Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dr Jenny Woodley @jennywoodley.bsky.social · 43m

Very many congratulations!

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Dr Jenny Woodley @jennywoodley.bsky.social · 50m

Sorry to hear this. Solidarity to you and your colleagues.

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Dr Jenny Woodley @jennywoodley.bsky.social · 3h

Yes, it's like another world. Hard to believe we're ostensibly in the same sector.

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Dr Jenny Woodley @jennywoodley.bsky.social · 12h

Kids' primary school does a trip to France in yr 6 that cost approx £550. Our daughter was first year to go and they told the kids before they told the parents! Kids came home saying, "we're going to disneyland" and us parents were like, "wtf"!!

Felicity Hannah @felicityhannah.bsky.social · 1d

Unbelievably, literally the day after I posted this, my son has come home clutching a letter for a £4,600 trip to Kenya. He’s pretty upset I have said no

Felicity Hannah @felicityhannah.bsky.social · 2d

Inexplicably, my son’s very standard state school - in a mixed area, not a particularly affluent one - arranged a £4K trip to Kenya last year. I keep meaning to do a story on the astonishing escalation of the school trip.

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Reposted by Dr Jenny Woodley

Dr. William Horne @wihorne.bsky.social · 1d

Important reporting, but also what we’re seeing is Republicans saying the loud part of GOP initiatives even louder. It’s the same ethnonationalist project that animates every aspect of the regime’s lawlessness & punitive policies, just with emojis.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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Reposted by Dr Jenny Woodley

Natasha Simonova @philistella.bsky.social · 1d

ONLY migrants though, no one else is to study English because it's a rip off and a waste of time, am I getting this right.

András Forgács W @andraswf.bsky.social · 1d

Well this will certainly do it www.gov.uk/government/n...

Migrants will be required to pass A Level standard of English

Migrants will be required to pass tough new English language requirements under a law introduced in Parliament today.

www.gov.uk

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Dr Jenny Woodley @jennywoodley.bsky.social · 1d

At bedtime, my son asked which language is hardest for English speakers to learn. We suggested one of them might be Japanese...

Gaijin Mommy @gaijinmommy.bsky.social · 5d

Me: Wait what’s Higashibashi? That’s not a thing.

Sento Obasan Friend: Oh, that’s 吾妻橋 (Azumabashi)

Me: WUT

SOF: It’s ateji.

Me: WUT

SOF: It’s easier to write I guess. Only 1 character.

Me: (silently wondering whether it is too late now to completely give up on learning Japanese)

Old print of the Sumida River where Azumabashi is written with the wrong kanji, but apparently that is fine as long as you meant to do that.

Reposted by Dr Jenny Woodley

David Osland @davidosland.bsky.social · 2d

On the centenary of Thatcher's birth, there have been predictable calls for a memorial to her memory. But Britain's 2300 food banks serve that purpose already.

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Dr Jenny Woodley @jennywoodley.bsky.social · 2d

My great-aunt would answer the phone by reciting her number (which didn't include the area code, even years after they were introduced - she refused to acknowledge such a development)

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 2d

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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Reposted by Dr Jenny Woodley

Dr. Vaughn Joy @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social · 2d

PSA: Public Scholars

I'm working on a resources page for our website to help scholars find homes for their op-eds, guest blogs, and otherwise expertise.

If you run a site or podcast that regularly posts such things and would like us to share it as a potential place to pitch, please let me know!

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Dr Jenny Woodley @jennywoodley.bsky.social · 4d

This is so funny because I had no idea that Americans used the term flapjack for something else (some sort of pancake??) But the people who say it's like a granola bar are wrong... it's much more moist than that (flapjack is served more like a cake - a slice with a cup of tea in a cafe)

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Dr Jenny Woodley @jennywoodley.bsky.social · 4d

I'm sorry, but you're saying something that is at least 20% sugar isn't dessert?! 😉😂

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 6d

Cause the algorithms are increasingly shady and I don’t see much promotion, let me Gift Link this:

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...

Civil Rights Lawyer Bryan Stevenson on How America’s Story Should Be Told

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Dr Jenny Woodley

vic @vicstew.bsky.social · 7d

“Authoritarianism is as American as slavery, as internment camps, as police brutality, as voter suppression. To fight it, white people have to stop pretending government oppression arrived overnight and start dismantling the systems that have been incubating it all along.”

Imani Gandy Corn 🎃 @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 7d

"Black people are tired. Not metaphorically tired—actually tired. The kind of tired that turns every group chat into a mix of gallows humor and emotional triage."

I write about white ignorance and how exhausting it is to hear white ppl insist "this isn't who we are, when it's ALWAYS who we've been.

White People’s Performative Ignorance Is Exhausting—Opinion

Disbelief over authoritarianism in America isn’t a cutesy personality trait. It’s a confession: You haven’t been paying attention.

rewirenewsgroup.com

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Reposted by Dr Jenny Woodley

Ashley C. Ford @smashfizzle.bsky.social · 13d

The conversation between Klein and Coates showed me that a lot of people who screech about “infighting” on the left aren’t aware of the fact that marginalized people have been forced to learn how to regulate their emotions during conflict, and so, are better able to hear what’s actually being said.

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Dr Jenny Woodley @jennywoodley.bsky.social · 13d

The wilful ignorance of history would be funny if it wasn't so racist.

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Eric J. Miller @millerej11.bsky.social · 16d

“American culture encourages a dynamic of ‘While we’re denying that the physical violence that robbed your community has effects in the present, we’re also going to dare you to call that denial violent.’” Koritha Mitchell www.publicbooks.org/white-medioc...

C. L. Polk @clpolk.blacksky.app · 16d

Coates says Black Americans have stories about relatives who were lynched or had to flee and that a life free of political violence is not in reach in his time

Klein:
"Sometimes I think that having a historical scope that wide can make the present too deterministic."

They lynched a kid last week.

Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 17d

This was revealing. Worth reading. The basic demand is that Coates spend less time thinking/writing his true feelings and more time playing political strategist. Klein asks him over and over him to do Dem strategy; he says no, over and over. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...

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Reposted by Dr Jenny Woodley

C. L. Polk @clpolk.blacksky.app · 16d

Coates says Black Americans have stories about relatives who were lynched or had to flee and that a life free of political violence is not in reach in his time

Klein:
"Sometimes I think that having a historical scope that wide can make the present too deterministic."

They lynched a kid last week.

Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 17d

This was revealing. Worth reading. The basic demand is that Coates spend less time thinking/writing his true feelings and more time playing political strategist. Klein asks him over and over him to do Dem strategy; he says no, over and over. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...

Opinion | Ta-Nehisi Coates on Bridging Gaps vs. Drawing Lines

www.nytimes.com

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Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 16d

This is Bryan Stevenson— attorney, NYU law prof, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, author of "Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption". He has 2 degrees from Harvard and has argued cases at SCOTUS.

He say some judges instantly hate him and often mistake him for client he is defending.

JazzReads📚 @jazzreads.bsky.social · 17d

So exhausting..

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Reposted by Dr Jenny Woodley

Smooth Dunk @smoothdunk2.bsky.social · 21d

America 2025. Please Don’t Offend The White Supremacists

4 panel comic

Panel 1: On the left hand side of the panel a member of the KKK is snivelling like a pissy little baby. A Red Guy and a Purple Guy stand next to him. The Red Guy says to the Purple Guy, “Look what you’ve done”

Panel 2: The Red Guy continues “You’ve upset this poor, sweet racist”
the little KKK bitch whimpers “I don’t even feel like lynching a black person”

Panel 3: The Red Guy goes on with disgusting sympathy “He doesn’t even feel like lynching a black person”

Panel 4: The Red Guy says “And that’s his FAVOURITE thing to do” he puts his arm around the whiny little pointy robed cunt.

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Reposted by Dr Jenny Woodley

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 21d

'Even when women were mentioned, the report found they were more often victims than protagonists, with the women murdered by Jack the Ripper more likely to be taught in lessons than the female code breakers at Bletchley Park during the second world war 1/2

School history lessons minimise the role of women, report finds

Campaigners say key stage 3 curriculum plays to misogny and teaches a ‘false version of the past’

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Dr Jenny Woodley

Jenny Wüstenberg @jennywustenberg.bsky.social · 21d

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025... Fantastic example of memory activism.

New statue on National Mall celebrates ‘long-lasting bond’ between Trump and Epstein

Bronze statue by an anonymous creator shows the two men frolicking and holding hands with a foot kicked back in joy

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Jenny Woodley @jennywoodley.bsky.social · 22d

Me: Let me just re-write this sentence for the fourth time so it flows better.

Thomas Chatterton: this sentence will have two sets of parentheses and several em-dashes.

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Dr Jenny Woodley @jennywoodley.bsky.social · 22d

Sometimes, I agonise about the quality of the book I've spent years researching and writing and then I listen to an episode of @ifbookspod.bsky.social and I feel better.

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Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 23d

It is a truth too often unacknowledged, that a populist in possession of the public's rage must be in perpetual want of an enemy.

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