Author | Lightnews

Dr Maggie @maggieh74.bsky.social · 2h

Precisely 0 times, that’s how many times it’s happened you vile human

Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 2h

Elon Musk, "These lovely small towns in England, Scotland and Ireland, they've been living their lives quietly. They're like hobbits"

"And so one day, 1,000 people show up in your village of 500 and start raping the kids"

"This has now happened, God knows how many times in Britain"

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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · Sep 6

There is *no evidence whatsoever* that the Covid vaccine causes cancer in *anyone*.

I’m no royalist but I respect public figures’ right to privacy so won’t comment on the speculation around individual cases. I am horrified that other doctors have chosen to do so.

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Prof Sheena Cruickshank @sheencr.bsky.social · Aug 21

Excellent summary as ever from Bob Hawkins on the latest data for Covid and respiratory infections in UK. Note the fact that whilst the vaccine campaign for Covid will start in October, the eligibility criteria is dramatically narrower with 12.9million fewer eligible....

Covid Situation Report: Aug 21, 2025

Report providing the latest information on Covid activity in the UK and other countries. This post is best viewed using the browser or Substack app.

open.substack.com

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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · Aug 19

Economic Research Rescue Fund (for people whose NSF grants have been pulled). From UK ESRC. #academicsky
mailchi.mp/ssrc.org/rem...

Reminder: Economic Research Rescue Fund Accepting Applications

mailchi.mp

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BladeoftheSun @bladeofthes.bsky.social · Aug 17

My advice to people, take I'm angry at people not being paid as badly as me.

And turn it into, I'm angry at being paid badly.

Median wage 2008 - £24,769
Median wage 2025 - £29,600

Inflation from 2008-2025 - 70.51%, your wage should be £42,231

We should all be angry.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Aug 12

1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said."

It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy.

I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.

RFK Jr. in interview with Scripps News: ‘Trusting the experts is not science’

HHS Secretary RFK Jr. sat down with Scripps News for a wide-ranging interview, discussing mRNA vaccine funding policy changes and a recent shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

www.scrippsnews.com

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Russ Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · Aug 9

It's an interesting article. Like Tom, I ended up losing over £20k, the result of 2-3 years of work. I asked Boundless to return the book's rights to me, and they said they would - then didn't. Now, when you buy Decade In Tory from Amazon, who knows where the profits go? Boundless are bust...

Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · Aug 9

FINALLY a newspaper publishes a proper investigative piece about Unbound, which dissolved earlier this year owing writers and readers vast sums of money (£20,000+ in my case), after a long period of false promises, incompetence, late payments and vagueness. observer.co.uk/news/busines...

Death of a publishing dream: how the Unbound revolution b...

The literary disrupters enjoyed great success with their crowdfunding model, signing authors that other publishers overlooked. And then the money ran out…

observer.co.uk

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Prof Sheena Cruickshank @sheencr.bsky.social · Mar 9

I feel so frustrated that we are in a situation where needless research that fuels vaccine hesitancy and has already been done extensively could happen- my take on the call to reopen MMR vaccines and autism research- TL: there is NO link 🧪

We need to talk about measles vaccines…. Again.

Why RFK Jr is pushing a dangerous narrative.

urldefense.com

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CALL TO ACTIVISM @calltoactivism.bsky.social · Mar 2

This is Marco Rubio explaining how the USA promised to defend Ukraine forever if they got rid of their nuclear arsenal left after the Soviet Union fell.

This is why lil marco was sinking into the couch. He was hoping we wouldn’t find it…so don’t RT right now this very second.

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Dr Maggie @maggieh74.bsky.social · Feb 21

Got reviews back this am on a paper where I am a co-author. It still amazes me when academics are so rude. #Reviewer2 is live & well (although they were reviewer 1 this time). We will look at the constructive reviewers comments but as for the other, it’s hard to respect your academic judgement.

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Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · Feb 17

🧵Who is opposing the Trump administration?

I analysed 76 actions of the administration since inauguration and then searched for *meaningful* opposition to each.

I grouped the types of opposition and considered what we can learn from both them & actions where opposition has been lacking 1/24

chart showing groups of opposition to Trump. Broad groups for lawsuits are Blue states, labour organisations, civil rights organisations, NGOs. Then there is a separate group for international rsponse and another one for non lawsuit response. A table of all actions is available here with any oppoistion highlighted: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LZN7QnbSyFfUZJG8Sn1MWpK0VnfBtb0OSyZ1jxP3xBk/edit?usp=sharing (worksheet "Actions with links")

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Hannes Cools @hannescools.bsky.social · Feb 11

BBC just released damning research on AI assistants' news accuracy.

Results: 51% of AI responses had significant issues. 19% introduced errors when citing BBC. 13% misquoted or made up BBC content entirely. 🤐🤐
www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/... via @ezraeeman.bsky.social

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Alex Cole @realalexcole.bsky.social · Feb 4

This is so good.

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Spookitty @kitesva.bsky.social · Jan 27

Kind of a long title but this movie sounds wild

A cinema billboard showing
THE BRUTALIST
BABYGIRL
NOSFERATU
FROM GROUND ZERO

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Dr Maggie @maggieh74.bsky.social · Jan 29

In my experience cats never get bored of these kind of nocturnal behaviours! They have unparalleled stamina for such stuff

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @ocasio-cortez.house.gov · Jan 22

SHARE WIDELY.
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS.

With mass deportations starting today across the country, it is vitally important - for both citizens and non-citizens - to know your rights.

You have the right to remain silent. Assert it. You have the right to a lawyer. Ask for one.

(1/3)

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Polly Billington @pollybillington.bsky.social · Jan 15

It’s with a heavy heart that I’ve been forced to write to Claire Coutinho again.

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · Jan 12

Charles Spencer detailed his abuse at his prep school Maidwell Hall in his recent book and that led to a police inquiry which has now caused the school - which was long operating at a loss - to close.

The Conservative press, naturally, blame it all on Starmer. And VAT.

Earl Spencer's school to
close amid abuse inquiry

Earl Spencer's prep school
becomes latest victim of
Labour's VAT raid on fees as it
announces it will close in July
after being 'adversely affected by
external factors

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Dr Maggie @maggieh74.bsky.social · Jan 13

Me too! Best yet

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Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · Jan 7

NEW: Andrew Norfolk broke the grooming gang story, 15 years ago. His exclusive interview on today’s News Agents
is deeply powerful, not least for his anger about those political figures now exploiting it and the victims for their own purposes.

Listen 👇

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

The journalist who exposed the grooming scandal breaks his silence

Podcast Episode · The News Agents · 07/01/2025 · 32m

podcasts.apple.com

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Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · Jan 3

There are 3.4 million girls 14 and under in England.

Elon Musk just wrote that 1 out of every 13 such girls is right now being “systematically raped by migrant gangs.”

The man has gone utterly insane. He’s a sociopath. His latest post is—unambiguously—neo-Nazi rhetoric intended to incite violence.

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Dec 27

Nigel Farage says Elon Musk is "an absolute hero figure" to young Britons.

Simply untrue for most young people

YouGov had Musk approval

18-24
approve 10%
disapprove 74%

25-49
Approve 20%
Disapprove 64%

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Dr Maggie @maggieh74.bsky.social · Jan 1

Back to work tomorrow, have taken the 10days to relax and decompress. Hoping 2025 will not be as challenging at work as 2024, but please can it at least provide some research space?! At least these 2 days should be quieter than normal! #academicchatter #optimistic

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Journal of Art in Society @artinsociety.bsky.social · Dec 30

Norwegian painter Edvard Munch spent many summers at the coastal village of Åsgårdstrand, where he bought a house (now a museum). He said that "to walk in Åsgårdstrand is like walking among my paintings”. Here’s his ‘Moonlight’ (1895), and the scenery there (photo: Kavlie-Borge)

Through the trees we see a path by the side of a lake, as the moon rises, casting a reflection on the water

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Dr Tess Machling @tessmachling.bsky.social · Dec 28

"A request made through ChatGPT, an AI-based virtual assistant, consumes 10 times the electricity of a Google Search"

This isn't a game. This is accelerated destruction via huge usage of power, water, resources etc. Stop using it - especially for messing about!!

www.unep.org/news-and-sto...

AI has an environmental problem. Here’s what the world can do about that.

The sprawling data centres that house AI servers churn out toxic electronic waste and are voracious consumers of electricity, which in most places is still produced from fossil fuels.

www.unep.org

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