Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 3h

I would read “The role of the rope apparatus in British naval hegemony, 1707 to 1982”

Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 4h

We also had ‘the apparatus’. It lived flat against the wall, but one day it was swung out across the assembly hall for an unknown
purpose. I always assumed it had something to do with public hangings.

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Reposted by Martin Robbins

Will - Absolute Shower 🇺🇦 @showerabsolute.bsky.social · 21h

The press should be doorstepping the people who funded these repeated complaints and lawsuits. Make them explain themselves

Elle @centristmum.bsky.social · 22h

Sometimes you think 'oh it can't really be that bad can it' and then you click on the link and it turns out it is exactly that bad www.bbc.com/news/article...

Council demolishes play area after noise complaints

Parents in a Derbyshire town say their children are 'devastated' they have lost the facility.

www.bbc.com

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 6h

I’m the worst example given the last time I parked a car at a station for multiple days it got destroyed in a freak flood, but still I just wouldn’t risk leaving an expensive ebike at a rural station - there are no taxis or public transport options so it’s gone I’m stuffed. Great in cities though.

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 7h

Other massive problem is there’s zero point buying an electric bike for e.g. my 5 mile commute to the local train station because bike theft is legal and it’ll just get stolen. A good example of where we need joined up thinking across departments if we’re going to get to a goal.

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 1d

One for the all-time list. Good to see this platform arrive at last.

Conor Smith @conorsmith.ie · 2d

Gavin has shown himself unfit to be President. This is why we should let our current President take a third term, despite his age. Who cares what the constitution says.

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 1d

"Not actively despise middle class white collar workers"

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 1d

My slightly tongue-in-cheek response is I’d rather have a town with a road through the middle of it than a village with a road through the middle of it! But from the sounds of it development would be focused more on the East side. Will be very interested to see the first plans.

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 1d

Honestly as a long-time listener I think they’ve treated it the same as they would have done 5 years ago, and as you say I think it’s far more powerful because of that level of forensic detachment.

Reposted by Martin Robbins

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 2d

"It’s a canopy. A f***ing canopy. That everyone thinks is a perfectly reasonable thing. And it’s taken five years, three planning applications, god knows how much expense, and now hundreds of pages of forms and three separate consultancies just to install something to stop the rain."

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 2d

A pub in London Fields is trying to put up a timber canopy over its outside seating.

The planning process so far has taken FIVE YEARS. That’s longer than it took to build the entire Hoover Dam. capx.co/nimby-watch-...

capx.co

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 2d

Yeah, I expect it'll be a mixed bag given some are basically extensions of towns, some are new towns, they'll all be different development corporations, etc.

Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 2d

(Or not banned exactly, but basically close to impossible to fit after 2025)

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 2d

Gas boilers are banned in new builds now anyway I believe

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Reposted by Martin Robbins

Terence Eden @edent.tel · 3d

New blog post: You did no fact checking, and I must scream

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/10/i-have-no-facts-and-i-must-scream/

I'm neither a journalist nor a professional fact checker but, the thing is, it's has never been easier to check basic facts. Yeah, sure, there's a world of …

You did no fact checking, and I must scream

I'm neither a journalist nor a professional fact checker but, the thing is, it's has never been easier to check basic facts. Yeah, sure, there's a world of misinformation out there, but it doesn't take much effort to determine if something is likely to be true. There are brilliant tools like reverse Image Search which give you a good indicator of when an image first appeared on the web, and…

shkspr.mobi

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Reposted by Martin Robbins

Paul Clarke @paulclarke.com · 3d

Great post. You should all read it. Especially if you thought the Patricia Routledge 'life thoughts' piece was cute. shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/10...

You did no fact checking, and I must scream

I'm neither a journalist nor a professional fact checker but, the thing is, it's has never been easier to check basic facts. Yeah, sure, there's a world of misinformation out there, but it doesn't tak...

shkspr.mobi

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 3d

Not going to dunk on civilians but it’s unreal that people are still sharing this, like I don’t know how you can be a functioning human being and think this sub-influencer dross reads like a 95-year-old British comedy actress. Wtf is half of it even talking about?

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 4d

Just a monumental failure of basic fact-checking for a random conspiracy theory to go out on prime time BBC broadcasting. I’m lost as to how @hignfy.bsky.social let it happen.

James O'Malley @jamesomalley.co.uk · 4d

Here’s the clip (which I will once again note for out-of-context reposts, is a total bullshit conspiracy/fake news).

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 5d

Honestly I feel like I’m going mad, everyone involved at The Independent should feel ashamed that this is their job and this is how they treat a dead woman’s legacy.

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 5d

Notably, if you follow the link, even the blog itself doesn’t claim she wrote it for them, it looks like something the author found on the Internet. jayspeak.blog/2025/08/02/g...

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 5d

It’s also beyond insane that the Independent are quoting ChatGPT slop from a completely random blog that went viral, including factual errors about her life, and pretending that Routledge wrote it.

Joe Noonan @joenoonan.bsky.social · 5d

Dame Patricia Routledge’s poignant last message on ageing and finding herself

‘Let these years ahead be your treasure years,’ said actor in a moving reflection on her life

www.independent.co.uk

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 5d

It’s so glaring now when you see this stuff - the “not… but…” formulation, the tricolons, the en-dashes, nobody writes like this but especially Patricia Routledge sounded nothing like it, you’re taking the distinctive voice of an eloquent woman and flattening it into two-dimensional slop.

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 5d

I mean this is ChatGPT output, and you haven’t even bothered changing the formatting. It’s absolutely obvious.

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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 6d

They also seem to think the earthworks for HS2 are permanent, and not preparation for green tunnels, tree planting, etc., etc.

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Reposted by Martin Robbins

Anna Clarke @annaclarke.bsky.social · 6d

The Guardian also appears to have got its facts wrong - claims the UK is 5th highest for its land size, but it's actually 5th in absolute terms (because it's a big country!) and ranks very low per capita (from the same study, www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decod...)

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Reposted by Martin Robbins

Matt Wall @mattwall.bsky.social · 6d

"Microsoft says its Agent Mode in Excel has an accuracy rate of 57.2 percent in SpreadsheetBench, a benchmark for evaluating an AI model’s ability to edit real world spreadsheets."
😩😩😩

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