@julialaite.bsky.social
Teller of small stories. Professor of history at Birkbeck. Rider of bikes, grower of vegetables, Brook custodian & friend to five ducks. Townie Cantabrigian. Eternally homesick Newfoundlander; researching the island's history & the legacies of empire.
"AI is not a magical tool built by people in San Francisco making millions of dollars a year and pushing their companies to insane valuations. Artificial intelligence is an extractive technology that relies on the brutal labor of underpaid workers around the world"
www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...
This is the company the UK government has embedded in the nation’s services. Seriously, fuck everyone who is excusing this.
Blowin' a goddam gale though.
Au contraire, the Path of Division and Discontent is finally dry!!!
The neighbour's forsythia is in full regalia, and all around the white-blossom-dotted Birdwood the birds are busy busy busy. The air outside is a wall of song. I've seen blue tits and goldfinches, great tits and wrens. Spring in England is a glorious thing.
When bad academics go to hell, they are forced to set up new external accounts on other universities' IT systems for the rest of time.
When your dear Dad turns 80 and asks for a cherry pie.
I've just learned that our allotment groundskeeper and all-round mencsh has been caring for the allotment foxes' home for years now. He's even made them a grand entrance. ♡♡♡
I've spent a week in the CICU and on the cardiac ward at Great Ormond Street Hospital for children. It's been a week that's made me feel proud to be British and proud to be human. I have so much more to say but for now:
I am so fucking glad we're home.
...& yes, to find some kind of escape from oppression for them & with luck their families. This visa block deliberately targets nationals from countries that the British screwed over in particularly severe ways. This is so desperately cruel and unfair.
I have personally seen the applications of many Afghani students to our gender studies programme: people who have started grassroots LGBT orgs; who have fought for women's education; who want to come to the UK to study to make their country & the world better...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
"Foreign-born Citizens" are actually just called citizens.
"Foreign-born voters" are just called voters
"non-citizen voters" (yes, this is a thing here in 🇬🇧) are just voters.
Moon and Magnolia, Coram's Fields.
For the text, war-poetry.livejournal.com/1567673.html; for more from the poet, josephfasano.net
I've been chanting this poem over and over these last few days on the cardiac ward with my kiddo, as madmen's wars kill and threaten so many other children.
We cannot save each other now
We can
Thank you @josephfasano.bsky.social, for this precious Little Hymn.
Good lord. I thought the previous image couldn't get worse.
As Canadians we'd never heard of it, and then realised it's what we call 'old fashioned gingerbread'. I have a precious recipe from my great, great grandmother!
The fish fingers were like bouncy balls in texture but the 'Canadian Ginger Cake' and custard was pretty good!
A beautiful artwork by Sophie Layton, hanging outside the cardiac ward at GOSH. Made from the words of staff, parents, and patients, with copper and aluminium hand-embossed hearts. 'My heart is a soldier', reads one. 'It's been through wars but it is still fighting and I am really proud of it.'
Yes, couldn't agree more. But as one of these progressive voters, I'm here to say it's already way too fucking late. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
This is exactly how I feel about it.
omg omg omg I will dream of seeing this some day. Parade of Legends.
Feeling blue? Meet the team of Therapy Dogs at GOSH. Yesterday, Ozzy managed to get the first smile out of Kid the Younger. And I'm thinking of changing my name to Billy Fizz. www.gosh.nhs.uk/working-here...
Thank you Charlotte, so far he's doing really really well. The main challenge is to stop myself from weeping constantly because of all the love and care and heroism I'm seeing every day here from these amazing kids, their parents, and all the workers and volunteers at GOSH.
thank you Sarah-Jane!
As Kid the Younger recovers on the ICU from heart surgery, I'm reading Percy Jackson aloud by his bed. Not only is it the only thing that comforted him in the most difficult hours; it entertained & cheered me too. Thank you @rickriordan.bsky.social. Three cheers for the incredible power of stories.
My god, this image. A bare bones concentration style barracks. Mahmood, in a trench coat reminiscent of the SS, gazes at it with what can only be described as a look that delights in human suffering.
The Labour Party deserves to be eradicated for this.
So just to make sure I've got this straight. Matt 'women should breed young' Goodwin is now suddenly concerned about husbands controlling their wives' votes?
'European Girls age 13-15 have world's highest tobacco use for age group'....which is why we've chosen an image that makes it look really fuckin' cool.
v v pleased for the greens and here’s sincerely hoping this prompts a major realignment of labour (a man can dream)