Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 2h

Careful: for your own safety I think it should only be read in a reclining position, preferably after midnight and in the first throes of sleep paralysis

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 2h

Maybe warm up with a couple of weeks going through all of the entries on big cats. You could try whales, but my experience was that they were too interesting. The textile arts can wait, but The Loom is a true classic waiting for the truly tough sleepless night when you’ll need it

Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 2h

This is maybe not entry level insomnia Wikipediaism however. The trick, as you’ll know, is to find a topic that tricks your dopamine receptors into thinking ‘ah yeah, that’ll be interesting’ and then let the entry’s insane structure, pedantic detail and unglossed jargon do the rest

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 3h

A strong contender for the month’s most effective insomnia-busting Wikipedia page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_in...

Silk industry in the Indian subcontinent - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 10h

I get the name right but keep hearing it in my head as The *Smashing* Machine [laudatory] as if it were a pastel-coloured 1960s lark starring Julie Andrews and Michael Crawford

András Forgács W @andraswf.bsky.social · 11h

I keep misreading the new Dwayne Johnson film's title as "The Washing Machine"

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 11h

How she has managed to have enough self-regard to get her where she is. She probably is quicker at analytical yes/no thought than a lot of her peers and mistakes that for a more capable mind than others.

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 11h

My theory of Kemi Badenoch is that the only type of thought that she respects is passing through logic gates in real time. A thing is correct or not based on how the neurons fire in the moment. Explains why she doesn’t respect the need for briefing & can’t see the value in the humanities but also

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 1d

[niche content] I’m on my way out of payments regulation but I am glad that there is challenge to the BIS view out there because I’ve been watching well-respected people attempt to determine operational payments matters with reference only to monetary policy theory for a while

Disco Central Banker @centralbanker.bsky.social · 1d

I’m thrilled to announce my new ECB working paper on singleness of money and fungibility of stablecoins with other payment instruments! 🍾

Some BIS colleagues argued that stablecoins fail the singleness of money test… and the FT had this amazing quote…

But I disagree!

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 2d

Jose-Mourinho.gif

George Pearkes @peark.es · 2d

People think American cultural hegemony looks like McDonald’s drive throughs but it’s also bougie food halls. (Laudatory)

Reposted by Nikki Coates

✄---Rob--Ives--- @robives.bsky.social · 3d

Download the pdf instructions and make your own puffer fish automata from conkers and paper clips!
#STEAMjunk #WildMaking
www.robives.com/project/puff...

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Reposted by Nikki Coates

ChiaroBen @chiaroben.bsky.social · 6d

By the way, do yourself a favor: Disco Elysium is only 10 bucks on Steam right now.

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 5d

Look in the mirror, are you the sort of person who could make your dream kitchen from 3 different sets of castoff units? No, learned one, I am not. I am not that sort of person in the good way. I am not that sort of person in the bad way.

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 5d

I mean, yes! In both directions! Would I do that? No, it’s a lunatic plan. Could I do that? No, I’d have multiple failures of confidence about choice of materials etc etc etc. in the end I feel like kev mcC has led us another step on the way to enlightenment: be truthful with yourself now,

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 6d

I think maybe that if you have decided in these anxious times to make your living from the visual arts then the one thing that is absolutely no-negotiation necessary - whether innate or acquired - is confidence in your vision. The lessons from that episode are, er, nuanced I would say.

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 6d

Not the hempcrete artist lady?

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 6d

I realised halfway through my journey that I’d failed to properly assess this important question and craned my neck to look down the carriage. I think so. But I’d need to have another look to know.

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 6d

Relieved to note they have kept the unearthly sound which seems to emanate from something 5cm behind my eyes that denotes that the doors are about to close. The old ways are best.

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 6d

Omg you guys I’m on a new dlr train and as you know by now ‘new transport thing’ is the most exciting thing that can happen in a Londoner’s life

The interior of a new dlr train - not pictured: the two tweens on roller skates stood within handy falling-on-me distance

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 11d

Anyway never mind all that there’s a sandgrown elephant now! Should have called her Petal www.blackpoolzoo.org.uk/blog/elephan....

History is made as endangered elephant calf is born | Blackpool Zoo

We're thrilled to announce that a rare Asian elephant calf has been born within the elephant herd here at Blackpool Zoo.

www.blackpoolzoo.org.uk

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 12d

I try not to be one note politics posting lady but the essay linked in this good piece has made me angry. Dereliction of responsibility! The Labour Party does not have the luxury of despair and it does not get to roll its eyes at white collar workers as if we’re the ones with the identity crisis

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 12d

Come for the really good essay by Patrick Maguire, stay for the really bad one being shared (approvingly!!) by some Labour MPs: www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

There’s a void at the heart of Labour: it needs a battle of ideas

A withering analysis shared among Keir Starmer’s MPs says his vague incrementalism and absence of critical thinking is steering the party to disaster

www.thetimes.com

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 12d

Yeah I think there are clear benefits there for the taking, it’s just what gets prioritised

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 12d

I’m taking this as part-confirmation of my hunch tho. Authoritarians like ID, sure, but basing your pitch on that doesn’t account for the rise of the chaos-authoritarian or ‘Reform voter’

Owen Winter @owenwntr.bsky.social · 12d

Twitter is a particularly stark example but in general the gap between the public and elites (left+right) on ID cards is huge

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 12d

Despite my little whine above I actually don’t have a religiously held belief about gov sponsored digital id. I mean both sets of you are right and we’re not going to know which set of you are more right until we know more about functions, protections, so on

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 12d

In the hope that they would in the future be able to avoid unforced errors like ‘we will suggest that we can win over the section of the electorate most prone to conspiracist thought by announcing a digital ID programme’

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Nikki Coates @nikkicoates.bsky.social · 12d

Is just a bit crappy. Can no one honestly think of a way to spend millions and millions that will give your tired fed-up citizen anything at all to feel optimism about? Like I would even rather spend the money sending our entire political class for some sort of critical thinking skills courses

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