Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted

Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 2h

Funeral Invitation, 1688.

Funeral invitations first appeared in the 17th century, and acted as an admission ticket to both the church and the funeral feast. Pallbearers were often assigned a number on the ticket to signify their position in carrying the coffin.

A funeral invitation from April, 1688. It has an ornate black border with various memento mori iconography around it - like skeletons, winged hourglasses, and scythes.

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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 1d

An amazing miniature portrait of the #Roman empress Agrippina Minor (15-59 AD), made from chalcedony. Agrippina was the mother of Nero, and married to her uncle, emperor Claudius. It was rumoured that she poisoned her husband with a dish of mushrooms.

📷me

On display at British Museum

🏺

A green stone bust of a woman displayed in a museum. The sculpture features an elaborate hairdo and a solemn expression. The bust is mounted on a clear stand, with a blurred background showcasing other artifacts in the exhibition.

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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 1h

The Royal Game of Ur is the world’s oldest playable boardgame!

Played by Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia about 4,500 years ago!

It is a two-player race game, the rules of which have been deciphered from a cuneiform tablet.

Game from the Royal Cemetery of Ur. 📷 British Museum

#Archaeology

British Museum photo showing a two-player board game with gaming counters known as the Royal Game of Ur. Dated c. 2,500 BC.

The game board is composed of a hollow box made of wood adorned with shell plaques. There is a drawer at one end for storing game pieces and dice. The top of the board is covered with twenty square-shaped off-white shell plaques, each bordered with dark-blue lapis lazuli. The shell squares are intricately decorated with blue inlaid patterns including dots inside circles and eye-shapes. Five squares are inlaid with flower-shaped rosettes with red limestone and blue lapis lazuli petals.

The game board is roughly rectangular in shape. Viewed from above in the photo, on the left side of the board is a block of 12 squares made up of 4 across by 3 down. On the right side of the board is a block of 6 squares made up of 2 across by 3 down. The two blocks are joined by two squares extending between the second square down on the end row of the left block and the second square down on the first row of the second block.

Dimensions H: 2.40 cm, L: 30.10 cm, W: 11 cm, (W 5.70 cm at narrowest part)

Beneath the board are 14 disc-shaped gaming counters. On the left are 7 white pieces, inlaid with 5 spots of blue lapis lazuli. On the right are 7 black pieces inlaid with five white spots.

Between the game pieces are three tetrahedron-shaped dice. L to R: Dark blue, brown, cream.

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 19h

Today on Volts: hey listen up! The most important election of the year is happening in Georgia next month. Two seats on the (currently all-GOP) Public Service Commission are up & rising electricity prices are on everyone's mind. This is a bellwether for next year's governor & midterm elections!

Pay attention to the most important political race of 2025

With energy affordability set to dominate national politics, Peter Hubbard and Brionté McCorkle explain why a down-ballot Georgia race is ground zero for the fight.

www.volts.wtf

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The Octopus Gallery @octopusgallery.bsky.social · 17h

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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Kate Strasdin @katestrasdin.bsky.social · 14h

Schiaparelli always knew how to bring the drama to her collections, often collaborating with other artists to combine the creativity. This 1939 evening coat was inspired by the Italian comeddia dell’arte and references the character of Harlequin @metmuseum.org #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

A mannequin posed in a bright silk satin evening coat in geometric patterns of blue, yellow and red. It is lit to create drama with a shadow behind the mannequin. She is wearing long red gloves

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Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 14h

I have taken
the freedom of speech
that was in
the Constitution

and which
you were probably
using
for peaceful protest

Forgive me
the courts said they were
so agitating
and so irritating

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 16h

Trump: "We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the courts said you have freedom of speech, but what has happened is when they burn a flag it agitates and irritates crowds."

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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 22h

#histmed #MedievalSky Minji Lee's book, The Medieval Womb: Hildegard of Bingen’s Views on the Female Reproductive Body, has just been released #OpenAccess: library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...

Cover image of Minji Lee, The Medieval Womb: Hildegard of Bingen’s Views on the Female Reproductive Body. On the complex imagery reproduced on the cover, read the book!

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Amanda Marcotte @amandamarcotte.bsky.social · 18h

Samuel Alito basically argued that hating yourself is the natural state of a queer kid. And he pretended kids are the ones seeking conversion.

In reality, it's parents and religious leaders forcing this on kids — and it's abuse.

www.salon.com/2025/10/08/s...

How SCOTUS covers for the abuse of LGBTQ kids

In conversion therapy case, conservative justices imply queer kids are born hating themselves

www.salon.com

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bibliomancer7.bsky.social @bibliomancer7.bsky.social · 1d

Kind of like how Oliver Wendell Holmes shook hands with both John Quincy Adams and JFK.

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bibliomancer7.bsky.social @bibliomancer7.bsky.social · 1d

Edward Gorey was obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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Isaiah D. Colbert @shineyezehuhh.bsky.social · 1d

Makoto Yukimura was worried that Vinland Saga's farming arc and "I have no enemies" moment was a gamble that readers wouldn't like. I told him about the J. Cole meme from the Kendrick Lamar and Drake rap beef. This is how he reacted.

If “I have no enemies” has become a meme and people remember it, then maybe people will understand what I’m really trying to say through the story, which is that humans are immature, but we can mature. To become mature is to become kind. This is the foundation of what I’m trying to say, but it really has to be much shorter for people to remember. But it does give me hope that people remember these short phrases as memes. Then, one day, it will click in their mind what I was trying to really say in the first place.

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Ned Hartley @nedhartley.com · 2d

French PM Lecornu resigning after 13 hours now makes the Lecornu the shortest length to measure political time. For those of you using old measures this is 1/18 of a Scaramucci or about 1.2% of a Truss

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 3d

France’s latest government lasted 13 hours and 47 minutes

FinTwitter @fintwitter.bsky.social · 3d

FRENCH PM LECORNU RESIGNS

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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 3d

Spectacular googly-eyed octopus does battle with a lobster in this 2,000 year-old Roman mosaic from Pompeii! 🐙 🦞

Fantastic fishy onlookers too! 👀

From the House of the Geometric Mosaics. Now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology

My photo shows a polychrome mosaic depicting Mediterranean marine life using earthy-coloured tesserae (mosaic tiles) against a black tessarae background. At the centre of the mosaic is a pale-coloured octopus composed of off-white and light brown tesserae with some of its writhing tentacles wrapped around the body of a lobster composed of light red, and pinky-brown tesserae. The octopus has an egg shaped body/head and it stares at the viewer with large eyes made of brown and pink circles with black centres.

The octopus and lobster are surrounded by various species of large and small Mediterranean fish and a mollusc, including an eel and a flat fish. On the left hand side of the scene there is a small kingfisher bird on top of a rock. Some of the fish appear to be watching the fight between the octopus and the lobster

This mosaic comes from the House of the Geometric Mosaics in Pompeii. Now on display at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

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Maggie Astor @maggieastor.bsky.social · 2d

CDC has finally adopted the recommendations its vaccine panel made Sept. 19. This should increase access to Covid vaccines somewhat — CVS and Walgreens had said once the recs were official, they'd offer the shots w/o Rx nationwide, and Vaccines for Children program also needed the official approval

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Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 2d

The number of parents who gasped when we told them no, we could not tell them what their kids checked out because their kids have a right to privacy!

We offered “one book cards” to kids whose parents wouldn’t agree to let them have a card. They could take out a book at a time. The FURY.

Helena Greer @blumagaincurios.bsky.social · 2d

My feelings about Banned Books Week are that no indeedy parents do NOT have the right to decide what their own children read, because children are human beings with the right to dignity and privacy.

Agreeing w the parents rights premise shifts the Overton window in the wrong ass direction.

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Jean-François Cudennec @jfcudennec.bsky.social · 3d

Preparing for the new week like a 5th Place 2025 Small World in Motion Competition (newborn sea urchin walking along the seabed)

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Mark Peters @markpeters.bsky.social · 4d

Ebook version of THE REFORMATORY by @tananarivedue.bsky.social is currently only $2.99 on various sites.

If you’ve not yet read this horror masterpiece, now is a great time to do so!

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Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social · 4d

The ‘King Stone’ - part of the prehistoric Rollright Stones complex on the Warwickshire/ Oxfordshire border. The stone may have been associated with a nearby Bronze Age cemetery. 📸 My own. #StandingStoneSunday #RollrightStones

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Eric Scott @captainfossil.bsky.social · 4d

Happy 120 years of Tyrannosaurus rex and Albertosaurus sarcophagus! Both of these iconic dinosaur species were named by paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn on this day back in 1905. (Yes, this would have been a good #FossilFriday post, but it's Saturday and I'm terribly literal.) 🦖🧪

Mounted skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex on display at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US. View is looking up at the complete skeleton w/ the skull to the left & the tail to the right; there are plants and another dino skeleton beneath the mount and a grey museum roof above. This particular skeleton is important because it is the holotype specimen of the species (although the skull here is a cast because the actual skull is far too heavy to be mounted this way).

Skull of Albertosaurus sarcophagus on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

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Mary Robinette Kowal @maryrobinettekowal.com · 3d

If you're in the following cities, @sentencebender.bsky.social and I are coming to a bookstore near you soon: New York, Atlanta, WDC, Houston, Portland, Boulder, and San Diego. Plus, a virtual event! See all the details here: maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/appr... @sagapressbooks.bsky.social

Apprehension + Red Star Hustle Book Tour Schedule:
Oct 20, 6 PM MT - Virtual: Poisoned Pen
Oct 22, 7:30 PM ET - NYC: Twisted Spine
Oct 28, 7 PM ET - Atlanta: Eagle Eye Books
Oct 29, 7 PM ET - DC: Little District Bookstore
Oct 30, 6:30 PM CT - Houston: Murder by the Book
Nov 3, 7 PM PT - Portland: Powell's at Cedar Hills Crossing
Nov 4, 6:30 PM MT - Boulder: Boulder Bookstore
Nov 5, 7 PM PT - San Diego: Mysterious Galaxy
At the bottom is the double cover of Apprehension and Red Star Hustle with headshots of Mary Robinette Kowal and Sam J. Miller

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KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 4d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 4d

Hallelujah!

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 5d

🫡

How to Turn Off AI Tools Like Gemini, Apple Intelligence, Copilot, and More - Consumer Reports

AI features are crowding into Google search, Gmail, iPhones, Windows laptops, and other products. If you're suffering from AI overload, these settings can help.

www.consumerreports.org

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Ashmolean Museum, Oxford @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social · 4d

This striking gold necklace was made over 2,400 years ago. In ancient Greece, acorns were symbols of abundance and fertility, and used as decoration on gold objects.

The necklace was excavated over 150 years ago from the necropolis of Nymphaion in the Crimea, previously an ancient Greek colony.

A gold necklace with pendants in the shape of acorns hanging across the whole piece

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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 5d

Something lovely for the weekend!

Ancient Egyptian gold headband decorated with heads of gazelles and a stag between stars or flowers. Second Intermediate (Hyksos) period, Dynasty 15, c. 1648–1540 BC. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

#Archaeology

Met Museum photo of an Ancient Egyptian gold head ornament viewed from the front against a grey background. The headband is made of hammered sheet gold, the ends of which have been tapered to a narrower width and rolled to form loops. A string would have threaded through the loops to fasten the band around the head at the back. The front of the band is decorated with a central head of an antlered stag, identified as the Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica). The stag has two large antlers, large ears and a triangular-shaped head. It is flanked on either side by two gazelle heads. The gazelle heads have long ears and long curved horns which point outwards at the tip. Between the animal heads are four 8-pointed flowers or stars. Dimensions: height of central stag 8.9, length of headband 49.5 cm.

Dated to the Second Intermediate period (c. 1648-1540 BC) when northern Egypt was ruled by the Hyksos from the ancient Near East. Said to be part of a group of objects found in the Eastern Delta near Avaris, the Hyksos capital. The headband shows a mix of ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian artistic styles.

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