Rachel
@nerak3l.bsky.social
Posting about languages, UK politics, faith/church, London, general stuff
Ecclesiastes 12:12
Ecclesiastes 12:12
Reposted by Rachel
It’s the exclusive everyone wanted, the story that will win next year’s Pulitzer…
I can reveal London’s giant AI generated Christmas artwork, the subject of much online mockery, is being torn down - and I honestly *genuinely* think you’ll never guess why. www.londoncentric.media/p/ai-artwork...
I can reveal London’s giant AI generated Christmas artwork, the subject of much online mockery, is being torn down - and I honestly *genuinely* think you’ll never guess why. www.londoncentric.media/p/ai-artwork...
London's giant AI artwork to be torn down
The bizarre story of why a much-talked-about creation is being torn down. Plus: Docklands Light Railway extension, giant laser stalks the night sky, and more tales of Android phone theft rejection.
www.londoncentric.media
November 20, 2025 at 7:18 AM
It’s the exclusive everyone wanted, the story that will win next year’s Pulitzer…
I can reveal London’s giant AI generated Christmas artwork, the subject of much online mockery, is being torn down - and I honestly *genuinely* think you’ll never guess why. www.londoncentric.media/p/ai-artwork...
I can reveal London’s giant AI generated Christmas artwork, the subject of much online mockery, is being torn down - and I honestly *genuinely* think you’ll never guess why. www.londoncentric.media/p/ai-artwork...
Reposted by Rachel
The people who make Shein's clothes labor for ten to twelve hours per day (in violation of China's labor laws), some up to seven days a week, and earn as little as 15 to 30 cents per t-shirt.
![Excerpt from a BBC article: ""We usually work, 10, 11 or 12 hours a day," says a 49-year-old woman from Jiangxi unwilling to give her name. "On Sundays we work around three hours less."
She is in an alleyway, where a dozen people are huddled around a row of bulletin boards.
They are reading the job ads on the board, while examining the stitching on a pair of chinos draped over it.
This is Shein's supply chain. The factories are contracted to make clothes on order - some small, some big. If the chinos are a hit, orders will ramp up and so must production. Factories then hire temporary workers to meet the demand their permanent staff cannot fulfil.
The migrant worker from Jiangxi is looking for a short-term contract - and the chinos are an option.
"We earn so little. The cost of living is now so high," she says, adding that she hopes to make enough to send back to her two children who are living with their grandparents.
"We get paid per piece," she explains. "It depends how difficult the item is. Something simple like a t-shirt is one-two yuan [less than a dollar] per piece and I can make around a dozen in an hour.""](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ks3gpa6ftoyaq7hmf6c4qx4c/bafkreiber7g4o5pujmzmjjzsp5dkz7blfexburuwjispfpv6dki7akjb7a@jpeg)
November 20, 2025 at 12:07 AM
The people who make Shein's clothes labor for ten to twelve hours per day (in violation of China's labor laws), some up to seven days a week, and earn as little as 15 to 30 cents per t-shirt.
“And is there a Mrs Worldwide?”
November 19, 2025 at 10:18 PM
“And is there a Mrs Worldwide?”
Reposted by Rachel
My mother saved for years to go to Corfu she didn't get charitable status for it.
November 19, 2025 at 5:07 PM
My mother saved for years to go to Corfu she didn't get charitable status for it.
Reposted by Rachel
Thing I found out today: if you're on Universal Credit (or other means-tested benefits) you can get into Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, or the Tower of London for £1 (and 50% off at one cafe per site too). Because poor people deserve days out too www.hrp.org.uk/one-pound-ti...
One Pound Tickets
£1 tickets for a day visit to the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace will be available to anyone in receipt of named benefits.
www.hrp.org.uk
November 19, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Thing I found out today: if you're on Universal Credit (or other means-tested benefits) you can get into Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, or the Tower of London for £1 (and 50% off at one cafe per site too). Because poor people deserve days out too www.hrp.org.uk/one-pound-ti...
Reposted by Rachel
In 2013 my monthly take home was about £1000, my rent £200, and I remember turning 25 so well because I could afford to go out without stress and have friends thanks to working tax credits. The vibes, for lots of people, have entirely disappeared.
I disagree. It’s central to the country’s bad vibes that we cut state support for the working poor and have compensated for that, poorly, by shunting some of the costs onto businesses and the rest onto to telling the people who have lost out “life’s tough, adapt”.
Weird thing: the UK minimum wage has risen against inflation for years. It's now really high. Millions of people are earning more than they were as a direct result of this policy. And the impact on the vibes of the country is… entirely absent?
November 19, 2025 at 6:09 PM
In 2013 my monthly take home was about £1000, my rent £200, and I remember turning 25 so well because I could afford to go out without stress and have friends thanks to working tax credits. The vibes, for lots of people, have entirely disappeared.
Reposted by Rachel
PSA: me not commenting on something does not mean I am "complicit." First of all, you need to log off and touch grass. Secondly we are total strangers so call your therapist. Thirdly there are 1,000 things happening every day and I am busy. Finally what exactly do you want me to do about it?
November 19, 2025 at 3:42 PM
PSA: me not commenting on something does not mean I am "complicit." First of all, you need to log off and touch grass. Secondly we are total strangers so call your therapist. Thirdly there are 1,000 things happening every day and I am busy. Finally what exactly do you want me to do about it?
Reposted by Rachel
When I arrive at the party
November 19, 2025 at 5:53 AM
When I arrive at the party
Reposted by Rachel
sleet... god's most disgusting precipitation
November 19, 2025 at 9:53 AM
sleet... god's most disgusting precipitation
Reposted by Rachel
Happy birthday to the Soviet linguist Yuri Knorozov who casually deciphered the Mayan script in 1952 and got pissed when editors removed his cat as co-author on papers or cropped her out of his author headshot (the only picture of himself he even liked)
November 19, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Happy birthday to the Soviet linguist Yuri Knorozov who casually deciphered the Mayan script in 1952 and got pissed when editors removed his cat as co-author on papers or cropped her out of his author headshot (the only picture of himself he even liked)
Reposted by Rachel
It's bin day tomorrow and the council web page that tells us what bin it is is cloudfared to fuck and I am the only person on the street who has it screengrabbed and this is the closest I'll ever get to being a Robert Harris hero with the secret knowledge that could save us all
November 18, 2025 at 10:34 PM
It's bin day tomorrow and the council web page that tells us what bin it is is cloudfared to fuck and I am the only person on the street who has it screengrabbed and this is the closest I'll ever get to being a Robert Harris hero with the secret knowledge that could save us all
Reposted by Rachel
Also at this year’s Oakeshott Lectures: Dan Hannan, Kathleen Stock, Nigel Biggar and David Starkey. Conservatism is a sewer
See also Curtis Yarvin's remarks in a recent Oxford lecture:
"Say what you want about MBS, he's quite an effective king I think in a lot of different ways. Um love the Ritz thing, the whole Saudi embassy thing, I don't know, but I mean he was a journalist". [Giggles]
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXYl...
"Say what you want about MBS, he's quite an effective king I think in a lot of different ways. Um love the Ritz thing, the whole Saudi embassy thing, I don't know, but I mean he was a journalist". [Giggles]
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXYl...
November 18, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Also at this year’s Oakeshott Lectures: Dan Hannan, Kathleen Stock, Nigel Biggar and David Starkey. Conservatism is a sewer
Reposted by Rachel
Word of the year season begins!
'Vibe coding' named word of the year by Collins Dictionary #BBC
'Vibe coding' named word of the year by Collins Dictionary
The art of making an app by describing it to artificial intelligence (AI) tops 10 new terms on the shortlist.
www.bbc.com
November 18, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Word of the year season begins!
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Meet one of the oldest early printed books in our collections - a Japanese-Spanish dictionary compiled by Catholic missionaries and published in 1630 in Manila 📖
November 18, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Meet one of the oldest early printed books in our collections - a Japanese-Spanish dictionary compiled by Catholic missionaries and published in 1630 in Manila 📖
Reposted by Rachel
'Nottingham will be the only Russell Group university not to teach modern foreign languages degrees if it approves plans to close a swath of courses including Spanish and French as well as music and dozens of others.' 1/3
University of Nottingham considers axing language and music degrees
Total of 48 degrees could disappear from Russell Group institution, with falling revenues and rising costs blamed
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:01 PM
'Nottingham will be the only Russell Group university not to teach modern foreign languages degrees if it approves plans to close a swath of courses including Spanish and French as well as music and dozens of others.' 1/3
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Labour’s core voter is a Londoner. While they fret about imagined Reform defecting voters in the “red wall” they’re at risk of losing their 21st century heartland entirely.
www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-l...
www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-l...
November 18, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Labour’s core voter is a Londoner. While they fret about imagined Reform defecting voters in the “red wall” they’re at risk of losing their 21st century heartland entirely.
www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-l...
www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-l...
Reposted by Rachel
November 17, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Martin Lewis is on telly on 18th November un front of two large decorated Christmas trees. Ban this sick filth!
November 18, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Martin Lewis is on telly on 18th November un front of two large decorated Christmas trees. Ban this sick filth!
Reposted by Rachel
I have been WAITING for a journalist to write this story.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I have been WAITING for a journalist to write this story.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
Reposted by Rachel
During this cloudflare outage, let me supply you with this wisdom of the ages: “single point of failure” can be sung to the tune of “all the single ladies”
November 18, 2025 at 1:43 PM
During this cloudflare outage, let me supply you with this wisdom of the ages: “single point of failure” can be sung to the tune of “all the single ladies”
November 18, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Rachel
Mahmood understandably attracting flak for hypocrisy, I think it also demonstrates the toxic culture of the Home Office. Minister after Minister goes into that job and in short order becomes radicalised. They are clearly quickly infected by HO anti-immigrant groupthink. Dismantle the Home Office.
"... it goes after those of us who look like we could be immigrants. We have talked a lot about illegal immigration sitting at the heart of this debate, but what we are not talking about so much is race"
Shabana Mahmood condemning the hostile environment back in 2018
Shabana Mahmood condemning the hostile environment back in 2018
November 18, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Mahmood understandably attracting flak for hypocrisy, I think it also demonstrates the toxic culture of the Home Office. Minister after Minister goes into that job and in short order becomes radicalised. They are clearly quickly infected by HO anti-immigrant groupthink. Dismantle the Home Office.
Reposted by Rachel
Truly we have reached peak ‘give us your reckon’.
Call in with your reckon as to whether maintenance works on the railway network are necessary.
Call in with your reckon as to whether maintenance works on the railway network are necessary.
November 18, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Truly we have reached peak ‘give us your reckon’.
Call in with your reckon as to whether maintenance works on the railway network are necessary.
Call in with your reckon as to whether maintenance works on the railway network are necessary.
Reposted by Rachel
A little reminder to media bookers that there are a range of Labour peers with relevant life experience and achievements across policy areas, and your contacts list for Lords PLP can extend a little beyond ‘Glasman, M.’
Lord Dubs said he was "lost for words".
Labour Peer Who Fled The Nazis Condemns His Party's Immigration Crackdown
Lord Dubs said he was "lost for words".
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
November 18, 2025 at 9:31 AM
A little reminder to media bookers that there are a range of Labour peers with relevant life experience and achievements across policy areas, and your contacts list for Lords PLP can extend a little beyond ‘Glasman, M.’