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mattdocking.bsky.social

@mattdocking.bsky.social
145 followers 279 following 136 posts

Old chemistry/geology teacher, mainly reposting pictures of minerals, trilobites and standing stones. Do like a nice tree as well.

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Reposted by @mattdocking.bsky.social
Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The skye above the port was the colour of parchment, as yet unmarkèd by a scrybe.
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Joe Banks @joebankswriter.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Hawkwind's In Search Of Space is 55 years old today. Read all about it here... (including what its actual title is!) www.daysoftheunderground.com/post/prog-ch...
daysoftheunderground.com
Prog - Charged With Cosmic Energy
To celebrate 50 years of In Search Of Space, Prog magazine asked me to write a feature on the album's making. As well as including new input from Dave Brock, I also interviewed Dave Anderson and Terry...
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AR @psalisbury.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Over the weekend lots of people have asked about the ways in which I reduced workload in my current school, this is one of the ways. It should take about 3 minutes to read: philsalisbury.wordpress.com/2026/10/05/d...
philsalisbury.wordpress.com
Data and danger
When considering the role that data should play in schools it is important that the tail does not wag the dog. What I mean by this is that data should sit within school improvement and not lead it.…
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Stephen Lockyer @mrlockyer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
In this article, every single Pupil Progress meeting I ever sat in is perfectly described, even down to the ‘ingenious SLT solutions’ line which made me guffaw.
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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I'm sure someone has done this one already but I've not seen it yet, so...
Mock tube station roundel reading: Hobbs Lane.
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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Whilst out and about and cake-bothering booksellers, I saw my first Hookland sticker out in the wild.
A Hookland sticker on a pipe covering up some fascistic filth. The sticker reads: HERNE THE HUNTER HATES YOUR RACIST BOLLOCKS
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Today's winning Biology All email--in fact this is a contender for best this year
Hi all,

We received a package with no name to GSB 2144 with 80 sheep brains in it. If you are expecting this package, please reach out and we can coordinate the pickup!

Best wishes,
Jenna
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Cian McCarthy @arealmofwonder.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"I may not have amazing victories, but I can amaze you with the defeats that I came out of alive." ~ Anton Chekhov The Coast Near St. Petersburg 🎨 Ivan Aivazovsky (1835)
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Phil PlAIt @philplait.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
SpaceX just launched the 14th Starship test flight, and it's now successfully in orbit for the first time. This is an amazing achievement, and I absolutely detest how Musk has ruined this sort of thing both for me and for humanity.
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Memorial Device @memorialdevice.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Gavin Bazunu has heard it 🙏 www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/spo...
independent.co.uk
Ireland star explains decision to refuse to play against Israel
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Fiona McLees @mclees-fiona.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The visual evidence of use here tells a very obvious story of how much I adored this book as a child (and well into my teens). Finally getting to read it with one of my own children, and no wonder I loved it so, Susan Cooper’s writing is brilliant.
A very creased paperback copy of The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper.
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Patrick Barkham @patrickbarkham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I've written Joe Harkness's obituary for the Guardian. I hope it pays good tribute to a wonderful man who was brave, honest and made the world a better place. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Joe Harkness obituary
Writer, teacher and naturalist who explored the effects of the natural world on neurodivergency
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Ian Denton @iand777.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Beauty & intelligence in the eye of the holder. The Jays are right outside the window again this morning. Such a prilevege to get a closer view of these gorgeous birds, than just the usual glimpse of a white rump disappearing into trees. #corvids #jays #autumn #Dorset 🦉🌿
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Wyrd Science Magazine @wyrdscience.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
new favourite Smaug dropped
the 1968 "pleasure in reading" edition of the hobbit featuring an adorable bright pink Smaug torching the inhabitants of lake town
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Poor Frank Raw @poorfrankraw.co.uk · 25/09/2026
A kestrel hovering against a pale blue sky, looking for a meal. Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire, Tuesday #birds #CanonR5
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Callan Bentley @callanbentley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Shrimp! Cenomanian (earliest Late Cretaceous), of Lebanon. ⚒️
Darker brown shrimp fossil.in tan limestone, with a white fracture running through it.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Here's today's column on the astonishing, ongoing mistreatment of people with #ME/CFS. Please spread it far and wide: the only thing which can break the media's wall of indifference is seeing an article about the issue go viral. Thank you. 1/2 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Abandoned, dismissed and gaslighted: there is no excuse for the way ME sufferers have been betrayed | George Monbiot
Changes in guidance and science seem to have little impact on millions of devastated lives. It’s a social crisis playing out behind closed doors, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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onlycans @onlycans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Railcard discriminating against real ska-heads 😡
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onlycans @onlycans.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
attended the funeral of an old comrade today. there's not many can claim sixty years in the game. a singular and genuinely remarkable man. when I met him he was already in his 70s but he was still turning out every weekend. the struggle continues ✊
Black and red anarchist banner hanging over an outside table, reads "Ron Marsden 1937-2026 SF IWA)
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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Here on the blurred borders of autumn, fields sing for their due libations of ale and blood. Demand the honouring of our old contracts with them. For harvest needs a balancing and fair payment. Take not corn saints and corn maidens till the tithe is paid. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #Equinox
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Rick Burin @rickburin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Elvis was a hero to most But he never meant shit to me To you To me To you
Paul Chuckle from the Chuckle Brothers with Chuck D and Flavor Flav from Public Enemy
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Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I think the prime minister should have said this
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Vincent Ledvina @vincentledvina.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
A large coronal hole is facing Earth. We may see some fast solar wind brush past Earth around Sep 22 (in a few days). This may lead to enhanced geomagnetic conditions and potential mid-latitude auroral displays for the northern tier of the U.S. (likely not extending much further, but we'll see!).
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Emma Stump @pisci.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Tony Cascarino appears to be morphing into Jack Duckworth.
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Royal Astronomical Society @royalastrosoc.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Come and explore the Royal Astronomical Society! 💫🚀🪐 Today we've thrown open our doors as part of Open House festival, offering self-guided tours for members of the public to find out more about what we do and how we began. Join us any time between now and 1pm, or from 2-5pm (last entry 4.30pm) 👋
Members of the public explore the RAS library as part of the Open House festival.People outside the RAS waiting to explore the Society's HQ.The RAS library.
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Dee Lomas @deelomas.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I bring worse news. That poor woman who lives in Piddington & who @vicderbyshire.bsky.social interviewed after that ridiculous election has had her address leaked to Tommy Robinson & the Pink Ladies & she’s been doxxed by both of them. Wtaf is going on. These people all need to be proscribed now.
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Rae Radford @raeradford.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I think I'm in love with Kevin 😻 #Caturday
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Richard Kadrey @richardkadrey.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Good morning
"Just because it's a bad idea doesn't mean it won't be a good time."
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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
If after death I walk as a shade across an English ghostscape, I shall choose the old paths, the ancient ways. I will navigate by hollow hills, tread a haunted hodology. My living map of folklore will be the territory I'll tread. Harrowhounds shall pad beside me. – #CLNolan
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Cormac MacFhionnlaoich @cormacscoast.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Goniatite fossils, with one nice example standing out from the rock. This long extinct cephalopod species was found in abundance in tropical waters that once covered this area. County Clare, Ireland. Cormacscoast.com walking tours
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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Do drop in to @geolsoc.bsky.social for today’s open house! See the Mary Anning portrait, the William Smith map and I’ve put together a tour of the stones used in the interior. The Geol Soc gents toilets are pretty special in the world of #urbangeology! 😉 programme.openhouse.org.uk/listings/4938
A chimney piece made of a red and yellow mottled marble in the library 
The portrait of Mary Anning hung on a wall over a fossil ichthyosaur jaw in a glass case standing on a limestone plinth
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David Clark @clarkeocrinus.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is a special specimen in my collection. I found it in a gravel road when I was a kid. It was the first fossil I was able to identify using my Audubon Society book. It's not rare. I've found hundreds of Mucrospirifers over the years. I still have this one though. #FossilFriday
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Cam Muskelly (Explorer of Deep Time ⏰ ⚒️) @cambriancam.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Welcome back to #Fossil Friday! Here is the small trilobite Cedaria minor. This specimen comes from the Upper Cambrian Weeks Formation in Millard county, Utah.
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Memorial Device @memorialdevice.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
@mrsimonraymonde.bsky.social Has heard it 🙏
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Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 14/09/2026
Goodnight.
sometimes antisocial
always antifascist
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The Quietus @thequietus.com · 13/09/2026
"Miss America was big, not just for myself but for Kristin and Dave and the Muses as well. We were deeply in love with this album. She came to see us once in London and we could barely get a sentence out." #TanyaDonelly on Mary Margaret O’Hara - Miss America buff.ly/KgcvJvk
Mary Margaret O’Hara - Miss America album cover. Title in bold, hand-drawn black lettering and abstract black shapes on a pale yellow background.
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Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Over the weekend one of the all-time great punk guitarists Cheetah Chrome from Dead Boys passed away. www.loudersound.com/bands-artist...
loudersound.com
Dead Boys guitarist Cheetah Chrome dead at 71
Cheetah Chrome founded the Dead Boys in 1975 and co-wrote punk classics Sonic Reducer and Ain't It Fun
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Punk Rock History @punkrockhistory.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
In memory of Grant Vernon Hart, drummer and co-songwriter of the alternative rock and hardcore punk band Hüsker Dü, who died on this day in 2017 from complications of liver cancer and hepatitis 📸 Lyn Owen #punk #punks #punkrock #granthart #hüskerdü #huskerdu #history #punkrockhistory #otd
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The Palaeontological Association @thepalass.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The iconic Ediacaran fossil Dickinsonia from the Central Urals onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology @datadryad.bsky.social
Main photograph is of fossil Dickinsonia densa from the Konovalovka Member of the Cherny Kamen Formation of the Sylvitsa Group, Central Urals (paratype, GEOCHRON 2057-296). An oval, striped organism, the same colours as the surrounding matrix. Long white scale bar at lower right is 10 mm.
On the right, a vertical set of diagrams showing a schematic model of Dickinsonia preservation in the Konovalovka Member. At the top, the specimen rests on a clay-rich substrate during life. Moving down, it is rapidly buried by an overlying sand layer and pyrite (Fe2S) forms around the decaying body due to microbial activity. Later partial erosion of the sand layer occurs, and finally, the organism is buried by alternating clay and sand layers.
Red rectangle in lower left corner is a cover image from the journal Papers in Palaeontology.
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Darryl Jones @profdarryljones.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
‘For the Dead Remember: The Life of M. R. James’ is published today! Seven years in the writing, many more in the planning, and - here it is!
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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
One piece of folklore I refuse to believe in is the waking of England's stone and wooden nights when the country is in peril. We keep lurching right, we keep lurching toward authoritarianism and they don't even show any signs of twitching. – #MattAdams, 1982
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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Lovely writeup of the Discovery of Charnia masoni and a photo of Trevor Ford next to a very large photo of the holotype! Trevor thought that the disc of Charniodiscus was associated with Charnia which has persisted in popular depictions, but discs on Charnia are actually the exception not the norm.
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Goldenhourminerals @ghminerals.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Fluorite. Poison Ivy Pocket, Lady Annabella mine, Eastgate, Weardale Co., Durham, England. goldenhourminerals.etsy.com/listing/1006...
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Paul Robichaud 🪨🐐 @pjrobichaud.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Happy Sunday, modern antiquarians!
Man with glasses wearing navy t-shirt that says 'Julian Cope, The Modern Antiquarian"
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The skye above the port was the color of parchment, as yet unmarked by a scrybe.
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Memorial Device @memorialdevice.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Not even AI Doesn't do much to dispel the 'they are all the same' view does it?
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Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Painting by Mary Bishop c.midC20th, created in the art therapy studio at Netherne hospital, where she was compelled to live for several decades. Much of her work explores distress, traumatic childhood experiences & dehumanising treatment within the psychiatric system which held power over her
A painting of two pink horses, face to to face, their heads intersecting with each other in an arc. Their rolling green eyes and open mouths give an atmosphere of torment or distress as they seem to rear up, melding into one another against a white background
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Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The Kitten, created 1970 by Mary Bishop in the art therapy studio at Netherne hospital where she was compelled to live. This is part of a vast body of work she created during her 30 years there, which expresses distress, explores her traumatic history & critiques the psychiatric system
A painting in which a giant clawed red hand reaches down to grab the tail of a scared looking black kitten
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I am having a particularly frustrating week, so here’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. The eruption of Sarychev Peak in the Aleutian Islands, seen by the crew of the space station. www.nasa.gov/image-articl...
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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Today's answer to the question what is Hookland?
What is Hookland?

Hookland is England as seen from the ghost train.

It is a fierce refusal to let psychogeographers tell you that when you talk about spirits of place you can’t really believe in them. It is all the books you borrowed time and time again from the library as a child – encyclopaedias of horror films, Usborne’s Worlds of the Unknown UFOs and Charles Berlitz’s The Bermuda Triangle.

It is walking home through the woods in November mist and feeling that the place has monsters, not the sort they made into Aurora model kits, but old, nameless things that are fed by the fear you’ve had of this place since that murder a few years back. It is the terror of living in a haunted landscape. It is the delight of living in a profoundly haunted landscape. Hookland is the place that you can almost allow yourself to believe in magic again before realising it is a territory you already inhabit. Shared space where all the broken memories of childhood are resuscitated and walking alongside you.

It is knowing the names of Soviet spacemen orbiting above and feeling the youthful power if recognising which mushrooms are poisonous. It is sneaking into fields to release crows from cruel traps and thinking up mad schemes to raise money to buy fireworks when the air becomes rich with the intoxicating smell of bonfires. It’s being more scared by gaudy movie posters for films that you haven’t ever seen than being afraid of the things your parents constantly warn you about.

It is knowing that everywhere is layers of story, layers of memory and realising you may be the ghost of someone else’s future.

It is a French radio station on AM, full of songs you hear and instantly love, but will spend the rest of your life trying to remember what the title was, which band it was.

On its jagged rocks, its snaring brambles, fragments of ripped cloth that you know are clues to something you have forgotten. Something important you cannot unlock.

It is home.
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