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Liz Bourke

@hawkwinglb.bsky.social
3.5K followers 970 following 13K posts

Ph.D Classics. Reviews @ Reactor Magazine (ex. Tor.com) and Locus Magazine. Ireland. Patreon: www.patreon.com/hawkwing_lb Wordpress: lizbourke.wordpress.com Mastodon: mastodon.social/@hawkwing_lb

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Reposted by Liz Bourke
CE (Catie) Murphy @cemurphy.bsky.social · 5h
The difference that scared the studios is that the post-Endgame films/stories had more women and people of color as leads & AS ALWAYS instead of thinking "fair, it was a weak film" they leaped to "women & brown people don't go to superhero movies so we better not center them" or some such horseshit.
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Samantha Asumadu @samanthaasumadu.substack.com · 8h
Six days ago I wrote the thread linked below. Times Higher Education's lack of interest in James Orr had bothered me for weeks. Today Byline Times published the investigation that explains this very British scandal at length. Corruption, racism, sycophancy & graft bylinetimes.com/2026/09/30/t...
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Cass Morris @cassmorriswrites.com · 6h
FWIW, Astra told me that they were withdrawing their claims on my work, but despite getting now two emails informing me that the settlement administrator has "received updates", the portal is still showing the disagreement. 🫠
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Shecky @shecky.bsky.social · 6h
WANNA PET THE BIG KITTY
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Zecharias Zelalem @zekuzelalem.bsky.social · 6h
Updates: the Ethiopian army is in control of the city of Alamata, after 3 days of fierce fighting on the city's outskirts. At least 50 people in the city died, many from artillery strikes, per medical sources reached by the BBC. A strike that targeted the city's marketplace killed a dozen people.
bbc.com
Ethiopia fighting escalates in Tigray killing 52 civilians in Alamata, medic tells the BBC
The deadly fighting has also spread to neighbouring regions, stranding tourists in Lalibela.
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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 21h
It’s important that Google Earth/Maps has done this, but worth noting that so far the updated 2026 imagery is only of southern Gaza—the imagery of northern Gaza is still from before the final destruction of spring-fall 2025, giving the impression that large areas of Gaza City and Jabaliya are…
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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 9h
God I love nerds. I love this is a perfectly legitimate question in these circles, and yet the start of a horror story investigation in others. #PrintHistory
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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 11h
My third novel, HERO COME HOME, officially has a cover! Preorderable from the usual places us.macmillan.com/books/978125...
The cover of my third novel, HERO COME HOME. Four human figures centred, the main image being that of a bearded man looking back over his shoulder (that's Oro, the protagonist), with a circle of symbols behind him. We can see a swan and a key. In the foreground are three people: two women, one with a mysterious marking? scar? who knows!? on her cheek and the other carrying a sword, flanking an older, balding man holding up a pistol. The possibly-scarred woman looks ever so slightly amused, and that is certainly very like her. Everybody else is not happy to be here, or indeed, anywhere
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Social Democrats @social-democrats.bsky.social · 9h
There are no plans for an EU-wide windfall tax on energy companies. So why are govt telling us they're working constructively towards one? Today, we put forward plans for a national windfall tax – but the govt won't support it. It's nothing short of baffling.
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G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 9h
Do I know any Dubliners who work in the arts or media?
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 11h
clutching my 15 years in the making highly curated pandora playlists to my chest
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Avery Storm (they/them) 🔞 | 🇵🇸 🇸🇩 🇨🇩 @averystorm.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
FUCK censorship, FUCK paypros
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James A. Palmer @jamespqr77.bsky.social · 12h
I'm the wrong James Palmer to address this, but by gum, having to defend medieval territory from the late antiquers is really going to eat into my bandwidth for capturing territory from the blasted early modernists!
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 12h
23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules. That’s the amount of heat the oceans absorbed in 2025. A number so huge it’s almost meaningless…until you realise it’s roughly 40× humanity’s annual energy use. The ocean is buying us time. We’re running out of it. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
World’s oceans absorbed record heat equal to 40 times annual global energy use
The injection of thermal energy comes amid an increasing rise in sea levels and continuing acidification
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Jenny with a Green Ribbon Around Her Neck @readingtheend.bsky.social · 12h
the girlies (g/n) love lustration
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Hannah Flynn 🐀 @itshannahflynn.bsky.social · 15h
A rare place in an industry-leading writing team, for the right person 💚
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Catherine Frieman @cjfrieman.bsky.social · 12h
Much against my better judgement i'm an ice hockey fan and this is hands down the funniest thing I've ever read. There is no sport less sexy or more vicerally gross than (men's*) ice hockey --- *women ice hockey players are glorious, fearsome Valkyries
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 29/09/2026
Mystery of glasses theft deepens as they are discovered to have been on my head the whole time
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Liz Bourke @hawkwinglb.bsky.social · 13h
Don't remember the first time someone shouted "show us yer tits" at me, but it was before I was 14. Ah, innocent youth, right?
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The Journal @thejournal.ie · 14h
Earlier this month, the government approved a new law which would increase the length of time a person seeking Irish citizenship must have reckonable residence in the country from five to eight years. Are you going to be impacted by the changes? We want to hear from you. jrnl.ie/7177842t
jrnl.ie
Are you going to be impacted by the changes to citizenship rules? We want to hear from you.
The government argues the new rules will align Ireland more closely with our EU neighbours.
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Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 14h
This is your semi-regular reminder that pensioner poverty: a) is real b) is significantly less prevalent than working-age poverty and half the rate of child poverty, and c) is such that a pensioner is statistically more likely to live in a household worth over £1 million than to live in poverty
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Johnny Ryan @johnnyryan.bsky.social · 17h
Meta hosted senior Irish Government officials & regulators at an event titled "Ireland as a Trusted Digital Regulatory Hub". Ireland's former regulator who sued all other EU data regulators to avoid investigating Meta was a speaker. (She now works for Meta's law firm.) lnkd.in/p/dYg9TPnk
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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 14h
We've had the ability to watch, say, Counterstrike marathons, Street Fighter tournaments, or chess matches between computers since the 90s. Spectacles which, by their very definition, would be at a "higher standard" than human play. And nobody wants it. It's entirely meaningless. It has no appeal.
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 14h
Delightful also to hear real eagle noises. In movies eagles are always dubbed with hawks, since hawks found fierce and eagles sound like adorable squeakers.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 14h
Tech industry is laser focused on solving the problem of humans enjoying each other’s company bsky.app/profile/down...
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Gregory Hays @aristofontes.bsky.social · 14h
Cartoon by Hergé. CAPTAIN HADDOCK: Wat een week, he? TINTIN: Kapitein, het is woensdag."
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Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 29/09/2026
I think it's pretty neat that one of the legit breakout indie success stories this year is a game about painstakingly designing and sewing opulent ballgowns store.steampowered.com/app/4019220/...
store.steampowered.com
Dressmaker on Steam
Become a dressmaker! Choose fabric, cut out patterns, and sew them all together to satisfy (or sabotage!) townsfolk in this cozy crafting game inspired by real dressmaking.
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Liz Bourke @hawkwinglb.bsky.social · 14h
How much do I want to acquire @tkingfisher.com's Baldur's Gate 3 book, despite not having played the game? Oh, only A Lot. It will have to wait because budget, just like a number of other things. But there is so much wanting right here.
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Alan Greene @alangreene.bsky.social · 16h
An annoying argument in favour of FPTP is the idea that any PR system breaks the connection between MP and constituency. This argument is exceptionally annoying given that the UK's closest neighbour, Ireland, has a PR system that is arguably too locally focused. www.qmul.ac.uk/mei/policy-h...
Statement that "FPTP ensures that there is just one MP per
constituency. Polling shows this constituency link
to be very popular with British voters."
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Shecky @shecky.bsky.social · 14h
DO NOT TRY ME OR MY SON EVER AGAIN
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Social Democrats @social-democrats.bsky.social · 15h
We stand with the day of action for LGBTQI+ rights in Türkiye outside Europe House today at 6pm. What we are witnessing in Türkiye right now comes at a time of deepening concerning backsliding on LGBTQi+ rights globally, including in the United States under President Trump.
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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The most common conversation I have with random people who find out that I'm a history professor is some variation of what they thought about history in their own education, often about how they now wish they had paid better attention.
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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I loathe the push for speed and efficiency in history education. It's bad enough that the norm is you only need to be exposed to history once given that it is an iterative subject that rewards repeated exposure.
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The Journal @thejournal.ie · 15h
Tickets for the Dublin date on Macklemore's Free Palestine Tour have completely sold out. Fans took to social media to say the tickets sold out within five minutes. jrnl.ie/7177799
jrnl.ie
Macklemore's Dublin date on his Free Palestine Tour has completely sold out
People are reporting on social media that tickets sold out within five minutes this morning.
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Liz Bourke @hawkwinglb.bsky.social · 15h
I'll be at @octocon.bsky.social this weekend. Here's my schedule. prog.octocon.com/people/Z0084 Anyone who's going, please feel free to say hi.
prog.octocon.com
ConClár Program Guide
ConClár Programme Guide
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Alex de Campi @alexdecampi.bsky.social · 16h
With alt text. I know someone who actually did this
kbarton1001
On my first big overseas client conference, I was at a dinner seated next to a drunk client who kept trying to fondle me under the table. I was young, distressed, and had no idea what to do. I moved my legs as far away from him as I could, moving into the space of the man next to me, who then started patting my legs! The Regional Manager was a French woman who caught my eye, gestured for me to go to the bathroom and when I came back had switched chairs with me. What happed next was epic. A few minutes after I sat back down, she raised her hand with his hand captured in hers and announced loudly "Does anyone know whose hand this is? I found it in my lap." There was dead silence at the table. She threw his hand back at him and said calmly "next time I pick it up with my fork." Then she started a new conversational thread and things moved on. After the meeting she found me, gave me a hug, and said seriously "Never be afraid to make some noise. It is their shame, not yours."
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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
94-year-old Jewish human rights barrister, Margaret Owen OBE, arrested under the Terrorism Act outside @labouruk.bsky.social conference. Her crime? Holding a piece of cardboard with the words “I oppose genocide - I support Palestine Action” on it. She was among hundreds doing the same.
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Liz Bourke @hawkwinglb.bsky.social · 16h
Filled up this morning with pus and envy, piss and vinegar. Ah, emotions. How easy to control they are. How reasonable and rational.
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Lesley A Hall @erinacean.bsky.social · 16h
How long, O Lord, have women being getting organised? Today in recently uploaded on Project Gutenberg, An Appeal to Men by Josephine Butler (famous in UK women's history for campaigning against the Contagious Diseases Acts), 1876 and she was several generations of activism down the line
gutenberg.org
The hour before the dawn : An appeal to men by Josephine Elizabeth Grey Butler
The hour before the dawn : An appeal to men by Josephine Elizabeth Grey Butler. Free eBook digitized and proofread by volunteers.
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I'm so bored of this.
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Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · 20h
As someone who's officially working in Late Antiquity can I just say this is getting silly? I know in recent decades people have been pushing the boundaries, but claiming the _entire_ first millennium as 'Antiquity' is just making the concept meaningless.
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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 29/09/2026
It’s Launch Day, darling! This one is not cozy or for the faint of heart, please note the warnings, but it’s here at last! And while you should read in the way you like the best—dude, Neil Newbon’s narration knocks it out of the PARK. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/813073...
penguinrandomhouse.com
Baldur's Gate 3: Astarion by T. Kingfisher: 9798217298594 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
The roguish charlatan Astarion will free himself from a centuries-long fate of servitude or die (a second time) trying—in this decadently dark fantasy adventure by award-winning author T. Kingfisher.....
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Alick Simmons @parliamentarygoose.bsky.social · 18h
Quite apart from the environmental impact of ten of thousands of plastic tubes shattering into tiny shards, these plantations are an aesthetic scar on the landscape.
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Nick Pettigrew @nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It's all a bit:
Quantity of petrol found near where those Fairford blokes were arrested. 'Found this spoon, sir' from Life Of Brian.
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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 17h
Because if there's one thing Australia's known for, it's being dark, cloudy and cramped...
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Social Democrats @social-democrats.bsky.social · 17h
Whether you’re commencing the work to rule today or not, we’re standing in solidarity with all public sector workers who have been utterly disrespected by this government with continued delays to public service pay talks. Gov must urgently engage with unions in negotiations to avoid escalation.
Solidarity 
With Nurses
special needs assistants
public servants 
social workers 
teachers
civil servants 
Firefighters
all workers
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Dr Seán DOOLAN 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇮🇪 @sdinpraxis.bsky.social · 17h
That is a STAGGERING amount of heat, and this year's marine temperatures clearly show that buffering capacity is severely diminished.
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Liz Bourke @hawkwinglb.bsky.social · 17h
Okay. Second plumber has confirmed problem is solved. Electricity outage from last night was resolved inside two hours. (Fire brigade attending downed power lines.) Perhaps the rest of this week will go smoothly -- *menstruation hits like a lorry* -- right, sorry, I should have known better.
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IrishCycle.com @irishcycle.com · 29/09/2026
Galway councillor promises no more projects to make walking and cycling safer -- "I’m happy with my position" councillor says when challenged by a local advocate. A Galway councillor, Cllr Shane Forde (Fine Gael), has vowed to block any future project to make roads safer for pedestrians and…
irishcycle.com
Galway councillor promises no more projects to make walking and cycling safer
-- "I’m happy with my position" councillor says when challenged by a local advocate. A Galway councillor, Cllr Shane Forde (Fine Gael), has vowed to block any future project to make roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists while he's still on the council. This morning he posted a photo of the September traffic on Castlepark Road on Facebook, and said: "This is the direct result of multiple traffic lights on the new scheme and the taking away of the slip lane at ATU.
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Marie Brennan @swantower.bsky.social · 18h
Tell me SOMEBODY has written a fantasy Casablanca homage about events in and around a "djinn joint." I will be terribly disappointed if they haven't (and then eagerly await someone filling that gap).
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