Mads Chawner
@madschawner.bsky.social
Independent scholar. Receptions of Greek mythology in popular modern culture. Also cats. And macrame and crafting.
Reposted by Mads Chawner
“Five arrested in Louvre jewel heist” is Enid Blyton’s best yet
October 30, 2025 at 8:26 AM
“Five arrested in Louvre jewel heist” is Enid Blyton’s best yet
WTAF. How f dare they? Appalling
So apparently, the US Gov, in their most recent series of dog whistles, are pulling LOTR references and are outright saying that their fascist reign of terror is akin to protecting the Shire. Absolutely fucking not. The comparison is a straightforward dogwhistle, don't let them confuse you.
October 30, 2025 at 12:38 PM
WTAF. How f dare they? Appalling
I have been making macrame Christmas gnomes, and today I held my first gnome making workshop! It went so well. My students are the best. Aren’t they fab 😊💕
October 22, 2025 at 4:24 PM
I have been making macrame Christmas gnomes, and today I held my first gnome making workshop! It went so well. My students are the best. Aren’t they fab 😊💕
Oh good grief. He is a fine one to be calling others poisoners. He is an expert poisoner of people’s minds and his poison gets spread far and wide. Unreal.
Just to say that teachers do an incredibly difficult job, with all the right intentions, and can be the defining influence on a young person's life. They are the exact opposite of poisoners because good teaching provides the antidote to so many dangers
Nigel Farage says UK teachers are ‘poisoning our kids’ and predicts strikes as PM
October 9, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Oh good grief. He is a fine one to be calling others poisoners. He is an expert poisoner of people’s minds and his poison gets spread far and wide. Unreal.
Reposted by Mads Chawner
DLMayfield:
"Here’s my pep talk after studying authoritarianism:
They never truly expect a long-term resistance movement because they think people are a collection of trauma triggers who are easily controlled through terror.
The best way to resist fascism is to not let them terrorize you."
"Here’s my pep talk after studying authoritarianism:
They never truly expect a long-term resistance movement because they think people are a collection of trauma triggers who are easily controlled through terror.
The best way to resist fascism is to not let them terrorize you."
October 2, 2025 at 11:14 PM
DLMayfield:
"Here’s my pep talk after studying authoritarianism:
They never truly expect a long-term resistance movement because they think people are a collection of trauma triggers who are easily controlled through terror.
The best way to resist fascism is to not let them terrorize you."
"Here’s my pep talk after studying authoritarianism:
They never truly expect a long-term resistance movement because they think people are a collection of trauma triggers who are easily controlled through terror.
The best way to resist fascism is to not let them terrorize you."
😢🤗
I would have followed you. My brother. My captain. My king.
October 8, 2025 at 3:58 PM
😢🤗
Reposted by Mads Chawner
It’s time for women and allies to speak up. To say ‘not in our name’ to the discrimination and exclusion of trans people. Are you with us?
✍️ If you are a woman and agree please sign @nionwomen.bsky.social 's open letter
https://goodlaw.social/wu1u
✍️ If you are a woman and agree please sign @nionwomen.bsky.social 's open letter
https://goodlaw.social/wu1u
Not In Our Name: Women in support of the trans+ community - Not in our name
We use cookies where necessary to allow us to understand how people interact with our website and content, so that we can continue to improve our service.
goodlaw.social
September 19, 2025 at 12:00 PM
It’s time for women and allies to speak up. To say ‘not in our name’ to the discrimination and exclusion of trans people. Are you with us?
✍️ If you are a woman and agree please sign @nionwomen.bsky.social 's open letter
https://goodlaw.social/wu1u
✍️ If you are a woman and agree please sign @nionwomen.bsky.social 's open letter
https://goodlaw.social/wu1u
Reposted by Mads Chawner
For #TolkienTrewsday and pirates I can offer only Hildefons Took, who went off on a journey and never returned, but (I like to imagine) he took little brother, Isengar, with him. Isengar, 'tis said, went to sea in his youth. Together, for a time, they became the dread pirate hobbits.
September 16, 2025 at 4:01 PM
For #TolkienTrewsday and pirates I can offer only Hildefons Took, who went off on a journey and never returned, but (I like to imagine) he took little brother, Isengar, with him. Isengar, 'tis said, went to sea in his youth. Together, for a time, they became the dread pirate hobbits.
Maybe they will replace him by someone who actually allows the guests to respond to a question- especially when the guests are women
Oh 😮 ! In Our Time is a programme solely committed to intellectual broadcasting, and it’s enormously popular. Melvyn Bragg is a titan, and his stepping down is the end of an era
Melvyn Bragg has decided to stand down as host of In Our Time, the BBC says.
September 3, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Maybe they will replace him by someone who actually allows the guests to respond to a question- especially when the guests are women
Reposted by Mads Chawner
Here is my main opinion on AI, in every capacity: What is the point of technology? Is it to make our lives better and easier, or is it to make a very small percentage of people richer? The latter is what AI is doing. The people actually doing the coding are making themselves redundant.
August 29, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Here is my main opinion on AI, in every capacity: What is the point of technology? Is it to make our lives better and easier, or is it to make a very small percentage of people richer? The latter is what AI is doing. The people actually doing the coding are making themselves redundant.
Reposted by Mads Chawner
AI policy I'm putting in my Fall syllabi. Feel free to adopt & adapt it.
August 18, 2025 at 2:03 PM
AI policy I'm putting in my Fall syllabi. Feel free to adopt & adapt it.
Who knew????
"Among college graduates ages 22 to 27, computer science and computer engineering majors are facing some of the highest unemployment rates, 6.1% and 7.5% respectively ...
That is more than double the unemployment rate among recent biology and art history graduates, which is just 3%"
That is more than double the unemployment rate among recent biology and art history graduates, which is just 3%"
Goodbye, $165,000 Tech Jobs. Student Coders Seek Work at Chipotle.
www.nytimes.com
August 10, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Who knew????
Reposted by Mads Chawner
In the UK people can wave a swastika and throw Nazi salutes at far-right rallies but a pensioner holding a “Palestine Action” sign is where the law draws the line
August 10, 2025 at 11:53 AM
In the UK people can wave a swastika and throw Nazi salutes at far-right rallies but a pensioner holding a “Palestine Action” sign is where the law draws the line
Reposted by Mads Chawner
"The Met said the total of 474 was the most arrests it had made related to a single operation in at least the past decade.
It had drawn officers from other forces to help form a “significant policing presence”. It was anticipated the event would result in large numbers of people being detained."
It had drawn officers from other forces to help form a “significant policing presence”. It was anticipated the event would result in large numbers of people being detained."
August 10, 2025 at 12:35 PM
"The Met said the total of 474 was the most arrests it had made related to a single operation in at least the past decade.
It had drawn officers from other forces to help form a “significant policing presence”. It was anticipated the event would result in large numbers of people being detained."
It had drawn officers from other forces to help form a “significant policing presence”. It was anticipated the event would result in large numbers of people being detained."
If true, this is appalling
Note that this is all in reaction to absolutely no danger or threat whatsoever, out of sheer bigotry and paranoia, and without any of the obvious accommodations that would render it meaningless like single non-gendered bathrooms. This is an invented problem to enable bigotry.
🚨 BREAKING | Labour is set to impose a sweeping ban on trans people using any "single-sex space".
In EHRC guidance that Labour is set to approve, trans people will be barred from accessing toilets, gyms and changing rooms that match their gender.
(Source: @TheTimes)
In EHRC guidance that Labour is set to approve, trans people will be barred from accessing toilets, gyms and changing rooms that match their gender.
(Source: @TheTimes)
August 8, 2025 at 2:39 PM
If true, this is appalling
Reposted by Mads Chawner
Just a reminder that this is still very much accurate and relevant. Even when the EHRC publish the Code of Practice, which does not change the actual law.
Trans people in the UK can still use the toilets that match their gender. Yes, even after the Supreme Court ruling. Here's why:
tacc.org.uk/2025/04/23/t...
tacc.org.uk/2025/04/23/t...
Toilet Hysteria Isn’t Law: Why Trans People in the UK Can Still Pee in Peace - Trans Advocacy and Complaints Collective
(Yes, Even After the Supreme Court Ruling) Let’s clear something up before another MP starts frothing at the mouth on GB News: in the UK, there is still no law that stops transgender people from…
tacc.org.uk
August 8, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Just a reminder that this is still very much accurate and relevant. Even when the EHRC publish the Code of Practice, which does not change the actual law.
Reposted by Mads Chawner
I wrote to M&S about the stupid lingerie department story - confirms nobody offered a bra fitting to a teenage girl. The Telegraph and JK can (always) do one.
August 8, 2025 at 9:36 AM
I wrote to M&S about the stupid lingerie department story - confirms nobody offered a bra fitting to a teenage girl. The Telegraph and JK can (always) do one.
Reposted by Mads Chawner
There's so much to unpack with Kamala's interview:
1. The People & The System have a broken relationship.
2. By running for a system nobody trusts, nobody trusts her.
3. The way to fix a broken system is to build reform from the bottom up.
4. It starts with The People believing in themselves.
1. The People & The System have a broken relationship.
2. By running for a system nobody trusts, nobody trusts her.
3. The way to fix a broken system is to build reform from the bottom up.
4. It starts with The People believing in themselves.
August 1, 2025 at 6:10 PM
There's so much to unpack with Kamala's interview:
1. The People & The System have a broken relationship.
2. By running for a system nobody trusts, nobody trusts her.
3. The way to fix a broken system is to build reform from the bottom up.
4. It starts with The People believing in themselves.
1. The People & The System have a broken relationship.
2. By running for a system nobody trusts, nobody trusts her.
3. The way to fix a broken system is to build reform from the bottom up.
4. It starts with The People believing in themselves.
Reposted by Mads Chawner
You kan not run educacioun lyke a businesse. A businesse ys ther to make a profit. Educacioun ys ther to make the future.
August 1, 2025 at 6:35 PM
You kan not run educacioun lyke a businesse. A businesse ys ther to make a profit. Educacioun ys ther to make the future.
Reposted by Mads Chawner
Yes indeed. Support your local community 💕
Just a regular reminder to please support your local theatre, café, bookstore, bakery, and library. We breathe life into these places when we support them.
Without us, they can't survive, and truthfully, without them, neither can we.
Without us, they can't survive, and truthfully, without them, neither can we.
July 28, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Yes indeed. Support your local community 💕
Absolutely right. Every single time there is more richness to glean
C.S. Lewis on The Lord of the Rings:
“But we know at once that it has done things to us. We are not quite the same men. And though we must ration ourselves in our re-readings, I have little doubt that the book will soon take its place among the indispensables”
“But we know at once that it has done things to us. We are not quite the same men. And though we must ration ourselves in our re-readings, I have little doubt that the book will soon take its place among the indispensables”
July 27, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Absolutely right. Every single time there is more richness to glean
Oh nooooo. What a legend 😢
My last living musical hero is still my hero but unfortunately no longer living. RIP to the great, great Mr. Tom Lehrer.
July 27, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Oh nooooo. What a legend 😢
🤗
Just in case you might need this today.
A penguin jumped on this boat to escape a seal, so they took him to the iceberg where his friends were waiting for him.
July 24, 2025 at 2:56 PM
🤗
Reposted by Mads Chawner
We have all watched in horror as Israel crosses red line after red line in Gaza. If you agree please share this post on, help us send this message across social media, then contribute a picture to our powerful visual at bit.ly/3HW2ePI
Let’s speak out, in our masses, right now. #RedLineForGaza #Gaza
Let’s speak out, in our masses, right now. #RedLineForGaza #Gaza
July 11, 2025 at 3:15 PM
We have all watched in horror as Israel crosses red line after red line in Gaza. If you agree please share this post on, help us send this message across social media, then contribute a picture to our powerful visual at bit.ly/3HW2ePI
Let’s speak out, in our masses, right now. #RedLineForGaza #Gaza
Let’s speak out, in our masses, right now. #RedLineForGaza #Gaza