Emma Bates
@emmabates.bsky.social
Fundraiser, cat owner. She/her.
Reposted by Emma Bates
The New World asked me to speak to some British trans women about what life has been like for them over the past few years - here's what they had to say, in their own words: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...
January 21, 2026 at 9:38 AM
The New World asked me to speak to some British trans women about what life has been like for them over the past few years - here's what they had to say, in their own words: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...
Reposted by Emma Bates
we’re in the vet’s office waiting room and they just called for Agamemnon. we all looked at the Great Dane but it turns out Agamemnon is an orange kitten in a backpack that makes him look like an astronaut cheese puff
January 11, 2026 at 5:27 PM
we’re in the vet’s office waiting room and they just called for Agamemnon. we all looked at the Great Dane but it turns out Agamemnon is an orange kitten in a backpack that makes him look like an astronaut cheese puff
Reposted by Emma Bates
Set out six months ago to investigative some dubious evictions. Ended up writing a sprawling story spread over 450 years about London property deals, the ethics of money lending, Tommy Robinson, Barbary pirates, Jacobean earls, and wealth in the capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/henry-smit...
A Tale Of One City And Two Henry Smiths
These two London landlords are separated by four centuries — but joined by a common name and business interests.
www.londoncentric.media
January 1, 2026 at 9:26 AM
Set out six months ago to investigative some dubious evictions. Ended up writing a sprawling story spread over 450 years about London property deals, the ethics of money lending, Tommy Robinson, Barbary pirates, Jacobean earls, and wealth in the capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/henry-smit...
Reposted by Emma Bates
Open up this picture fully.
Then look at the surface of Mars.
Then look up to the top right.
Spot Mars' moon Phobos high in the sky.
Then notice the bright spot beside Phobos.
That's Earth.
Then look at the surface of Mars.
Then look up to the top right.
Spot Mars' moon Phobos high in the sky.
Then notice the bright spot beside Phobos.
That's Earth.
December 30, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Open up this picture fully.
Then look at the surface of Mars.
Then look up to the top right.
Spot Mars' moon Phobos high in the sky.
Then notice the bright spot beside Phobos.
That's Earth.
Then look at the surface of Mars.
Then look up to the top right.
Spot Mars' moon Phobos high in the sky.
Then notice the bright spot beside Phobos.
That's Earth.
Reposted by Emma Bates
props to this christmas lad I’ve just spotted on @flightradar24.com
December 25, 2025 at 1:48 PM
props to this christmas lad I’ve just spotted on @flightradar24.com
Reposted by Emma Bates
*gasps and clutches laptop screen*
GIVE IT ME
GIVE IT ME
Galaxy Quest (1999)
Sigourney Weaver: “I wish they put out a director’s cut of the movie because, at the last minute, DreamWorks decided to release the movie with some of the more sophisticated scenes cut that Alan [Rickman] was in because it needed a kids’ movie to go up against Stuart Little.”
Sigourney Weaver: “I wish they put out a director’s cut of the movie because, at the last minute, DreamWorks decided to release the movie with some of the more sophisticated scenes cut that Alan [Rickman] was in because it needed a kids’ movie to go up against Stuart Little.”
a woman is sitting at a table talking to a man in a conference room .
ALT: a woman is sitting at a table talking to a man in a conference room .
media.tenor.com
December 22, 2025 at 12:37 PM
*gasps and clutches laptop screen*
GIVE IT ME
GIVE IT ME
Reposted by Emma Bates
Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower
December 21, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower
Just had a dentist's appointment at 2.30 and I didn't even think to make the joke. Devastating.
December 17, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Just had a dentist's appointment at 2.30 and I didn't even think to make the joke. Devastating.
Reposted by Emma Bates
God: behold the horse, my finest creation. fast. strong. powerful. mankind shall ride them into battle for thousands of years.
angel: wow, they must be nearly indestructible
God: lol no if they lay down weird one time it's pretty much over
angel: wow, they must be nearly indestructible
God: lol no if they lay down weird one time it's pretty much over
December 10, 2025 at 5:56 AM
God: behold the horse, my finest creation. fast. strong. powerful. mankind shall ride them into battle for thousands of years.
angel: wow, they must be nearly indestructible
God: lol no if they lay down weird one time it's pretty much over
angel: wow, they must be nearly indestructible
God: lol no if they lay down weird one time it's pretty much over
The similarity between the challenges for dentists and for anyone trying to book a driving tests makes me wonder just how many other things are broken in this specific way.
Welcome to Britain, a country so short of dentists that an MP's 87-year-old mum pulled her teeth out with pliers. Also a country with thousands of foreign-qualified dentists who can’t work until they pass an exam so oversubscribed it’s like trying to book Glasto tickets. www.ft.com/content/f4e5...
December 9, 2025 at 12:22 PM
The similarity between the challenges for dentists and for anyone trying to book a driving tests makes me wonder just how many other things are broken in this specific way.
Reposted by Emma Bates
I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it
I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:53 AM
I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
Reposted by Emma Bates
We're watching the wholesale burning of every scrap of dignity afforded to trans people in the UK, their rights, their medical services, their employment, their place within society, their bodily functions.
It is a disgrace, and a disgusting stain on the government and media of this country.
It is a disgrace, and a disgusting stain on the government and media of this country.
December 3, 2025 at 11:54 AM
We're watching the wholesale burning of every scrap of dignity afforded to trans people in the UK, their rights, their medical services, their employment, their place within society, their bodily functions.
It is a disgrace, and a disgusting stain on the government and media of this country.
It is a disgrace, and a disgusting stain on the government and media of this country.
Reposted by Emma Bates
If we're starting "what is a Christmas movie" discourse early this year, I will tap the sign
*It’s cold outside
*Friends gather for a meal together
*Everyone is thinking about a very special little baby
*An important visitor comes in through the ventilation system
Alien is a Christmas movie
*Friends gather for a meal together
*Everyone is thinking about a very special little baby
*An important visitor comes in through the ventilation system
Alien is a Christmas movie
November 29, 2025 at 2:57 PM
If we're starting "what is a Christmas movie" discourse early this year, I will tap the sign
Reposted by Emma Bates
it's basically impossible to argue with this, they have won significant policy concessions, and there's no reason to think they'll stop pushing now that Labour have opened the door for them
They must be proud with this endorsement, they worked hard for it.
November 16, 2025 at 10:13 AM
it's basically impossible to argue with this, they have won significant policy concessions, and there's no reason to think they'll stop pushing now that Labour have opened the door for them
Reposted by Emma Bates
A 34-year-old as a politician: My god he's like a baby. It's like they just elected an infant to be their mayor.
A 34-year-old as an athlete: You have to admire the bravery of him attempting that dunk, knowing full well the grim reaper is right behind him.
A 34-year-old as an athlete: You have to admire the bravery of him attempting that dunk, knowing full well the grim reaper is right behind him.
November 5, 2025 at 5:45 AM
A 34-year-old as a politician: My god he's like a baby. It's like they just elected an infant to be their mayor.
A 34-year-old as an athlete: You have to admire the bravery of him attempting that dunk, knowing full well the grim reaper is right behind him.
A 34-year-old as an athlete: You have to admire the bravery of him attempting that dunk, knowing full well the grim reaper is right behind him.
Orkney made me feel more welcome as a tourist than anywhere else I've ever been. I really hope the Scottish government let them have their levy.
Cruise control: could a £5 ‘entry’ fee help balance Orkney’s needs with tourist demand?
Cruise control: could a £5 ‘entry’ fee help balance Orkney’s needs with tourist demand?
With tourists outnumbering locals by 20:1, islanders say levy is needed to help protect neolithic sites and maintain public services
www.theguardian.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Orkney made me feel more welcome as a tourist than anywhere else I've ever been. I really hope the Scottish government let them have their levy.
Reposted by Emma Bates
Learned that an anonymous outside expert on submersibles did an interview with the OceanGate Titan investigation, and they released a transcript, with all the names redacted. The first line of his first answer? "I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic."
October 16, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Learned that an anonymous outside expert on submersibles did an interview with the OceanGate Titan investigation, and they released a transcript, with all the names redacted. The first line of his first answer? "I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic."
As I never tire of pointing out, "Sapiens" also includes a whole section about the origins of the patriarchy without ever acknowledging the impacts of pregnancy or childcare.
"Sapiens" is so normal for the first 70,000 years of human history but then goes absolutely buckwild as soon as it gets to colonialism
October 14, 2025 at 12:45 PM
As I never tire of pointing out, "Sapiens" also includes a whole section about the origins of the patriarchy without ever acknowledging the impacts of pregnancy or childcare.
Reposted by Emma Bates
In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:
October 2, 2025 at 3:17 PM
In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:
Reposted by Emma Bates
Am of the opinion we should just respond to the current flag epidemic by flying a wider range of random national flags from lamp posts, roundabouts etc until the situation gets ridiculous and they give up.
October 2, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Am of the opinion we should just respond to the current flag epidemic by flying a wider range of random national flags from lamp posts, roundabouts etc until the situation gets ridiculous and they give up.
Reposted by Emma Bates
My goodness, this poem. A beautiful, savage, blunt explanation of why we study war and conflict and also why military history is not and should not be just 'for the boys.'
The poem is moving in its unwillingness to whitewash the many tombs of war, as we should too should be unwilling.
The poem is moving in its unwillingness to whitewash the many tombs of war, as we should too should be unwilling.
I tend to think every nerdy trans woman should read Margaret Atwood's The Loneliness of the Military Historian and sit with it for a moment no matter what it is exactly she's nerdy about, but that goes double for you www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47788/...
The Loneliness of the Military Historian
This is why few people ask me to dinner, though Lord knows I don’t go out of my way to be scary. If I roll my eyes and mutter, if I clutch at my heart and scream in horror like a third-rate actress ch...
www.poetryfoundation.org
October 2, 2025 at 5:28 PM
My goodness, this poem. A beautiful, savage, blunt explanation of why we study war and conflict and also why military history is not and should not be just 'for the boys.'
The poem is moving in its unwillingness to whitewash the many tombs of war, as we should too should be unwilling.
The poem is moving in its unwillingness to whitewash the many tombs of war, as we should too should be unwilling.
Reposted by Emma Bates
Kind of feels like a big deal that a Reform/Brexit Party former MEP has been convicted of taking bribes to promote Russian interests in Ukraine, and it feels like a bigger deal that this isn’t being treated as the major scandal that it clearly is.
September 26, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Kind of feels like a big deal that a Reform/Brexit Party former MEP has been convicted of taking bribes to promote Russian interests in Ukraine, and it feels like a bigger deal that this isn’t being treated as the major scandal that it clearly is.
Reposted by Emma Bates
YES SCIENCE (and these scientists in particular)
Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time
One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that could transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC
www.bbc.com
September 24, 2025 at 12:20 PM
YES SCIENCE (and these scientists in particular)
At a conference and pondering how much I loathe the phrase "lives at home". Everyone with a home lives at home. That's what a home is.
September 22, 2025 at 11:47 AM
At a conference and pondering how much I loathe the phrase "lives at home". Everyone with a home lives at home. That's what a home is.
Reposted by Emma Bates
“This policy is a fucking disgrace and will do harm to the people it affects, our economy, our services, and it’s morally reprehensible” is the correct response not “haha your numbers are wrong and it may not even be legal”
September 22, 2025 at 9:10 AM
“This policy is a fucking disgrace and will do harm to the people it affects, our economy, our services, and it’s morally reprehensible” is the correct response not “haha your numbers are wrong and it may not even be legal”