Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Melissa

Cycling Scotland @cyclingscotland.bsky.social · 5h

🚴 From helping tackle transport poverty, to boosting skills and development, and supporting better road safety knowledge, #BikeabilityScotland cycle training is a powerful way of setting up our young people for happier, healthier lives.

Find out more: buff.ly/id1VTKI

New research shows young people cycle more after Bikeability Scotland training

Results from a three-year evaluation of Bikeability Scotland on-road (Level 2) training show a clear link between training and increased cycling frequency.

cycling.scot

4 4

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 1d

Christina Pagel, mathematics professor at UCL, is doing a lot of work

open.substack.com/pub/christin...

Top 10 authoritarian things Trump has done since Sunday...

Mostly continuing his theme of deploying the military against Democratic states plus some anti-science actions

open.substack.com

2 7

Reposted by Melissa

Prof Sheena Cruickshank @sheencr.bsky.social · 3d

So if you are 75 and over, in a care home or severely immunocompromised you are eligible but not if eg you have asthma, are pregnant or have diabetes

Who’s eligible for the 2025 COVID-19 vaccine, or ‘Autumn Booster’?

This blog post was reviewed and updated in September 2025. When autumn comes, protection from any earlier COVID-19 vaccination you may have had will be starting to wane. For those who are more likely ...

ukhsa.blog.gov.uk

1 5 11

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 3d

The Johnson Cliff

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 4d

Yes I agree 💯 I also volunteer for an antenatal charity so have heard all sorts of stories. It’s wild what people were left to do alone, how there was no HV service, how birth partners weren’t allowed. And parents of littles still discuss it as they’re on baby 2+ since now. As everyone else moved on

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 4d

I gave birth during lockdown so I also have an informed view. Everything I wrote is true of the U.K. I know these mothers who are now in health influencer cults here, my child has never gotten a Covid vax here, my friends have never seen hepas in schools here. This mixed messaging happened here

1 2

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 4d

It wasn’t Covid per se - the alt right took the opportunity to pour money into “health” influencers. On the other side, govt never took seriously cleaning the air and kids <12 can’t get vaccinated even now (kids <7 never had access!). This mixed messaging is why we’re here imo

1 3

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 4d

Yes!! We did it today - it’s great 🙌🏻🤩

2

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 6d

Friday

A challah bread, two Shabbat candles, and an array of seasonal gourds on a table

2

Reposted by Melissa

Dean Spade @deanspade.bsky.social · 7d

If you are not in London but want to attend, there is an online/livestream option. Please still register at the link below to get the link! Tickets are free :)

Dean Spade @deanspade.bsky.social · 13d

I'll be presenting some thoughts about work--wage work, housework, care work, organizing work, and all other kinds--at Birkbeck in London on October 10th at 6pm!

www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

Public Lecture: Dean Spade - Resisting Work and Resistance Work

Dean Spade discusses work, and how wage work impacts care and resistance work. He explores alternative practices of care as resistance work.

www.bbk.ac.uk

3 3

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 9d

Thank you 🙏🏻

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 9d

Thank you! 🥰

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 10d

Yes 100%! New path is so much better - but not a seamless join to the car park 🙁

1

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 10d

I was knit-fluenced by @bluegal.bsky.social to do my first colourwork and knit both these hats. I was sad I didn’t see any of the Shetland Wool Week hats in the wild last week but maybe it was too warm 😆 or no one comes to Edinburgh on their way to Shetland? 😅😅😅 #knitsky

Two knit hats on a marble surface. On the left is a purple, yellow, cream, pink, and green Shetland wool hat in a pattern called awl ower toorie, with a tassel. On the right is a pink and maroon colourwork hat with a pompom and the phrase Eat the Rich.

4 3 71

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 10d

Covid was really good training. The parallels are a bit too well written

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 10d

I have a crate and barrel pumpkin pie dish - one part of my American that won’t die either 😂 (also a happy owner of the same Lodge dish!). Le creuset pumpkin though - that is next level, wow same

3

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 11d

Well quite, in total agreement. And not unrelatedly, it’s expensive. Esp if you have kids under irl - the govt remains in breach of the Supreme Court ruling which makes getting out from the home office even harder with dependents. No one mentions that either

www.doughtystreet.co.uk/news/home-of...

Home Office in breach of duty towards migrant children

The Home Office has been found by the High Court to have breached its duty under s.55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 to promote the best interests of children – on this occasi

www.doughtystreet.co.uk

1

Reposted by Melissa

🚲 edi.bike | weekly news digest @edi.bike · 11d

🚲 edi.bike | issue 112 | 29th Sep '25
in your weekly edinburgh cycling digest:

Cargo bike demo success, Mint tea by bike, events, community updates, route closures & more:

https://buttondown.com/edi.bike/archive/edibike-issue-112-29th-sep-25/

#bikeSky

A streetscape under a clear blue sky; flanked by tall trees and a wrought iron fence with pointed, decorative stone columns on the left, and by houses and office buildings on the right, some of which have a crane looming above. The viewer is situated on a bidirectional cycleway, next to the footway on the left; the road next to it is mostly empty save for a single grey saloon car.

1 6 8

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 11d

Honestly? As soon as we were eligible we applied for citizenship. Sure it was under the last govt but nothing seemed certain then either... Ofc I guess they could find a way to strip it so idk but getting out from under the home office seemed like the most stable position to take 🙃

1 2

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 17d

I currently live in a city that will eat an umbrella just walking around. Can’t imagine the chaos using one on a bike would cause here…

2

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 17d

I only managed it once when I was a student in Tokyo and a gust of wind picked it up and it scraped my face 😂 but then again there was some amazing cycling with food and kids, pre-ebike days!

1 2

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 18d

Can’t stop thinking about this photo at an exhibition on resistance in Edinburgh right now:

“Aspiring fascists queue to sign on to join the Union Movement at the time of its launch
Bethnal Green, London, 1948”

Unknown photographer
Aspiring fascists queue to sign on to join the Union Movement at the time of its launch
Bethnal Green, London, 1948

1 1 2

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 19d

Lighthouse is the *best* bookshop - they offer their talks for online streaming too (useful as I can’t make this bc of childcare 😭). Their YT has the most amazing talks.

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 19d

Edinburgh - go!! This will be so good!!!

Dean Spade @deanspade.bsky.social · 21d

Edinburgh!! I’ll be with @lighthousebks.bsky.social
at the Great Hall on Wednesday October 1st at 7pm for a discussion on Love in a F*cked-Up World with Wu Tsang
and Nat Raha! Come join us ❤️❤️

lighthousebookshop.com/events/love-...

2

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 22d

I went to a Steve McQueen curated exhibition on protest photography yesterday. Here’s British men signing up to join the fascist union in 1948 (!!!)

bsky.app/profile/iamm...

Melissa @iammelissa.bsky.social · 22d

And even about the antifascist 1936 Battle of Cable Street and the 1948 British fascists for the Union Movement (quoting the caption directly here)

The Battle of Cable Street was a defining moment in British anti-fascist resistance. Over one hundred thousand residents of London's East End prevented Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists from marching through their Jewish community. The barricades bore the slogan 'They Shall Not Pass, a powerful echo of the Spanish Civil War's
¡No Pasarán!', symbolising the enduring spirit of resistance in anti-fascist movements.
The local Jewish, Irish and Communist residents worked together to build barriers from furniture, paving stones and overturned vehicles. Despite the force of 6000 police attempting to clear a path for the fascists, the East End community stood firm.

Protestors in 1936 in front of a sign that reads they shall not pass on a street in East London

Unknown photographer
They Shall Not Pass', protesters on the barricades during the Battle of Cable Street, London, 4 October 1936
Courtesy of People's History Museum