Author | Lightnews

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 19h

Two carved turnips (moots) lit from within by candelight. The outline of a figure is in the foreground making it look like particularly large turnips.

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 1d

#USDA Lapse of Funding Plan (Sept 30 2025)

"Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds that can be used... during a Federal Government shutdown."
web.archive.org/web/20251002... #SNAP #WaybackMachine

web.archive.org

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 3d

Twelve Monkeys, did you say?

2

Reposted by Dr Michael Fraser

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 4d

"HM Government is now also seeking to support the eligible dependants of #Chevening or fully funded scholarship students to try to exit #Gaza. To be eligible to apply for this support, dependants... must submit a student dependant visa application and pay associated fees."
www.gov.uk/government/p...

Scholarships for students from Gaza

www.gov.uk

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Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 4d

"HM Government is now also seeking to support the eligible dependants of #Chevening or fully funded scholarship students to try to exit #Gaza. To be eligible to apply for this support, dependants... must submit a student dependant visa application and pay associated fees."
www.gov.uk/government/p...

Scholarships for students from Gaza

www.gov.uk

1

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 4d

"Natalie Hawes, a trainee solicitor at @dpglaw.co.uk, representing a 20-year-old Eritrean refugee who was hours away from being evicted from asylum accommodation on to the street by the Home Office, welcomed the interim high court order."
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025... #RefugeesWelcome 🧡

High court halts eviction of refugee under Home Office 28-day policy

Judge intervenes in case, disapplying government rule that charities say drives refugees into homelessness

www.theguardian.com

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 5d

Flocks of mackerel.

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 5d

Appropriate time to repost this.

xkcd.com/2347/

"Someday ImageMagick will finally break for good and we'll have a long period of scrambling as we try to reassemble civilization from the rubble."

XKCD 2347: showing stack of digital infrastructure balanced precariously on a single strut described as, "A project some random person in Nebraska had been thanklessly maintaining since 2003".

Explainxkcd.com: The stack in this cartoon bears a striking resemblance to a physical block tower, suggesting the danger that the tower will lose its balance when a critical piece is removed, in this case a piece near the bottom, labeled as being maintained by a single semi-anonymous person located somewhere relatively unimportant doing it for their own unknown reasons without fame or acknowledgement.

Example: The bash shell, which is used by virtually every Unix-like and Linux derivatives and that is used by many system administrators has been maintained since around 1993 by one single person from Ohio, US for over 30 years (as of 2025): Chet Ramey.

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Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 5d

"In the UK, there is a non-virtual contingency plan, or at least there was. If the internet shuts down, the people who know how it works will meet up in a pub outside London and decide what to do, says Murdoch."

The pub closed for good in 2021.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Could the internet go offline? Inside the fragile system holding the modern world together

Behind every meme and message is creaking, decades-old infrastructure. Internet experts can think of scenarios that could bring it all crashing down …

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 8d

"The chapel was filled with the voices of the Lay Clerks of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle & the Children of the Chapel Royal of St. James’ Palace – both invited by King Charles and Queen Camilla – together with the Sistine Chapel Choir."
www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

King Charles attends ecumenical prayer service in Sistine Chapel - Vatican News

King Charles III and Queen Camilla join Pope Leo XIV in the Sistine Chapel for Midday Prayer as part of their official state visit to the Vatican – ...

www.vaticannews.va

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 8d

"The Regius Professor of Medicine is, by order of James II, Master of the Alms Houses of Ewelme. It is the Master’s duty to
chair the trust & to take responsibility for the care of the elderly in the homes. There is a flat at Ewelme available to the
Regius as Master."
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Job Details

my.corehr.com

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 9d

"The neighbourhood has become a bit of an architectural zoo... It is entirely incoherent... With the Schwarzman Centre finally making the interior accessible to the broader public, this looks like a major step in nurturing a connection between city & faculty..."
on.ft.com/3KYaPTz #Humanities #Oxford

Can the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities claim to be another Oxford masterpiece?

The university’s biggest building project is a work of non-committal classicism — but its subterranean concert hall is astonishing

on.ft.com

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 12d

"During Friday’s meeting, Trump appeared to have adopted many of Putin’s talking points verbatim, even when they contradicted his own recent statements about Russia’s weaknesses, said European officials briefed on the meeting."

on.ft.com/4hmX395 #DumpTrump #SlavaUkraini

Trump urged Zelenskyy to accept Putin’s terms or be ‘destroyed’ by Russia

US president tossed aside maps of Ukraine frontline in volatile White House meeting

on.ft.com

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Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 12d

I see what you did there...

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 12d

Joss Wright, professor @ox.ac.uk & specialist in cybersecurity, said that it is easier to use stolen British phones in China because many of the China's network providers do not subscribe to an international blacklist that bars devices that have been reported stolen.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/w...

London Became a Global Hub for Phone Theft. Now We Know Why.

www.nytimes.com

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Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 12d

I was a tad confused by the point relating to ChatGPT & the VC. Whilst overuse of an em-dash (—) is apparently a ChatGPT 'tell', the usage there is actually an en-dash (–), which e.g. Word will auto-correct from a double hyphen (--).

(See University style guide, www.ox.ac.uk/public-affai..., p.13)

In a statement that suggests the University’s new partnership with ChatGPT is already bearing fruit, Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey said “The Life & Mind building isn’t just a world-class facility – it’s a place designed to bring people together.”

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Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 12d

Deer's Cry

A Landscape film

On the Isle of Man

Shot with a Bolex H16 on KODAK VISION3 250D colour negative 16mm film

(Directed by: Tom Wolff
Sound Recording by: Alfie Mattacks
Composition & Sound Design by: J.P. Upton.)
youtube.com/watch?v=g-uo... #IsleOfMan #ManxSky

Deer's Cry

YouTube video by Thomas Wolff

youtube.com

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 13d

"Tim Brown will remember 12 December 2020 for ever.

It was the day the software company SolarWinds was notified it had been hacked by Russia."
www.theguardian.com/technology/2... #Infosec #CISO #SolarWinds

‘I lost 25 pounds in 20 days’: what it’s like to be on the frontline of a global cyber-attack

The security chief of SolarWinds reflects on the Russian hack that exposed US government agencies – and the heart attack he suffered in the aftermath

www.theguardian.com

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 17d

Planning Inspectorate Examination

Botley West Solar Farm

Photovolt Development Partners (PVDP) on behalf of SolarFive Ltd

Solar photovoltaic array & infrastructure, with a maximum intended generation capacity of 840MW.
national-infrastructure-consenting.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/projects/EN0...

Botley West Solar Farm - Project information

national-infrastructure-consenting.planninginspectorate.gov.uk

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 17d

Biggest for now but Botley West Solar Farm in Oxfordshire, currently under examination, would be 840MW, 330,000 homes, and 1,418 hectares footprint.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Ed Miliband approves UK’s biggest solar farm at Lincolnshire site

Tillbridge solar farm will be built in county where Reform UK’s anti-renewables agenda has rising support

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 18d

Every big creature has a moral imperative to get angry about the injustices that anger little creatures.

4

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 19d

Anyone who had the privilege of hearing Tony Sale (1931-2011) giving his tour of the rebuilt Colossus at Bletchley Park (now @tnmoc.bsky.social) would be left in no doubt about the importance of #TommyFlowers.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Pics deleted: B. Jack Copeland et al. Colossus (2006)

Move over, Alan Turing: meet the working-class hero of Bletchley Park you didn’t see in the movies

The Oxbridge-educated boffin is feted as the codebreaking genius who helped Britain win the war. But should a little-known Post Office engineer named Tommy Flowers be seen as the real father of comput...

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 19d

Can't post about Tommy Flowers because:

Call to function 'Context.renderAsync' has been rejected.

→ Caused by: Could not load the image:

file:///data/user/0/xyz.blueskyweb.app/cache /ImagePicker/98d0e48e-4ebe-4cb3-a4b3 -16d3df1dbaff.jpeg

→ Caused by: java.lang.Exception: Loading bitmap failed

Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 19d

Heartless (or incompetent) #FCDO blocks Gaza PhD student's family from entering UK

Alison Phipps, @uofglasgow.bsky.social: “No parent should be forced to choose their studies over their family, not least when this is a firm criterion of the scholarship itself.”
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Gaza PhD student ‘heartbroken’ as family blocked from entering the UK

Manar al-Houbi’s husband and children refused entry despite her winning a scholarship to cover tuition fees, living costs and housing for them all

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Michael Fraser @ffinlo.bsky.social · 23d

Stop the Amazon promotions!