Laura Woods

This is AMAZING. Just when I thought I couldn't love Zotero more!!

WHAT

Fair play, 'the mad emperor started compulsively buying shoes for his court, guessing their foot size & his courtiers were too scared not to wear them even when they didn't fit' is some classic, on the nose End Days Of The Empire stuff

The most shortlived Sugababes lineup, but arguably the most interesting...

A cartoon by Ron Cobb (1975), showing a shadow of US B-52 bomber above cratered landscape. Two people who look like Vietnamese peasants look up; one says “they’re having problems with their economy again.”

This is from 1975.

"I truly believe that the best potatoes of your life are still ahead of you" thanks man, I really needed to hear that 🥹

Most accurate portrait of modern culture currently available

Yes, hello, is that God? Yeah, hi. I have a complaint. You gave me this brain that’s designed for finding berries and avoiding lions and now people are ‘just circling back’ to see if we can ‘move the needle’ on ‘key initiatives’? NONE of those things are berries.

Isn't the cat hair a bonus free gift?

Joss Whedon: greetings whedonistas and whedonistos!
Clive Barker: who're you?
Whedon: i'm
Whedon: i'm joss whedon!
Whedon: c'mon, you remember me!
Whedon: i was everyone's woke 90s bae!
Barker: hm doesn't ring a bell

The main reason I don’t think it’s arson is because of Occam’s razor: we have a *very plausible* explanation for the fire starting. Vape shops are notoriously unregulated and vapes themselves are likewise relatively unregulated. We all know lithium batteries explode sometimes.

And given that we know that, I think it’s important to make sure that the conversation remains centred around the actual risk: that austerity and budget cuts and lack of regulation means fire safety improvements get skipped, again and again and again until this happens.

Sometimes cat just needs to legggggg

Tom Holland's "Umbrella" | Lip Sync Battle YouTube video by Comedy Central Asia

Remember Captain Kangaroo and what happened when someone said "ping-pong balls"?

(Okay, maybe not. Before your time, probably. Anyhow)

Anytime someone uses the word "umbrella" in a post here, we need to post this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brq-...

there's so much bad in the world but there's also people who lift up and carry an elderly bat around every day so he can pretend he's flying again, and that's the part of the world I think is worth fighting for

Cats. No loyalty. Excellent judges of character though, so sounds like you probably picked a good man there?

Winning at life! I'm excited to find out what's actually in the depths of my junk drawer...

@pammckinney.bsky.social, @woodsiegirl.bsky.social & I will be sharing the findings from our Leeds based research on creativity, arts & culture for #digitalinclusion in older adults in a @librariesconnected.bsky.social webinar on 10th March 12-1pm www.librariesconnected.org.uk/events/webin...

The Poet Laureate of the UK is famous for his translation of St Gawain and the Green Knight, and Kym once got up on stage, looked him straight in the eye, and then performed this.

Unsurprisingly enough, every time they've encountered each other since, he's remembered them.

Oh to be a pup, surrounded by love and blankets, snoozing in the sunlight 🥰

Seeing a lotta people like “no Firefly sucked actually” and hard disagree; I really like Firefly, I have a huge amount of lingering affection for it, I think a lot of it is quite solid and it has some truly great moments, and also it’s good that it’s over and it should stay that way

A ridiculous tuxedo cat doing a little LIKK on my dunked digestive biscuit. Actually it's 2 for structural integrity, otherwise the wet bit flops off and lands on his paws and he gets all grumpy

I'm telling you, Paul makes me dunk his biscuit in tea. He does. HE DOES

Dear Shabana, I notice today that you referred to me in your speech on immigration at the IPPR think tank. You said: “A party leader should not be on the beaches of France encouraging people to make a perilous crossing on small boats.” I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised especially after the hateful Labour campaign in Gorton and Denton, but this is just the latest in a string of lies peddled by a discredited Government who intentionally fan the flames of racism and division. When I went to Calais, I was not there to encourage people to travel to the UK. I was there to see at first hand the suffering your Government and successive Governments have done in demonising migrants in a pathetic bid to pander to the base instincts of Reform and the flawed strategy of Morgan McSweeney. As you will know, if you even bothered to research my visit instead of taking Reform talking points, I was there to witness the brutality of families living in tents in freezing temperatures. I filled water tanks and picked up litter. What that visit did do is confirm my belief that if we are to smash the boat gangs and stop the boats, we need to offer safer and managed routes for migrants to come to this country. Showing compassion as a politician is not a crime. In fact, we need to see much more of it. It reminded me of a young MP who in October 2015 spent three days in Lesbos helping migrants fleeing war-torn Syria. She posted videos on X, talked about handing out water and croissants to refugees and food parcels. When she returned to the UK, she wrote a very moving piece in the New Statesman. She said “we have to work with our European partners and create new, safe, and legal routes for refugees to get to Europe. We cannot abandon them to their fate, left as prey for smugglers whilst risking death on the seas.” She said “maybe we can make ourselves feel better by saying no-one is making them get on the boats. And again, the Home Secretary is not entirely wrong when …

Dear Shabana,

Let's clear some things up around migration and remember we're talking about people's lives.

I guess it's one of the small powers you have in that job tbf

They never even glance at me these days before hammering the "visibly old as hell" button. The only thing worse is when a young'un says "are you suuuuure you're over 18?" with a cheeky twinkle, and I feel myself crumble into dust.

Same!! I've never seen the appeal tbh

I mean, that's not a good holiday destination with kids (or anyone imo, but I appreciate others may disagree) even at the BEST of times!

this has reminded me of possibly the best book review I've ever seen, an anonymous marxist amazon review of the 1971 children's book "The Elephant and the Bad Baby"

The “telling your boss” part sold me.

I would like to do an in-conversation with an experienced therapist where we talk through a harm-reduction approach to using AI for therapy.

I feel like - as with writing - there's a lot of collegiate pressure not to give an inch or even acknowledge that people are using it like this.