Ben K
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benjk.bsky.social
Ben K
@benjk.bsky.social
#BookSky, interested in aspiring authors and supporting libraries. Politics, Football Manager, science, archaeology and UK comedians feature heavily!
My latest book is a collection of idioms, proverbs and slang from around the world. It's called The Wheel is Spinning but the Hamster is Dead and in the UK you can get it from these places (geni.us/yDxa). Outside UK, Blackwell's do free/fast international delivery... blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...
December 21, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Just bought a copy as a Christmas present - you can select to add a message and have it signed for no extra cost - I added my son's favourite Philomena quote "How many Three Wise Men were there?". #BookSky
Signed stocking fillers can be snaffled from my bookshop, if that appeals.

Lots of Ladybirds, and a bunch of Cunks, for the funny-book-lover in your life.

www.gralefrit.co.uk/shop.html
December 7, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by Ben K
Every new word in this sentence is worse than the last
December 6, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Ben K
Cruelty is anhedonic. It rarely delivers the euphoria promised because, in the abstract, what feels righteous and joyful inevitably reveals itself to be sordid and small. Then it's "No not like that". "No not enough". "No the real battle, the forever war to make this feel good starts now". Forever.
Note how these awful people are getting exactly the exclusions of children that they demanded and *that still isn’t enough for them*: they demand everyone be delighted about it and kiss their arses for being brilliant.
December 4, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Ben K
The incredible ‘Orkney Hood’ from Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

So well preserved it looks like it was woven yesterday rather than some 1,500 years ago!

It’s thought the hood was made for a child. Found in 1867 in a peat bog in St Andrews Parish, Orkney.

National Museum of Scotland
📷 by me

#Archaeology
December 2, 2025 at 11:19 AM
I didn't get into reading Jane Austen until my 60s. Now at 80, I've written my own spinoff. Half the proceeds will support Big Issue.
I've written a Jane Austen spinoff for my 80th birthday. Help me sell a million copies
www.bigissue.com
December 2, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Ben K
I didn't get into reading Jane Austen until my 60s. Now at 80, I've written my own spinoff. Half the proceeds will support Big Issue.
I've written a Jane Austen spinoff for my 80th birthday. Help me sell a million copies
www.bigissue.com
December 2, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Ben K
Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard
December 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Ben K
I enjoy books that start with maps.
December 1, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Ben K
BFS Online is excited to announce our next event, Between Crescent and Quill: Crafting Fantasy Through a Muslim Lens, taking place Thursday 4th December 2025, 7pm (GMT).

Ticket: tinyurl.com/crescqui

@noorajahangir.bsky.social @ohmz.bsky.social
December 1, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Ben K
October 5, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by Ben K
Roman villa floor mosaic.
Porta Fiorentina, #Volterra #Italy
2nd Century CE

The museum emphasised the high standard of decoration in Volterra at beginning of the Second Century.

Now in Guarnacci Etruscan Museum, Volterra.

See ALT text for description.

#MosaicMonday #Roman
November 17, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by Ben K
This thread collating the Sheffield Tribune’s brilliant investigation into the spivvy lawyer threatening Yorkshire leaseholders into handing over cash is worth reading before the story goes national.
Excellent and courageous investigative journalism.
The fact that it is (apparently) legal to do this to people is utterly disgusting.
“It broke my heart, that was my savings towards a new car,” one woman who paid Milne tens of thousands of pounds told us. “He has just wiped me out.”

Who is Andrew Milne - the solicitor sending "very aggressive" letters to Sheffield homeowners?

www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/a-london-law...
November 18, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Reposted by Ben K
"David Graeber was the anthropologist who re-framed economics by showing that its most basic assumptions were myths.

Where conventional economists traced money to barter and exchange, Graeber traced it to trust and relationships.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11...
Economic questions: The David Graeber question
This is one of a series of posts that will ask what the most pertinent question raised by a prominent influencer of political economy might have been, and what the relevance of that question might be ...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
November 16, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Reposted by Ben K
This year as part of Moevember I’m also doing ANI-MOE-TION, where I reimagine Moe as a character in a different cartoon style every day!

Ani-Moe-tion, Day 1: Family Guy

#simpsons #TheSimpsons #moevember #animoetion
November 1, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Reposted by Ben K
For thirty days I’m going to do a spin-off comic called “Legend of the Moe-Man”. It’s a direct continuation of Moe’s role in “Legend of the Mole-Man”. Hope that’s not too confusing. Please enjoy!

“Legend of the Moe-Man”, Panel 001

#simpsons #TheSimpsons #comics
November 1, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Ben K
Are you interested in Human Origins, Evolution, Archaeology, Paleoanthropology, Rock Art/Cave Art, and practically any and everything to do with Neanderthals?

Join myself, a master’s student, and world-renowned Rock Art experts Dr. George Nash and the wonderful Genevieve von Petzinger!
November 9, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Ben K
Steve Bannon wasn’t exposing Epstein.
He was working with him.
Emails show Bannon giving Epstein MAGA strategy, planning financing routes, and helping him push back the #MeToo/#TimesUp movement /2 bylinetimes.com/2025/11/14/s...
Steve Bannon Offered Trump’s MAGA as Shield for Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein helped shape Trump’s MAGA movement through a secret alliance with its chief architect, Steve Bannon, who told him it could help him “stave off Time’s Up for a decade” in return for str...
bylinetimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Ben K
Holy shit, just learned about the typewriter art of Montserrat Alberich Escardívol, a Catalan typist. Using an extra wide typewriter and 180 color ribbons, she built up elaborate images from simple characters like 'm' and '.' and ';'. Here is her typewritten painting of the Cathedral of Barcelona.
November 12, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Ben K
lol she got his ass and he knows it
November 9, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Ben K
Fascinating story of a satirical citizen journalism publication 'for the poor' launched in London in 1886 by a young couple ⤵️
In 1886, a couple of East End activists launched Toby, a scrappy satirical paper that bit back at power with wit and outrage. Long before social media, it gave workers a voice – and paid the price for doing so. Graham Palmer has their story ⬇️

eastangliabylines.co.uk/lifestyle/hi...
Rise and silencing of the East End’s pioneering paper
“That’s the way to do it!” Toby, a paper named after Punch’s dog bit back at power – until satire, scandal and love brought it to heel
eastangliabylines.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Ben K
We’re working with @glanlaw.bsky.social and our claimants SOS UK, @tippingpointuk.bsky.social and Save Hemsby Coastline to challenge the UK government.

Starmer’s climate framework is so full of holes that it breaches our right to family life. Support our challenge here:
https://goodlaw.social/h5ik
Make Keir Starmer step up on climate
The government is failing to tackle global heating – so we’re forcing it to take action
goodlaw.social
November 8, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Reposted by Ben K
From affordable sketches to investment pieces, Art Fair East in Norwich this weekend isn’t just for looking, it’s for buying – and supporting artists: ⤵️

@eastangliabylines.co.uk
Art Fair East: Where the ordinary meets the extraordinary
Promoting art is always an excellent thing, and if you’re looking for a diverse selection to buy, this is the place for you
eastangliabylines.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Ben K
Lise Meitner, who discovered nuclear fission and did the experiments that led Pauli to postulate neutrinos, is one of my heroes. She had to work twice as hard for everything, and did so much.

I tell a bit of her story here:

mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
John Carlos Baez (@[email protected])
Attached: 1 image Lise Meitner, who discovered nuclear fission, is one of my heroes. She had to work twice as hard for everything, and did so much. The Austrian government did not open the universi...
mathstodon.xyz
November 4, 2025 at 10:16 AM