Alice
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creaturesofhope.bsky.social
Alice
@creaturesofhope.bsky.social
49 followers 310 following 2.5K posts
DFTBA. Statistician and curious about things
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Reposted by Alice
pikesley.mastodon.me.uk.ap.brid.gy
Frodo: I wish so much unbelievably stupid shit had not happened in my time Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. This is all exceptionally stupid, though
January 19, 2026 at 8:04 PM
Reposted by Alice
profrachelgan.bsky.social
Following coverage over the weekend of Sir Paul Nurse's comments that suggested that the only reason that a Fellow should be expelled from @royalsociety.org is scientific misconduct, I have written to him to explain the risks such an attitude poses of increasing sexual harassment in STEM.
Dear Sir Paul, Re: Royal Society Code of Conduct I am sure that many scientists have written to you about the specific question of Elon Musk’s Fellowship and whether, under the Royal Society’s Code of Conduct, his retaining that Fellowship is appropriate. I will not rehash these issues. Instead, as a female scientist with extensive experience of activities aiming to increase equality, diversity and inclusion in the engineering and physical sciences sector, I am writing to you (in a personal capacity) to ask you to reconsider the statements you have recently made in this context to the UK press about the Royal Society’s Code of Conduct and how it is applied. A 2018 report from the joint National Academies of the United States of America, concluded that “sexual harassment is common in academic science, engineering, and medicine” and that “greater than 50 percent of women faculty and staff and 20–50 percent of women students encounter or experience sexually harassing conduct in academia”. This report described codes of conduct that make clear that sexual harassment is unethical and will not be tolerated as a “powerful incentive for change”. The authors also noted that sexual harassment can have significant and damaging effects on the integrity of research. In my own praxis, I have found that clear and consistently-implemented codes of conduct that address these issues make female scientists and engineers safer, and allow them to focus more effectively on their research. For codes of conduct to have such a positive effect, it is vital that sanctions for actions which transgress the code are meaningful and substantial. I was hence aghast to realise that in an interview with the Financial Times published on 9/1/26, you appear to have suggested that the Royal Society “should only expel fellows if their science proved “faulty or fraudulent or highly defective””. Moreover, in a further interview with the Guardian on 11/1/26 you suggested that the code “may need to be looked at again”, with the implication that your aim would be to remove the option of sanctions on Fellows for reasons not strictly related to faults or defects in their research. I suggest that changing the Royal Society’s code of conduct so that the likelihood of serious sanctions for sexual harassment is reduced, would directly endanger women who interact with the Royal Society at events or otherwise, and would provide a licence to harass to the already powerful people on whom the Society bestows fellowship. The implications of your words - that under your leadership the only infringements of the code which are likely to receive the sanction of the Fellowship being removed are those related to research misconduct - already risk empowering harassers. You stated, in the Financial Times interview, that “there’s many bad people around, but they have made scientific advances”. Given this awareness of the possibility of bad actors in our scientific community, it is wholly irresponsible to suggest that the Royal Society would not act to sanction these people if they harass more vulnerable scientists. I am hence writing to request that you retract any suggestion that the Society’s Code of Conduct should be changed so that the only reason a Fellow might be sanctioned by the removal of their Fellowship is “faulty or fraudulent or highly defective” research. This action is necessary to safeguard female scientists, a requirement placed on the Society by safeguarding legislation and UK statutory guidance. Yours sincerely, Professor Rachel A. Oliver.
January 12, 2026 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Alice
jayhulmepoet.bsky.social
Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up.

I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
A screenshot from Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give you up music video A screenshot from Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give you up music video A screenshot from Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give you up music video A photograph of the seminary gym in knives out. It has the same window.
December 29, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Alice
edmorrish.bsky.social
i post this story every christmas, and will keep doing so until it stops making me cry

merry christmas xx
A real Good Samaritan
One act of kindness that befell Leeds writer Bernard Hare in 1982 changed him profoundly. Here he tells his story.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 25, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Reposted by Alice
danielwcarlson.bsky.social
When they ask me what radicalized me
The family of mice singing “No cheeses for us meeces” in the opening song (“Scrooge”) of THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992), a movie that I saw in the theater at age 10 and which immediately became a formative movie and deeply held family favorite, its annual viewing soon becoming a family tradition, and which has always been incredibly dear to me, even though I consider myself only an average enthusiast when it comes to the Muppets (I grew up with them and still love them with that warm childhood purity but I am not at Disney-Adult-levels of obsession or passionate opinion—but I will say that THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL is one of the best adaptations of Dickens’s story in the entire history of cinema, and no one since ’92 has come remotely close), and which I have always found incredibly moving and beautiful and tragic and redemptive, and which always makes me cry quietly during several key scenes; it is one of my strongest links to childhood memory.
December 23, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Reposted by Alice
rincewind.run
I do not want Gaston backstory, I do not need Gaston backstory, I reject Gaston backstory

he is a fully formed oaf, consuming eggs by the dozen in one of the greatest villain songs ever written, and that is all we need of him
Disney Developing Live-Action ‘Gaston’ Movie From Writer Dave Callaham And Producer Michelle Rejwan
Disney is in early development on a new live-action pic centered on the Beauty and the Beast character Gaston.
deadline.com
December 15, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Alice
explaintrade.com
Sorry I haven't been active on social media today, I've been flat out making sure everything goes smoothly on my first day as website manager for the OBR.
November 26, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Alice
rutgerbregman.com
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
creaturesofhope.bsky.social
Thought I would hate The Ashes being in the winter, but turns out there’s nothing better than waking up early and enjoying it on a freezing morning
November 21, 2025 at 9:44 AM
creaturesofhope.bsky.social
Stokes Stokes Stokes Stokes! #TheAshes
November 21, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Reposted by Alice
lottelydia.bsky.social
am reminded of the old joke: what did James Watson discover?

Rosalind Franklin’s notes.
November 7, 2025 at 9:15 PM
creaturesofhope.bsky.social
If someone could put together a playlist of this background music, that would be great #TheTraitors
November 6, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Reposted by Alice
jessicaelgot.bsky.social
Can’t remember the last time I got this hyped about something on television and it’s some celebs playing a version of a late night drinking game I played as a student #CelebrityTraitors
November 6, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Alice
stephencollins.bsky.social
1 Nurse: It’s become a real problem in this area 2 Nurse: We’ve seen the whole community lost to addiction 3 Show a building sign posted: Westminster ‘X’ Addiction Clinic With various Westminster people or looking at their phones outside it Nurse: Ministers, Spads, Researchers… 4 Nurse: Most mornings we’ll get a call about someone acting strangely [Nurse on phone taking a call] Ok - we’ll be right over 5 Nurse: We just have a gentle chat [Nurses approach a minister –Robert Jenrick? - standing in the Palace of Westminster Minister: I understand your concerns… 6 Nurse: Are you OK love? Minister: Yes I’m just hearing legitimate concerns from real voters 7 Nurse: That’s a robot, a Nazi and a poorly-disguised Russian [Show that the people he is talking to are precisely these characters] Nurse 2: Give us your phone, love 8 Nurse: At the clinic we put them in a Grass-Touching Pod, with a real voter to talk to [We see them back at the clinic, holding the minister's head and pushing him into a glass isolation booth with a grass floor. And it is a baffled looking woman, on a chair, ready to talk to him.] 9 Minister: YOU MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COMING CIVIL WAR [woman looks baffled] 10 woman: I just want a bus service Minister: LOOK AT MY FLAG [produces a St George's flag] [ends]
October 19, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Alice
keithwdickinson.bsky.social
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
October 8, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Alice
adambienkov.bsky.social
BBC accused of 'extraordinary' anti-Green bias after party say the Laura Kuenssberg Show scrapped a promised interview with @zackpolanski.bsky.social on Sunday.

Green sources say the show also refused to interview Polanski after he was elected as leader last month

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/06/b...
October 6, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Alice
profaliceroberts.bsky.social
I’m sad to hear the news that the wonderful Jane Goodall is no longer in the world. Her work with chimpanzees at Gombe in Tanzania taught us to look at other apes - and ourselves - differently. I was privileged to meet her later in life and tell her what an inspiration she was to me.
October 1, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Reposted by Alice
theguardian.com
Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, dies aged 91
Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, dies aged 91
Jane Goodall Institute says ‘tireless advocate’ for natural world died in California during US speaking tour The world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall has died at the age of 91, her institute has said. The Jane Goodall Institute announced that she had passed away of natural causes while in California as part of a US speaking tour. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
October 1, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Alice
youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
can't really begin to explain the extent to which I do Not want to be filmed without my knowledge by someone wearing smart glasses while out and about
jjvincent.bsky.social James Vincent @jjvincent.bsky.social · Sep 18
good video hands-on with meta's smart glasses. i've been skeptical on smart glasses for a while, but it looks like the hardware side of this is finally becoming feasible? plus, in a world where kids list "creator" as their dream job, POV video recording is v attractive youtu.be/5cVGKvl7Oek?...
Meta Ray-Ban Display hands-on: best smart glasses I’ve ever tried
YouTube video by The Verge
youtu.be
September 18, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by Alice
mattgreencomedy.com
Thank God we don’t have the cancellation of satirical comedy in this country. I can’t wait to see how they deal with the Trump visit on The Mash Report, Mock The Week and Frankie Boyle’s New World Order!
September 18, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Reposted by Alice
kityates.bsky.social
Expect more silence from the Royal Society in the face of their most notorious fellow advocating for the overthrow of the democratically elected government of a country he is neither a citizen nor a resident of (yet he is a fellow of their most prestigious learned society).
September 13, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Alice
samfr.bsky.social
Also the first time the three great offices of state (FCDO, Home, CX) have all been held by women at the same time.
September 5, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Alice
stephencollins.bsky.social
RIP Allan Ahlberg. Gorgeous, resonant, timeless work that will live forever.
July 31, 2025 at 9:23 PM
creaturesofhope.bsky.social
@crosscountry.bsky.social you need to keep your train running when they are at a station. Been at Bristol for 10 mins, with no air con. In this heat that is v dangerous!
July 11, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Alice
rmcunliffe.bsky.social
It's maddening to me how much Covid is at the root of so many of today's crises and we just...don't talk about it?

Take the spike in children needing SEND provision. Did anything huge and traumatic happen recently that might have affected thousands of kids? No? Must be parents making it up
July 7, 2025 at 12:08 PM