Mary James | Lightnews

Light up
your news

Create account Sign in

About Privacy Terms Help

Charlie

Charlie

@fearlessknits.bsky.social

300 followers 280 following 590 posts

I was born in a water moon…

Since then I've paid an inordinate amount of attention to politics, and made lots of things with yarn. Queer, disabled, democratic communist, one half of Mary James

maryjamesauthor.wordpress.com .. more

Mary James FAcSS retired in January 2014 as Professor and Associate Director of Research at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education. In the same year she completed her four-year term as Vice President and President of the British Education and Research Association. .. more

Education 65%

Psychology 9%

more

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Mark D. White, Ian Hall, Gillian Rose , and 11 more Mark D. White, Ian Hall, Gillian Rose, Brian Kelly, Melanie C. Green, Carlos Nunes Silva, Tama Leaver, Aija Leiponen, Jeremy J. Schmidt, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Michael Evans, Mary James, Hilary Bussell, Elisa Freschi

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · Sep 29

Exclusive: OpenAI is planning to release a new version of its Sora video generator, which creates videos featuring copyrighted material unless copyright holders opt out of having their work appear.

OpenAI’s New Sora Video Generator to Require Copyright Holders to Opt Out

Executives at the startup notified talent agencies and studios over the last week.

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Sep 10

Ooooohhh I like it!

Reposted by Mary James

Ashley C. Ford @smashfizzle.bsky.social · Sep 10

ALSO, he’s not a politician. He has been elected to no office. He worked some campaigns in college then dropped out to become a full time political violence agitator. Does he “deserve” to be shot? Who cares! He got shot. And it’s not wrong to keep in mind that, had it been you, he would not care.

Reposted by Mary James

flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · Sep 1

And that’s the kindest explanation, the one where they’re heedless, wilfully stupid and self-centred. There are much less charitable ones than that.

Reposted by Mary James

flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · Sep 1

These are intelligent people, so they certainly see there is no upper limit to the level of cruelty the voters they’re chasing want and that there’s no way to win their approval. And yet they continue regardless, knowing it’s disastrous, because the alternative is admitting that they’ve fucked it.

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 30

Yes yes, more of this please!

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Merton Council seizes control of rogue landlord's properties

Merton Council took control of the portfolio of 18 properties, rented as houses of multiple occupancy.

Reposted by Mary James

Lilah Sturges @lilahsturges.com · Aug 25

When people say they don’t know how to explain queerness to their kids it’s because they have sexualized every aspect of queerness in their minds. They still think that being gay or lesbian or trans or any other queer identity is little more than a fetish.

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 24

No worries, I hope it helps! Xx

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 24

In terms of equipment, you can hand sew everything but it takes So Long! I'd recommend going on your local Freecycle and asking if anyone's got a sewing machine they're not using, and you can upgrade later if / when you've got a better idea of what you'll need for your sewing style

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 24

In this playlist she goes through making a block pattern from the start, and how to use it: youtube.com/playlist?lis...

For this tho, I'd advise watching now for inspo, but doing some of the simpler stuff Leena points towards first to build skills and confidence

Pattern Drafting Starter Pack // Basic Blocks - YouTube

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 24

Then, this might seem intimidating, but I really rate The Closet Historian most of what she makes is incredibly high concept, but her thesis that you only need a block pattern and a bit of knowledge about pattern manipulation is well worth getting your head around.

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 24

Okay! Leena Norms is a great place to start. She's only started sewing in the last couple years and has done very easy stuff, from the ground up. This playlist is a good intro: youtube.com/playlist?lis...

MY YEAR OF MAKE DO - YouTube

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 23

Would you like some recommendations on how to start making your own clothes? It's probably easier than you think

(I mean, obvs there's no limit on how complex you can get, and only the goddesses among us make their own bras, but you can totes start with simple shit)

Reposted by Leigh Sparks, Mary James

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · Aug 23

Funnily enough I don't remember reading similar front pages when Jeremy Hunt bought *seven* luxury seaside apartments from a Conservative donor, in breach of his government's own money laundering rules

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 23

The mass manufacture of clothes is the biggest mistake of modernity. We used to have clothes made to measure and colours chosen to suit us. And now it's just so hard to even find someone to make your clothes, let alone afford it

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Daniela Gabor, Steven Heydemann , and 12 more Cas Mudde, Daniela Gabor, Steven Heydemann, Gavin L. Foster, Andrew Scott, Leigh Sparks, Julian Petley, Lesley A. Hall, Julie Cupples, Jonathan Birch, Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Elizabeth Eva Leach, Paul Sheehan, Christina Pagel, Mary James

Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · Aug 23

Just for perspective, a few weeks ago roughly 100,000 turned up for the London Trans+ Pride march. By contrast fewer than 3,000 ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY, have turned up to anti-asylum "protests". Yet we are meant to take the latter as "the voice of the people" and the former as "the minority".

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 19

www.thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/zack...

Zack Polanski: The Left’s New Hope

Zack Polanski has crafted a political strategy that the left has been crying out for: eco-populism, the left’s answer to the far-right.

www.thelondoneconomic.com

Reposted by W. Andy Knight, Mary James

Charlotte “Pure True Love” @charluv.bsky.social · Aug 18

No one owns the Water.
No one owns the Land.
No one owns the sand.
These are given by Our Mother.
The Planet provides for Free.
Only by the hands of the Greedy does the Earth require a Fee 🌺

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 4

Y'all. Private healthcare is Something Else.

On an off white wall, a large ornate golden frame with a large white card borders a very large blown up publicity photo. The photo is of a deep red room with panelling painted raspberry pink. A woman sits on a dentist's chair to the left of the image, in a deep blue gown fit for the Oscars red carpet. She is holding a green cocktail and laughing at someone out of the scene to the right, on the other side of the wash station and mouth spotlight. The overall effect is intensely weird

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Steve Peers, Elizabeth Stokoe , and 9 more Cas Mudde, Steve Peers, Elizabeth Stokoe, Employment, Lesley A. Hall, Alan Stewart, David Gadd, Michael Morris, Stephen Ryan, Elizabeth Eva Leach, Tobias Singelnstein, Mary James

The Secret Barrister @barristersecret.bsky.social · Aug 4

I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts.

The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.

Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 3

Me in my Sheffield flat looking at dribbles and air bubbles spitting out of the kitchen tap, the loo cistern that takes 5 mins to refill, and reports from neighbours about yellow mains water.

Hmm. Interesting.

Also this: www.thestar.co.uk/news/stannin...

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 3

We are replacing our cat piss carpet in the study / spare room with laminate, and so currently the living room is full of desks and sofa bed, and the entire flat smells of cat piss. We're gonna be ready for the fitter on Tuesday, but good God the stink right now! 🤢

Reposted by Mary James

Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · Aug 3

"How a global collapse could be avoided: 'Don’t be a dick' is one of the solutions proposed, along with a move towards genuinely democratic societies and an end to inequality."

Inequality is a great beast of an enemy. To solve it, we need UBI and wealth taxes, and we need more direct democracy.

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse

An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Jonathan M. Gilligan, Mary James

Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · Aug 3

3 Aug 25 - New study shows vast "over-representation of trans boys" turns out to be vast _under-representation_ of trans girls bec. they: a) come out ~10 years later; b) start puberty later; & c) delay transitioning longer because of deep social animus towards AMAB femininity.
tinyurl.com/yrwvmxws

Charlie @fearlessknits.bsky.social · Aug 3

Thank you! It's an electric wheel from Heavenly Handspinning, who appear to have stopped trading, which is a shame, cos it's a really good little wheel

Reposted by Mary James

flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · Aug 3

Perhaps we need a public inquiry into corrupt collusion between government, police and media? A kind of Leveson Inquiry Part 2, if you will

Richard Sanders &
@PulaRJS
Buried away in its piece on Palestine Action @ObserverUK states:
"The Observer understands that the drive for proscription came from the Home Office and police, rather than MI5. Well-placed sources said some reports that Palestine Action had potentially received Iranian funding, which were attributed to the Home Office before the proscription vote, were considered to be wide of the mark."
Absolutely disgraceful that@bbclaurak and @thetimes allowed themselves to be vehicles for this crude smear.

Reposted by Mary James

emily moonlight @threnody.bsky.social · Aug 3

absolutely wild to niemöller at a person from one of the groups in the poem to argue that it’s good actually to let them come for some people because it’s a tactical victory.

“i read niemöller & solved the trolley problem the omelas way” is what a surprising number of people sound like right now.

timb33 hashtag nokings says

First they came for the socialists etc. What if they came for some really small marginalized group of people (0.05% of population), and because we tied ourselves in knots trying to keep everyone happy, we never got into power, and never achieved anything.

Reposted by Tariq Modood, Håvard Kauserud, Mary James

Owen Jones @owenjones.bsky.social · Aug 3

The problem isn't Netanyahu - it's a society in the grip of genocidal mania.

Reposted by Mary James

Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · Aug 2

Tax the rich and distribute universal basic income, then being terrified will no longer be a part of daily life.

WuTangIsForTheChildren @wutangforchildren.bsky.social · Aug 2

As usual, Bill Burr doesn’t miss 🎯

Reposted by Mary James

David Graeber Institute @davidgraeberinst.bsky.social · Aug 3

Instead of the daily stock market - we could have an indicator for the number of homeless people?

What if we defined the economy as the way we take care of one another? Since that's what it ultimately is/ What wood economic indicators then look like