Bob Johnston
@bobjohnstonbooks.bsky.social
'Our Big Day' LGBTQ+ award-winning picturebook published 2022. Currently subbing agents w/ a gay novel for adults. Husband, dog lover, cat misser, biscuit eater, previously @gutterbookshop ... he/him 🇮🇪 linktr.ee/bobjohnstonbooks
My kids didn’t have assigned summer reading from school, so I assigned my own! Summer Reading, part one: ninjas! kristinhoulihan.com/2026/08/04/s...
Summer Reading, Part I: Ninjas (and some dinosaurs)
I grew up with summer reading assignments, which I especially remember in high school. My kids have had zero. Four kids, 10 years of school, zero summer reading. Makes me sad. So, I assigned my own…
kristinhoulihan.com
Hurrah it is Wednesday and the weasels are dancing as always! A bit of Disorder and Joy Division today. The weasels are off on their hols for the next 2 Wednesdays and not sure if we’ll have a signal to post, so maybe see you, but if not, don’t forget to dance like a weasel, you know you want to!!
Sailor Bob - I learnt to sail aged 25 when my Dad lived in Kinsale, Co Cork for a few years. We did several trips around the coast - Bere Island, Castletownbere, Kerry & up to Dublin one year. Then Greek Islands & the BVI. I haven't sailed since Dad died 10 years ago but I'm getting sea itches...
www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/07/the-...
The right is so hungry for anti-trans stories that they're turning to AI to make them up - LGBTQ Nation
Several non-stories that portray trans people in a negative light have gone viral in the past several weeks, and others were completely fabricated.
lgbtqnation.com
Britain and Ireland have similar respectability politics around ‘not going there’ re calling out individuals when they do awful things, or speaking ill of the problematic dead. In Ireland it’s fraught due to the combining of British mc values and Catholic church silencing and that needs confronting.
We’ve just rented a projector so the kids can watch some films over August and we’re trying to source and buy treats and snacks. Ionad Hind Rajab is about more than education. It’s about getting back a little bit of childhood. 👇
The Journal@thejournal.ie · 2d agoAn Irish artist has helped establish a children's centre in Gaza that provides food, education and psychosocial support to children displaced by the war. Adam Doyle, better known as Spicebag, tells us why he helped create Ionad Hind Rajab. jrnl.ie/7117887
As Rod Liddle has died, I notice this column I wrote in 2019 about his attacks on people with M.E. is on the most read again. Rebekah Brooks, of News UK, described Liddle today as “provocative”. In reality, he spread lies about very sick people for cash. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Rod Liddle vilifies disabled people. I’m tired of the hate. We all should be | Frances Ryan
Whether it is ME patients or another target, huge swathes of the media have normalised hatred of minorities for years, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan
theguardian.com
#OwlAwarenessDay In Cumbrian dialects, 'hullet' is owl Owl is one of the 'Three Elders of the World', the others are Eagle and Blackbird. An owl appearing in your dreams represents transformation and hidden wisdom. 📷 Roy Rimmer
In some major professional news, tomorrow I will be starting as Assistant Professor in Political Science at Trinity College Dublin! 🇮🇪 Super excited about this opportunity, and huge thanks to everyone who made this possible.
It's tonight! I'll be chatting with the incredible @ajwestauthor.bsky.social about his groundbreaking book How Queer Bookshops Changed the World at @bookhaus.bsky.social You can book through the link in bio or here: bookhausbristol.com/events/
Today I learned that Disk-winged Bats evolved suction cups for their arms and legs.
“”Children need play to recover. In Gaza, that right has almost disappeared. Any safe space where children can laugh, interact with others and express themselves becomes an essential part of psychological recovery."”
The New Arab@thenewarab.bsky.social · 2d agoA Palestinian therapist is using rescued animals to help Gaza's displaced children heal from war trauma and find moments of joy amid ongoing destruction:
Was randomly thinking today about how aliens always have really skinny pale bodies & big heads & every time I go on Instagram human men seem to be getting bigger tanned bodies & smaller heads. #BobsMusings #FeckOffWithYourAlgorithmTalk
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Alien Contact
Alt: Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Alien Contact showing BaDoDoDoDum hand gesture at a confused looking little grey man
static.klipy.com
So a whole lot of my talented Humanities colleagues are now unemployed as of today. A lot of understandable concern over Exeter. But for over two decades my Hums colleagues were in the top quartile for their research contribution to society. History top 10. Now gone with only a national whisper.
Here’s the @foggynotions.bsky.social gig listing for August. Support independents if you can. #speirgorm
Lads, there was a pandemic that could have been globally devastating, and it wasn't! How amazing is the story of how it was defeated. And how amazing that this isn't the story we want to tell. With due respect to those individuals for whom it was life changing.
Downplay a book or movie: A Texas Chainsaw Won't Start
Matt Beany@mattsawyer.bsky.social · 4d agoDownplay a book or movie: DENTURES
"A city doesn't get hollowed out by too many visitors. It hollows out when too little of the city remains underneath them, when the thing they queued to see has been quietly sold off around them while they queued." Great piece on #Dublin by Conor McGuire in Western People.
Dublin is now a shell of its once former self - opinion - Western People
Dublin is now a shell of its once former self - opinion - Western People
westernpeople.ie
Unexpected lunchtime visitor of a large bat flying around the living room... They live in our old attic but not sure what he's doing up at 1pm - I reckon he's a dirty stopout & just finding his way home after an all night big party.. Anyway, he's gone out the bedroom window now. #BatLife #IrishBats
Nice thread of all the Shed of the Year category winners for 2026. The Tea Shack, Highland is my fave. #ShedLove #ShedLife
Andrew Wilcox@readersheds.co.uk · last wk.All the category winners, Please Share> Budget Winner Rhubarb House by Jack Grove (Hitchin, Hertfordshire) wins the Budget category at Shed of the Year 2026. Brilliant shed, brilliant budget. See it here: www.readersheds.co.uk/share.cfm?sh... #ShedOfTheYear #ShedLife
In need of €439 million to reduce carbon emissions, the council got €70,500. "It seems very very small indeed," said Fine Gael Councillor Declan Flanagan, chair of Dublin City Council's climate action committee.
In need of €439 million to reduce carbon emissions, the council got €70,500
"It seems very very small indeed," said Fine Gael Councillor Declan Flanagan, chair of Dublin City Council's climate action committee.
dublininquirer.com
Neoliberalism in a nutshell. UEFA on FIFA's proposal: “The moment external investors acquire ownership interests ... football changes forever. Commercial return becomes a permanent obligation. ... Every decision is no longer driven by what best serves the game, but by what best serves shareholders.”
Dr James Smith (in Gaza): "the feeling [here] is one of simply trying to survive.. people are being forced to live in abject conditions" "Do you feel.. we in the media don't talk about Gaza enough? "Yes absolutely" Smith also rightly calls out Trumps so called Board of Peace
While you were over here trying to figure out how you were going to cover the rent and food—this guy was over there using $5.1 million in taxpayer money YOU paid into the system to cover these statues in 23 karat gold. Yeah, he did that.
