
government if it won the next general
ance their books and will set next year's
election and pursued its pledge to slash
budgets in February or March. Ahead of taxes and spending. "Everyone thought
that, most councils in England are we d come in and there were going to be
expected to increase council tax by 5 per
these huge costs we could cut away but
cent, the maximum allowed.
there just aren't," said a third senior
"I think it's going to be 5 per cent,"
Reform cabinet member in Kent.
Morton said of where Kent would land
Farage has set up a Reform Depart-
on tax rises, adding that every 1 per cent ment of Government Efficiency team -
increase equated to an extra E10mn.
modelled on Musk's "Doge" i…

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