Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Bill Thompson @billt.bsky.social · 2d

Cheered out of Jarrow by the then mayor - one Bill Thompson. Not sure if/how I’m related (I’m from there) but like to imagine so.

1

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Saoirse ☀️ @scratchcarddust.bsky.social · 6d

If you know basic kabbalah it's actually not too hard to make a golem out of a labubu. Don't recommend it though. They have a pre-existing body-dharma. As soon as they wake they run straight for the sea. V hard to counter. Lost the first one. No idea what it's doing out there. Moved like lightning.

31 900 3K

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Aditya Mukerjee 🦦 🏳️‍🌈 @chimeracoder.bsky.social · 4d

I love this ad, but I also need to point out how sad it is that it's the pretty much the only time any Democrat with national visibility has used their platform to issue a full-throated defense of trans people at all, let alone a concrete campaign promise for trans rights.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 4d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

1 16 79

Reposted by Bill Thompson

The Secret Barrister @barristersecret.bsky.social · 8d

This is a lie.

There are many criticisms you might sensibly and truthfully make of the Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines. I’ve been making them for years.

But this is an outright lie. Pure fabrication. A fraud on the public.

120 1.8K 3.4K

Bill Thompson @billt.bsky.social · 9d

Birthday. Cake. Kaffeine London. The finest coffee shop in town.

A table with an espresso, a lemon cake, a laptop and a phone in a Teams call

5 14

Bill Thompson @billt.bsky.social · 14d

Great minds… from an internal note I wrote this week…

1 4

Reposted by Bill Thompson

New_ Public @newpublic.org · 14d

How will technology continue to shape how we talk to each other? We’re seeking a researcher to help tackle big questions like this.

Working with Co-Director @eli.bsky.social, this is a chance to engage with experts, dive into the research, and contribute directly to the field and our strategy.

Job posting graphic with coral orange background featuring white text that reads "NOW HIRING Research Fellow - AI & The Future of Social Conversation" with an abstract geometric illustration of a door or archway. Details include 20-25 hours per week, $40/hour, remote position for U.S. or Canada, working through 2/28/26.

1 6 5

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Adam @adamcobb.bsky.social · 14d

It's a small point but CBS is the BBC's news partner in the US (ABC had played this role for at least a decade previously) and they often use CBS correspondents for smaller US stories. Can that continue?

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 14d

This is what CBS staffers have told me about the possibility of Bari Weiss taking over the newsroom:

One, she's not a journalist, as far as we're concerned. And two, the idea that she's going to carry some sort of editorial stick for us is hard to swallow.”

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

‘He lied to us’: CBS News staffers say new owner David Ellison ‘can’t be trusted’

EXCLUSIVE: Multiple CBS News staffers said new owner David Ellison has broken his promise not to “politicize” the network by installing a Trump loyalist as ombudsman, and courting The Free Press found...

www.independent.co.uk

1 8 12

Reposted by Bill Thompson

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 14d

At a time when new cyberattacks debilitate British businesses seemingly daily, the UK government is demanding that security is made worse for UK users.

Techmeme @techmeme.com · 14d

Sources: the UK Home Office issued a new order to Apple in early September to create a backdoor into its cloud storage service, this time focused on UK users (Financial Times)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

5 32 77

Bill Thompson @billt.bsky.social · 15d

Once I saw the BLINK tag I knew he could never be trusted with anything important.

1 2

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Vagina Museum @vaginamuseum.bsky.social · 15d

*sigh* Bluesky is Blueskying again. Here's that link again, this time visible to everyone. Trans people's experiences are not adult content, mods. www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/communitygal...

A post from the Vagina Museum, labelled as "adult content": The last day to view Trans Ephemera is 5th October. This community-created exhibition explores diversity, medicalisation and experiences of oppression through the medium of things that are normally thrown away. The exhibition is free to visit - plan yours now!

9 350 890

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Heather Burns @heatherburnstech.bsky.social · 15d

Because much of my professional life is pointing out how laws meant for one thing are used for something else: the Trump administration is using a law meant to protect access to abortion clinics, which it is no longer enforcing, to go after pro-Palestinian protesters. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

DOJ sues over pro-Palestinian protest, using law on abortion clinic access

The U.S. Justice Department is suing pro-Palestinian organizations and demonstrators it accuses of intimidating Jewish worshipers at a New Jersey synagogue, using a U.S. law that has traditionally been used against people blocking access to abortion clinics.

www.reuters.com

3 5

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Paul Clarke @paulclarke.com · 15d

A really good reason: not knowing where someone currently resides is a huge risk when it comes to legal redress if they nick the hire car or whatever. I love how the magic word 'digital' makes idiot ministers think chaotic humans will suddenly transform into compliant automata because of an app

Alec Muffett @alecmuffett.bsky.social · 15d

If you have a driving licence then you use that and a utility bill

If you have a passport then you use that and a utility bill

If you have a digital ID then you will use that and a utility bill

This is and will be an invariant pattern in modern business for some reason.

Will law change that?

1 5 10

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 17d

Call Gavin Newsom's office like you called ABC/Disney/Sinclair/Nexstar

South Bay Queer Solidarity @sbqsolidarity.bsky.social · 19d

A huge win for trans people in California: the state legislature passed five bills protecting our rights!

Now it's time to call on Governor Gavin Newsom to sign them. Contact him before October 12th: transfamilysos.org/action-neede...

#TransRights #TransYouth #TransCalifornia

Action Needed: Urge Governor Newsom to Sign Five Critical Trans Rights Bills

TransFamily Support Services is proud to co-sponsor five critical trans rights bills that have officially passed the California Legislature. This is a major victory—one made possible through a powerfu...

transfamilysos.org

11 3.6K 5.6K

Bill Thompson @billt.bsky.social · 17d

Jam, Jerusalem, and Gerrymandering

4

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Tom Coates @tomcoates.bsky.social · 18d

This is the British political equivalent of arguing that the Women’s Institute are a Nazi cabal and control the Conservative Party.

What does every Labour Prime Minister, half the cabinet, the London Mayor, the Attorney General, and the Governor of the Bank of England have in common?
They are all Fabians.
What now? Who?
Are we being destroyed by a Radical Left kabal?
l do some digging
thatalexwoman.com/p/the-powerful...

6 4 12

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Paul Clarke @paulclarke.com · 19d

I'm seeing so many takes around parts of the "ID card" melange, I have to add a few.

It's not about cards. It's about registers. A register is a definitive 'true source' of data, about people, places, buildings, whatever.

6 52 110

Bill Thompson @billt.bsky.social · 18d

A beautifully captured lunch with one of the actors who never disappoints. And a useful life lesson for us hacks from @janinegibson.ft.com - don’t choose the ciabatta.

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 18d

This might be the best Lunch with the FT I've ever read (it helps to be obsessed with Tom Hollander).

Fascinating, funny, wholly un-vain on both parts, vulnerable but never cloying. Loved every word and re-read chunks repeatedly, savouring it to the end.

extra gift-link here: on.ft.com/3Vzowud

1 5

Reposted by Bill Thompson

BBC Radio 3 Now Playing Bot (Unofficial) @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social · 18d

BBC Radio 3
Train Tracks

Tom Service with a musical and cultural celebration of a landmark moment: the 200 year anniversary of the birth of the modern railway.

1 2

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Lego Lost At Sea @legolostatsea.bsky.social · 22d

Not sea glass but fragments of plastic car tail lights, indicators and brake lights, probably washed into storm drains after heavy rain, eventually making their way to the sea. #oceanplastic

8 110 420

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Gordon Guthrie @foundationsofthedigitalstate.com · 22d

People, good people, civil servants, give up their time and their money to make Civil Service Staff Networks the fantastic resource and public service they are and the government spits in their face, it makes me sooooo mad...

Grrrrrr

1 1 8

Bill Thompson @billt.bsky.social · 23d

Why doesn’t @bbc6music.bsky.social get louder as my tram gets nearer to Media City? That’s where they are playing from…

2 10

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 23d

Yes, it being 'unworkable' and 'unfunded' is the problem.

JFC.

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 23d

Keir Starmer’s spokesperson asked for the PM's response to Nigel Farage’s plan to deport hundreds of thousands of people living and working completely legally in the UK, replies that he thinks it is “unworkable” and “unfunded”.

So his objection is that they’ve got their sums wrong

1 19 88

Bill Thompson @billt.bsky.social · 23d

It’s clear that the cruelty is the point. Anything to distress, frighten, undermine, create divisions. And the answer has to be to say ‘no’, ‘never’, not ‘this wouldn’t work’. Anything less is complicity.

1 7 33

Reposted by Bill Thompson

Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 23d

Retrospectively removing indefinite leave to remain would be immoral and economically damaging. It would tear families apart.
Attacking it as ‘potentially illegal’ is completely beside the point.
Argue with the (awful) idea. Don’t try ’well, actually you can’t do that’.

59 480 1.6K