Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Alastair Lawless

The Octopus Gallery @octopusgallery.bsky.social · 5h

Good news for sewists: the paper pattern company feared lost to bankruptcy has been saved as an independent company.

craftindustryalliance.org/sewing-patte...

Sewing Patterns Rise from DGA Bankruptcy Ashes - Craft Industry Alliance

The “Big 4” sewing patterns are saved. Simplicity, McCall’s, Vogue & Butterick get new life under Rubelmann Capital.

craftindustryalliance.org

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Reposted by Alastair Lawless

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 13h

If you want to read an actually good piece about integration in the United Kingdom, try @samfr.bsky.social:

The Truth About Integration

I have been challenged by readers to write something less depressing about the state of the country.

samf.substack.com

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Sue Wilkes @suewilkesauthor.bsky.social · 16h

And some good news! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #manchester #museums

Manchester Science and Industry Museum Power Hall to reopen

Visitors will be able to rediscover engines that powered everything from cotton mills to railways.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Alastair Lawless

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 1d

After a dozen years this is still my favorite remix

youtu.be/-aLYvZ5sX28

Taylor Swift - Trouble (Goat Remix)

YouTube video by V∆GUE

youtu.be

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Alastair Lawless @alastairlawless.bsky.social · 2d

Discovering 6+ years after moving house that I forgot to tell my online-only savings bank of my change of address. That’s my day’s admin budget right there.

Reposted by Alastair Lawless

Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 3d

There's plenty to make you smile (and some workable ideas even) in this piece by @profserious.bsky.social:
open.substack.com/pub/profseri...

10 AI Prompts for Academics

making those hard jobs a little easier ...

open.substack.com

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Alastair Lawless @alastairlawless.bsky.social · 4d

AND BRIAN BLESSED!

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Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · 4d

“Having had the request I popped down to the new business on the High Street, Bona Beef”

George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · 4d

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Rufus jones @rufeydoof.bsky.social · 5d

Amazon have removed the guns from their Bond posters, giving the tantalising impression that Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan think you’re a wanker.

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Jonathan Jones @sirjjkc.bsky.social · 4d

The train manager on this train (which divides to go to 2 destinations) has advised us to “take a long hard look at where we are and where we want to go”. Wise advice I feel

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Alastair Lawless @alastairlawless.bsky.social · 4d

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soliton

Soliton - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Reposted by Alastair Lawless

Bishopsgate Institute @bishopsgateinst.bsky.social · 5d

Somewhere free, quiet, and right next to Liverpool Street? 👀

Whether you’ve got a deadline looming, are polishing off a chapter on your lunch break, or hunting for a calm spot to do some work, our new Reading Room is open to you.

👋 https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/whats-on/activity/reading-room/

Reading Room | Bishopsgate Institute

The Reading Room is separate to the Researchers’ Service, so if you’d like to look at our special collections and archives, you’ll need this instead https:

www.bishopsgate.org.uk

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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 5d

Please join me in congratulating Woman on her appointment

Sky News @news.sky.com · 5d

Woman named as new Archbishop of Canterbury in historic first

Bishop of London Dame Sarah Mullally, a former nurse, has been named as the next Archbishop of Canterbury - the first time a woman has been appointed to the role in the Church of England's history.

news.sky.com

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Dave Goddard @davecommentator.bsky.social · 5d

This one was apparently the result of a bet in the newspaper office...

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Alastair Lawless @alastairlawless.bsky.social · 5d

bodleianshop.co.uk/products/no-...

No Excuse Desk Sign

Box of Pencil Crayons from the Bodleian Libraries

bodleianshop.co.uk

Reposted by Alastair Lawless

Kirkdale Bookshop @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social · 6d

killer last line

The Secret Balloon Lady @colonelescargot.bsky.social · 6d

On National Poetry Day, a quick summary of The Waste Land if you can’t be arsed, by Wendy Cope

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Chris Ponting @chrisponting.bsky.social · 6d

On this #NationalPoetryDay, here’s a true classic by Alan Bennett, in the style of John Betjeman.

On Going to the Excuse-me

Bolding Vedas, Shanks New Nisa
The Trusty Lichfield swirls it down
To filter beds on Ruislip Marshes
From my loo in Kentish Town.

The Burlington, the Rochester -
Oh, those names of childhood loos;
Nursie knocking at the door -
"Have you done your number twos?'

Lady typist - office party -
Golly, all that gassy beer -
Tripping home down Hendon Parkway
To her Improved Windermere.

Chelsea buns and lounge bar pasties
All swilled down with Benskin's Pale;
Purified and cleansed with charcoal
Fill the taps in Colindale.

Here I sit, alone and sixty;
Bald, and fat, and full of sin.
Cold the seat and loud the cistern
As I read the Harpic tin.

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J.G. Bollard @jamesnonchalant.bsky.social · 6d

What a dreadful way to encourage multimodal travel (or everyone riding Brompton's).
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Bike thefts at stations 'decriminalised'

The British Transport Police will not investigate many categories of bicycle theft, the BBC learns.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Alastair Lawless

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 7d

One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."

A few days after this cartoon was published, my syndicate received a very indignant letter from someone representing the Jane Goodall Institute.
Not only did my syndicate and I both get read the Riot Act, there was a vague implication that litigation over this cartoon might be around the corner.
I was horrified. Not so much from a fear of being sued (I just couldn't see how this cartoon could be construed as anything but silly, but because of my deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to pri-matology. The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr. Goodall in any way.
Before I had a chance to write my apology, another complication arose.
The National Geographic Society contacted my syndicate and expressed a

desire to reprint the cartoon in a special centennial issue of their magazine. My editor, aware of what had just occurred, declined, explaining why.
Apparently, whoever it was that sent the inquiry from National Geographic was shocked. They told my editor that "that doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know." They did some checking themselves, and an interesting fact was eventually discovered: Jane Goodall loved the cartoon. Furthermore, she was totally unaware that any of this "stuff" was going on. Some phone calls were made, and the cartoon was not only reprinted in the centennial issue of National Geographic, but was also used by her Institute on a T-shirt for fund-raising purposes.
I've since had an opportunity to visit Dr. Goodall at her research facility in Gombe. It's a wonderful place (sort of like right out of National Geographic).
"To refer to Dr. Goodall as a tramp is inexcusable even by a self-described 'loony' as Larson. The cartoon was incredibly offensive and in such poor taste that readers might well question the editorial judgment of running such an atrocity in a newspaper that reputes to be supplying news to persons with a better than average intelligence. The cartoon and its message were absolutely stupid." —Excerpt from the above-mentioned letter that started the ruckus

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Correct Question @correctquestion.bsky.social · 7d

RIP Jane Goodall

My favorite anecdote was when The Far Side ran this cartoon. The Jane Goodall Institute was NOT amused, and threatened litigation, until it found out that Jane Goodall herself had seen the cartoon and thought it was hilarious.

🐐

www.cnn.com/2025/10/01/e...

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Alastair Lawless @alastairlawless.bsky.social · 7d

I’m happy with “Vera Lynn” as a term for a person long supposed dead who turns out to be alive. “Sonny Rollins” would also work. But English badly needs a term for a person long supposed to have been dead whose continued recent existence one learns of only by reading their obituary.