Christopher Smith | Lightnews

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 4d

What a super gift to give ... great books give back to us over our lives don't they....

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 4d

That is a lovely outcome; thank you for sharing

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 4d

Such a good idea from @orkneylibrary.bsky.social

#GreenLibraries #LoveLibraries #BrilliantLibraries

Orkney Library & Archive @orkneylibrary.bsky.social · 8d

Another week, another new thing at Orkney Library & Archive! 🛠️

Libraries are not just about books and this week we're launching our loanable TOOL collection! 🔧

We have 3 different toolkits available and we'll be adding more items very soon. 🪛

#GreenLibraries #LoveLibraries

A toolbox opened up to show tools inside

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 4d

It's always sad to see a church sold, but maybe this piece will encourage a few new readers of A Scots Quair

@asls.org.uk

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

Sunset Song: Church that inspired Grassic Gibbon novel up for sale

Arbuthnott Church inspired Lewis Grassic Gibbon and is for sale for offers over £45,000.

www.bbc.com

Orkney Library & Archive @orkneylibrary.bsky.social · 8d

Another week, another new thing at Orkney Library & Archive! 🛠️

Libraries are not just about books and this week we're launching our loanable TOOL collection! 🔧

We have 3 different toolkits available and we'll be adding more items very soon. 🪛

#GreenLibraries #LoveLibraries

gquaggiotto.bsky.social @gquaggiotto.bsky.social · 8d

"I don’t think it’s much of an exaggeration to say that societies are defined by their libraries — by what we hold, what we lend, what we borrow and return, the knowledge we create, the values we defend" placesjournal.org/article/extr...

Extralibrary Loan: Making the Civic Infrastructure We Need

Amid a war on public knowledge, libraries are pushing outward, enlarging the commons through new configurations of civic and creative life.

placesjournal.org

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 9d

amid fascinating work on 12th c. developments in Chinese & Japanese poetic exegesis, there's a really clever suggestion here on the future of #philology

THE WIND THAT MELTS THE ICE: REFLECTIONS ON THE SCALE OF PHILOLOGY - Lurie - @histandtheojrnl.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

THE WIND THAT MELTS THE ICE: REFLECTIONS ON THE SCALE OF PHILOLOGY

The global history of philology, like that of writing systems and other technologies, is characterized by diffusion and adaptation. These processes are made more difficult to grasp if we maintain a p...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 9d

My argument for some time has been that we have radically underinvested in the strategic infrastructure of AH research and in the right sort of PhD funding to achieve similar kinds of success.

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 9d

Look forward to that!

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 9d

Much science policy is about the imperfect balance between direction and open enquiry.

On my recent visit to Japan (STS Forum etc) I thought they were grappling with that pretty well but it's as challenging there as anywhere.

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 9d

Gosh that's an enticing taster! Shall look and listen further now, thank you.

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 9d

Yukawa: ‘I can never work on a problem that I’ve
been told to solve by somebody else. My subconscious
always rebels against being ordered to do something.
Personally, I look on myself as a docile kind of man, but
my subconscious seems to be a rather nastier character.’

Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 9d

Nice little report on high performance research culture at an extremely productive chemistry lab churning out major discoveries. Mentions
Hideki Yukawa - an underappreciated figure outside Japan

Chemistry Nobel Prize winner Susumu Kitagawa research mindset | - share.google/MS39nXGW1vHS...

Chemistry Nobel Prize winner Susumu Kitagawa reveals Japanese research mindset: 'Don’t switch off the light, even…' | - The Times of India

Science News: Professor Susumu Kitagawa, the 2025 Chemistry Nobel laureate, attributes his groundbreaking work on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to a Japanese rese

share.google

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 10d

@asls.org.uk

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 10d

and something else was with me in the dark
spirits were in the land, but
no one's ghost

for, had they been there,
out behind the yards,
I would have seen them in their
gloves and scarves
dusted with moonshine and frost
for the Great Beyond

John Burnside for #Halloween

Masud Khokhar @masudk.com · 11d

I have been thinking a lot about what the future of libraries could be in an algorithmic economy. A real pleasure to share these thoughts and provocations through the fantastic Katina Magazine. Let me know what you think?

katinamagazine.org/content/arti...

#Libraries #FutureofWork #FutureLibrary

Imagining the Future Library

In an algorithmic economy, our understanding of knowledge is changing. Libraries must change too.

katinamagazine.org

Chatham House @chathamhouse.org · 12d

"Since the war [in Ukraine] started we are asking everyone to pull away from Russia, but we forget how may decades Russia has invested in their economy, education and society."

@andihoxhaj.bsky.social on challenging Russian influence in the Western Balkans.

Watch in full ➡️ bit.ly/4qkZnS0

Susan J. Smith @sjs1869.bsky.social · 13d

Which is why, amid all this talk of economic growth, it is the TYPE of growth - its sustainability, its resilience, and above all its distribution - that matters.

World Inequality Lab @wid.world · 13d

🚨NEW REPORT: The Climate Inequality Report 2025 reveals how wealth inequality and the climate crisis drive each other.

What's new in the report? — A thread🧵

Download the report▶️ wid.world/news-article...
#cop30 #climatejustice #inequality

Climate inequality report 2025 | Climate Change: A Capital Challenge - Why Climate Policy Must Tackle Ownership - WID - World Inequality Database

This new report reveals how wealth drive the climate crisis, and proposes new policy options to address it.

wid.world

Royal Holloway @royalholloway.bsky.social · 13d

We are proud to have officially launched ResearchPlus (@researchplusunis.bsky.social) in Parliament, today 🎉

ResearchPlus is a new collaboration between ten long established and highly regarded research focussed universities, of which we are one.

Learn more: ow.ly/R9i050XjfgX

Vice-Chancellors of ResearchPlus Universities after launch in Parliament

Research Plus Universities @researchplusunis.bsky.social · 13d

We're proud to officially launch ResearchPlus in Parliament today 🎉

ResearchPlus is a collaboration between 10 research focussed unis with a common goal – to advance economic growth, prosperity, and societal wellbeing.

https://researchplus.ac.uk/new-collaborative-of-research-focused-universities/

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 26d

not quite yet!

Godwin_lives @pamelaclemit.bsky.social · Oct 2

R. S. Thomas, ‘The Bright Field’, from Laboratories of the Spirit (1975) #NationalPoetryDay

Bloodaxe Books @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social · Sep 27

We are immensely saddened by news of the death of Tony Harrison, aged 88, who had been unwell for some years. A tribute has been published on our website.
www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?article...

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · Sep 22

💯right!!!!

David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · Sep 22

Incidentally, and following up some posts yesterday, can we get away from universities v manufacturing, as the assumed choice? Both, and lots more, as part of a modern mixed economy. This shouldn't need to be so difficult, stop being dragged down by the culture war. bsky.app/profile/davi...

David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · Sep 21

Oh great, just reading that a key part of Labour's next relaunch will be "reindustrialisation". Because the manufacturing fetish has worked so well elsewhere.

Demonstrate you don't understand a modern economy in one easy step.

David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · Sep 22

Incidentally, and following up some posts yesterday, can we get away from universities v manufacturing, as the assumed choice? Both, and lots more, as part of a modern mixed economy. This shouldn't need to be so difficult, stop being dragged down by the culture war. bsky.app/profile/davi...

David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · Sep 21

Oh great, just reading that a key part of Labour's next relaunch will be "reindustrialisation". Because the manufacturing fetish has worked so well elsewhere.

Demonstrate you don't understand a modern economy in one easy step.

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · Sep 21

I get it @richardaljones.bsky.social @athenedonald.bsky.social I really do, but creative arts teaching is disappearing altogether from schools as we watch

Is it maybe time to stop talking about subjects and start talking urgently about #education?

www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/va-east...

V&A East director: My biggest ask is for government to reinvest in creative education - Arts Professional

The director of V&A East has said it is "a shock" to comprehend how creative education has been "set back a generation" in British schools. Gus Casely-Hayford, the inaugural director of the V&A's fort...

www.artsprofessional.co.uk

Ben Sanderson @benmsanderson.bsky.social · Sep 21

Sorry, but disagree with @hausfath.bsky.social here. You open Pandora's box, you ain't closing it again. We've already seen with Paris that well intentioned international agreements do not translate into physical reality and SRM governance is a much harder problem. Zero is the only safe level. /1

Zeke Hausfather @hausfath.bsky.social · Sep 21

I have a new @nytimes.com guest essay w/ @davidkeith.bsky.social about sunlight reflection. We note its not a solution for climate change and at best a band aid to treat systems, and suggest if its ever done it should only be to replace the cooling from air pollution today:

Opinion | A Responsible Way to Cool the Planet

A small, carefully scaled geoengineering program could compensate for the loss of cooling as we eliminate sulfur pollution.

www.nytimes.com

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · Sep 21

“I think [economists] have mathematics envy... They just want to prove theorems. That’s my main peeve about economists. They seem more interested in solving logical problems and aesthetic puzzles rather than a deep desire to understand what the real driving forces are.”
@financialtimes.com

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · Sep 19

Investor Jean-Philippe Bouchaud: ‘The whole bull run is because of an influx of money’ on.ft.com/4pwbmM0

Investor Jean-Philippe Bouchaud: ‘The whole bull run is because of an influx of money’

The physicist and hedge fund manager on why the efficient markets theory is ‘all wrong’, economists with ‘mathematics envy’ — and what Camus can teach us about compromise

on.ft.com

Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · Sep 21

Every so often I find seven short poems from new books in my reading pile and put them together with the idea that people might like to read one a day over the week (binge reading is also fine, of course). Here's the latest selection:

Pinks #36: A Box of Leaves

A week of poems from books I'm enjoying

someflowerssoon.substack.com

Justin A. Burnett @justinburnett.bsky.social · Sep 20

So I’ve begun a Substack where I keep detailed reading notes on #Schattenfroh, a new novel from #DeepVellum claimed by some to be a masterpiece (I tend to agree so far). Read or spread it around, if you can. I’m working hard on this.

open.substack.com/pub/schatten...

Reading Schattenfroh, Pg. 19

(Note: I have decided to forgo further preliminary writings and dive into my commentary directly.

open.substack.com

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