Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Steve Hamlett

@oldslo.bsky.social

Impressive detail and easy to use. Just wish I knew what it is telling me...

Theo Sanderson @theo.io · 3d

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself!

bluesky-map.theo.io

I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

Bluesky Map

Interactive map of 3.4 million Bluesky users, visualised by their follower pattern.

bluesky-map.theo.io

February 9, 2026 at 11:22 AM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Brian Bilston

@brianbilston.bsky.social

Here’s a poem called ‘An Attempt to Write an Abecedarian Poem in Praise of the Dictionary’.

An Attempt to Write an Abecedarian Poem
in Praise of the Dictionary

An unfaltering ability to
Bring clarity to the English language
Constitutes your
Defining quality.
Ever since the day we
First met and I
Giggled at the rude words
Hidden amongst your pages,
I adored you,
Jubilant in the
Knowledge that things were
Looking up. You offered me the
Meaning of life,
Not to mention the meaning of all those
Other words, too.
Perfect at settling Scrabble board
Quarrels, your judgement
Reigns supreme. I
Sift you daily, panning for words in
The hope of penning the
Ultimate – the greatest poem this
Vast world has ever seen, but
Whoa, here comes the
X, and oh, alphabet, how could you, I knew
You’d get the better of me
Zooner or later.

Brian Bilston

February 6, 2026 at 9:04 AM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

freegirl12.bsky.social

@freegirl12.bsky.social

Crazy to watch America circle the drain.

Scary how clear it is to the majority of Americans.

February 2, 2026 at 8:51 PM

Steve Hamlett

@oldslo.bsky.social

An essential for anyone with an interest in the 'why' of America

Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) @hcrichardson.bsky.social · 14d

January 28, 2026

Federal agents continue to rain terror on Minneapolis, Minnesota, and other U.S.

heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

January 29, 2026 at 9:38 AM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Randall Munroe

@xkcd.com

Early Arthropods

xkcd.com/3199/

3-panel comic. (1) [Three small arthropods on ocean floor.] ARTHROPOD 1: Now that we’re multicellular, what are your plans? I’m gonna evolve little legs and swim around with them! ARTHROPOD 2: I’m gonna evolve sharp pincers and use them to crunch stuff! ARTHROPOD 3: I’m gonna evolve glands to make string from my butt and use it to construct elaborate geometric nets hundreds of times my size to catch other animals. (2) [Silence] (3) ARTHROPOD 1: *Dude.* ARTHROPOD 2: Can you *please* just be normal about this? ARTHROPOD 3: *What??!*

January 28, 2026 at 7:57 PM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Gabby HC

@scriblit.bsky.social

Liz Truss waiting patiently by her phone for Reform to ring, not realising it's actually a penguin biscuit

January 26, 2026 at 12:34 PM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Sharon

@sharonk.bsky.social

Carney must act: Canada must join Eurovision

January 20, 2026 at 2:03 PM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Rebecca Solnit

@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social

Córy Doctorow with another verbal bullseye: pluralistic.net/2026/01/13/n...

I'm sorry. As a technology writer, I'm supposed to be telling you that this bet will some day pay off, because one day we will have shoveled so many words into the word-guessing program that it wakes up and learns how to actually do the jobs it is failing spectacularly at today. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding horses to run faster and faster, one of them will give birth to a locomotive. Humans possess intelligence, and machines do not. The difference between a human and a word-guessing program isn't how many words the human knows.

I'm sorry. I know that when we talk about "digital sovereignty," we're obliged to talk about how we can build more data-centres that we can fill up with money-losing chips from American silicon monopolists in the hopes of destroying as many jobs as possible while blowing through our clean energy goals and enshittifying as much of our potable water as possible.

January 18, 2026 at 5:29 PM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Brian Bilston

@brianbilston.bsky.social

Here’s a short poem about the power of poetry to change the world.

The Power of Poetry

with things falling apart
and anarchy let loose,

it was only poetry, he found,
which had any use,

so he reached for his copy
of The Complete Works of Yeats

and bludgeoned the President
of the United States

Brian Bilston

January 18, 2026 at 9:47 AM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

womensartbluesky.bsky.social

@womensartbluesky.bsky.social

WOMENSART is 10 years old this month! Over half a million followers, many thousands of incredible women artists' work and 3 successful books later...

THANK YOU SO MUCH! 💙🩵💙

Georgia O'Keeffe inspired birthday cake by Tonya Alvey #WomensArt

Photo of a large cake resembling a sheep skull on a round mount with blue morning glory flowers

January 1, 2026 at 7:01 AM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

MsBlueWednesday

@msbluewednesday.bsky.social

These young people, who haven’t been convicted yet, could potentially be at home on bail electronically tagged.

Meanwhile a former MP accused of, and also not convicted yet, of child sex offences & child abduction is on conditional bail and still working.

Make it make sense for me, please?

January 13, 2026 at 8:24 AM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Conor Sewell

@ccsewell.bsky.social

@stephencollins.bsky.social made the point best

Stephen Collins comic on Twitter addiction

January 13, 2026 at 8:11 AM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis

@kendrawrites.com

I didn't save this tweet but somebody did and it feels worth resurfacing

Old tweet that says when I was young I thought things wre bad because solutions were complicated and now I'm old and realize things are bad because solutions are simple but will inconvenience affluent people (or those who aspire to be) and religious fanatics.

January 13, 2026 at 4:08 AM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Robin Ince

@robinince.bsky.social

A typical reaction “but if the government bow to prisoners being held indefinitely without trial, then simply everyone will go on a 71 day hunger striker to the point of death to get what they want”

"Imminent Danger of Death"
• BREAKING
Three Palestine Action prisoners on hunger strike could now die at any time. One has been on hunger strike 5 days longer than Bobby Sands had when he died in a British jail in 1981.
Palestine L
DeepDiven E

January 13, 2026 at 8:52 AM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Brian Bilston

@brianbilston.bsky.social

This, please.

Prayer for Uninteresting Times

Send me a slow news day,
a quiet, subdued day,
in which nothing much happens of note,
save for the passing of time,
the consumption of wine,
and a re-run of Murder, She Wrote.

Grant me a no news day,
a spare-me-your-views day,
in which nothing much happens at all,
except a few hours together
some regional weather,
a day we can barely recall.

Brian Bilston

January 8, 2026 at 2:36 PM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Stephen Graham

@stephengraham.bsky.social

You have to admit though, Farage's 'I'm an open racist who spouts hate for his own country while taking backhanders from grifters, foreign agitators and a child porn producer' strategy has worked wonders for him so far.

January 7, 2026 at 12:37 PM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

janemick

@janemick.bsky.social

AI picture of "USS Bonespurs" a ship heavily bedecked in gold ornamets with trump as the figurehead

December 24, 2025 at 10:30 AM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Darth Putin

@darthputinkgb.bsky.social

The future Trump class warships.

December 23, 2025 at 4:05 PM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Moose Allain

@mooseallain.bsky.social

Cartoon of an angry-looking man with thin legs standing ankle deep in water, holding a daggers in front of his nose so it looks like a beak. Caption: We can be herons
Just for one day
Yes, he looks a bit like a heron.

December 22, 2025 at 2:23 PM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Buckinghamshire Archives

@bucksarchives.bsky.social

slow day in the office so figured we'd start some beef with museums

That Tom Gauld meme of the two opposing nations perfectly mirrored, but edited to be between archives and museums.

December 19, 2025 at 11:30 AM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Brian Bilston

@brianbilston.bsky.social

I got visited by three ghosts last night, who were all experts in English grammar.

Tense Christmas

I The Ghost of Christmas Past Perfect Progressive

Midnight. Awoken by a ghost.
I thought I must be raving.
He’d come to me so I could see
how badly I’d been behaving.

II The Ghost of Christmas Present Perfect Simple

Later still, a ghost again:
with a much more recent scene.
More evidence piling up
of how unpleasant I have been.

III The Ghost of Christmas Future Unreal Conditional

Then, a final ghostly vision –
but this one lacked the pain and strife.
I saw if I could be a kinder man,
I would create a better life.

Brian Bilston

December 14, 2025 at 8:05 AM

Reposted by Steve Hamlett

Hildur Knútsdóttir

@hildur.bsky.social

Tonight Giljagaur, the second of Iceland's 13 Yule Lads, comes down from the mountains. He likes to sneak into the cow shed and steal milk.

All the children put a shoe out in the window for him to put a treat or a little gift in – if they have been good that is. The bad children get a potato.