Taking the money from overseas aid budgets is fundamentally wrong headed. If you want to fund public transport, do it with car fuel duty.

Bloomberg News@bloomberg.com · 2w ago

New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham will use money allocated to helping poor countries deal with the worst impacts of climate change to fund a new cap on bus fares across England.

This blew my mind. Some of the largest data centers can require up to 5 million gallons of water per day, equivalent to the water use of 50,000 people. Why are we selling out the survival of our planet to enrich a handful of Big Tech CEOs?

Majority of US’s new AI datacenters to be built on drought-hit land

Guardian analysis finds facilities to be built in some of the driest areas as outcry grows over water needed to power AI

theguardian.com

Someone actually did a study a while back that showed the most effective way to get women out of TERF groups wasn’t people trying to change their minds, it was them getting literally any benign hobby, like learning other languages or taking up needlework

Patrick Wyman@patrickwyman.bsky.social · 2mo ago

You know who isn't getting radicalized? Guys who do ships in a bottle. Embrace model-building and avoid the pitfalls of right-wing extremism

Can confirm also makes an excellent tattoo design reference source

Joanne Harris@joannechocolat.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Elizabeth Blackwell (1707 –1758): was a Scottish botanical illustrator, best known as the artist & engraver of "A Curious Herbal" published between 1737 and 1739. It illustrated medicinal plants in a reference work for the use of physicians and apothecaries. #CelebratingWomen

this is a 19th century painting of @alancumming.bsky.social in Circle of Friends (1995) and I will not be persuaded otherwise www.robertyoungantiques.com/products/dep...

Depicting an Unknown Gentleman Seated at his Desk

Oils on CanvasEnglish, c.1850 23.75

robertyoungantiques.com

I'm making one last push to let people know about this online talk -- sponsored by the British Library in conjunction with their current exhibition on fairy tales. The live stream starts at 7:30 tonight, but if you buy a ticket *before* the event you can watch it any time over the next 7 days.

Terri Windling@terriwindling.bsky.social · 4mo ago

This amazing online event is happening tomorrow, Tuesday, April 21st. Susanna Clarke, @amalelmohtar.com, Gregory Maguire and I will be talking about fairy tales, fairy lore, and fairy tale literature for the @britishlibrary.bsky.social. Please join us! events.bl.uk/events/fairy...

Appropriate since snakes do not have arms.

Dr Sam Bailey@18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I have found many things in books, snakeskin is a first though...

Currently advertising two fixed term parental leave posts: Special Collections Librarian (13 months; £43,622-£49,097 - closes 9 March) and Special Collections Assistant (6 months; £30,508-£33,096 - closes 7 April). It's a great chance to work with a brilliant collection jobs.joh.cam.ac.uk

Vacancies - St John's College, Cambridge

St John’s is a large community of more than 150 Fellows and 250 staff who all help us to be an inspiring place to live, learn, teach, research and work.

jobs.joh.cam.ac.uk

Something nasty on the bookshelf: my review of @tanyakirk.bsky.social's collection of stories about books and libraries for @blpublishing.bsky.social, ‘The Haunted Library’ drfrancisyoung.com/2026/03/04/s... 📚👻

Job Opportunity! We're looking for a Graduate Trainee Librarian #libraryjob www.trin.cam.ac.uk/vacancies/gr...

Graduate Trainee Librarian

(One-year fixed term contract, full-time) Trinity College Library wishes to appoint an enthusiastic Graduate Trainee for one year from September 2026. The post offers an ideal opportunity to gain a…

trin.cam.ac.uk

Job Opportunity! We're looking for a Graduate Trainee Archivist. #archives www.trin.cam.ac.uk/vacancies/gr...

Graduate Trainee Archivist

One-year fixed term contract, full-time Trinity College Library wishes to appoint an enthusiastic Graduate Trainee Archivist for one year from September 2026. The post offers an ideal opportunity to g...

trin.cam.ac.uk

Very good reporting on the situation at the British Library by Claudia Cockerell in The Evening Standard. Appreciate the time and care taken to investigate and explain it all. I believe Library workers on the ground are prompting much-needed culture change there. www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...

The worst of times: Trouble at the British Library

Cyber chaos, striking staff and a crisis of leadership. Claudia Cockerell investigates a national treasure’s year of reckoning

standard.co.uk

It's wild that there appears to be more current concern for the Lost Library of Alexandria than for the British Library. The BL's crisis exemplifies the accelerating destruction--through apathy as much as by design--of human knowledge & learning. I'm not even being dramatic.

Frances Jones@francesjones.bsky.social · 8mo ago

‘No one seems to care’: scholars decry plight of British Library Historian Peter Mandler said it was “a sorry state when a major piece of public infrastructure like this is hit so badly and no one in authority even seems to notice, much less care”. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...

Nolo Mortem Peccatoris (& @tanyakirk.bsky.social!) www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

Lost medieval carol to be ‘brought to life’ on Advent Sunday

Macaronic carol, including both English and Latin, comes from a manuscript, S. 54, in the old library of St John’s College, Cambridge

churchtimes.co.uk

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?

The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity

cityam.com

This headline ticks all the boxes for me.

Cursed shelves and ghoulish libraries... 👻 Dive into fourteen tales featuring bewitched books in The Haunted Library, for lovers of the weird and the written word. Available now: shop.bl.uk/products/the-haunted-library-tales-of-cursed-books-and-forbidden-shelves

Book mail: November Tales of the Weird from @blpublishing.bsky.social The Haunted Library edited by @tanyakirk.bsky.social This is not a new version of the original Haunted Library book they published (see post 2), but there are some crossover stories #weird #horror #library #books 🩸📚💙

am reminded of the old joke: what did James Watson discover? Rosalind Franklin’s notes.

Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.

I couldn't resist. #pleasingterror

The Haunted Library is out on 13 November! This is a collection of classic bookish ghost stories. Thanks @blpublishing.bsky.social for letting me moonlight even though I’ve left the BL

Over the weekend, the world's richest man appeared on screens in central London to call for a race war and for the UK government to be overthrown. No arrests were made in connection with that communication.

Dave Vetter@davidrvetter.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Journalists have been detained and a van showing images of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein has been confiscated in Windsor. This follows a separate incident in which four people were arrested for projecting images onto Windsor Castle.

Entirely agree.

How AI is undermining learning and teaching in universities | Letter

Letter: Prof Leo McCann and Prof Simon Sweeney say student misuse of generative artificial intelligence is widespread and we must be sceptical of its usefulness

theguardian.com

This, from the Quakers, is a pretty good example of how to resist pressure from bigot lobbying groups. Effectively “we legally can allow trans people to use the loo, we morally should, and we tried it and nothing bad happened”

I want to write a new blogpost, academic pals! What’s your best advice for sustaining your motivation as an early career scholar, post PhD, without institutional affiliation? How can you feel supported in carrying on with your work? And what can those of us lucky enough to have jobs do to help?

Very excited for this!

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday.bsky.social · 12mo ago

My new book 📕 The Story of Tudor Art 🌹 comes out on 25th September. It’s the first book ever (!!) to look at art from across the whole sixteenth century in England and I can’t wait to share it with you.

hello. if you work at a university please ask your library to buy my book. it is all about books and libraries and also plants, museums, the Royal Society, and the ways we learn. I think it will be interesting to lots of people, hopefully. thank you www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

Exciting heritage science project using St John’s special collections!

Cambridge University Library@theul.bsky.social · last yr.

Heritage science analysis by the UL & @qmulhss.bsky.social has uncovered secrets in 16th-century Great Bibles! Once owned by Henry VIII & Thomas Cromwell, these Bibles are reunited for the first time in 500 years at a new National Library of Wales exhibition. Find out more: loom.ly/rEtK__E